3rd Yr Tree

Back to real life after vacations.. I must say vacations in November are tough... especially when you eat a lot on those vacations. We went from eating out breakfast lunch and dinner, more like stuffing our faces- then came home to Thanksgiving and then the holidays. I could not believe it when I got on the scale after the holidays. In fact...I may have even shed a tear. I have surely become a statistic- that person that comes to the gym for a month or two after the holidays and then never comes back. After we got back from the trip and celebrated my birthday, Thanksgiving and our annual Desert Day, we headed up to Idaho to cut down our Christmas Tree and stay with my brother. This was the 3rd year we have gone up to Idaho to cut down our tree. Its such a fun tradition and we hope to carry it on the rest of our lives...well, I was surely thinking an artificial tree would be nice after we always argue when we put on the lights, and then we swept up lbs of pine needles off the hardwood floor. We drove up to Kelly Canyon in Idaho with my brother and two of his kids while Kami stayed home with their youngest.
We had been hiking for maybe 10 min when the kids were begging to go sledding. Russ however, loves to find the perfect tree and could hike in snow for HOURS.
So, Russ and my bro Cody headed off into the woods while I stayed and went sledding with the kids!

It was SO cold. I stayed on the mountain and watched the kids, until my sweet niece Kin offered her sled to me. She has the sweetest heart and is so good to share. So, I am definitely heavier than a 5 year old and a 8 year old, so by the time I got half way down their trail I had a big pile up of snow as I was going backwards and the next thing I know I am pretty much on my head with my legs in the air. It was SO cute to hear nothing but those kids laughing their heads off at me. I forgot how much fun sledding is. We went down that hill I bet 50 times and the boys still hadnt come back.

I heard the boys wistle and down they came dragging our Christmas Tree.

My brother and his cute kids

Our tree! A little tall for our little house but we will make it fit!

And here it is! Without a tree skirt, but it was perfect for our holiday. It smelled so great, and fit perfectly.