Mack to Oklahoma

We had one exciting surprise Christmas gift this year - for his experience Mack got to go to Oklahoma City to see the Thunder play. We landed and went for a drive in our old neighborhood.  This was our old house.

Many things looked the same but I was struggling to remember where things were due to all the new construction.  From Yukon we headed to Norman to go to the U of O natural history museum per Mack's request.

They had some spectacular dinosaur skeletons. 

Isn't that incredible?!

We took our last pictures of Mack in the dinovador on our way out of the museum and back towards OKC.  We caught dinner at Earl's BBQ a fav of ours back in the day and it didn't disapoint.  Then we went to visit Mike and Ilene Moseby to catch up.  We hadn't seen them since the day we left Oklahoma in 2004 but it was like old times talking and laughing together. 

We stopped by the memorial on our way to the hotel and I was amazed yet again by the beauty and imagery created there.  It is a powerful monument to those lost that day.

The next morning we caught service at First Nazarene with Jason and then got to see his office full of Jason's prized possessions and memorabilia.  He was incredibly generous and gave Mack a Shai rookie card - Mack's favorite player and name sake of our cat.  He also gave us tips and hints about getting Shai's signature.

Ironically we left the cold of Idaho to see some of the worst OKC has to offer.  Windchill making it feel like 2 degrees and snow as we ran into the stadium to wait to be let in.  Thankfully we arrived when we did because the people who arrived 15 mins later were waiting outside.

Here we are in the shelter of the entrance waiting our turn to go in.

Mack and other fans watching warm ups and waiting for Shai to come by.

Mack is on that screen...can you see him?

Shai signing autographs.

Can you see Mack?  He got his jersey signed.  I'd say it was a pretty awesome Christmas present that just got better as we watched an amazing game.

I made this sign but we never got on the big screen with it😢

The Celtics were ahead at half but in the last quarter of the game the Thunder pulled out the pressure for an intense game and a win.

We ended the night with a three hour dinner with Jason, Katie and their girls.  The time flew by for the adults but I'm sure the kids were relieved when Jason called it a night.  I could have chatted for several more hours.  Love those guys.

We caught an early flight out the next morning and without much turnaround time Mack hopped in his car and headed back to school.  It was a quick trip full of old memories and new.

Christmas Break

Christmas break begins...Lily got this cute hat at her friend gift exchange.

The girls choose to make cookies for the Toys for Tots event for their Dame Grandkids service project.  They each made a batch of cookies and I made two.  

We bagged up the cookies and delivered over 8 dozen cookies to the event in Boise.

We also did the 12 days of Christmas for the Wind's complete with notes everyday from people in the ward, neighborhood, and Kingsbury ward.  We also invited everyone to come carol to them on the Sunday before Christmas and delivered a special blanket Mindy Draper put together.  It was so cool to see how many people came to carol.  The spirt was so strong and you could see how much it meant to John.  

We also did our annual caroling to Bro. Hill and Lea.  It is sad to think that one of these years they may not be around when we show up.  We sure love them.

Baby Shai took to biting holes in a lot of the Christmas presents.  This one was for Greg and I had to put packing over the holes multiple times to prevent damage to the gift.  When Greg finally ripped off the paper you could see all the holes Baby had chewed away.  

Emily showing off all of her gear.  Jungle clothes, dress boots, and ski goggles - what a look.

Lily showing off her oversized Kitty Cozy.

We opened presents early, on the 22nd, and then headed up to McCall the next morning.  We met up with Mack's girlfriend, Sophia, and her dog up at the condo then spent the next days skiing all together.  Sophia wore a bunch of Andrew's old gear so it felt like he was there 😉.  She had never skied before so she and Mack spent the day on Easy Street.

The skies were beautiful.  It was a bit chilly but a great ski day.

Ended up skiing three days - one with Sophia and two with the Wilfords once Greg and Sophia had headed home.  We enjoyed our days up there playing lots of games, watching Christmas movies, playing in the snow and going through our stockings Christmas morning.

We came home in time for Greg to make his New Years Day feast.  He made far too much, but all his guests loved the feast.

Girls joining Natali's BeReal while they were walking to Chick-fil-a to meet me for lunch.  They had been doing some exchanges at Target while I bought groceries.

Jean Luc lay in the box while we played 7 Wonders and Lily declared her the 8th wonder of the world.  

On Natali's last day home we were able to go do baptisms at the temple all together.  It was pretty awesome to be in the temple with all my girls. I may have teared up a bit...

Lily in her happy place.

 Greg took Emily and Lily ice skating after baptisms while Natali headed to Provo and Kate headed to work.  They loved the time with him Greg and they always like to ice skate.