Winter Carnival Sculptures

So one of the biggest highlights and traditions of the McCall Winter Carnival is the amazing snow/ice sculptures that they do. This year's theme was "Wild, Wild West", which is pretty obvious from all of the sculptures. The Carnival essentially runs from the last weekend in January through the first weekend in February. On Friday the 25th, we went around and saw some of the sculptures. We didn't make it to all of them (there are over 40 at least), but we saw some pretty cool ones. They are spread throughout the town as they are sponsored by different stores, restaurants, hotels, etc.and are built in their parking lots, which makes it kind of hard with kids being in and out of car seats, but it is worth the trip. . Below are a couple of the cool ones that we saw and I'm sure we missed many other great ones. This is like the first day that some of them were finished and some were probably completed after we left. If we go next year we'll plan it better, but this year we ran into Nathan's nap and he was getting tired and cranky and we needed him to nap so he could be happy and have energy for his party later in the day. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Some of them we just drove by and looked at from the car but below are the ones that we got out of the car and took pictures of. I hope you can realize how huge these are. Unfortunately with the sun out and all the whiteness of the snow the clarity of the pics is not as good as they are in real-life. Sorry.





The five pics above are all from the same display, which was definitely one of the coolest. It was huge and had like 5-6 huge cattle, two cowboys on horseback, a cave with two Native Americans carved into the side of the cave (see difficult-to-see pic above of me and Nathan in front of one of the Native Americans). This one was huge and really neat!

This was the front of a train in front of "My Father's Place" the diner we went to for lunch for Nathan's birthday. The kids enjoyed seeing this one and we all enjoyed the chimes of "Choo Choo" from Sarah and Nathan.

A prospector mining for gold in front of the old Burger Den that apparently is no longer.

The three pics above are obviously from the same one of a bunch of wild stallions going through a river or some kind of body of water. There are 7 horses that are ornately carved with really detailed manes and tails. It's really cool how they make the water look so real.

Well that's the last of the snow sculpture pics. We'd love to have some people come and join us for next year's carnival. It's worth the drive and there is lot's to do, besides just enjoying being together and playing in the snow. We were fortunate to be there on Friday as it got really busy on Saturday and Sunday and we were able to avoid the crowds. However, we wished we would have planned things better and gone to participate in some of their other events or seen more of the sculptures. By the time we were leaving on Monday some of the sculptures had already melted or been covered somewhat in the snow. The people try to gently sweep the snow off, but it is hard to re-do anything that is melted by sun or fluctuating temps.

Birthday Boy! The Big 2

Nathan turned two while we were in McCall, and I'm sure that was one of the reasons that Oma and Opa decided to make the trek to be with us up there. We decided to wait until Friday evening to actually have the birthday party as Jim, Peggy and Warren were going to be up there at that time and we thought they might enjoy being there for Nathan's birthday party. Of course, Nathan was oblivious to the wait and just happy when he saw presents that he got to open. With the Christmas present opening still somewhat fresh in his little mind, he tore into the unwrapping process with minimal assistance from Daddy and his big Sis.

He was pretty excited about his "Fox and the Hound 2" movie, of course you can all see that!

Opening some fun board books from Nanu and Bumpa (Mary's folks)!


Opening his Lightning McQueen spoon and fork set to go along with the plate, bowl and cup set he also got. Now he has one like his big Sis.

After opening several matchbox sized characters from the movie Cars, Nathan opened his "Radiator Springs" rug and went to town. He and Sarah were busy the rest of the night and since neither of them like cake (they had a little ice cream), they cut that short to continue playing with Nathan's new toys.

For the duration of our stay at McCall, whenever we were inside there was a constant buzzing sound. What was it you might ask: Nathan making a car sound. It seemed to never stop and was so cute to hear and to watch him so excited to play with his new toys.

Birthday Cake!

Nathan sees something he thinks he's going to like, he seems pretty excited!
It was so cute how excited Nathan was about his cake. I think that he's observed enough birthday parties to know that it is a pretty exciting event, even if he didn't even like the cake! He was quick to point out to everyone that the candles were hot.

For the last couple of weeks Nathan has been doing this cute thing where he blows air out and it flips his hair up. He gets a lot of verbal approval (laughter, applause, etc.) from us when he does it because it's so cute and he seems so proud of himself. Of course, when it came time to actually blow out the candles, he just blew up his hair over and over, but was so proud of his efforts. Dad finally chimed in and added some extra hot air to assist Nathan in the blowing out of the candles.

Going in for the final kill!

Sledding in McCall

McCall is just beautiful in the winter, particularly when you're surrounded by trees and it's been snowing so much. On Saturday we took advantage of the snow and took the kiddos out for some fun. Although Nathan screamed while we got him dressed, he loved it once he was outside. Oma and Opa joined us as well and it was nice that Jim, Peggy and Warren's cabin has a driveway that acts as a mild kid-sized snow hill. It was easy just to walk outside and sled on their driveway.

Here's Nathan and Sarah on the porch before they embark into the white snowy bliss!

Jim and Peggy had this sled that works great for kids because it has a back and you can just sit them down and send them on their way. It was great to have!

Here'sNathan and Opa on a trip down the driveway. They ran into the snowbank, which turned out to be a somewhat frequent occurrence for everyone that tried the hill.

Daddy and Sarah squeezing onto a saucer-sled.

Nathan and Daddy trying to avoid the snow bank

Sarah piggy-backing on top of Opa, she was squeeling the whole way!

Nathan on a solo trip down the hill, always smiling!

Nathan and Oma after a sledding trip where they were backward most of the way!

Daddy and Nathan on one of our trips down the hill, with Opa supervising.


Daddy and Nathan preparing for a trip while Sarah and Opa look on.


Sarah on one of her solo trips down the hill.

Sarah and Daddy pulling Nathan up to the top of the hill for another trip down. The cabin is in the background.
Sarah wanted to help Daddy give Nathan a good pull down the hill on one of his solo trips. She forgot to let go of the rope the first time, this is the second (successful) attempt.

Nathan at the bottom of the hill after a solo trip.

We had a great time sledding and when it was time to go in, after at least an hour or so, the kids probably would have been happy to stay out longer but they were also content to be done and get into the warmth. It was a really fun time and I just realized that Mary isn't in any of these shots. I hope Oma and Opa took some pics of her because she did take several turns down the hill with the kids and the four of us used Jim and Peggy's large tobagan to take a trip down. I'm sure Oma and Opa will put the photos on their blog soon enough (hint, hint)!

S'No Fun like Snow Fun

Besides sledding the "kids" had fun just playing in the snow.

This was one of the smaller icicles found on the front of the cabin. The icicles were quite amazing both on the cabin and around town. Scary stuff!

Nathan enjoyed putting his glove into the snow and then sticking it into his mouth, which always brought out the "Mmmm good" expression from him. Whenever Nathan would do this it totally reminded me of Winnie the Pooh getting his honey out of his jars... "only a smackerel!"

Sarah enjoyed making a snow angel for the camera. She told me just this morning that she has a lot more fun in the snow when she can make a snow angel.

A couple of pics of Nathans attempts to participate in the snow-throwing. He would just jab his glove in the snow and then act like he was throwing something which would result in a few flakes "flying" out of his hands. He was pretty proud of himself, even if he couldn't actually grip any snow.
Quite remarkable series of icicle growths. As the snow slides and curls around the bottom of the roof the drips resulting in icicles find a new vertical while the old ones remain. If you look closely you can see that some of them have hit the side of the cabin or the window and have curled backwards. Pretty cool. My Uncle Jim made a brief appearance in the snow and he and my mom got in a little snowball fight. I think they both had fun, Sarah wanted to join in the fun too!

Our "Adventurous" Trip Home

Well we continued to get a lot of snow on Sunday night into Monday morning. The kids awoke at the perfect time... just before Oma and Opa pulled out, so they were able to say their sad goodbyes to their grandparents. Dad and I had gotten the chains on my car the night before and I had packed most of the stuff up as well. So besides a couple of clean-up stuff, we were pretty much ready to roll. We had planned on stopping at the famous McCall Pancake House on our way out of town and enjoyed a delicious breakfast there before hitting the road. I'm not sure what time we actually got on the road, probably between 9-10. While driving out of town it seemed that I had a lot of resistance to accelarating and my back wheels seemed like sleds (which I told Mary about) as we were fishtailing all over the place. Not having much experience in this much snow and driving with chains I figured this was how it was going to be and it was going to be a slow go for a while. About five minutes out of town we did a complete 180 and somehow avoided the bank on the opposite side of the road (a miracle!). Since we were now facing back toward McCall I just went back toward McCall until I could find a place to turn around. We still had the same issues with regard to sliding around but just decided to stay under 30 MPH. A couple miles down the road with someone on my tail the car behind me started flashing their brights at me and waving. So I pulled off the road and she informed me that my "back wheels are locked, they aren't moving at all". I said thanks and then thought or said "How the heck does that happen and how the heck do you fix it?" I put the car in reverse and it seemed to fix the problem and someone else offered to follow us for a few miles. The problem seemed fixed and the handling on the road was SO much better!

We proceeded on our way and figured we'd just take it slow. The problem was that Mary and I had different definitions of slow. The speed limit was 65 and I figured I'd keep it around 50 - 55 unless it seemed dicey. We were cruising along for an hour or so and were getting to a point where the snow/ice on the road was melting and there were a lot of patchy spots with bare pavement. Anyway, about this time on a decent decline in the road one of the chains broke and made quite a racket. We slowed to a stop and turned around to see if we could go back and find the chain and see what was going on. It sounded pretty bad as we turned around and we were worried that we had a flat or something important mechanically had broken. Everything looked okay except that the chain had broken and had gotten stuck on the inside of the tire around the axle near the brake disc. The solution: we had to remove the tire to diagnose and hopefully fix the issue. This of course meant that we had to unpack the trunk to get to the tire, which resulted in some of our stuff being placed on the side of the road (yard sale anyone?) and some of the stuff in our seats in the car. Fortunately (actually a real blessing) this happened to be in one of the rare spots where there was a "chain-up area" and so there was actually some semblance of a shoulder and we weren't actually on the highway, like we would have been if this had happened almost anywhere else on the trip. However we were still on a decline and on a somewhat icy road, not ideal conditions for jacking up your car to remove a tire. We realized as we got set to remove the tire that we didn't have any kind of a wedge to stop the back tire and keep the car a little more secure. Rocks could not been identified amidst the deep snow banks on both sides of the road so a piece of metal from the mechanism that holds the tire in place in the trunk was used as a make-shift wedge with miscellaneous bins from our trunk to re-inforce it (like it would have actually stopped the car from rolling!). I removed the tire took off the chain that was caught between the disc brakes and the inside of the rim of the wheel. We put the tire back on and proceeded with one chain into Council, ID to buy a new set of chains. The trip home from there was much better as we were able to remove our other chain in Council (the chains that we purchased were just in case we needed them) and pretty much cruise home with decent or clear roads.

I still don't know why the chain came off, it could have been the speed (Mary's opinion) or that the chain wasn't tight enough, or that it just got jarred loose on one of the cement patches. Regardless, I'm just grateful that Mary didn't do an "I told you so" because she felt I was going too fast. She just kept her mouth shut, realizing I/we didn't need any criticism at this point and that we just needed to work together to solve the problem. I really appreciated that! I did ask her to take some pictures of the side-of-the-road-ice/snow-tire-removing-fiasco, but she somewhat politely declined. Needless to say, we were glad when we finally arrived home and were very grateful that we had purchased those Car DVD players before we moved here, what a lifesaver (read: Kid-Quieter). Fun times!

Sweet Baby Jane!

So, we've decided to name our little girl Jane. What do you think? Mary has been hooked on the name since we found out it was a girl and has felt strongly that that is to be her name. I like the name and think that it's cool to have a daughter that will be named after one of her wonderful grandmothers. My mom is pretty excited, though she tries to keep it just be modest in her excitement (she's really ecstatic). Mary's told me that I can choose the middle name but I haven't really had any ideas, though it needs to be a little bit longer name than both Jane and Hamm. We'll see what I can come up with. I have always liked the name and thought it was both cute and classic. I knew a Jane in High School and thought that she was a pretty groovy gal and ever since then I've been open to the idea of having a kid named Jane. Anyway, just thought I'd let everyone know what the name is since we've had plenty of questions about it. Whaddayuthink?

Tagged.....again.... by the same person.

I guess I'll oblige, even though this is called a "hubby tag" and it therefore, should have been Mary writing about me instead of the other way around. I'll try to follow the question format layed out by my sis. I'll tag Amanda, my cousin Deanne, my sis-in-law Jenny, and just for funsies my Dad.

-Spouse's name?: Mary

-How long have we been together?: Since Feb 2001

-How long did we date?: We dated for 4.5 months before we got engaged. We were engaged for 4.5 months. Then we got married in Nov. 2001 and we've been dating ever since, though not as much for the last couple of years... I wonder why?

-How old is she?: Just turned 28

-Who eats more?: I eat more, no question

-Who said I love you first?: Me, but this has a funny story. I really didn't date many (okay... zero) girls seriously before dating Mary so I wasn't very suave in many of the necessary areas of dating. I pretty much didn't have any experience. I really wanted to tell her that I loved her but I also was a little unsure what exactly that word meant and what that would feel like. So while I wanted to say it I also wanted to be careful with how I said it. I don't remember exactly how I said it but I think I used one or both of the following words in describing/qualifying my love for her: "shallow" or "surface". Fortunately she knew what I was trying to say, not what I actually said. Essentially I wanted to tell her that I loved her but I also knew that our love could be much deeper in the future. Luckily she didn't hold me to the actual semantics and realized my meaning.

-Who is taller?: I think that I am, but if she wears any kind of lift on her shoes then I start to feel really short. Regardless, it's close.

-Who sings better?: Definitely Mary. I joined a choir to get to know people and that is where I formally met her, though I had eyed her previously. She has a much better voice and has a lot more training.

-Who is smarter?: Mary is way smarter than me. There is no question about who has more smarts. She's more inquisitive, a deeper thinker, better at writing and reading. I will say that I have a much better memory about things that I learn. She would confirm all of this I believe.

-Who does the laundry?: Mary does it about 80-90% of the time.

-Who pays the bills?: Mary, I couldn't keep track of all of that stuff. Refer to the one about being smarter above.

-Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?: Where did this question come from? Is there some power thing or omen about sleeping on a certain side of the bed? I sleep on the right side of the bed... always have.

-Who mows the lawn?: I mow the lawn and enjoy it. I don't think that Mary would really like to do this much. She prefers to be indoors where the temperature is moderate. Especially here as it gets super hot in the summers.

-Who cooks dinner?: I would say this has been fairly equal since I finished grad school, or at least since we got pregnant. However, let me explain this a little. I usually come home from work say hey to everybody and get several requests from Sarah. I explain that I need to check-in with "Mommy" first. I usually say something like: "do you have anything planned for dinner?", or "is there anything that I can do to help out with dinner?". It needs to be understood that this is not a demand or an expectation. Mary knows that I'm totally fine on any given night whipping up something on my own and that my request is usually just an effort to get things moving on dinner so that the kids can get something to eat. This has been particularly so during the pregnancy when the last thing Mary wants to think about is food. She often has thought a little about it and has an idea about what she wants to make for dinner, but needs some not-so-subtle prompting to acknowledge that we need to actually start making it if we're going to have a non-rushed evening and if we're going to get the kids to eat before bedtime. She often tells me what her plan was and then I get it going or do most of it under her supervision or assistance. I would say generally we do it together on some level but sometimes it's just me or just her.

-Who drives?: I drive, but Mary drives frequently as well. If it's more than a couple of hours we usually split it up, but generally I drive.

Who is more stubborn?: Mary is definitely more stubborn. If we're in an argument I am almost always the one to "give-in" first and approach her for reconciliation. I hate this at times and wish that she would be more willing to approach me but it's the way it is and who we are.

Who kissed who first?: She kissed a couple of guys first. I kissed no one first, except Mary. It was also the same night that I kind of told her that I loved her. I asked permission before attempting the amazing feat. It was an awkward kiss but she taught me the ins and outs of kissing as we dated and courted. However, I think that she's given up on me in this department.

-Who asked who out first?: This is a good story. So we knew who each other was but hadn't talked much. I got her number from a mutual friend and called her up to ask her out. She explained that although she would like to go out with me she already had plans. So, because she didn't ask for a rain-check or a re-schedule, I kind of was a little apprehensive about asking her out again. So a little while later this friend calls up and says he wants to set up his sister-in-law with my cousin (Jimmy). He figures it might be kind of awkward for Jimmy to go out with this married couple and this girl that he hardly knows so he asks me if I want to find a date and come along. I know that this friends sister-in-law lives in Seattle and knows Mary so I say I'll come if said sister-in-law can get Mary to come along and be my date. Mary is totally oblivious to my orchestrating of this "one-way-blind date" and thinks that this is just a pleasant coincidence. So I guess one of Mary's friends asked her out on our first date if that makes any sense.

-Who proposed?: This ones a little confusing too. I think that I proposed, but it's a little unclear. This is a lame story (read: I'm a little embarassed about it and wish I could do this part over) so I don't think that I'll tell it here.

-Who is more sensitive?:

-Who has more siblings?: I do... by one.

-Who wears the pants?: Mary, without question. I have some reasons as to why I think that is but I won't share them here. Also, I think that I'm capable of wearing the pants and would like to more on particular issues, but Mary is way better at it, looks better in them, and they fit her better. I don't think that I'm an anti-pants wearer (like I suspect my youngest brother is), but I think that it just works out for us the way it is. Does that sound like the answer of someone who would like to wear the pants a bit more but doesn't?

What do you think of the resemblance?

Today when I got home from work (a typical opening line for my Blog), Mary wanted Sarah to show me her painting from pre-school. She excitedly ran into her room and came out and informed me that she had painted a picture of "President [Gordon B.] Hinckley", the current prophet of our church. She's quite an artist but this is the first time that she's ever tried to depict him and she didn't have any kind of a reference picture or anything... this was straight from her memory with no prompting from us. So cute that she's thinking of such a wonderful, exemplary man of God while she's at pre-school. Her pre-school leaders, who are not LDS, were quite impressed with her painting abilities. So were we, to say the least. Sarah is almost 4.5 years old and her little artistic skills are really budding and she has loved her homemade "art kit" from Christmas. Gotta love the nose, the glasses and the little bit of hair on top.

Just cuz..

I was looking through some of the pictures that we have of Nathan... who it just seems that I can't get enough of right now... and just had to put these on here. There's no reason for this particular post other than just to show cute pictures of our little guy. The one in the towel is fairly recent... he loves to be wrapped like a mummy and then run down the hall and fall down, laughing all the way. The one of him crawling is at his Oma and Opa's house. And the last one is of him doin' some work in the yard while playing with leaves. Just cute pictures that I had to share with everyone else.

It is a good thing!

Oh man, I love how kids minds work! Today when I got home from work Mary informed me of a conversation that she had with Sarah earlier in the day and I just had to post it. Sarah was kind of quizzing her mommy and asking her a variety of "trivia" questions. So here's a hilarious part of the dialogue:

Sarah: Mommy, what animal likes to dig up bones and chew them?

Mary: A dog

Sarah: Yep, that's right Mom, good job. It's good that doggies don't know we have bones in our bodies, huh Mom.

Mary: (takes a little "processing" time prior to response) Yeah, that is good, doggies don't know a lot about peoples' bodies.

Sarah: Yeah, mom that is good, especially Sneakers. [Sneakers is Mary's folks' dog]

Good stuff... why didn't I think of that?