Add Expert Upholsterer to her Loooong list of amazing abilities!

Mary decided to cover our dining chairs a while ago, which is a must because they are wicker-style chairs which DO NOT mesh well sanitarily with kids eating habits/styles. Just the other day Sarah (who we're trying to empower to do as much as she can on her own... with mixed results) spilled about a fourth a gallon of milk on the table, chairs and floor. Anyway, we had purchased this table and chairs set off of Craigslist this summer and Mary hoped to do something with the top of the chairs. She bought some deep brown vinyl a while ago and went to it this weekend. They look awesome, are more comfortable, match the color of the base of the table and the living room couches, and are easier to clean. These took a ridiculous amount of staples, but the results on the top look great! Nice work Mary! Here are some pics.

Trip to McCall

We decided a while ago that we wanted to go to McCall's Winter Carnival this year. We invited some friends and family and finally hooked my parents (Oma and Opa). I think they were going through some Nathan and Sarah withdrawals after not having seen them over the holidays and not since early November. Needless to say, we were very happy to have them join us. We drove up Thursday afternoon with near perfect road conditions. We got to the Farmer Cabin about an hour before my parents but found that the cabin's heat was not on. We turned the heat on and got unpacked and tried to stay warm while we awaited Oma and Opa's arrival. We soon found out that we didn't have any running water and were concerned that maybe the pipes were frozen. When Oma and Opa showed up we learned how to actually turn on the water to the cabin and were able to get running water in the house. However, we also discovered that it sounded like there might be a burst pipe or something under the house because when we turned off the faucets we could still here a mysterious running/gushing water sound. We phoned some of my Uncles (Jim, Warren and Rick) to get some support but were concerned that this wasn't something we could fix or diagnose this evening and we needed to stay in a place with running water. My Uncles Jim and Warren and my Aunt Peggy offered for us to stay at their cabin, so after we finished eating dinner we headed over there. We stayed at their cabin for the rest of our stay at McCall and enjoyed their company while they were all there for part of the time. Thanks so much Jim, Peggy and Warren for your typical hospitality, kindness, warmth, space, conversation, sleds, and beds!


Here are Sarah and Nathan enjoying bedtime rituals with their Oma and Opa on Thursday night at Jim, Peggy, and Warren's cabin. I think all were content with their individual roles (including Mary and I!)

The kids enjoyed spending time with their grandparents and vice-versa and we all just enjoyed being in such a beautiful place together. When the kids slept (and sometimes when they didn't) I was pretty persistent in getting us together to play some games. We had purchased Alhambra, which is a new fun game that we learned about from some friends, and I was anxious to break ours in. Oma and Opa really liked the game and we played it a number of times. We also played Ticket to Ride: Europe. Mary had a disastrous gaming weekend, not winning a single game and generally getting wasted until we played Ticket to Ride: Switzerland (she absolutely dominates as this game!) on Sunday night and of course she won. I'm glad she won the game otherwise the trip home may not have been as pleasant as it was (tongue in cheek!).
Anyway, see below for the fun festivities of our long weekend with Oma and Opa in McCall for the Winter Carnival. I tried to do the posts so that they would be in order for your reading pleasure!

p.s.- this is a total binge-blog which is the result of cancelled church due to the amount of snow we got last night. It's snowed every day since we got home from McCall, but dumped a lot last night.

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?