Trip to see family

Grace and Anne didn't have school two Fridays ago, so we decided it was a good time to see some family. Our first stop was in Evanston to see Uncle Scott. Jessica decided to ditch school that day so she could see us too. We had a great time playing in the back yard and playing some cribbage before hitting the road again.

 Next we drove to Cache Valley. We stopped by Wellsville to see Tad and Solviej and their three kids. We had a great time visiting, especially since it had been almost eleven years since we last saw each other.

 We spent the night at Great Grandpa Stucki and Grandma Arlie's house. Jen and I took turns going to the temple on Saturday while the kids played in the yard and we chatted with Grandpa and Grandma.

 Next it was on to Idaho where we stayed with uncle Tim and aunt Amber. Grandpa Ray came to town from New Hampshire so we took advantage getting lots of hugs...

 and losing at cribbage. Well, at least Anne was able to beat him.

 Aunt Leonora and her three girls also made it to town for Uncle David to come home from his mission. It also happened to be St. Patrick's Day so we dressed up for the occasion.

 We had a great time greeting him at the airport.

Uncle Joe and Aunt Suzanne invited us over for dinner while we were in town. All in all it was a great mini family reunion trip.

Project Icicle

 We've had a bit more snow lately and have grown some great icicles. James likes the ones that are taller than he is.

 We have a cubby hole over the stairs in our family room. But we can't use all of it because we don't want the kids to fall into oblivion. We've been blocking off the scary part with bookcases.

I knew just what to do to remedy the situation. Build more bookcases. I put them together in an L shape so they can't be tipped over easily.

Now we don't have to worry so much about the little ones playing up there and they can use all of the space.

Winter's last stand

 We've had some beautiful hoar frost this winter.

 Jennifer helped with the cub scout winter day out. So the kids got to go and play with her.

 James's favorite was the BB guns.

 Robert likes to get at things up high. He can climb up on the chairs and then onto the table. The things we used to put on the table to keep them safe are no longer safe from the baby.

 That includes black markers.

 We've had a week or so of warm temperatures and most of the snow melted. I decided to finally put up the swing set. Then it snowed two days later.

 The warm weather also prompted some spring bike repairs. Anne and Grace both got new tires for their bikes since they were getting pretty worn down.

Grace and Anne brought home some treats from a Valentines day party at school. Grace really likes the sour warhead fun dip.

Time for a new desk.

 When we first moved to town more than a year and a half ago I needed to use our computer desk to set up my radiology workstation. But we needed another one for the home computer. We went to the thrift store and picked up this beauty for $10. It held up our computer, but it looked like it was about to fall over the whole time.

 Since I had some leftover pieces of black walnut from making Aunt Maria's table, I decided to finally make a sturdy desk for our house. I got a couple of pieces of oak to accent the walnut. Everybody helped a little. Robert got into some sanding action.

Anne and Grace helped varnish it. Jen put up with a project in the living room.

 After putting it into service while we waited for the drawer pulls, we decided it needed one extra piece.

A printer shelf/mini table

Here is the end result. It will be a long time before this one falls over.

Fine Dining

It was our turn to give to Aunt Maria for Christmas. Here is John helping me glue the table top. It was sure heavy with all of those pipe clamps attached to it.

John really liked coming out to work at the shop, thank you Bonneville Builders. I think he liked to "drive" the quad in the background the best. The table top is still heavy, but not quite as bad without those pipe clamps.

I finally got the table delivered on time for....well not Christmas, but early as a birthday present. I hope you like it Maria and Josh.

As a bonus, I got to see a lot of reindeer, I mean elk, at the wintering grounds near Jackson on my way back home after making the delivery. Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!