Horses, Trucks, and Trains

Our trip to NV for Thanksgiving was great! The traveling part was terrible, but the time we spent in Lund was full of fun. Malcom was a complete prince the entire time... in fact, I'm pretty sure he had an easier time of it than I did. 

First, we left on the bus at 2:00am Thursday morning... worst bus ride ever. I kid you not, there were no shocks on this thing. Every tiny little bump in the road was like we had run over a deer. I'm pretty sure we spent more time in the air than actually on our seats. It was rough! There were other annoying things on the bus trip, but I won't go into it. Just know that it was seriously one of the most annoying 5 hours of my entire life. 

We got off at the conference center in SLC where Ben's brothers, Luke and Jack, picked us up and drove us to Lund, NV, just in time for Thanksgiving dinner! Woot! Soooo tasty! After dinner Ben, Malcom, our little niece Sage, and I all went for a walk to see the horses. Malcom LOVED them, surprisingly... last summer when we were down it took us a lot of work to even get him to pet them. This time around we had a hard time keeping from walking underneath/behind them. Silly kid. 

Malcom also got to pretend to drive the old truck... And then, later when we had to go back out to the pasture, Ben let him sit on his lap as he drove. What little boy wouldn't love that?!

Friday came, and Ben's cousin Rocky paid for us all to go for a ride on the "Ghost Train"! I've never been on a real, moving train... I'm pretty sure I was more excited than the rest of the family put together. :) This particular ride was called the "Polar Express", because they rode right up to the "North Pole", met Santa, and fed us hot cocoa while Mrs. Clause read "The Polar Express". It was great! Malcom got to meet Santa for the first time. He seemed to like Santa at first... but then he decided that Santa was boring was keeping him from licking the windows and crawling under the seats (...too much cookie for that boy...).

This is the conductor! He was so nice! Very tall guy too. I love that Ben looks a little like a midget in the photo. Haha! (Love you Ben! :)  )

 The next few days were full of eating more food, visiting family, a cousin's wedding, and lots of Rock Band playing.

We left after the wedding on Saturday night (around 8pm) with Ben's bro, Luke, and sister, Betsy... drove all night through a blizzard, stopped outside of Pocatello because we were all exhausted and there was a good 5 inches of snow on the road (seriously, where were those snowplows!?), woke up in the morning and drove the rest of the way till we got to Rexburg around noon. Lame. Usually the trip takes about 8 hours, but this time it took us 13!!! Lame, lame, lame.

It's all good though. Tomorrow is December! Christmas! Woohoo! We pulled out our little fake tree last night and put up all the decorations. Ben usually complains if I do this before it's actually December, but he's been to busy trying to finish up projects between school and work to notice. :)

Love to all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm not sure what happened to the month of November, it has just flown by with out me even noticing it! Thanksgiving is tomorrow?! Wha?!?

We've been busy, as always. Ben's been practically living in the library and in the Smith building computer labs this semester, which I know is hard for him because he misses us so much. Luckily he has the whole week off of school, and it's made for some wonderful and much needed family time. There's only 2 weeks left of the semester!! I'm so excited to have my Ben back!! I'm so glad he has the winter semester off. YAY!

Anyway, I have to make this a short post since we're leaving for Nevada tonight. So much to do!!! But I've been kicking myself because I've hardly posted anything this month, and with tomorrow being Thanksgiving (which, by the way, is one of the best holidays EVER. Mmmmmmm), I thought I'd spend a moment in gratitude for everyone and everything out there that blesses our family's life so much. We have such wonderful families, Ben and I! We definitely got the lucky draw when we were born into them. We have the greatest of friends- some which have stuck around us for ages for who knows why, and others who we're still getting to know, but they are all great and we are so thankful for these people. Oh my, there's just everything to be grateful for! Seriously, sometimes you just want to pause life for a while and enjoy the moment, and this is one of those moments of our lives. I guess it has been for a few years now. I love our family, our life! There is nothing I would change... except maybe that Ben would be done with school already. ;) haha, but that'll happen soon enough.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I don't want to rob anyone of the awesome cuteness of the man child, so here are a few pictures from the other night when he was playing in our old laundry hamper.

Halloween: Malcom the Ninja

Meet Malcom the Ninja. He's 2.75 ft. tall (economy sized ninja's are really "in" these days), has spiky blond hair, and has mastered the art of looking innocent. Malcom the Ninja's specializes in, but is not limited to, the following abilities:

Lock-Picking

Thievery

Espionage

Running SUPER fast

Posing for GapKids catalog covers

And hippo wrestling

The prices for hiring Malcom the Ninja vary according to job description, date, mission duration, and how many hippos may be involved. Don't call him. He'll call you (and probably on his mother's cell phone while she's otherwise occupied). Code identification phrase: "Dada? Da da da dada mmmmmm!" Followed by giggles.