Happy 2015!!

It's finally 2015.

The year 2015 has loomed large in my mind, for one big reason: Elder Sedlacek comes home halfway through this year! When he left in 2013, it seemed like such a loooong tiiiiiime away.......now it's here. Crazy how fast that time went.

Anyway, we have a tradition every New Year's Day. That is to hike up the mountain behind the LDS temple just above our home, and build a snowman. A big snowman. Sometimes Mother Nature cooperates with this tradition, but sometimes not. This year she decided to, on Christmas Day, when we finally picked up the first real snow of this winter with 11.5 inches.

This particular year was extra fun because: 1. We have a new son-in-law to help us out. Son-in-law Jeff is on the far right in the picture above while Hubby Jeff is taking the pic. (Yep, two Jeffs in the family now. People ask me if that ever gets confusing? Once in awhile for them, but not really for me. Nicole has good taste and chose extra wisely!)  2. I have a new DonJoy OA knee brace that made it possible for me to hike up there and back down, pain-free.

The snowman building wasn't perfect. Earlier in the week, we had one of those nasty canyon winds that carried off a lot of the snow and left the surface snow so dry that it wouldn't pack nicely. But thanks to several five-gallon buckets and some effort, we were able to build a 7-foot snowman.

Once the snowman is built, the kids like to sled back down. Then we head home to warm up with some hot chocolate.

Here's to a great 2015!!