"Once There Was a Snowman"

What a weekend! So much went on, and of course, the internet was down the whole time! But now I can tell what went on. For my birthday (I hate even saying how old I am, so I won't), Neil took me out to eat and to a movie on Friday night, since my birthday was on Sunday, and Saturday was the priesthood session of Conference. His mom came and babysat for us, and stayed the night. It was great. She's so good to us. We saw the cute movie "The Game Plan" with the Rock. I love a good PG movie. Glad there are still some out there. Saturday, the sixth, was General Conference, and also our first day of snow. Can you believe it?! We woke up, looked out the window, and saw white. It started out as a light snow, and then got heavier until it totalled 4" (probably the reason the internet was down for a while). It was the perfect snow for snowmen, so between Conference sessions we dug out all of our snow gear-- luckily it still fit the girls from last year-- and got to work. Neil got a little carried away and rolled the second snowball so huge, the two of us couldn’t even lift it up. And it probably didn’t help Neil’s self-esteem that our cute little neighbors behind us were standing up on their play set over the fence, watching and critiquing us, throwing snowballs (which Neil started) and saying, "You’re not going to be able to lift that thing! That’s too big! It’s too high!". I was useless in my help, and finally, after he had had enough teasing by the four and six-year-old, he dug his arms into the snowball and hoisted it up onto the base by pure willpower. What a brute! The head was easy, thankfully, and our creation stood about 7 feet tall. Our neighbors were impressed. And they got their snowballs and continued their attempts of hitting Neil and destroying the snowman. We dressed him up with what we could find, and went inside to finish watching Conference. I looked out the window afterwards, and noticed that our giant was starting to lean backwards as it got a little warmer. I worried about him. A few hours later I checked on him again. He was leaning more. I checked once more, and I couldn’t believe he was still intact at such an angle. A little while later I heard Kortney say, "Our snowman fell over!" It just goes to show, "the bigger they are, the harder they fall". On Sunday, Neil woke me up with breakfast in bed, and it was Conference again, so between sessions, we went on a nice little drive up through Victor and Driggs, some cute little towns that are becoming pretty popular as vacation spots, like Jackson Hole, WY, not too far away. I've always wanted to check that area out, and finally I got to. The leaves were changing, so Neil drove us through the canyon to see it all. It was beautiful. After the last Conference session, Neil and the girls went out to the front yard and built a shorter version of our first snowman. He’s still standing. The snow is melting, and it will all be gone within a few days, but we had to leave our mark in our little winter wonderland, and it sure was fun!