Winter 2017

We spent Christmas in Afton.  Damon built a bookcase that ended up being just a bit too wide to put in the center bedroom.  It works perfectly for Damon's bank collection from his youth. These pictures also show the window curtains that I put up over the summer and also the new furniture from the summer. The only curtain not shown is in the office that is genuine Portuguese cotton.  The curtain in the kids' room were purchased in Portugal...but then upon reading the tag realized that they were made in China.  The curtains from the master bedroom are from Shopko in Afton.  I like that the curtain rods themselves are just the cheap shower curtain rods with the end caps being from Container Store for the closet rods. Our furniture is from Vermont Wood Studios that is made of cherry.

WY Christmas 2017

This was our first Christmas back in WY since before our wedding way back in 2010.  It's hard to believe it has already been 7 years.  We were excited to be back in WY for Christmas because the past several years we have had rather low-key Christmas celebrations.  For all the years we were in Rota we would be traveling over the Christmas break so Christmas Day was rather anticlimactic. We started our vacation by staying the night in Salt Lake City to see the Temple Square lights with Rod, Ileene, Demetria, and Trent.  The grounds are larger so the overall display is greater than in DC.  But, in DC the lights per square inch of tree is more.  Owen didn't seem all that impressed as he fell asleep on Rod's shoulders while walking around.  The only negative experience we had was that everybody got some sort of the flu while we were there.  Damon was super sick on Christmas Day and then Owen, Milton, and myself got it the worst the day after.  Ileene was fantastic staying up most of that night with Milton feeling so bad.  Milton was a bit out of sorts for the whole trip not sleeping all that well.  Owen slept in a bed/nest that Ileene put together but then if he woke up in the night he would find his way to Rod to cuddle. We hope to spend next Christmas out in WY as well.  This was the first Christmas Owen was really getting into the present opening process.  One of his gifts was clothing and as soon as he had the corner off the wrapping to see it was not a truck he threw it over his shoulder. Owen scored a pretty cool haul.  Milton got his own toys, but seems to only want to go after Owen's stuff.  Owen will do okay with sharing by going to get a different toy to give Milton.  We had a Christmas Eve and New Years Eve dinner with all the family that was so much fun seeing everybody and most importantly shooting off fireworks.  With the low temperatures, the fireworks didn't go up all that high which was a bit of a thrill. Overall, a wonderful trip and we are already looking forward to being back over the summer.

The Bucking Molar