Aidan has been begging for Alex to come in his hot tub since they moved in next door. With Alex being sick so often, we have held off a lot. Tonight, however, we finally let him go. Snow on the ground and all! They had a blast! (Until it was time to get out.☃️) These little boys are such good buddies. It’s going to be hard to move away.

After getting out of the van, i told Lucy to stop so I could take a picture of her in the snow. Mid-smile/picture snap, Lucy slipped and wiped out in the snow. She was quite shocked. That didn’t stop her wanting to build Olaf in the snow.After building snowmen, we had to pick up Alex from a friend’s house. Lucy begged to watch The Sound of Music on the way. Then, I couldn’t get her out of the van. She kept wanting to sing “The Lonely Goatherd.” I think she has great taste.

We made an extra effort tonight to take one last entire family adventure together before Wednesday. We picked Brie up after classes and headed to the Ice Castles in Midway. Luckily, the snow held off and made for a very easy drive through Provo Canyon. It was still quite cold though. The structures were AMAZING! With the added lights within, they looked like something straight out of a Frozen fairy tale.The kids kept trying to find the ways that they were made. They did manage to find a few pipes within the structures, that provided water to run over the existing ice and refreeze again to build on the previous layers.We were pretty impressed that they managed to have a fountain in below freezing temps. The ground inside the Castles was a crushed ice type of substrate. It was definitely NOT snow, as Alex found out, and could not be compacted to make snowballs. It honestly was like frozen sand, just with random larger chunks of ice.There were SO many beautiful places to see, explore, and take pictures!Crazy Lu kept trying to LICK! the ice! I just kept envisioning “A Christmas Story!” The kids wanted to ride in the ice tunnels, but Lucy was not allowed because she was too little. While they waited in line, we found a tunnel just Lu’s size.And she absolutely LOVED being able to do it all by herself!When the big kids finally made it down the tunnels, everyone was pretty frozen. Alex was also still a bit in shock from the wild ride. 🤣 Temps in the teens definitely were cold in the mountains! Plus, Lucy had to go potty. Trying to get her out of her “snowman suit” in a porta-potty was not in my plans. So, we decided it would be best to head back home. (Plus Brie had a full day of classes ahead of her.) This will for sure be on our list to visit again next year though! It was really a great sight to see!

I had to make a quick trip into Walmart. With Lucy, quick is not always easy. However, her detours were thinking of others today. She ran up to me with this bouquet of wooden roses, insisting that we buy them for Brie. I love seeing their relationship blossom. Lucy LOVES Brie being home and able to visit us on he weekends.

It is so crazy that it is almost time for Tim to report to the MTC. This time has gone by so very fast! Tonight, Lucy would not let him go. Tim was so sweet and followed her around wherever she wanted to take him. By the end of the night, I caught them snuggling together in the family room. Tim was watching Bolt with her, while he made her into silly characters on his phone. He is such a great cousin to all the kids. It is crazy to think that Lucy will almost be 6! when he returns home.

Lucy decided that she was “Rapunzel in her tower” tonight. She had one of Eric’s dish towels that she used as her hair and his tall bar stool was her tower. She had us pretty convinced!

Tim wanted to hike Adams Canyon one last time before he leaves. Add a bit of snow and ice, and it made for quite an adventure! Check out this tree!The view from the top was well worth it!

Uncle Eric makes the most amazing clam linguine! Top it off with a bowl full of ice cream afterwards, and he has won this little girl’s heart!