The weekend of everything getting canceled . . . almost

This past weekend turned out to be pretty crazy for us!  The blizzard that hit our area was predicted to be record-breaking in snow accumulation and severity.  

 While the storm wasn't supposed to get bad until Friday night, our school officials went ahead and canceled school on Friday.  So Henry was home, which is actually a great thing for me, because Ellis is much happier when Henry is here (above, he is reading Ellis all the names of the characters in their Star Wars Encyclopedia).  Hours of fun, right there!

Meanwhile, Ben was interviewing in London, and the very important airport people decided to cancel all flights arriving after noon on Friday.  Ben's flight was scheduled to arrive at 12:40.  So he was stuck in London.  Which means I was stuck at home to face the blizzard alone with the boys (after flying solo all week) while Ben got an extra long tour of London.

A little after noon, we got a knock on our door.  Our amazing friend Cale Brown had shown up with a Wii in his hands.  He said, "I heard Henry and Ellis might want to borrow this?"  Um, he was heaven sent!  Turned our downer weekend into a party for these thrilled-beyond-belief boys.

 

And then the storm hit.  By 9:00pm, the snow on the side of the house was already up to the top of my rain boots (12-13 inches).  It came hard, fast, and windy!

At this point, I started wondering things like, "Am I hard-core enough to live in New Hampshire?" and "Would we really want to deal with international flights as a family of five?" and "Do you think I could pass as a snow goddess?"  Shortly after that, the power went out.  And then my cell phone gave it's last warning before it was about to die!  I had forgotten to charge it!  And what if the power was out for days?  What should I do about communication, heat, food, etc.?  This is when I really really wanted Ben to be home.

I put some milk out on the porch, just in case.  It stayed pretty cold, I guess!  But thankfully, we had power again by 5:30am.  Such a blessing!

 And we were completely buried in snow!

It took a long time for my neighbor and me to dig our cars out of this snow.  I have always been the one to happily stay inside with the kids while Ben did the shoveling (making hot cocoa for him, of course).  This was my first time having to take on the shoveling alone (alone, but with a very strong, fast-working upstairs neighbor Alex who put me to shame, and who probably wished Ben was here as much as I did!).  Again, the Wii came in handy while I was outside shoveling for hours.

Ben's flight was re-scheduled to come in at 1:00pm.  And then it was rescheduled again to come in at 4:30pm.  I was excited because we had planned a birthday/Valentine's date for Saturday night, and it looked like he was going to make it just in time!  Finally, at 4:45, Ben called to tell me that his plane had landed.  In Detroit.
I may or may not have eaten about 40 peanut M&Ms after hanging up the phone with him.  I was SO ready for him to be home.

Fina-fina-finally, Ben walked in the door on Sunday morning at 11:30!  I had already given up on hoping that he was ever coming home.  So seeing him was like something out of a dream.   He was scheduled to leave again for his next interview the next day around noon, so we had about 24 hours together.  Church was canceled too, so we had the whole afternoon to spend time as a family.

We went for a walk to check out how the neighborhood was faring in the aftermath of the storm.

Kind of a lot of snow everywhere.  25 inches, all in one night!

We had a little birthday party for me, and I insisted on a family photo.  Pretty good for a timed shot, hey?  If I had known it would be this good, I might have done it before pajama time.  :)

 The next morning, school was canceled again, so all five of us got to go out for breakfast.  Yum!  And then Ben bought me flowers (picked out by me - my favorite!) and then he left for his next trip.

 

I have some amazing friends who know what I like.  Thanks, Jamie and Christy, for a perfect lunch, delicious cupcakes, and great company! 

They even sang to me.  Can you believe I'm already 31?  Just for the record, my favorite cupcake was the chocolate mint oreo one (yes, I shared them).  Um, yeah.  It didn't take long for chocolate to grow on me.  I'm trying to remember that one year ago, I felt like I had finally gained enough self-control to welcome chocolate back into my life.  What I'm learning is that chocolate has a power of its own . . .

Ben and Jenn's Red Rock Adventure

Look at us!  On an airplane ALL BY OURSELVES!!!

We hardly knew what to do with ourselves, as you can see.

Where were we headed?  Does it really matter?  We were alone - just the two of us!  Free as birds!  And someone else was paying for it!

This is where we stayed.  Cable Mountain Lodge, right outside Zion National Park in southern Utah.

BYU invited us to a finance conference they were hosting.  We were really proud of them for putting on such a lovely event . . . and we were glad they decided to invite us!  For the conference, Ben went to seminars from 8-12 (while I sat in the hotel room ALL BY MYSELF), and then the rest of the day was reserved for adventures!  

BYU provided all of the meals, and the food was phenomenal!  It was fun to meet all of the BYU finance people (+ many wives), as well as the finance professors and "partners" from other universities who attended the conference.  

I enjoyed this dinner with the red bandanna napkins and the bluegrass band.

Audience members got to help with the music.  I gotta have more cowbell!

Many virgin daiquiris were served.  And in case you were wondering, wine was also available -- for those who have not yet embraced the honor code.

And now, for the adventures!

All harnessed up for canyoneering!

slot canyons

On the brink of dropping to my death, or so I thought.

Going straight down -- I was pretty freaked out by the idea of falling straight backward.

Ben, making it look easy

On Belay!

Squeezing through some slot canyons

Hiking in the Narrows

So beautiful - and the water was so refreshing

See our cool water shoes and neoprene socks?

We needed them for most of the hike - it was slippery!

Angels Landing hike.  This sign kind of freaked me out.  I imagined myself plummeting to my death many times during the hike.

But the views were spectacular.

Toward the top, these chains were the only thing keeping us from slipping into oblivion. 

And see that peak behind me?  That is Angels Landing.  We didn't quite make it to the top.  We decided that we wanted to make it home alive!  I seriously thought we were going to die.  So glad we didn't!

Because we had these boys to return to!  They were waiting for us at JoDee's house in CT.  A HUGE thank you to JoDee and Brandon for being the parents of five kids 6 and under!  The boys had a great time (and Sam survived without too many tears).

Apparently Henry and Olivia really bonded.

BFFs forever!  Henry made sure to tell her that he hasn't yet decided who he is going to marry.  There are at least 5 girls who have asked to be on the list!

Friends

Fifteen years ago, my life was changed forever when I met these people:

Robbie, Ben ("Bean"), Amy ("Simmons"), Jacob ("Beastie"), Jolie, and Jessica ("Faber").

It is no use to try to explain why our high school friends are the best friends ever, or why our friendship with this group surpasses all definitions of friendship.  No one ever quite "gets" it or even believes us!  Let's just say that none of us are surprised that we are still close and tight-knit, 12 years after graduation.  It was not difficult to convince everyone to fly in from all over the country (Boston, Philadelphia, Florida, California) to get together.  WHY?  Because we have SO MUCH FUN together.  We get each other's jokes and laugh harder than ever when we're together.  After several years, we don't have to try to get reacquainted because we all helped each other become the people we are.  I love these people!

It also helps a lot that Ben and I got married.  We owe our relationship to the foundation of friendship that we built in this group.  It is SO fun to have 15 years of memories together and to have the same best friends. Ben and I have lots of inside jokes that go way back to our crazy days with our high school friends.  

If you didn't notice, we are all in the prime of our lives!  Just look at us!  We were really proud of ourselves for going hiking up Adams Canyon for our 30-year combined birthday celebration.  I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, since we are the same people who frolicked about at Disneyland and Six Flags chanting "Healthy Kids Unite! Healthy Kids Unite!" for no apparent reason.  We did a lot of crazy things that we should probably be embarrassed about now.  But we aren't.

A lovely post-hike brunch at Jacob's parents' home.  We thought about having our reunion at some cool destination, but why would we want to do that, when we can hang out at our parents' houses for free?  I believe it was at this table that we realized 6 out of 7 of us are still on our parents' cell phone plan.  Or maybe it was 7 out of 7? How's that for independence?

A LOT of laughing happened during this interlude.

Seriously, a lot.  

Think several episodes of everyone busting up until they cried.  We were looking at pictures, reading journal entries, and holding our "Relic of the Past" gift exchange.

Here is one of the funniest pictures: Robbie trying to stay warm on the Europe trip.

This is the relic I scored in the gift exchange.  We wore these shirts on our California choir trip, and then in the 4th of July parade.  Can you believe we made a float that said "Tracy's Kids: a Cancer Foundation" and on the other side "Tracy's Kids: the Famous Septuplets," neither of which are remotely true?  Tracy (Jolie's mom, who made the t-shirts and rode her unicycle proudly in the parade) had several people congratulate her on doing something so generous as creating a foundation for children with cancer.

We met up with Tyler/Alison, Justin/Diane, and Jenni/Troye (plus David Choules) for a delicious dinner.

The next day, the kids were invited, and we swam at Robbie's pool.  

My kids had a blast playing with Jenni's kids.  I'm really wishing Jenni had made it to the hike/brunch the day before, because she should have been in all of those pictures!

We jumped at the trampoline park (joined by Tiffany and kids!)

and met Jolie's dogs.  Jolie entertained the kids by showing lots of dog tricks.  My kids were terrified in the moment, but now they talk about Comet and Savvy all the time as if it was the highlight of their trip to Utah.

We had a great picnic at the park and lingered as long as we could.  We schemed about our next get together, which needs to be sooner rather than later.  We had way too much fun together to go very long before doing this again!