Amber and Bret are in Orlando for the Highschool marching band trip to Disney World. Amber got to re-live a childhood dream. Eat dinner in the resteraunt in the Castle and have her picture taken with Cinderella. These pictures aren't very clear Cell phone pictures of pictures. But you get the idea.

This is Amber when she was 7 on our family vacation to Disney World. For her, meeting Cinderella was the greatest thing ever! She talked about this for many years! And I'm so excited for her that she got to meet her again.

Our second Ice storm

We've been hit again. Our second ice storm of the winter. This one was harder than the first. the trees were already coated in ice and fog crystals when this one hit.

We lost a lot of limbs off the trees. This is my willow tree. Bret doesn't think it's going to survive. This is a special tree for us. We planted it the first year we moved here in the year 2000. It was so little, and it was fun watching it get bigger year after year. It's going to be sad to see it go. Lots of Ice everywhere. These are the bird houses that sit on top of our chicken coop yard. Not very warm and home-y is it?

This came off of the big tree in the back yard. These are the ones that Bret wanted to take down last year but I wouldn't let him. Now we're regretting it. So we'll have them down this spring and it'll be a lot brighter in our back yard this summer. Not sure I like that. These trees are over 100 years old. They are the ones that were originally planted here when this farm place was first started.

The kids have been home from school for the last couple of days. They are starting to get bored. I think they are discovering that school isn't so bad, at least there you have something to do and think about.

Bret and I drove into town yesterday to go to the bank and we couldn't believe all the tree limbs that were down all over the streets and people's yards. It was a mess. A little south west of us near a little town called Tennent they've had two half miles stretches of power poles snap off, falling to the ground. Lots of people without power, and even water. I'm so very grateful that we haven't had anything like that at our home. We did lose power for a while but it is back on and we're warm and everything is working fine. I'll be glad when this winter is over.

The week long fog

Last week we had fog for quite a few days. It did wonderful things to everything the little fog crystals touched. It was like this for awhile and was all very beautiful, if you don't mind not seeing the sun for a while. It made me remember that even in he harshness of winter with everthing dead or sleeping there is still beauty to be found.

Our place was turned into something you'd see in a magical winter movie. Everything was white and frosted. Looked very yummy. The wind wasn't blowing and all was calm and peaceful.
Then we had another ice storm........

My little Keaton loves Apples. He'll eat them all day if I let him. I have to keep them hidden or he will!

Anyway, had a great weekend in Omaha. It was a little busy but fun. We left Friday afternoon around 5. We were meeting Sheri and Derek for dinner at a pizza place. And, I can't remember the name of it. Good pizza though, it was the New York style with the thin crust. It was pretty crazy with my 4 kids and her two little boys, but we were all fed and happy and ready to go to the hotel to go swimming. We drove to the Embassy Suites, the one next to the Cabellas and found our room and all changed into our suits. The kids were really wired and running all over the room. Luckily we all made it to the pool area with out any one getting lost or harmed. After an hour of swimming it was back up to the room to dry off and change and pack all the kids into Sheri and Derek's car because they were watching the kids for us so Bret and I could go to the Safari Club International Banquet that night and have a night to ourselves in the hotel. Which we haven't been able to do for awhile. After the kids left we went to the SCI auction and wild game feed. They were auctioning off trips to Africa and New Zealand, and lots of other places for hunting trips. Also a lot of other things all to do with hunting. Some of the wild life paintings were very nice. Bret was hoping to get a Safari trip this year.

Saturday morning we had tickets to eat breakfast with the special guest for this years banquet. It was Jim Shocky. Bret's hero. We watch his hunting show on the Outdoor Channel all the time and his wife narrates the program, and is on the show a lot herself. I wanted to meet her. She wasn't at the breakfast, bummer, but he put on a little presentation and was very entertaining to listen too. We got to meet him and have our picture taken with him. I'll have to put that up as soon as I can. It didn't get taken with my camera, because I'm an idiot and forgot mine. But it was nice to meet him and watch Bret meet his "man crush". After that was over, we had to pick up Amber from Sheri's house and take her to the Council Bluffs Stake Center for a camp meeting, that both of us needed to go to from 11 to 1. While we were doing that, Bret went to Bass Pro shops and hung around. Amber is going to be a YCL this year at camp and is very excited about it. I hope I get to go to camp this year. With all the snow days we've had we might all be making up school days when we're supposed to be at camp that first week in June. If they move it to another week I might not be able to go. So hopefully we can work this out. Bret picked me up after the meeting and Amber was going on a youth baptism trip at 2:30. We were going to take her to the Temple but she was able to get a ride from the Kennedy's who were going as well. So Bret and I were alone again and off to the banquet. We decided to go to Cabellas for a bit and do some shopping and have some lunch. Back at the banquet we went around to all the different outfitters from around the world who were selling hunting trips. The New Zealand, and Africa one sounded the best to me. We were also able to meet with Jim Shocky again and I got to meet his wife. We talked for about 20 minutes about some of her travels and a bit about my family. She couldn't believe Bret and I had 4 kids or a teenage daughter. She thought we were newly weds. How sweet! Anyway it was so great to talk with her and hear a bit about her exciting life. We had a great time and a great meal and then they had another auction. We didn't get a trip or anything this year, but one is definitely in the near future.