Christmas Tree Hunt

Every year for Christmas my family goes Christmas Tree hunting. This year my uncle Chip came down over the weekend to go but Rustin and Sarah wanted to go on Monday, so I took the day off and went along cause I LOVE TREE HUNTING!!!!
Here we are getting ready to leave... I got to ride with Rustin and Sarah and the kids- always an adventure. Rustin really makes me laugh and this is something I need these days. Although... I think I saw my life flash before my eyes when we got up the canyon and hit the snow because he thought it would add to the adventure to try to do some donuts in the truck.

We get up Spring City canyon and start out adventure searching for "The Tree". We pass by this rock formation thingy and Rustin says "And...... that's Tahnee's next house."

My Dad (aka. Grandpa of the Year) pulled the kids in his ice fishing sled, which my Dad believes is just as good as a regular sled, and uses it as such (like last year when we took it actual sledding and about killed the kids because he waxed up the bottom first- cause he didn't think it'd go fast enough- he took GOOD care of that. We had to pry them out from underneath the truck)... Dad gives us such good memories.

This is the part where Rustin says to his 3 year old "Hey Bubba.. look how strong Dad is" and then proceeds to grab a DEAD tree (knowing Bubba doesn't know the difference) and yanks it out of the ground (I could have done that! And I should have. Dang! Let's face it... Bubba could have done it).

Cute Sariah... She did get a little tired of the (and I qoute) "back and forth, back and forth" trying to find a tree.

Now... we get to this river thingy. And we need to cross. So...

My Dad helps the kids across...

Rustin helps Bubba...

Don't worry... he didn't fall in... that's coming...

Okay... So I decide to go across. I don't have anyone to help me, so I start to go across. OF COURSE... I am the one that has to find the faulty piece of ice and FALL THROUGH!!! I was like.... REALLY?!?!?! It hurt so bad. I couldn't get up at first. My Dad was on the other side calling to Rustin and he was behind me but I managed to get up but my leg hurt so bad. Picture this... I am in pain... trying to stand up and Rustin is behind me saying "Are you okay, Tahn. Tahn... are you okay?" And I am thinking ' Man my leg hurts, but get up and get out your camera... this is blog material!' So I stand up, turn around and look at Rustin and say "Yeah." Then pull out my camera phone and take a picture...

Rustin says... "Are you.... Are you really taking a picture?" Then he shakes his head and goes back to help Sarah.

LOL... See.. I try to think of others and share in the laughter of the experience. I do have a pretty good bruise on my leg. I took pictures at that moment but you can't see the injury very well. BUt here is one of my leg when we got home. It's hard to see... but it hurts- trust me. And it's a good battle wound.

Rustin helping Sarah make is SUCCESSFULLY acrosss. GEEZ! Where was my help? LOL- JK.

My rides for the kids.

The kids loved playing on the hillsides. It was quite the victory when they made it to the top. They'd cheer for themselves. I'd cheer for them too! I helped Sariah and Bubba build snow caves and mini snow men while we waited for the tree to be cut but it was making my hand so cold to carry it back to the truck so we talked her into letting us leave the snow man in the forest. She wanted Sarah to help her build another mini one when we got back to the truck. Here is Sarah putting it in the tree so it can stay in the forest. Sariah was bawling because she thought the snowman was ugly. LOL!!! Kids!

Here's the snowman.

Earlier... before we left, I made this tasty treat... Smores on a Stick. It was a HIT!

Oh my heck... this was so funny. Rustin and Dad were in the back room playing dress up or something cause they come out so proud of themselves and say... "Hey, look at Rustin." and he is looks so "puffed up". He kept posing for us. I wish I had a picture of this cause it was HIL-ARIOUS!!!! How intimidating does he look in this get up. They were getting ready to go hunting.

Here's Bubba riding my Mom's excercise bike. This is the only way he can ride it cause he's so little. LOL... he's sitting on the front of it. I was dying with laughter watching him peddle away.

It was a fun day and I was glad I took the time off to go. I have an amazing family and I'm very lucky to have them!!!!

As it turns out Rustin and Sarah got a tree that was kind of brittle. As they were bringing it down the mountain he kept losing branches- WEIRD. We get back to the truck and one side was about barren and Sarah said this statement that was so amazing. She said "Just because it's broken doesn't mean we shouldn't love it!" I love Sarah. It made me think of myself these days. I'm kind of broken, but they still love me.