Life in a Northern Town: FAMILY LETTER 01.07.18

Dear Loved Ones,

Tonight is a first in family letter composition. I am writing in the car on my phone as we drive home from Utah. We just rounded Henry's Lake and crossed the Idaho-Montana border. The sun set was hot pink over the snowy lake and the continental divide, but we could only see stripes of it through the low snowy clouds. We left Sam's house after sacrament meeting this morning about 11am. We've made a few more stops than usual but we are getting there. Our last stop was the Maverick in Rexburg where we got San Pellegrinos and pickles and icees on our potty break. Now we are searching for a rest area again in the middle of nowhere. Good times.

We drove down to Utah Thursday night to attend Brandon Casper's marriage to Kylee Sayer (Brandon is the son of my late bff Erin, so he's pretty much a nephew) in the Timpanogos temple on Friday. Brandon returned from the CA Bakersfield Mission Nov. 15th and much like his dad, was ready for his next mission and companion 50 days later. Those two crazy kids got sealed on Friday and start school at BYU Monday. Ever onward, Brandon! ;) It was sweet to be in the temple together and know Erin was with us, rejoicing in her posterity. 'Big' Heidi was with Richard and me for most of the day and we really missed Erin, yet felt her very much with us all thru the day and night. Between the sealing and reception we went to her grave with Tarah and Eliza and their sweet step siblings Devon and Ariah. I am always in awe of the love we feel when we get together and I'm increasingly curious to understand the whole history and future and purpose of our relationship. I'm certain God arranged it and has great plans for us yet. I'm grateful our family got to participate in another special occasion with our beloved Caspers.♡

So rewinding to the beginning of the week, we enjoyed a very cozy, snowed-in New Year's Eve party at the home of the Saaris in Clyde Park. It was a sweet time with several families. We defrosted an eegees pina colada party pack we brought home from Tucson in June and shared the joy with our MT people...such a treat!! We all had to head home before the roads got too dangerous, so we kinda celebrated at 9pm and headed out. We rang in the new year at home with our kooky kids at 11 and a few of us again at midnight. We created a time capsule with little questionnaires we put into a jar. We will fill the jar with bits of memorabilia all year and then open it and enjoy the contents next new year's eve. I hope to make this a tradition and just save the jars, especially since I haven't scrapbooked in 10 years. Maybe this will be a good replacement (along with our family letter archives).

Monday was a lazy day of games, movies, stacking wood, and enjoying family. Rich went back to work Tuesday and the kids and I caught up on laundry, chores, scriptures, and organizing school stuff to go back to class on Wednesday. We went sledding in the afternoon and had fried chicken and watermelon for dinner and did HOMEWORK that night...booo! Everyone had a great day at school Wednesday, even though we woke up to the news of President Monson's passing♡. The Jones girls came over after school and helped Addie do chores and homework. I made taco salad for dinner then Rich and all the big kids went to scouts and Young Women. The little boys had a cozy bath and lavender foot rubs and they crashed at 6:48pm! I had a nice quiet night to get them packed for our Utah trip. I wanted to take Christmas down but I decided to leave it for tomorrow so I can do it in one fell swoop (alone ;)). Thursday I just cleaned up and got my own stuff packed and Rich came home from work at 1pm so we could leave. It took us a whole hour to sign 5 kids out of 4 schools, and we were on the road from 2:30-11pm. We stayed over with Petersens Thursday night and they kept the kids while Rich, Addie, and I spent Friday at the Casper wedding. It's always so fun staying there because our kids love each other so dang much and Jill and Drew are so chill and thoughtful. Jill and Drew came to the reception with us because WHO CAN RESIST A FAMILY BOOGIE SESH? It was fun to reminisce back to the time I was single and neighbors with Caspers when Tarah was a baby and Brandon and Brittany were 2 and Jill used to come over with Ally and I would go borrow Brandon and Brittany to play at my condo. Who knew I'd have my own baby just a year or so later!? And who knew the time would fly so fast! It seriously feels like maybe five years ago and now BRANDON IS A HUSBAND. Wut!?!?!

We stayed over at Jill's Friday night and slept in til 9! We were slow going cuz everyone in worn out and has a little cough, but we finally packed up and said goodbye to Petersens and had brunch at IKEA so we could pick up a few replacement dishes. As we were leaving, we ran into Angie and Jex (Rich's baby sis and her husband who live in Boise). They were in town to pick up Angie's kids from the airport after holidays with their dad in Tennessee...what are the odds?! That was super fun! We went to have late lunch and visit with mom and Mark. They made a beautiful gluten-free, super veggie lunch for us and had treats for all the kids.Papa played jenga with the boys while Nana and I took the girls to check out their new DI thrift store (brand New! So nice!). We visited Willy's fun family from 4-5 then drove to Tooele for dinner and a sleep over with our Layton cousins. Kristen made us amazing chili for dinner and kids rolled out their beds and watched Harry Potter til they crashed at 9pm. Sam and I chatted til 1:30am. He is my little Spirit animal, my touchstone. I'm grateful he makes time for me even though he probably had lots of bishopric responsibilities today and desperately needed a nap! We went to sacrament meeting with LAYTONS where many heart felt memories of President Monson were shared. We said goodbye to LAYTONS and headed home at 11am.

And now we are just about there! We love and miss you all and pray you all have a healthy, productive week!!!

LOVE,

Rich and Jamie and Family

"If you like Pina coladas and gettin caught in the rain..."
EEGEE's on NEW YEARS EVE in MONTANA!

Cool Girls' Table

Partyin' with Gio!

I'm sad I didn't shoot another selfie because our fine host, Russ Saari, is blurry!
Sean, Cassi and Evie Defendis (Gio goes with these two) and Teresa Saari
(Cassi's mom), with Gio, Russ, ann Heidi on the back row