The Chubby Challenge

Right now, I'm in AZ and Clint is in UT. Guess what he did yesterday? He took on The Chubby Challenge at some diner in AF with his brother. It's 1 pound of burger plus 5 pieces of texas toast/burger fixin's and 1 pound of fries. The burger is piled so high, they had to use a knife to keep it standing. Clint totally failed but Kade ate the entire thing with time to spare! They have 15 minutes to eat everything and Kade had the entire burger down in 6 minutes leaving 9 minutes to take his time to eat his fries. Crazy!! The Marines teach that boy to do some craaaazy things!

Pictures are before, during, and after from Chad's cell phone. Get this.. they went out for ice cream after!!

Before.

During.

After.

Christmas Eve

Our first Christmas Eve after we were married, Clint and I had a midnight snack craving but everything was closed - except Denny's! We decided to make it a yearly tradition.. aaaand that lasted only 2 years. :) I have a picture from 2006 but can't find it and 2007 we went with Becky & Ryan and little 1 month old Grace! Then, last year, we were in Phoenix and we were just too tired and I was a little manic about going anywhere in public so we opted out. This year we decided to upgrade and change our tradition a little into a trip to IHOP and it was SOOOO YUMMMY. I had apple cream cheesy whip creamy crepes, eggs, bacon, hash browns, and sausage. (Can you believe I'm actually losing weight right now?? HA!) Clint and Kade had everything else on the menu. It was simple and yummy but the tradition is BACK. ON.

Also. My camera broke in San Diego at the beginning of December so now all my pictures are horrible. But it sorta does the job.

How I Get Ready in the Morning

Cookie Monster, Trix, Apple juice,

and a little entrapment. :)

Picking Up Kade

I'm finally getting around to this post. Holy smokes. At the beginning of December, we went to San Diego to pick up Kade! It was such a fun, fast, long (yes.. fast AND long), and PAINFUL trip.

Quick sum up.

Tuesday/Wednesday: Drove to San Diego, checked into MCRD, and got lost A LOT. Majorly stressful.

Thursday: Waited and got teased by Drill Instructors who kept our recruits from us all day while we walked from event after event until we FINALLY got to see Kade that afternoon. It was ridiculous how long that took... Spent all afternoon letting Kade show us around and tell us all

about his last 13 weeks. He's so grown up now and has totally mellowed out. Our little brother has grown up!

Friday: The actual graduation! It's amazing how much pride you feel for America when you attend one of these. The plan was to leave at noon that day but Kade had to buy new clothes since he had none and then spent a few hours getting lost trying to find the Pizza Hut that was 15 MINUTES AWAY. Ugh. Meanwhile, I was experiencing the most horrendous painful medical issue that is crazy embarrassing and I will definitely NOT be sharing the details on this little blog.. but I will openly tell you what happened if you asked me in person. I have class. :) HA!

Jayne, me, & Kelsey waiting to see Kade

Darbi chillin' to the max.

First time seeing Kade at the "motivational run". They just run by us before they run a little 5K while we scream and holler. Kade is right in the middle - I think 7 heads from the right. (6.5 heads from the left) :)

Aww! Brothers!

Kade & his friend Private Fuller

Merry Christmas!

Before I commence with the December blog catch-up,

We wanted to wish you and yours a late Merry Christmas! :)

I think I love Thanksgiving the best.

I think I love Thanksgiving the best.. More food, less stress in the money area, AND it's all about being thankful. Christmas is great but I think the message is easily lost in the excitement of all the lights and presents. Thanksgiving is sweet and simple.. and tasty! This year, we spent the

long weekend with my family in Idaho. Remember that ridiculous "Blizzard of 2010"?? We were

all set to leave Wednesday but with the ominous threats from the news about this storm, we left

Tuesday and ended up getting stuck in it worse than if we had left Wednesday. We had fine weather until we crossed the border into Idaho. Then it was like a wall of fog and bam! Crappy roads. We had chains with us but didn't actually need them until we hit my Grandparents driveway. There was a 3 foot snow drift blocking our way and chains or not, we weren't getting through. I think 8 different cars stopped to try and help us, 2 were cops and we had to get pulled

back 2 different times. To top it off, Clint was in shorts AND it was -2 degrees NOT counting the wind chill! What a man. :)

Wednesday we headed up to a cabin in Island Park we rented for the weekend and surprise,

surprise, got stuck in that driveway too. The chains pulled through and we were fine. Then, we

drove back down to Sugar City for Thanksgiving with my Dad's side of the family.

OH funny story. We totally saw a Moose and her calf in the road on the way to the cabin except I was freaking out because Clint told me, like 20 minutes before, that even if you're in the car, a

moose will kill you! He said that if you hit one their antlers/bodies crash right through the windshield and instantly kill the passengers!! I was a maniac! I was stressing out so bad thinking that they were going to charge us! Even my hands were falling asleep. I'm such a baby..

Trip highlights:

- the "hazardous" drive to ID

- Getting stuck in the driveway - TWICE

- Darbi's first nosebleed from slamming her face into the ground from slipping on the super slick

cabin wood floors.

- Me forgetting my winter coat. Dumb, I know.

- Snowmobiles and snowshoeing

- Darbi mastered saying "Hi Gigi" (for grandma) and "Hi Paca" (for grandpa)

- Darbi playing in the snow for the first time

- Chili and cream of broccoli soup after being outside

- the stuffing at Thanksgiving dinner (I don't know who made it but it was AWESOME)

- Clint says "Watching my Patriots WALLOP the Lions"

- Grandpa's new big screen TV!

Picture overload.

The cabin.

Darbi makes this face all the time and it's my FAVORITE!! PURE excitement!!

Dad and his brothers after Thanksgiving dinner.

Darbi in the snow! First time ever!

Clint on the snowmobile!