Due to some family conflicts, parties were moved around this year and ended up on the exact same weekend. The week leading up to the parties was absolutely crazy. A week and a few days before the van went kapoot. I was driving home from taking kids to school in the morning. I pulled up to a stop light and I was in front. The light turned green, I pushed the gas pedal and the car didn't go forward. Thankfully I was on a hill and able to roll through the light and somewhat into a safe area. Sarah was in the process of moving, but was down in Salt Lake to clean her apartment. That was a huge blessing. She was able to come get me and let us use her Durango for a tow. Brian headed home from work to help me get the van to the mechanics. After discovering we would have to pay our deductible to have it towed we decided to do it ourselves. YIKES! Brian borrowed a tow rope from his boss and we attempted to get it hooked to the van. We had never done anything like that before. At the very first light, I started to quickly and yanked the tow rope off leaving Brian stranded on a very busy road. I tried to flip around to help him. He started pushing the van off the road while stearing. Yeah, he's tough like that. While he was doing that, I van stopped. We assumed to help. Nope. Classic. A guy got out of the van, looked at us, took our tow rope out of the road and took off. Whaaat!? Who does that? After buying a new tow rope and discovering a few tricks of the trade we navigated towing a car through extremely busy roads in Salt Lake. It was so stressful. Add Gracie having to spend a few hours in the car while we did all this and ultimately screaming her lungs out for a good hour and you have a nightmare. It ended up being the transmission. Of all things. Two weeks before Christmas. Grrr. We opted to repair it to the tune of $3600. We didn't want a car payment when that would eliminate our ability to save for a down payment on a house. Anyways, I thought that was a fun story to record. Welllll, we were promised the car back by the latest on the Friday before these parties.That didn't happen. Guilt trips were given to the mechnics. Big guilt trips. After driving Brian to and from work everyday DURING rush hour I was done with the Mazda and done with one car. Unfortunately, we headed off in the Mazda with overnight stuff, portacrib, food assignments, gifts for not one but two parties, AND five people.
We all love the Droubay party. Wendell and Kathy always work hard to have something meaningful. The white elephant game is always a highlight. This year we brought "poo-puori".
We stayed in Brigham overnight so that we didn't have to travel that direction and back twice in one weekend. Gracie didn't do too bad in the portacrib which was a relief. After church in Brigham we headed up to Logan. This year's party was super fun. Charisse had some really fun games planned.
This picture cracks me up. I took one right before this one and said, "oops you closed your eyes Kallie." Somehow she only heard, "close your eyes Kallie". So, for my next picture she obediently closed her eyes. She must have thought I was crazy telling her to close her eyes for a picture.
All the boys, but McKay.
Sarah was attempting to the show the kids a dance game on the xbox kinect. Classic.
So glad my older kids have cousins that are close to their age!
This may be the last year for the Marchant Christmas party. Just a couple days ago Charisse and Kory got word that Kory got a promotion and they will be moving to Pocatello, Idaho. We are in the midst of trying to move to Gunnison. That puts us a good 5 1/2 hoursish away from each other. That makes it awfully hard to have a party. We'll see. Next, a little bit of our Christmas celebrations for the year.
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