Ogden Family Christmas Party

Ryan & Rhett's families got to the cabin late Friday morning.  The plan was to go ice skating in town then come back to the cabin and let the kids play in the snow but it was sub zero temperatures that day and wasn't going to warm up all that much and the thought of having to snowmobile everyone down to the cars was a little overwhelming so we opted to just play in the snow for a while.  Luckily grandma has kept all her snow stuff over the years so she had plenty of stuff to outfit everyone so they weren't freezing too bad.  The boys were so excited to get outside that they were out and gone before I could get a pic of them.  Mia let me take one of her though.

She looks warm enough :)

Mia had been dying to make a snow angel so that was the first thing she wanted to do,  It turned out pretty good,

Can you see the angel in all the shadows???

They started out making a sled hill off the little hill by the driveway but the bigger kids eventually got tired of it and braved the HUGE hill down the road.  I didn't get any pics of that but I hear my boys both went down it.  Halen is a little more cautious so he had to be tricked into going down and didn't want to go again. :)  I don't blame him.  That hill scares me to drive down it let alone sled down.  But those who went down had fun sledding down and riding the 4 wheeler back up to do it all again.

Halen making his way on the little slope

Mia loved the sled

Look at that grin :)

Alex was more daring and went face first

Alex & Mia going together

When we got the kids ready to go outside, we thought they'd be out there maybe an hour or so but 3+ hours later, they started to one by one decide they were frozen enough to come get warm.  I don't think it got over 10 degrees that day so I'm sure they were freezing.  We got them some hot chocolate and a lunch of soup and cheese sandwiches to help warm them up.  We just hung out inside the rest of the afternoon and visited and let the kids play.  Aunt LeIla came around 4:00 and grandpa went down on the snowmobile to get her.  The 4 wheelers had made a lot of ruts in the snow so he ended up tipping the snowmobile over on his way back up the hill with her and she fell off.  Luckily she landed in a soft snowbank.  It could have been a lot worse for her since she's 83 but she said she was just a little sore the next day is all. :(

Misty and her family got there just before we ate dinner.  We had some yummy food and visited for a while before the kids couldn't take it anymore and wanted to open their presents.  We did a cousin gift exchange so that was fun to see what everyone got.  Our kids were extremely happy with what they got.  Grandma & grandpa Ogden and LeIla passed out all their gifts too.

Halen opening his globe maze

Alex got a Spot It game

Mia wanted a cash register from Santa too but didn't get it.  Good thing grandma came through. :)

Once the wrapping paper stopped flying, grandma had the kids put on a little music recital.  Mia sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  I took video of her but forgot to take a picture. :(  She did awesome though.  

Alex had just started lessons but did awesome on his song

Halen chose a little harder song so he was nervous but he did amazing on it

Grandma led us in Christmas songs on the accordion & piano

Grandpa wanted to show us how he was doing learning the accordion too

All the Ogden cousins

We all hung out a little while longer before LeIla and Rhett's family left to go back home.  I'm sure it was a pretty cold snowmobile ride getting everyone back down to their cars.  Sunday morning was a bit chaotic trying to get everyone shuttled down to the cars in time for church too.  We knew there was no way we'd make their 9:00 church time so we decided to try for 11:00.  That meant starting snowmobiling down about 10:30.  Our family went first and saved seats for everyone else who eventually all made it during the opening song.  Since it wasn't our ward, we only stayed for Sacrament meeting then started the snowmobile shuttling back up to the cabin.  We put all the kids in the sled and I was on the back of MacNiel on the way up the steep hill when we hit the same rut that tipped LeIla over and guess what???  We tipped over too.  I'm sure I didn't fall very gracefully since I was in a dress but oh well.  The kids were laughing when I looked at them so it must have seemed pretty funny.  At least the snow was soft. :)  Grandpa was sure cussing the 4 wheelers though.

We had a quick lunch then hurried and pack everything back up to trek back down to the cars.  Randy & I walked in and out most of the time and put the kids and bags on the snowmobile so we definitely got our workout in. :)

This is how the kids rode up and down the hill behind the snowmobile

The cabin in beautiful and it's a super fun atmosphere once you're there, but it's a lot of work in the winter to snowmobile everything in and out.  We try to pack light, but with winter clothes and Christmas presents, it's hard to do.  But we had a good time being with the family.  We miss having Ryan's family closer...Florida is just too far,