On again, off again, on again trip to Boise

Blake was scheduled to work in Boise on Feb. 24th. Randy and Jared found that out and decided it would be fun to go a hockey game in Boise on Saturday, the 22nd.  Blake and I decided that we would go over on Saturday and just stay until Monday. The kids would drive over on Saturday and come home on Sunday morning. 

Well, on the 17th Blake received word that he would have to work on the 24th, so he and I decided we would not go at all.  The kids were just going as planned.

So, on Saturday morning at 7:30 I mentioned to Blake that the Firth Girls Basketball team that his niece Sharla Cook coaches would be playing in the state championship game in Boise later that afternoon. His immediate response was, "let's go."  He talked to Randy and Jared, told them we had changed our minds again and were going. We could all ride together in Red, he called the hotel and booked us a room, fixed breakfast, and we were all out the door by 9:02 am.

We got to the Idaho Center at about 1:00pm.  We sure did surprise Merralee and her family.

   Here we are at the game.  Merralee, Kimberlee, Brittany, Melanie and her boys, and Melinda and her family were all there to support Sharla and the Firth girls.  Bart was in his usual spot behind the camera filming the game.

I zoomed in so much that the pictures are a little fuzzy.  But, here is Sharla coaching her team in the championship game.

And....they are the Champions!  Congratulations Sharla! It was a good game, and so fun to be there!

After the game, we went to Cheesecake Factory to eat! Then we went and checked in the Hampton Inn, Downtown Boise.  We walked about 1 1/2 blocks to the Century Link Arena for the Hockey game. None of us had ever been to a hockey game before, we really didn't know what to expect or anything about hockey.  It was very interesting, kind of long, but interesting.

All ready to watch the Idaho Steelhead hockey team take on the Utah Grizzlies.

They ran the Zamboni before the game, and between each period.  Hockey is sure a physical game, they would smash each other into the walls and trip people with their sticks.  The Steelheads ended up losing in a shootout.  

Nikelle just couldn't sit still when they would play the music and say to get up and dance!

After the game, we walked back to the hotel. We left at 7:00 am on Sunday morning, and were home by about 10:45 so Randy, Courtney, Jared and I could fulfill our teaching assignments at church.  It was a fast, fun trip!

Dr. James Cabin - Island Park

Blake works with Dr. Michael James, a podiatrist in Idaho Falls.  He is a very good friend also.  He has been talking to Blake for a long time about inviting us to his cabin. We finally found a time that would work for all of us.  So on Friday, Feb. 7th, Blake, Randy, Courtney, Jared, Nikelle and I loaded up and headed for Island Park.  As it turned out, Dr. James was the only member of his family that could make it.  He was the perfect host, and we appreciate him letting us invade his beautiful cabin.  

We got there about 8 pm. He had it all lit up and ready for us. This is the view from upstairs looking down into the living room. It has seven bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. It is just beautiful.

These are the same windows with the blinds opened up on Saturday morning.  These windows over look the lake.

Beautiful site!

This is the wonderful kitchen. The top left picture was taken on Friday night just after our arrival.  Dr. James made us a delicious breakfast on Saturday morning, then he and Blake did the dishes.

Top left: the living room, top right: the entry way, bottom left: the landing at the top of the stairs, bottom right: the bathroom sink and tap.  I loved all the details and furnishings, it was all very amazing.

This is the outside of the cabin, facing the road.  I couldn't go to the lakeside and take a picture there.

After breakfast, the boys went and unloaded the snow machines and we were ready for some fun. It had snowed quite a bit during the night and during the week before we came.

Dr. James took us to an area that he goes all the time. There was so much powdery snow and no one had been on it yet. He said it is always packed down, but not this time. This is just one of the three times that Blake and I tipped over and got stuck! 

Courtney is trying to come and see if Blake and I are ok. Then me and Nikelle and Courtney are just resting in the snow while the boys dig the machine out.

Blake and I were not the only ones to get stuck, the powder was incredible. We rode around for awhile, then decided to go back to the cabin for some lunch. We were all pretty tired by then. The guys decided to go back out after lunch, but the girls stayed inside and basked in the wonder cabin.

Look at all that powder!

Looks like Dr. James is stuck again!

Thank you Dr. James for a very nice trip!

New Sinks

In January, Blake and I were in Lowes to pick up a new shower head. I mentioned to him that the tap in our bathroom sink seemed to be leaking and wondered if it was too hard to replace the tap. He said well, lets just replace the sink.  So, we bought the sink and and materials and headed for home.

 So Randy came over and the work began.  As you can see, the sink was a lovely yellow, so I wasn't too sad to see it go.  It was a little difficult to get it to drop out, but it finally came.

Now they could work on the the pipes underneath easier.

Now it's all in and looks so wonderful.  I love the new tap too! 

Well, after deciding that putting the new sink in wasn't so hard, we decided to replace the sinks in the main bathroom.  They had to order more sinks in that size and so Blake and Randy got them installed yesterday, Feb. 15th. They look wonderful too! Yay! No more green sinks!

Boise

Blake and I took another trip to Boise Sunday, Jan. 19th and came home on Monday. He had to provide the Anesthesia for Dr. Rodgers again. It's kind of a fast trip, but it's actually a nice little get away and change of pace.  We stay at the Country Inn and Suites in Meridian.  I take Blake to Dr. Rodgers office, then go back to the hotel for awhile, then go shopping! He got done about noon, so we ate a nice lunch and headed for home. It was really foggy/smoggy in Boise, even falling frost this morning.

There were a ton of Antelope right by the freeway just before we got to Mountain home.

Elk Refuge - Jackson, WY

Saturday, January 18th we went to Jackson to the Elk Refuge.  We were very amazed at the lack of snow in Jackson. Kind of scary that there's no snow.

Here we are on the wagon. It was a still a sleigh ride, but it was very rough. It was a bright sunny day with blue skies.  It was about 25 degrees, no wind, so that was nice.

We saw some bald eagles and a lot of elk.  The elk were not very active, probably because they don't have to work very hard to find their food. We drove around to see if we could see the big horned sheep, but they were too high to even get a picture.

Nikelle and Jared saying hello to Jack and Joe.

I think this is the 3rd year for Courtney, she says it is her favorite winter time activity.

Our view of the Wyoming side of the Tetons on the way home.

This is how Blake and Randy sleep on the way home.

Impromtu West Yellowstone Trip

We had planned to to go to Jackson on Jan. 11th, but the weather didn't look like it would be very good, it was supposed to snow and blow. Blake was working at Mountainview in Idaho Falls on Friday the 10th and thought he would be late getting done.  Randy came over and talked to me about maybe going to West Yellowstone instead of Jackson. He called his dad and Blake agreed to meet us at Jared's after he was done working. I got reservations at the Workdmark in West Yellowstone.  Randy and I put together a menu and got all the food packed up.  We met at Jared's house and left about 7pm.

Courtney and Nikelle took turns driving and being the passenger. It was snowing and blowing when they went out on the machines, but they said it was pretty good snow.  Looks like Blake biffed it! I guess Randy biffed it worse, but no one took a picture!

Here we are, eating our spaghetti dinner. Because it was an impromptu trip, I was spontaneous and booked the Presidential Suite.  It was very spacious and nice. There was one problem though, the hot water heater did not work! It would not even fill the nice jetted tub to the jets. That did not make us happy.

Watching a movie....at least some of us watched a movie!

We got up early Sunday morning and headed for home. We got home in time to go to church at 12:30.

New Year's Day 2014

To start the new year, we Skyped with Brian and his family for a long time. Then we went to Jared and Nikelle's for some lunch. Then we went bowling.

Of course Randy was working again so Nikelle, Courtney, Blake and Jared bowled. Taking pictures of bowing is kind of weird, there is no way to get anything but back shots.

2013 Recap

I have decided to do a recap of 2013. I always have a blog book printed at the end of each year, so this is a good place to keep track of all that's happened in our lives.

Comings & Goings

• Jan. 3 & 12 - Blake and Randy went snow machining to Island Park in below 0 weather.
• Jan. 19 - Blake and Randy went to Soda Springs to the Fishing Derby
• Feb. 2 - Blake, Randy and Courtney went to the Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole. Diana went to Smithfield to help clean out Grandpa Chambers house.
• Feb. 8,9 &10 - Blake, Diana, Randy and Courtney take the annual West Yellowstone Snow Machine trip.
• Feb. 22, 23 & 24 - Blake, Diana, Randy and Courtney - Bear Lake Snow Machine trip
• Mar. 1- 9 Diana went to Erie.
• Mar. 14-17 Blake, Diana, Randy and Courtney went to Bear Lake and then Woodruff for Dallin Leifson's farewell.
• Mar. 27-31 - Blake, Diana, Randy and Courtney went to Las Vegas for Spring Break.
• May 10-18 - Brian, Celia, Maden and Annie come during Brian's semester break.
• May 22-27 - Cindy came to be here when Jared came home.
• May 23 - Jared came home from his mission!
• May 31-June 2 - Blake & Diana went to Boise for a tennis tournament.
• Sometime in June - Blake, Jared and Courtney went 4wheeling in Swan Valley.
• July 4 - Blake, Diana, Randy and Courtney went to Island Park and float the Macks River.
• July 19 - Blake & Diana fly to Erie. Randy, Courtney & Jared start driving to Cindy's in Stevensville, MI. July 22 - Blake, Diana, Celia, Maden & Annie drive to Michigan to meet up with everyone there for the 1st ever Blake Purcell Family Reunion. July 25 - Everyone except Ken drive back to Erie. July 29 - Blake & Diana fly home.  Randy, Courtney & Jared arrive home on Aug. 1.
• Oct. 11-20 - Brian's family fly home for Jared's wedding.
• Oct. 11, 12 - We all go to Burley and Twin Falls for Jared & Nikelle's wedding.
• Oct. 17-20, Cindy, Ken & Sydney arrive for Jared & Nikelle's open house.
• Nov. 3,4 - Blake and Diana go to Boise for Anesthesia coverage.
• Nov. 20 - Diana rides with her parents and sister Lynne to Salt Lake for Travis Chambers wedding. Nov. 21-22 - Blake comes to Provo for the reception.
• Nov. 29-Dec 1 - Blake, Diana, Randy, Jared & Nikelle go to West Yellowstone to celebrate a late Thanksgiving.
• Dec. 21 Blake, Randy, Courtney, Jared and Nikelle go to Island Park to snow machine.

Family

• Cindy, Ken & Sydney - Bought a new, beautiful home in the same neighborhood. Sydney turned 12.
• Brian, Celia, Maden & Annie - Brian finished his 1st year of Anesthesia school. Maden turned 4, Annie 1.
• Randy & Courtney - Randy graduated with an LPN, started working at State Hospital South. Courtney is still teaching at Riverside Elementary in Blackfoot. They moved to Blackfoot in August.
• Jared - returned home from his mission to St. Louis, MO in May. Started working for his uncle Terry Purcell, Electrical Support Services. Married Nikelle Bair on Oct. 12. Lives in Idaho Falls, in the revolving Purcell house.

Church

• Blake released as High Priest Group leader, called to serve as the Ward Membership Clerk
• Diana teaches 4 year olds in Primary.

Health & Fitness

• Blake plays tennis on several leagues. He was asked to captain a couple of them, doesn't want to do that again.
• Diana goes to Curves 4-5 times each week. Joined Weight Watchers on line and lost 30 pounds!

Career & Job

• Blake and Mike Adams are still providing Anesthesia coverage for Parkway Surgical Center and Dr. Michael James. The case load has dropped this year quite a lot, so when an opportunity for he and Mike to cover about 3 days each week at Mountainview Hospital in Idaho Falls came up, they decided they couldn't pass it up. Their schedule will change, and they will work a lot more hours, so hopefully the income increases too.
• Diana still does the books for the Anesthesia companies.

December 2013

Stocking Holders
I had this bright idea to make some new stockings for the newcomers to our family.  They are just plain red and green, but they have everyone's name on them.  Well, I got the stockings done, but that created another problem....no way to hang them all! So I looked on Pinterest and found some hangers I liked. The next problem was that the mantle on the fireplace is very narrow. I came up with a way to make them, I think they turned out really nice!

I love that you can change the picture every year.

 

The next problem...they didn't stay put when the stockings were hung on them! So, Blake and Randy devised a wire and some hooks and kind of tied them to the fireplace. 

 

I love it!

 

Randy and Blake got the tree up and almost all decorated for me. They did a pretty great job!

 

Maden turned 4 on December 5th! He was lucky enough to celebrate with his Grandpa and Grandma Clift.  He made sure to tell me when we skyped a few days later that he was 4 now!

 

We got a real good snow storm early in the month. Then, it turned cold with temps near 0 and below, some days the highs stayed in the single digits.

 

Jared finally got to go snow machining on December 21st! Oh, so did Blake, Randy, Courtney and Nikelle. They went up to Island Park, it had snowed the day before and the snow was perfect. They ate lunch at Meadow Creek.

 

Jared, Nikelle, Blake and I went to the Live Nativity in Blackfoot on Sunday, December 22nd. Nikelle had never been to one before and loved it.  Luckily the weather had warmed up some, so we didn't even freeze to death.

 

I found this cute picture of Maden (on the left) when he was a year old in an elf suit that Cindy gave him.  Celia put the suit on Annie, so now we have a Maden Elf and an Annie Elf.

 

 

We decided to change things up a bit for Christmas this year.  Randy was scheduled to work on Christmas Day, so we decided to open presents and have dinner on Christmas Eve. We started the day out with the traditional monkey bread, then opened presents. During the day, we skyped with Brian's family for a little while. After dinner, Jared and Nikelle left for Rupert.  Christmas morning was really quiet and different.  Blake and I got to watch Maden, Brian, Celia and Annie open their presents thanks to Skype! I love Skype!We went up to Idaho Falls to Blake's mothers and had dinner with her and his sister Natillie and their family.  In the afternoon, Blake decided to enlist Natillie and Mark's help and take Helen's tree down. It was very nice to have help! We played some games and then came home. It was different, but that doesn't matter, the important thing is to celebrate the birth of our Savior!

 







Here we are on Christmas Eve with all our presents.  Blake did some shopping for himself and put them under the tree with tags saying they were from Maden and Annie! He thought he was pretty funny!

 

 



November 2013

Blake mowed up the leaves many times in November.

 

Blake and I took a trip to Boise so he could provide Anesthesia for Dr. Rodgers. We stayed in a hotel really close to Krispy Kreme, we had to stop in when the hot light was on!

 

We bought a new snow machine.  The neighbor's cat had to come check it out.

 

Blake, Randy and Jared went hunting a couple of times, they shot their guns, but didn't hit anything.

 

November is when you put the snow tires on Red.

 

Funny story.....Courtney had a sliver, so Blake removed it for her. Nikelle had to have a TB test, so Randy did that for her. This all happened simultaneously. Guess our dining room turned into a clinic.

 

 Blake and I stopped in Draper at Scheels on our way home from my nephew Travis' wedding. Scheels is sort of like Cabela's, it was a fun place.

 

 

Thanksgiving was a little different this year.  Randy had to work, Courtney went on a trip with some friends, Jared and Nikelle went to Rupert, so Blake and I had Thanksgiving dinner with my parents and brother and his family. It was a fun day. Then on Friday, Blake, Randy, Jared, Nikelle and I loaded up and drove to West Yellowstone.  Jared was disappointed that there was not enough snow to take the snow machines! We stayed until Sunday.  On Saturday, we drove up to Big Sky, MT.  There really was not much snow anywhere yet. When we got back, Randy and Jared shot some guns at a machine gun/rifle range. They thought that was pretty fun. We had our own Thanksgiving dinner in the condo at the resort.

 



Jared and Randy shooting.

 

Some of the higher ski runs were open at Big Sky.

 

Randy got tired.