Oh the adventures of Christmas

One of the first things that happened when I got home was that it snowed for about two days straight.  Not the little flakes that barely cover the ground.  No, the big flakes that left more snow in one storm that I remember since I was about 9-years-old.  The school district called a snow day, so the kids had an extra day of vacation with us.  I only remember one other time when school was closed, and that was because it was too cold for the buses to start.  Then there was one day in college when we got 20 inches of snow overnight.  So, twice in my lifetime, and this is the third.  It was a momentous occasion.  Here's some pics:

Front yard

The tree in the front yard

My car and Herschel (who's 6'3")

Caroline on the deck in bare feet.  She always was a little weird.

The dog Scruffy had to jump out of the snow to get anywhere because when standing up, she barely was taller than the snow levels.

This probably isn't the best picture of her.

She was always a good fetcher...even in the snow.

We knocked the snow off trees, swung on the swings, which were lower than the snow level, made snow angels, and had a snowball fight.  It was excellent.  Strangely, it then rained for two days so most of the snow disappeared.  

Heather and I took our youngest brothers and sister horseback riding in the snow and mud.  It maybe was a bad day to do it because it was so darn wet, but they had fun.  

Heather and Andrew on Blaze

Elmina without a coat or gloves...wonder why she got cold.

Me and Elmina on April

I took my Wii home to that people could play it.  Dad even got in on it.  I don't think he's every played any kind of video game at all.

Dad and Henry

 The Clinger family Christmas Eve Party was a huge hit as always.  More people participated in the program which made it really nice, and the food is always killer!

Edith, Elmina, and Heather singing, "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"

Cordell and Joseph and cousin Ellie as Mary

Most of the kids that were in the Nativity

So you never quite know what will happen at the Clinger house on Christmas.  When I was about 8 or 9-years-old, we had three cows that needed assistance giving birth on Christmas morning (yes, I helped do that kind of stuff).  We had to help them for so long that when we got in the house it was time to go to Grandmas' houses.  We opened presents that night when we got home.  Life on the farm always kept things interesting.  We were opening presents this Christmas morning, and we hadn't got through one round of us, when Andrew starts screaming.  I look over, and he's got a bloody hand.  I laughed internally.  We got the bleeding stopped and then realized he needed stitches.  So, Mom, Dad, and Andrew drove the 30 minutes to the hospital, got stitched up and came back.  When we were taking them out to the car, we noticed a heifer that was out.  So, we proceeded to put her back in the corral.  But, just like when we were little, we didn't get officially dressed.  Edith and Herschel were out there in shorts.

Cordell and the heifer

Matt and Edith

Herschel--not even in boots!

For the three hours of Christmas/hospital interruption, we watched a movie and started a puzzle.  Thank goodness someone opened a movie in the first round! 

Elmina wanted to eat under the table.  I think she wanted to be close to all those unopened presents.

Heather, Cordell, Herschel, Melinda, and Edith

Heather and Caroline starting the puzzle

After Andrew got back, we opened presents and had a great afternoon just chilling at home. 

A couple days later the fog and the frost was so pretty I had to take a picture.

I decided I miss the cherry orchards

For the rest of my vacation, I saw lots of good friends, finished the puzzle, played games with the family, and it was great! 

Henry, Elmina, Andrew, Caroline, Matt, and Heather

Edith, Elmina, and Heather at lunch

Caroline, Mom, Edith, Elmina, Heather, and me.  Don't worry, it was a "weird" picture.

The finished turtle puzzle

Pilgrims and Indians

This is the first year I haven't been with my immediate family for Thanksgiving, but when I moved down here I knew that I would miss holidays.  I actually worked Wednesday night, slept for a few hours, and went to my cousin Annette's house and ate with her and her husband's family.  I love Thanksgiving food! 

We got our holiday schedule a while ago, and Mayra immediately began planning our Thanksgiving feast.  We each had a food assignment, and we were going to dress up like pilgrims and Indians (the Native American kind; I have to clarify because I do work with people from India).  I was so excited and asked if I got to be an Indian.  Mayra, said, "No.  You're too white."  I think it was the first time I was actually discriminated against because of my race.  It was all in good fun, and I don't feel the worse for it.  Upon arrival at work, Mayra had made us all hats of sorts, and the festivities began.

Back row: Jessica, Julie, Tyler, and me.  Front row: Angela, Mayra and Vickie

Pilgrims and Indians in cooperation

Feast!

Angela and Vickie

Mayra, Vickie, Courtney, Angela, me

I made a bonnet and Courtney had to try it out.

I was the transport nurse, meaning that I bring patients from the emergency room to our unit and then upstairs when we've done what we need to.  So, I got the privilege of hearing all sorts of comments about my hat.  My favorite was a doctor saying in a John Wayne-like way, "Howdy pilgrim."  Also, a lot of people looked at me like I was crazy and I'm sure they were thinking, "Why is that girl wearing a paper hat?  Isn't she supposed to be a professional?"  A few people said, "My kid made a hat just like that is preschool (or kindergarten)!"  I then made the bonnet and wore that, getting comments like, "The Puritans are here," and "That just looks like a nurse's hat." 

After the bonnet got way too hot to wear, I braided my hair and stuck a feather in it.  I went to the ER and a visitor asked me, in all sincerity, "Why do you have that in your hair?"  "Really?!?"  I thought to myself.  On previous occasions when I wear braids I get all sorts of comments like "Hey Pippi Longstocking," or "Hey Pocahontas."  My friend Rex calls them my "squaw braids."  So it was really weird, on Thanksgiving, for someone to not know I was an Indian.  After I told her it was Thanksgiving and that I was an Indian, she said, "Oh, that's so cute!"  Made me laugh all the way back to the unit. 

So, for being away from my family, I think I had a great Thanksgiving.  I'm grateful for the Fullers for letting me come over, and for some of the best people to work with that night!

Harry Potter!

Here we have (from left to right): Harry Potter (Dave) of course, a Quidditch player (Chase), Bellatrix Lestrange (Amie), Ron Weasley (Brian), and Nymphadora Tonks.  Yes, that's me on the right...betcha couldn't guess huh?  So many people didn't recognize me, and it was really kind of funny.  A purple wig, a fake nose, and about 25 times more eye make up than usual did the trick I think.  Hours before the movie started, I started getting ready.  It takes a lot of time to make yourself into someone else.  A big thanks to Amie for helping me with it all!

We went to dinner and then got in line.  We didn't have to wait outside, they let us in about 8:45 or so, and we were allowed to save seats!  It worked out well.  We hung out in the theater, took pictures and had mini duels.

Tonks and Bellatrix

Ron and Bellatrix

All of us

Pictures with random people in the audience

Bellatrix Lestrange

The movie was really great-and made better by comments from people I was with and the fact that we were all pretty tired at  two in the morning.  After the movie, there was an epic battle between Harry and Ron.  Although this has been recorded, I am not yet smart enough to make it work here.  Soon, people.  Soon.

Peralta Trail

On Saturday, seeing how it's a beautiful 75-80 degrees in the valley right now, my friend Lindsay and I decided to go hiking.  We went up in the Superstition Mountains, just east of Mesa, and hiked the Peralta trail.  Thanks to Linsday's fancy GPS watch, we know we went about 6 miles round trip: up over the saddle and down the next canyon a bit.  It was beautiful and we saw some cool stuff. 

Weaver's Needle

The absolute weirdest cactus I've seen yet.  Kind of looks like a one-legged elephant/3-humped camel with ginormous tusks.

It was steeper than anticipated, and by the end both of us were tired, but it was a good hike.  It's cool to see the difference in landscape between Utah and Arizona.  The rock formations were really neat and fun to climb through.

For my next post: watch for Harry Potter pics this week!

Camping with the Fam!

Every year, for my entire life, my dad's family has gone camping in Southeastern Utah for fall break.  We've spent a lot of time there for a couple of reasons: most of us like camping, and that is where my grandma's dad lived for a while running cattle.  So, we go visit Anasazi ruins and various sites, and each year we usually end up going somewhere we've never been--which is always an adventure on washed out dirt roads.  A shovel or three is always a must.  You never know when you're going to have to be the road crew.  I think we only had to fix one spot of the road so we could pass this year--and it might be a record. 

So, I drove up there from Mesa and my family came down from Genola.  I thought it was a long drive from Genola--no so!  It's 420 mils from Mesa, over the reservation, and by yourself, it gets kind of long.  I did get to see some cool stuff on the drive that I had never seen or had seen last when I was 8-years-old. 

I arrived in camp about 10:30 pm and the temperature change was a little hard to adjust to that night.  Mesa was 103 degrees when I left, and at camp it was 53 degrees and dropping quickly.  My parents arrived somewhere around midnight, and we set up tents in the dark. 

The next morning we ate breakfast and decided to go for a drive and a hike to a ruin called "Over Under."  Other than losing the vehicle behind us with all but one child under 12, it was pretty fun.  The hike wasn't too bad, but I realized that altitude is a bigger difference when you have to change 5500 feet in elevation instead of just 1500 feet. I was struggling that day a bit. 

Over Under ruin

Henry

Uncle Don and Aunt Adele hiking into the ruin

 

Melinda

 Daniel, Henry and Herschel (Uncle Don in background)

Spillway where water flows in the spring.  You can't see the drop very well but it's quite a doozy.

 Melinda hiking on the trail

 

That night we went back to camp, and some people went on another hike.  After dinner, sleep came early for everybody that night, and I slept much better--probably because we broke out the air mattress, but we also moved the tent from off the divot that prevented sleep the night before. 

Friday, we again went for a drive and hike to another ruin we'd never seen before.  This was called the Citadel.  I couldn't help thinking of Lord of the Rings, where Gandalf says to Pippin, "Go back to the citadel!"  The hike was a bit longer, but we started a lot earlier too.  On the hike we found pools of triclops, which are some funky water bug (I'm sure that someone is saying, "Ellen, we told you it was this kind of bug," but I don't remember what it was).

The triclops feeding upside down

 We hike out on a peninsula and when we reached the end, we could see the rock and the view from two forks of the canyon joining.

View of the ridge and rocks we're going to climb!

Elmina

Melinda and Mom

After figuring out how to get down the the level where we have to to get across the narrow rocks, we started hiking down.  It was worse getting there than coming back--for some reason it's always harder to go down than up. 

Mom

Yes, there's a 800 foot drop or so to the left

Henry: King of the rock

At this point, we hiked out the narrow rock, which was about 20 feet at the narrowest, and 40 feet at the most, with a sheer cliff on one side. 

Looking down into the gorge

Cordell and Herschel

Henry hiking up into the ruin

The last leg of the journey was kind of hairy--very steep, and a step too tall for most of us--especially those vertically challenged like me.  But, we made it, and ate lunch there.  Aunt Adele stood on the edge of the cliff and said, "You shall not pass," just like Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, and it was hilarious!

Henry and Cordell

Mom sitting on the rock like it was a horse--I believe she was saying "Yeehaw!" during this pic

Herschel and Andrew at the Citadel

Cordell, Mom, and Andrew stopped in almost the only shade on the peak

Andrew

Henry

After lunch, we climbed back down and up again to meet up with Dad and Melinda (who don't do heights so good), and Elmina, who is a little too sure of herself to hike on cliffs.  It was an awesome hike and the ruin was in extremely good condition. 

Herschel, Daniel, Mom, and Uncle Don

Herschel, Daniel, and Uncle Don

Cordell and Andrew

Cordell

 
After hiking back to the van, Dad took us on a drive that I will not willingly go on again unless I have about 5 more hours to drive a lot slower.  Several of us got car-sick.  The Dollhouse ruin was remarkable though.  

Elmina with one of the representatives of the absent.  A couple years ago we started pretending that an object was one of our missing siblings, and the tradition has stuck.  I think this was my brother-in-law Matt, but I'm not sure.

I wish this picture showed how really steep in was.

Herschel and Elmina

Herschel pretending to be an indian

Cordell, Elmina, and Henry

Those that hiked down to the ruin: Elmina, me, Herschel, Cordell, Melina, Henry, and Mom

Cordell, me, and Herschel.  After looking at this picture, Herschel and I both said something like, "how did that happen?"

Me, Cordell, and Elmina

Elmina hiking up the rocks

That night, after another long drive, we got back to camp and ate.  Mom or Melinda found marshmallows that were huge!  I ate two and that was more than enough.

The next day was the drive home: over the Moki Dugway, through Monument Valley, through Tuba City and Flagstaff, and back to Mesa.  Here are a few of the better pics:

Me, Henry, Dad, Andrew, Elmina, Mom, Cordell, Melinda, Herschel

The Bear's Ears

I've never seen a sign quite like this

The Moki Dugway

Comb Ridge

Monument Valley

Mountain north of Flagstaff