Thanksgiving

Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving, filled with much thanks and giving.

This was mine:
A table set for 16 people:
(I love having a ton of family over, I couldn't imagine it with just a few people, the holiday wouldn't be the same)



We filled the table up and enjoyed some delicious food!

And then a good game of Catch Phrase:



Which is a fun and exciting game with my family.

Adventure

So it's way expensive to fly out of Idaho Falls, which is the airport that is only 20 minutes away, so this time I decided to fly out of Salt Lake City, which is 3 1/2 hours away. Fortunately for me, my good friend (well now we're good friends cause we just spent 8 hours in a car together) Christian lives in Utah and graciously took me to the airport and back.

The real adventure was on the way back to Rexburg, it was snowing like crazy in Salt Lake, but the roads weren't too bad so we got going after eating at In n Out. We hit Brigham City, a "city" an hour outside of SLC, and hit some pretty bad roads; there were cars on the side of the road every which way.

Well, after enjoying our refilled sodas we both realized we needed to go to the bathroom, but thought we could hold it for a little longer, so we passed a rest stop. But then Christian saw a friend on the side of the road and wanted to see if he could help, turns out they had help and were good getting out, but we were there for a good 15 minutes. Then we realized we REALLY had to go to the bathroom. I looked on my phone and see the nearest town was Honeyville, like 3 miles away. However, we had to go super slow, because of the roads so it took us another 15 minutes to even find the exit (all along the way we were talking about going in the bushes on the side of the road and I was not a big fan of that idea so I was determined to find a gas station).

We finally get off at the exit and there is no gas station near by. So we drive about 2.6 miles and see a Church steeple and know it has to be open. We get to the Church and see that there's a gas station right next to it, but we went for the Church, because it would be 10 times cleaner. I ran up to the first door and it's locked. I tried the second door and it's open, phew. Of course the Men's room was easy to find, but I had to asked where the Women's was.

After relieving ourselves and getting some strange looks, we were back on the road. However, most of the time we were going about 17 under the speed limit. A drive that would normally take about 3 1/2 hours, took almost 5. However, I'm grateful to have made it back to Rexburg safely and enjoy an adventure with Christian along the way.

Sorry I didn't document anything about our drive, I was too focused on finding a bathroom and getting home safely.

Colorado

I'm back in Colorado and doing all my favorite things that you can't do in Rexburg:
0. See my puppy
1. Eat real Mexican food
2. Shop at Cherry Creek
3. Go to the Nuggets game
4. See movies in IMAX
5. Eat at Noodles and Company
6. Shop at Costco
7. Get my teeth cleaned (well maybe this isn't a favorite thing, but I can't do that in Rexburg)
8. Eat at Qdoba

Still on Tap:
Go to another Nuggets game, see more movies, hang with old friends, be with family, and eat a delicious Thanksgiving dinner while also being with family.

I love you too Colorado
(I love seeing the news that it is snowing, no wait blizzarding, in Idaho. So glad I'm here in the sun.)

What?....Hope?

So I decided to look online to see what the weather is going to be like in Madrid while I am there from January to February. This is what I found:

"Whoever said that Madrid is nine months of winter and three months of hell almost got it right. Madrid winters can feel downright mountainously chilly because of the elevation and summers can feel just like, well, hell. Winter has minimum averages of 2ºC or 35ºF, while summer has maximum averages of 29ºC or 84ºF. Accordingly, spring and fall are the most pleasant times to be in Madrid, when the weather is temperate and ranges from cool to warm."

What? I'm not looking for cold here, I was planning to get away from it. Well hopefully they would look at a Rexburg winter as something ten times worse than "mountainously chilly."

I looked somewhere else and I think I found hope: Average minimum temperature in Madrid in January, February, and March are 32, 34, and 37. Average maximum temperature in the same months are 50, 52, and 61.

Ok...I can do that.

Tunnel

Right now I'm in a tunnel, in the sense that everything is due this week.




I've got a lesson to plan and teach on Wednesday, a math test on Thursday, a math work compilation due on Friday, and a 10 page paper due on Friday.

But like any tunnel there is a light at the end of it: this one is bright because I get to go HOME. I'm blessed to have a week break to spend time with my family and relax while giving thanks.

T minus 4 days.