We had the funnest day Friday.  Katie had thought it would be fun to go chop our own tree down up in the mountains (We've done it a couple of times before and it really is a hoot!) so we decided to go for it.

The drive up through Evanston was a lot more enjoyable than the last time we came to get a tree. When we came a few years ago, it was a freezing cold day and the roads were snow packed and icy.  Kelley was driving his truck with some of the kids and I had the rest of the family in the Yukon.  Kelley's truck was sliding all over the place and I was too.  I thought for sure we were going to die.

Anyway, Friday was a beautiful, unseasonably warm day...the roads were clear until we got back into the  unplowed area closer to where you cut your tree.

 We were not the only ones who had this idea.  The road going back into Christmas meadows  was lined with cars.  We were sliding a bit and didn't know if we would be able to turn around farther in so decided to park the truck and walk in.

 It seriously was so warm tramping around in the snow, I had to take my coat and gloves off.

 Love this girl...can't stand the thought of her leaving next week.  I've enjoyed every minute of having her with us the past few months.

 It was just beautiful up there...so peaceful and still

 Candice was the first to find her tree....and she wanted to cut it down herself.  Ha ha!  She worked that saw like a champ!

 Then she drug it back to the truck!

 Ha ha they were hiding from me so I couldn't take their picture,,,nice try

We found a real nice one too and chopped it down.  It was pretty tall so we shortened it up a bit and then cut the branches off the bottom part to use for decorations for the ward party.

 When we had first pulled up, there was this car parked in front of us that looked like it was stuck in the snow.  It was an older man and his wife with some grandkids.  He mentioned that they didn't want to go in any farther either for fear of getting stuck, then went off to hunt a tree too. We got back to the truck about the same time they did and he was trying to pull out but he wasn't budging an inch.  Kelley and KC pushed from behind but it was really stuck.  So they tied a rope to the back of his car and to the front of the truck, then Kelley backed up and pulled him out.  We got up the road just a little way and saw another car stuck in the snow.   It was pretty funny, when KC and Kelley got out to help him, KC realized it was his math teacher up at the U!  This guy was really stuck bad but after about 20 minutes of pushing and pulling, they got him out too.