What's That Job?

Okay, I would love to know. What is the job called when you dress the astronauts before they go into space? You know the scene in Apollo 13--they're snapping on all the gear. They're pulling things tight. They're tugging as hard as they can to make sure items are as secure as they can be. They're suctioning on  helmets and there are all kinds of popping, snapping, beeping noises as it all happens. Yeah, well, I am now convinced that any parent who has ever dressed a child under the age of 5 to go out and play in the snow officially qualifies to do that job. And if you have to dress TWO of them, well, you get to be manager or something. It. Is. Exhausting!

We had a couple of good snows over the past few weeks which the kiddos were WAY excited about. But my oh my, the getting dressed to go out in it was an adventure all its own. However, once they were outside they had a blast. Jasper and I stayed inside while Daddy took the older two out to play. (We watched from the windows!) Once they were all dressed, it looked something like the picture above (don't let those adorable smiles fool you--there was enough drama and trauma to go around while we fitted boots and tried to cram 3-year-old fingers into his sister's old gloves--yes, those are gloves UNDER the mitten flap--double trouble) . . .  And I find it HILARIOUS that you can only see about 4 inches of Levi under all that gear! LOL!

Anyway, they made it outside, and once they did, the fun began! I will post more pictures of snow play in another post so you can see the snowmen that resulted from another excursion, but I wanted to show the scenery in this post because I have some family members who haven't been to visit us since we moved to this new place last year, and the view is amazing. Here's a shot that shows the mountains we see out our front door:

And I just had to post this picture of Gillian because I think she looks like she's growing up so much! It actually got warm while they were out and they had to start removing layers (easier to take them off than put them on!). And this shot also shows the town as we see it out our front door. Yes. That's the entire town. The whole thing. What's that? You blinked? Oh, sorry you missed it . . . 

It's definitely small town out here but I am loving that. I love that the lady at the water company always provides me with a new story to tell after I call her to pay our bill each month. One time she "put me on hold" while helping another customer (and by "on hold" I mean she laid the phone down on her desk so I heard everything going on in the office) and then forgot about me for a good 8 or 10 minutes. It was pretty funny. I love that people bring their pets to the local Walmart (and by pets I mean a baby squirrel carried around in their arms through the store). I love that there's no trash pick up (true story) and you just drive it to the dump every few days. (Brad doesn't love that so much.) I love it even more that when we went there the first time, they showed us where the spot was for trash, where we could put our metal, and where we could dump our couches. Yes, they have a designated spot at the dump for couches. I really do love this small town. No sarcasm there, I really do!

So I hope this gives you a glimpse into our little spot out here. I'm hoping for some spring weather soon, but I think I will have to wait a little while longer . . .