Girls' Weekend

Micki, Laurie and Kelly

Kelly, Kaycee and Micki snowshoeing at the Palisades

Kelly and Laurie

Post-snowshoeing shopping in Thayne

Micki and Kaycee plowing snow in the driveway

Each year, my good friends Kelly, Micki and I take a girls' trip together. This year, we headed to snowy Wyoming...to a small town named Thayne, in the Star Valley, approximately 1 hour outside of Jackson. Micki's parents were gracious enough to open up their second home to us. The "cabin" (and I use that term loosely, and only call it a "cabin" because that is how they refer to it) was built by the Kopecky family on acres and acres of land overlooking the beautiful Star Valley. It is plush...3 stories, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a Viking range in the kitchen. We thoroughly enjoyed hanging out at the "cabin" at night, cooking dinner, sipping wine, chatting by the fireplace, watching movies and catching up. We snowshoed on Saturday during the one break in the weather we experienced the entire weekend. Other than the short break in the clouds on Saturday morning, it snowed nearly the entire time we were there. It was a fantastic getaway! Can't wait until next year's trip...

Small Town Saturday Night

So, you read about the girls' trip. You know that the three of us had a great time hanging out and catching up. You know that the weather was perfect for a winter getaway. Now, here's the down and dirty on our Saturday night festivities...the story behind the story, if you will.

Thayne, as a town of just over 300 people nestled in snowy Wyoming, unfortunately has a high rate of domestic violence. Apparently, there isn't much else to do during the winter than drink a bunch of alcohol and beat your pregnant wife. Kelly is pregnant, so we toyed with the idea of drinking a bunch and then helping her have an "accidental fall down the stairs." Sort of a "when in Rome..." That idea quickly lapsed...not that Micki and I couldn't muster the stamina to drink that much; we just weren't too keen on beating up our best friend. Go figure.

In the end, we opted for a pizza dinner. On the way to Tootsie's Pizza in downtown Thayne to order our pizza, I was riding in the backseat with Kaycee when all of the sudden, Micki screams "Oh no!" and Kelly yells back "Just hit it!" I have no idea what's happening...I look up...the car swerves...we're back in our snowy lane...we're all safe. That is, all of us except the skunk we hit with the car. Yes, we were SKUNKED! The term "skunked" can mean a lot of things...this time, however, it meant that the small animal's odiferous "perfume" permeated the inside of the car so badly that we were quite concerned that the skunk was actually stuck up under the wheel well. We turned off the heat. The smell was TERRIBLE when we got out of the car. We tried to visit the car wash, but it was closed for the winter because it was snowed in. None of us were the least bit interested in getting under the car to see if the skunk was stuck there.

So, since we had 20 minutes to kill before our pizza was ready, we decided to return to the scene of the crime to see if the skunk was in the road or stuck under the car. There was great anxiety in the car as we approached the spot. No one spoke. We all leaned a little closer to the windshield. Micki turned on the bright lights and shown them on the road. Much to our great relief, the skunk was indeed intact and in the road...and not lodged up under the wheel well. That did not, however, help with the smell. Despite our attempts to drive on the snowy shoulder to cut the smell, a piece of that skunk (or, more correctly, the skunk's smell) survived the entire ride back to Salt Lake City.

May the skunk rest in peace...and may Micki's new car once again have that "new car" smell...

RMH Celebrates 20 Years

The winner of the Extreme Cake Event

Decorated by Chef Vern (who also catered our wedding)

A little Ronald McDonald House

The People's Choice Winner

Ronald and a Friend

20 years ago, the Idaho Ronald McDonald House opened its doors in Boise to provide a home-away-from-home to the families of ill and critically injured children. Since that time, RMH has served thousands of families in Idaho, Nevada and Oregon. To celebrate this milestone anniversary, RMH kicked off the year with an Extreme Cake event. In Boise's version of "Iron Chef" meets "Ace of Cakes," six local pastry chefs had 1 hour to decorate and assemble a birthday cake for RMH. Here are some of the creations. If you want to learn more about RMH, or make a donation in honor of their 20th anniversary, please click on the following link: http://www.rmhidaho.org/.

Happy 94th Birthday, Poppy!

Poppy Bill

Shannon, Debbie, Lynn and Carol

Laurie, Poppy Bill and Mike

February 4th is Poppy Bill's 94th birthday. To celebrate, we traveled to Bremerton for pizza with Poppy, Uncle Don and his family, Uncle Bill, Uncle Lynn and his wife Carol. After a provolone and meatball pizza (a Maiers' tradition), we went back to Poppy's house for cake and ice cream. Happy birthday, Poppy...and many more!

Superbowl Sunday

While Hank spent most of the game pulling stuffing out of his toys, chewing on his tail, sleeping on the couch, and begging for food, his ears perked up when both of these commercials came on. He sat right up, and watched the TV. Therefore, we think these are Hank's favorite 2008 Superbowl ads:

http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&brand=foxsports&vid=bcf68201-9324-4d9c-9522-b632fde12c6e&from=Fox%20Sports&tab=s1201570818374

http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&brand=foxsports&vid=bf45f3cb-d9c5-415f-85c5-8caa233a7666&from=Fox%20Sports&tab=s1201570818374

On the Way Home from Costco...

The snow in Boise is apparently making everyone and everything a little nuts. This family of deer was eating tree bark in the City aboretum, less than a mile from our house, and literally a block from a 4-lane road. We had to stop and shoot them...with a camera, of course.

Lunch with My Cousins

The Group

Trevor and Amy

Aunt Jackie and Laurie

Sean, Amy, Trevor, McKenna, Laurie, Jackie

Today, we met my Aunt Jackie, my cousins Sean and Amy, and Amy's family for lunch. It was great to see them after so many years. Mike finally met them, as well. They are all doing very well, and the conversation was light and easy...kind of like we have lunch every month or so, and not like it had not been 10 years since we were all last together. I wish I had more photos of McKenna, but she was busy snapping photos of the rest of us!

Musings about Groundhog's Day

In Boise this winter, it truly feels like we're in the movie "Groundhogs Day." It keeps snowing and snowing. We go to bed, and we wake up to more snow. And, to add insult to injury, Phil (the official groundhog in Pennsylvania) saw his shadow this morning, so that means weeks and weeks more of winter.

Today would have also been Geoff's 34th birthday. We miss him and love him. It's been 10 years since we've had a cake or a party for him, but I know that we all wish him a very happy birthday each year in our own way.

Introducing the Newest Member of the Reynoldson Household...

The Snow Shovel. Although Snow Shovel has been around for many, many years (and, in fact, Snow Shovel was inherited from my Dad when he moved to sunny Phoenix and no longer need Snow Shovel), Snow Shovel typically spends the entire year relegated to the back of the garage...stuffed in a corner by the fishing poles, golf clubs and some random scraps of wood. Not this year, however! Snow Shovel proudly sits on the front porch, and gets a little exercise nearly every morning and every evening.