Family,Thanksgiving Break, Fuzzies, Hot Chocolate, and SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope you're ready, 'cause this is gonna be a doosey of a post. =P

Hello and greetings to the world of my blog which has been sadly neglected for around a month. :(

I'll start out this post post with a little account of something that happened about a week and a half ago. It was a Wednesday afternoon just after lunch (we had one of my favorite meals, hobo dinners) I had changed into my blue jeans and then, thinking about seeing if I could find someone to go on a walk with me to explore the fresh dusting of snow that covered the ground, I pulled my boots from the corner of my closet where they had been stuffed in August when i first arrived here at school. I pulled them out of the plastic bag that wrapped them (I think it was a Smart and Final bag) and though briefly about how Daddy had asked Kevin to oil them and put them in a bag for me before we left home. I thought that Kev was the last person to touch these boots (yes my mind is quite silly and sentimental sometimes (I know you all can attest to that =P)). Just then I heard a knoch at my door as I sat on the floor about to pull on my boots. It was Bekah, our RA. She asked "Sarah, is your family coming?" I shook my head and said "no" as if "that's silly, why would you ask?" she continued: "Well, I think their outside" Thinking back on it, I've never had any reason to doubt her honesty and I know that she would never joke or tease about anything like that, but to be perfectly honest, I did not believe her. Then Christine burst in, along with someone else, I can't rememebr who and said" Sarah, your family's here!" in an incredulous and excited tone. I think that was when my brain finally statrted to warm up. I quickly scrambled to find shoes, and I pulled on my blue plaid flats over my socks, thinking to myself that the boots would take way to long to tie. I honestly didn't know what to think. I came out of the second push door to the dorm and quickly scanned the parking lot. To my amazement and joy I found two very familiar figures standing amdist a small cirlce of people on the far side of the parking lot. I do not know how fast i ran, but Mr. Shively later said he looked and saw me in a "flat out run" across campus. I know I alsmost tripped right at the start, but managed to keep my footing. Daddy and Kevin had driven all the way from California in the big old excursion. WHen I reached them and hugged them, I still could not wrap my brain around the fact that they were truly standing there beside me.. I had mentally prepared myself for another thirty days or so, and I think it was temporary overload on my brain cells :P I realized my legs were shaking, and I'm usually not overly emotional, but it took some effort to keep from crying. It was one of the best gifts anyone could have given me. It made me so happy to wake up each morning and suddenly remember and think to myself "My family is here!"

Turns out quite a few people on campus knew they were coming, INCLUDING my roommate. Really there were so many clues I should have picked up on. I even talked to Mom for over forty minutes that morning and not once did she give any hints at all, that Daddy and Kev were anywhere but California. But never did I dream that they would come and visit me.

That day Kev and I took a walk downtown amidst the snow flurries. I got a call from Rach who thought we were quite insane to be out in such cold weather. And while we were out, we were almost run over by my dear roommate. The sweet thing.

Anyway, last Sunday Andrew and Christiana and I hiked up Battle Mountain wher I got this shot, so you can get a little bit of an idea of how campus is laid out. (by the way you can click on the photos and it will make them bigger for you in case you didn't know)
Here is a funky picture (sometimes my camera does weird glitchy things) but I thought it was kinda cool anyway, so here it is:

Here's a picture ofh your excursion covered with snow Mom. Wonder if this was the first time this particular car experienced snow? :)

more pics of snow around campus



Our really cool teacher Mr Shively went and got donuts for the freshman class, so we had a special "freshmen " table during break time, and all the Juniors and Seniors looked on with envy :P

=P

The only photographic documentation I have that Daddy and Kevin were actually here. :( Perhaps Kevins first time snow shoveling?

Pretty red bushes outide the dining hall (with SNOW!!! ) :)

Isn't the snow prettyful?? :D

My boots! (and snow) :)

So yes, People here at school are quite entertained by me being entertained by the snow.

Justin: I'm guessing you don't get to see snow very often

Me: Ummm... no. Why do you say that?

Justin: Judging by how many pictures you're taking...

yes I do get a little camera happy :)

Oh and then the first night it REALLY snoowed, I was outside walking across and Stephen happened to be out there as well. I stopped outside the admin before going in and scooped up some snow, he proceeded to go in and then locked the door. I pulled on the door, and some of the snow that had melted from the warmth of my hand caused my hand to stick slightly. I looked up at him with maybe a little amazeent as the classic image of the kid sticking his tongue to a lampost flashed through my head. I briefly thought of trying it, but I quickly put that thought far from my head (Just kidding I din't really think think about trying it. I'm not that stupid. =P although saome might beg to differ) =P Stephen had a good laugh. He opened the door, and I made threatening gestures with the snowball I still clutched in my hhand and he hitailed it downstairs with me not far behind. He retreated to the music rooms and I went back upstaris where Rach was playing piano. Then I went outside and made and even better snowball. I opened the door just as Stephen happened to be coming back upstairs, he spun and quickly made his way back down the stairs. This time I didn't follow far and sort of gave up. After a few minutes I headed back outside, and caught a glimpse of a shadow off to the the side. Stephen. He ran and hid behind a tree. He ran, threw a snowball, missed and I got him with mine. Got him good. :)

Ahhh.... Sweet victory. :)

some grass outside the window

Something that makes me happy :)

So here you can sort of see how the bells are set up. The music is in these really cool binders that fold and prop themselves up. Specially made for handbells actually.

And here are my bells: D#/Eb, E, F, and F#/Gb

Also pictures are my gloves. The picture would not be pretty if Mrs. Charles caught any of us handling the bells without gloves. :P

Justin and John statrted playing before anyone else got there. I've been assigned to get pictures of all things musical, so I grabbed my camera and started clicking away. :D

Here they are with the mallets

little bells...

I got kicked out, so I took advantage of it and guess what?? Took more pictures :D

Andrew, with bells in his face, James, Christine, Bekah, and Isaac

Andrew, James, Bekah, and John on the far side are the ones visible in this photo

Mrs. Charles

Patrice, Bethany, and... the evil bell stealer. Yes, those are my bells he stole. When the bell stealer desides to steal your bells you have to go up front where a long pointy stick with a wooden knob on the end is thrust into your trembling hands, and you must then wave your arms about in an attempt to keep a a pattern of sorts and valiantly attempt to keep your place in the music. If not you keep directing and pray you find your place before the end at which point in time you must perform a satisfactory "cut-off."

Phil, Bekah, and Justin are the visible faces, oh an the back of Isaac's head...

everyone

Peter

Bekah, Isaac, and Phil looking very concentrated :P

Christine :)

Andrew

Ha, so funny story here: This is on the way to Rapid to drop off Christine at the airport and then on to Interior for Valerie and I. Val's defroster wasn't working to well and so whatever condensation we had was freezing to the inside of the window. So Christine was scraping the inside of the window on the door and I would wipe off the ice on the inside of the windshield as we drove. After we got through Rapid it wasn't so bad. But it was quite funny :P

Coming up on the first of the badlands...

prettyness...

Badlands covered with snow, which Val says is a rare sight...

Welcome to Interior...

Here's a pic of the Kruse's church. Apparently it used to be a bar, but they bought it, and it looks really nice inside now. There is tile on the floors and it looks really clean, and very much like a church on the inside. Most of the attendee's are Kruse's. :)

badlands...

I like this pic

on a little boardwalk to go see "doors and windows"

view from doors and windows

Val :)

It was sooooo cold that day!! we walked down that short boardwalk and then ran back to the car and that was all the adventurous hiking we did

Isn't it beautiful?

FUZZIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! with horns!!!!!!!!!! :D

The White River that runs by the Kruse's place... this is going over a bridge still a little ways away from their place

Icicles hanging off the roof of the barn

A fave pic of mine I think :)

antlerless fuzzies!!!! :D

these are the calves they have in a huge pen near the house that they just weaned a few weeks ago

Val and their milk cow, Sweet Spot, simply a range cow that is friendly enough to allow them to milk her

Val :)

more fuzzies...

feeding the kitties...

Mr. Kruse cleaning out the feed bins because the goats made a mess

and Val trying to corner her goats, she chased them in so many circles inside that huge enclosure...

I was guarding the gate, otherwise I would have gone and helped her

Latte

Val, still after her goats :P

and still...

see them in the trough?

here is how he fed the calves, I think it was chopped up hay and something else maybe??

Thanksgiving was a lovely affair at a beautiful, huge, and lovely house atop a hill. I somehow did not manage to get pictures of the inside though...

The ride there was somewhat interesting. Val, Miranda and I were squished in the back seat while Matt, Paul, and Ryan were in the front seat of Val's car. We started out on the dirt road and Matt took some of the turns a little fast but I figured it was his home territory and he felt comfortable with it and knew what he was doing. Then as we were heading down the highway I overheard the boys talking about how fast Val's car would go, so I glanced at the speedometer and was mildy suprised to find the needle on 100 mph... and still climbing. I looked to the side of the car and sure enough the grasses along the side of the road was whizzing past at a quite alarming rate. My first thought was "I've never gone this fast in a car before" and then, "that wouldn't be so cool if we suddenly spun off the road or hit something" Val wasn't very happy, but I think it was more for my sake than anything. But as you can see I'm still alive and well :) One thing about the Val's brothers, you see the real side of them. There is no facade whatsoever and they are not shy. At all. =P

Anyway, back to Thanksgiving. There was an Island in the middle of the kitchen that everyone lined up around (around forty people) There was lots of good food there, and to make a guess, knowing the Kruse's, I would say that a very low percentage (if any at all) of the meat present was storebought. :P

Homemade donuts!

donut holes

Aren't they pretty?

This is actually at the house where we spent Thanksgiving. I realized later I didn't actually get any pictures inside or outside of the house, bu it was a huge and beautiful house!

view from the veranda

For you Mom :)

The guys up on top of the hill with their guns...

Kruse's with guns is not an unusual sight whatsoever, it seems second nature for them to be toting them around the house :)

A huge, fluffy, very friendly dog belonging to Val's aunt and uncle

See how big his paws are? a lot of the Kruse's cats have extra toes!

Val feeding the mob of hungry cats...

the chicken/turkey/guinea house

Latte (or Lala as Val calls her) :)

he race is on...

Val's naughty goats, Daffodil and Nans

badlands...

this was a neat drive...

This place was called the Pinnacles, it's a little more than halfway to Wall.

:)

in the snow? really? :P

you can't really tell, but the little dots down between the trees are buffalo

This has a bit of a story behind it...

As we walked back to the car while at the Pinnacles, we saw a little creature run really fast away from us towards the car. Val ran ran after it and was trying to get it away from her car, thinking it was a thoroughly disgusting creature. I went over and it was just sitting behind the tire on the passenger side. It was so odd looking so I took a couple of pictures. Then I tried to shoo it away from the car so Val wouldn't back over it, but it only ran further away from us underneath the car. We got it and backed out, and sure enough, she hit the poor little fuzzie.

So when we got home that night we showed the pictures to Val's dad to see if he knew what it could be. He thought maybe a mole or a field mouse, but we looked up pictures and nothing matched quite right. The closest thing we found was a vole, or.......................................... the rare bog lemming.........!!! So we gave Val a hard time about killing an endangered creature, possible the last one for a while :P

and then we progressed on to Wall

this is apparently where it got it's start...

for real!

store front... it's quite the place...the traveler's chapel inside