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| There was no snow, but we still had fun! |
Quite honestly, we are getting tired of cutting Christmas trees off the mountain. We love the tradition, the family time, four-wheelers, sledding, and food, but tromping cutting, and dealing with a mountain tree are kind of a pain. Sometimes it's hard to find a good one, and sometimes what looks good on the mountain isn't good when you get home. But, dutifully, we climbed the mountain and cut three trees this year-- 2 for us, and 1 for Nat's sister.
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| There was no snow, but we did find a pond frozen over for some ice skating! |
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| The boys were brave and walked all the way across. |
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| The boys are becoming big helpers with the trees. |
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| Dax hauled the trees for us! |
We had a great time, and it actually seemed like we found three pretty good trees pretty fast. We took a few dozen donuts and watched them get eaten up by family. Then Dad let Seth and Dax drive the four-wheelers (with him on the back). Dax went too fast which scared Dad, and Seth only drove off the road once when he got excited and accidentally grabbed the thumb accelerator too tightly.
Of course, after we drove off the mountain, we stopped for pizza and to see how the Ephraim Temple is coming along. It's supposed to open in the Spring of 2026.
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| Dax rode with Nate for a bit, too! |
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| The boys love riding the four wheelers. |
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| Dad and Seth had a lot of fun! |
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| The temple is coming along very well. |
That evening Glen dropped off the trees. Mom and Dad got the basement tree put in and it was beautiful. We got the lights on and it was already to decorate for Sunday. Then Dad stood up the large living room tree. It was so heavy on one side that it was impossible to get straight. It had a massive hole, and only about 1/4 of it was usable. Mom said, "Well, we'll put that in the corner and make the best of it." But Dad was having none of that. He knew that tree would never stand without being chained to the wall like a prisoner. So, he chopped the top 3 feet off and set it up in Seth's room. Then, we hopped in the van to go get a "real" real Christmas tree.
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| The basement tree was just right! |
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| The top of our tree that wouldn't work, which went to Seth's room. |
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| Seth decorated his tree very nicely. |
Our first stop was a big tree farm in Lehi. The cheapest 10 foot tree was over $300! There was no way we were buying one of those trees, though they were nice. Next we tried a small local farm in west Lehi, but the trees were $75 and not much nicer than the monstrosity we'd topped for Seth's room.
Finally, Dad said, "They had really nice trees at that little farm in Spanish Fork that invited us to visit. Let's go there." But they closed in 35 minutes, and the map said it was 32 minutes away. We called and they said they'd let us buy a tree that very night. Their trees were way more reasonably priced, even for the bigger ones, and they were by far the most beautiful. We looked at half a dozen that seemed amazing, and then Dad picked up an absolutely gorgeous tree. It was perfect on every side. Thick, dark green branches were exactly even. It was as if it had been created to be the tree for our house. We happily paid and got it tied on top of the van, and it was only 10 minutes after closing time.
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| They even helped us put the tree on the van! |
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| It really is a perfect tree. Everyone thinks it is fake! |
Dad easily got that tree up in the living room. Now he makes sure that it is plugged in every time he's in the house. He calls it the Livvy Dunne tree because it is so beautiful, (and also to annoy the boys). He even swore that he was going to buy a "real" real tree every year! I guess we'll see what happens next November!
Oh, and Seth loved having his own personal Christmas tree to fall asleep under each night!
