Keller Sun Valley Trip

I had been stressing about going to Sun Valley, Idaho for the Keller work Christmas party this year. First, what was the weather going to be like for driving on the Blue Mountains in Oregon AND near Sun Valley in Idaho in December? Then we weren't sure if we were going to take our kids out of school for a day and leave them with family in Nampa because all of the activities were happening on Friday, so we needed to head down on Thursday. The last worry was what to do with Milo again because our previous puppy sitters were unavailable. Well, we finally decided to leave the kids at home and ask Sister Gale to help keep an eye on the kids and make sure they get to school. She was happy to help! I was glad we didn't have to make them miss a day of school. Curtis also ordered two cameras to mount inside our house so that we could see the kids and what they were doing. We put one upstairs in the front room facing the hallway and same downstairs in the family room. The cameras can rotate to see the whole area and we can also talk to the kids via the camera! I will say it's easier to talk on the phone though. I loved that we could check in on them even when they didn't know it.

The weather forecast looked good as far as we could tell but we decided we weren't going to take any chances and drove the truck instead of the van or his work car. I had put out another plea on the ward Facebook page looking for a new puppy sitter because the kids would be gone on Friday during the day and it's a lot of responsibility to watch him that long anyway. Thankfully, we found someone. It was a woman who is living with her parents and has two dogs of her own and has a big property. We had her and her mother come meet Milo the Sunday before so it would be an easier transition for Milo on Thursday. We decided to leave during the day on Thursday while the kids were in school. 

To be honest, I really didn't want to go to the party in the first place. I felt like they could have done it anywhere. I was about ready to just send Curtis to the party and I would stay with the kids. Fortunately, we were both able to go and it turned out to be a great time and the weather was great for traveling! I seriously had prayed that the weather would be good and God answered my prayers! 

Anyway, the first night we drove to Boise and stayed overnight in a hotel. Stillman and Michelle also stayed in a hotel right next to ours. We accidentally booked the wrong hotel otherwise we would have been in the same one. All of us got there early enough to get a quick bite to eat and go to the theater to see the new Hunger Games movie. I'm not sure if I liked it or not but I guess it was good. After the movie, we drove around Boise a little bit to see some lights, including the city tree by the capitol. Then we went back to the hotel and went to bed.

We got up early Friday morning to make sure the kids had gotten up on time to get ready for school. Garrett got up on his own, but Jack needed help waking up. Our cameras also have a siren on them that we can activate. It's meant for thieves, but we tried to use it for waking up the kids. It didn't work as well as we hoped since they were further away in their bedrooms with doors closed. Garrett finally woke up Jack. Then when they were ready, Sister Gale picked them up and drove them to school. She came back to help get the girls ready for school and on to the bus. She was so sweet and came over the night before and helped cook dinner and help Alice with her homework, even though I told Garrett they could fend for themselves and that he needed to help Alice. He was very thankful for her help.

Curtis and I went to breakfast at Elmer's and then hit the road to drive to Sun Valley. it's about a 2 1/2-3-hour drive. We got there a little early, so we went to look at a thrift store that we heard celebrities had donated to sometimes. It was just a regular thrift store, nothing special. We then headed over to check into our hotel in Sun Valley. They had a group meeting to get things started in an auditorium. There were a bunch of big balls that we were bouncing all over the place to have some fun before starting. They also threw out some stress balls where a few of them had numbers on them to get a prize. None of the balls we caught had numbers on them.

After the group meeting, we split up to do different activities that we had previously signed up for. Our first activity was ice skating. Then we did a paint and sip. We happened to be in the same group as Stillman, Michelle, Brigitte and Jeremy but not Melissa and Nathan.

Here is our abstract giraffe art from the paint and sip.

When we were done with our activities, we had some free time back in our room. Curtis took a nap while I took a shower. The ice skating had ruined my hair, so I needed to freshen it up before the nice dinner that evening. But there was a social hour right before the dinner, with appetizers. While we waited for dinner, they talked about the last 30 years that Keller had been established and handed out prizes for trivia answered correctly. They also had a hat contest with 4 different categories. Curtis had last minute decided to wear his elf shirt and green Santa hat (elf hat). We stuffed it with my scarf so it would stand up straight. He won 3rd place in the festive category. We were surprised but I think it was his shirt that won it, not the hat. Melissa wore a hat and won 3rd place in a different category. I can't remember the name of the category though. Basically, for the fancy hats. 

Dinner was good and then they brought out some dessert. I don't even know what flavor or what these desserts were called, but I got a picture of them and they were pretty good. After dessert, they had some comedians do a show for us that involved the audience. Nathan and Stillman were both volunteered to go up for different things. It was fun and they did a good show. After they were done with everything, some people visited while others went to their rooms or elsewhere. I rounded up our group for a "family" picture.

Curtis got one and I got the other, so we cut both in half to share.

The "family" picture. Me, Melissa and Stillman are siblings. Then Michelle and her sister. All of the husbands work for Keller.

Had to get a picture in front of the beautful tree of just us.

I went back to the room to get ready for bed while Curtis stayed to visit awhile. He usually doesn't socialize this much and he said it took a lot out of him but I think he enjoyed it. After he came back, we settled into bed and turned on a movie, "Elf". We didn't get very far into the movie before both of us were exhausted and turned it off. We woke up around 8am the next morning and packed up to head home. We had talked about going to breakfast with some people but decided we just wanted to get on the road since we were driving straight home today. The sun was shining but it was a freezing 6 degrees that morning! We just grabbed some fast food at McDonalds for breakfast. I got some pretty shots on the way home.

Driving through town.

Not a lot of snow but beautiful.

We drove right down into those clouds.