Winter in the Valley

We have taken many pictures but only some of them are accessible for me to use today.

Time at the Temple with Grampa! We have managed to attend a Temple 8 times in the course of the year! It was very exciting to beat our goal of 4 times a year knowing we were moving closer. Vancouver, Winter Quarters, Spokane and Cardston were our destination locations. (Carter was the fortunate one to go to Winter Quarters in Nebraska before returning home from a 2 year mission.)

Brave Ammon defends the Kings flock. This is Alick's birthday cake from our amazing Home Teacher, Bro Smith. Later we celebrated his special day with banana splits and a fun time with a couple of new friends. 5 of the Neilsons have birthdays in this season of the year. Hyrum received an Angel food cake with Strawberries and whip cream!

The missionary returns!! It was a bit of crazy day travelling home. Upon arrival in Vancouver it was discovered Castlegar's flight was cancelled. We had attempted to change the flights before heading home but it never occured. Around here the nearest airport is known as cancelgar. Low cloud and a runway nestled near the mountain makes it an unsafe place to land on a cloudy winter day. Searching for alternate options was challenging, Cranbrook was full, Kelowna wasn't until Midnight so Penticton was the final destination for Carter's air journey. Carter patiently waited for about an hour for us to arrive and we then travelled 5 hours to Silverton, our new home in the Slocan Valley. 

New adventures in the Kootenays. The guys got together and went to the firing range over by Salmo. There were a variety of guns to try out. Alick likes a .22.

We discovered we prefer snowshoeing and snowboarding to skis and ice fishing. There have been a few snowshoe adventures and winter hikes and a lot of snowboarding going on here over the last nearly 5 months. We even went in the evening in the dark. Summit Lake has night skiing on Fridays for $9. The guys piled in the van and headed down the road 20 minutes to the little local ski hill. 

Neilson family Christmas snow activity fun followed by a fire in the yard with Hot Cider and a lot of laughs! This is the best part of moving closer. We only had to travel an hour and 15 minutes to be with all these amazing happy family members. 

Our little tree for Christmas in the Kootenays!