Dieciocho Week...

Meant no school for the kids!  It also meant a lot of R, R & R for Joe (Rest, Recovery and Relaxation), as well as a little bit of snow!!!

Kate was up first the day the flakes began to fall, and she got out there as fast as she could.  By the time Jake found all of his gear and put it on, things had died down pretty darn fast.  A little reassuring hug from big sis and a little hot chocolate went a long way to cheer up the spirits.

It also meant ANTS... AGAIN... What you see below, probably looks like a bunch of junk that just needs to be picked up and put away.  But in reality, it was a well orchestrated ant trap, complete with a Tiki statue for scaring purposes, that took hours to design.  For once and only once I thought the ants weren't so bad if they caused this kind of creativity and concentration!!  I was told not to touch the trap until all of the ants were gone.  The trap (and the baby powder that I poured every where) worked!! :)  I got to take it down the next day :)

 It also meant hours of catch up homework from our trip for Kate and some intense devotion dedicated to POTTY TRAINING the adorable one on the end with the Texas hoodie!!!  Wahoo!!!  

And what's Dieciocho week without a little celebrating?!!!  Joe was still down and out from his surgery, so the rest of us went to our ward party to celebrate Chile's birthday.  The sack races were a HUGE hit with the kids...

 and the adults!!

 And Kate was doing a darn good job hangin' with the locals as they did all sorts of tricks!!!

  A party isn't a party without a little BBQ

 and the traditional dancing and costumes.  

All in all?  Dieciocho was pretty mellow.   I think we left the house twice the entire week...

and I didn't mind it one bit. 

Happy Birthday, Chile!