Jack In The Box & Swimming on Christmas WHaT??

It is nice being home for Christmas but it also leaves you wanting to hang out with others too. We usually head down to Utah on Christmas Day to spend some time with my family. This was the plan for this year too, we did have a later start than normal due to our late night and late rising. We also heard that the I-84 to Utah may be closed, no one knew for sure. We kept checking the weather and at times it was open and at other times it was closed. We thought we would just leave and hopefully be able to get through. It was sunny here and the roads were clear, and the roads were great through Mountain Home and then to Twin Falls. Once we got past Twin our luck changed. The storm was there the roads were really slick and there were signs saying that the 84 was definitely closed. We didn't want to turn around the kids were getting excited to see grandma and getting sick of being in the car it took us quite awhile to get to Burley from Twin. Ryan has family in Burley but the roads were awful it would have taken at least another hour or two to get to Oakely where his Dad lives, and his sister's family had been sick, plus we had just stayed there and I am sure she had just recovered from having us all trash her place. We decided to check out the availability at the new Fairfield Inn in Burley, it is made by Marriott, quite the claim to fame in Burley. They did have some rooms when got there, but they got more full has the night went on. They gave us a really great rate so we decided to stay. We ran over to Julie's to get swimming suits and then headed back to get Christmas dinner at Jack in the Box, yeah seriously Jack in the Box. It was the only thing open and we were just dang happy that it was. We were starving. While it is not normally my first choice in the food area, it tasted fabulous. It was SO SO incredibly cold that night Ryan and I got brain freezes just unloading the car, I didn't have gloves on and my hands were seriously chapped and red in like 2 minutes. Ryan said he hadn't felt it that cold in his whole time growing up there. Once we finally thawed out the kids went swimming, played in the hot tub, played the plug in video games that we brought and watched Disney Channel all night. They were so happy! The continental breakfast was awesome, I was able to hit the treadmill, the road was still closed so I thought why not, it really ended up being a lot of fun and worth the money to stay. A lady coming from Utah went through before the road was officially closed and said it was absolutely horrible, it took them 5 hours to travel a regular 1 1/2 hour trip, so we made a good decision in staying. The 84 stayed closed for a few more days but they did open the 86 heading to Pocatello so we were able to go that way. The road was slick and slow but we did finally make it to my parents house 24 hours after we left home. Christmas memories to always remember!!

Chicken Terakiyi Bowl is pretty tasty

Christmas dinner clean up was a breeze

Swimming and hot tubing was so much fun

Kids just relaxing watching Hannah Montana and Zack and Cody, a luxury I don't always let them indulge in. Look at those smiles :)