Home Arcade

You know the long winter nights are starting to take their toll when we start up our own arcade.  Forget the cold car and icy parking lots when you can enjoy all the fun without having to step foot outside.  As a bonus, just setting up the games and prizes can easily make it an entire day's activity.  

We had picked up a fun light game while thrifting.  It was sporadic and unpredictable so we just made up our own rules.  No one really cared as long as they got tickets.

We had Wii cow racing, a bing bag toss, and horseshoes.  The favorite was easily the game that paid out the most tickets which happened to be horseshoes.  By default I became the ticket dispenser and there were frequent disputes.  So we paid out a lot of tickets.

Look at the smile tickets bring.

We raided the candy cupboard and people rummaged through their things to contribute to the prize store.  It may very well become a tradition.  

Meeting Time

I remember the first one of these meetings, 3 weeks after giving birth to Delsie!  Oh man, the insanity.  Here we are 3 years into this tradition.  It's an opportunity for Brent to give back to his customers and educate them in the process.

Of course, the kids are always excited to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's and have them come out and eat lunch with us.

An official welcome on the marquee "Welcome Progressive Crop Systems."

The timing is always a shot in the dark.  This year a lot of our customers were on tour in the Bahamas, so the turnout was a little off.  Nice consolation prize anyway.

Down by the lobby there is a claw game.  One of the workers gave Delsie this unicorn out of it.  After several quarters later, the other girls finally began to realize that the only way you get an animal out of it is to have one handed to you from an employee.

Drying Corn

Brent always has a project going on.  So even in the dead of winter, he couldn't keep still.  The high moisture corn market has always been a bit of a headache, trying to find willing buyers.  So Brent his best to eliminate this problem by getting a corn dryer.  After months of research and head scratching , the DeLux dryer finally arrived.

It was an exciting time here on the farm.

There was a cloud of steam hovering above it for a good part of the winter.

Hudson is always caught up in the excitement.

Watching it do it's thing.

It was set up temporarily over by the corrals.  The next installment of the project will be to erect grain bins and move the dryer permanently behind our house.

Like one of these many screen shots that filled up my desktop:

Partying With Grandma

Dad put plans into motion for us to meet in Logan to celebrate Mom's birthday.  The adults took in a session in the temple before the snow really started falling.  The kids enjoyed playing in the snow right at Chris and Deidra's house.

I enjoy playing in snow as much as the rest, so we started some forts.

We tried a game of capture the flag, but it fell apart as kids fell off the structure and were eliminated.

Snowshoeing got the kabosh when tired kids started into their whining.

After some naps in cars, it was off to the Smithfield Cemetery hill for some sledding.

Dalliance likes to fix hair and little girls are the perfect subjects.

We celebrated in style with a fancy cake from Lee's.  It was funny because we never had bought cakes growing up, so when we decided to get one the girl writing on the cake messed up.

Since Brent was in Minneapolis for trading school, we spent the night and headed home in the morning.  

We were surprised to come home and find 4 1/2" of snow on our front porch.

McGee is Three

I remember the birthday plans used to be a bit more extravagant.  Now they just kind of happen or evolve.  The one constant is Hard Times cinnamon rolls.  

This year Delsie got a baby.

She decided to go swimming.  We were only there for 45 minutes when we got kicked out for 'sanitary reasons.'  We decided to wait it out and keep swimming.  But the second time it happened, we just got out of dodge.

It came as no surprise that our birthday girl wanted to eat at McDonalds.  Try as some people might to persuade her, we ended up eating there.

The kids cashed in their attendance coupons to get fries and sundaes for everyone.

We combined a family party and get together at Tracy's on Sunday.  The girls had so much fun making the cake.  It was a group effort.

It turned out pretty good.  Not perfect by any means but they were much happier with the outcome and I didn't have to worry about it.

Since Delsie's the youngest Hillman grandchild, there's no shortage of older kids to dote over her.  Her absolute favorite is Sydney.  They were all so excited to watch her open gifts.  The best one was a butterfly that the Jensen's gave her.

All of the kids circled around and were mesmerized by it.

Hurt Hand

The day after Christmas, we got together with family for a sledding party at Pullin' Hill.  It wasn't that Brent was against it, he just made sure to remind us before hand that people are always getting hurt there.  I think he must have jinxed us.  

We had been sledding for quite awhile and were used to tired and crying kids, so when Hudson came crying we didn't know how serious to treat it.  We packed up and pawned kids off so we could run him up the emergency room.  After talking about it more, he thought it was just a sprain or popped blood vessel so we decided not to go.

But by Monday, we decided that we'd better rule out a break just to be sure.  And good thing we did because it was indeed broke.  The gals at the Firth clinic splinted him up and sent us home with instructions to see a specialist.  That was a joke, being the last week of the year between holidays we had to wait another week and a half before he could be seen.

So after killing time in the waiting room, the Dr. saw him.  He said it was a break that would correct itself after several months.  He offered us this brace that could help to alleviate some pain and straighten it out faster.  I was a sucker and got it, but he only wore it about a week before it irritated him.  Moral of the story- we might not head to a specialist first thing next time.

He did get out practicing the piano for a few days and then realized he could play, minus his pinky finger.