Mark and Vicky Van Sickle

Thursday, February 23, 2012

President's Day Weekend & a wrecked truck

Mark and I headed to the Island Park cabin on Friday. My sister Pam's family arrived about an hour later. The cabin was only 32 degrees inside and it took overnight to warm up. On Saturday I got up at 5:30am and left to drive to Idaho Falls to attend an Island Park Scout Camp Staff meeting. It was our first staff meeting and it was a good one. The roads in the valley were dry. It started raining at Ashton and as I drove up the hill in Mark's beloved truck it started to snow like crazy. The truck began to slide, did a 360 and hit the snowbank on the opposite side of the road. The truck wasn't drivable. So I stood on the side of the road in the snowstorm with 4 police officers waiting for the tow truck. They loaded our truck on a flat bed truck and drove me and the truck to Majestic Auto Body in Idaho Falls. It was snowing there too by the time we arrived. My son-in-law, Shaun picked me up. I was cold and miserable, my body ached. It was after 6pm when I arrived back at my home. Meanwhile Mark and Pam's family spent the day at the cabin.

I didn't take very many pictures, it was a tramatic weekend for me. On Sunday I left town at 6am to drive back to Island Park to join my family. It was snowing, and I had to drive slow in my car. It took me over 2 hours to drive up to the cabin. The next few days we had fun playing games, riding the snowmobiles, and swimming at the pool at the Island Park Condiminums. We had so much fun, we decided to stay an extra day. We all left Tuesday afternoon to head back to our homes. Here it is the next Thursday, and we still don't have a bid on the repair work for the truck. It's a good thing our insurance company rented a 2012 4 wheel drive Ram pick up for Mark to drive. My body has still been aching, and I have a lot of bruises on my right leg.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

River walk with Uncle Charlie

I was 35 degrees and sunny, so we took a walk down by the river with Uncle Charlie on January 9th

2 weeks at the cabin

I've never stayed that long at the cabin. We did have a 2 day break when we came home for Evan's birthday party. Amber and I decided to buy a year family membership at the Island Park Village Clubhouse. We went swimming after our sledding on Wednesday the 4th. Samuel loved the Nemo swimming suit we borrowed for him. Just before we left, he stared at all the creatures on it and then took them off. Very funny.

This is the kiddie pool. Just perfect for the boys, they can touch the bottom.

Christmas 2011

Evan, Amber, Shaun, and the twins all arrived at 10:30am. We unwrapped gifts, the boy were happy to help everyone. Then Mark and I left at 4:30pm to spend two weeks at the cabin.

Christmas Eve 2011

Katie and Brennon came over today. Katie and I made some fudge and Christmas candies. We had a nice ham dinner. I had a wonderful and happy day! I bought a beautiful pointsettia from Town and Country Gardens (it was a choir fundraiser). They had so many beautiful pointsettias. However, I forgot to take a pictured of the one I bought.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

On ordinary Day

On ordinary Saturday Winter Day.
Mark spent most of the day at his USPSA pistol shoot. There were six stages and it lasted until 2pm.
At 1pm Evan, Amber, Shaun, and the twins and I went to the Olive Garden for lunch. We all enjoyed the soup and salad lunch and talked for an hour and a half. Just as we were getting ready to leave, Mark called and he came and joined us. We waited while he finished his soup and salad too.
Then Mark and I took Samson to the new dog park with Evan and his dog Wally. The winter weather was great-it was an ordinary sunny winter day. We stayed for a little over an hour.

Monday, December 5, 2011

My last week in Twin Falls

I drove back to Twin Falls early, early Tuesday morning on November 29th to babysit Nancy's little children for the last time. Nancy worked on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Victor flew in on Wednesday evening and began to load the U-haul Truck.

8am on Saturday, Nancy and Victor departed for Lafayette, Indiana.

Thanksgiving 2011

There were 8 adults for dinner: Newlyweds Katie and Brennon, Nancy, Evan, Amber and Shaun, Mark and I. I had the kids picnic table in the kitchen for the twins, Sam and Will, and Tommy. Whitney of course did not need a place to sit. I bought her Turkey baby food, but she hated it and acted like she was gagging. Nancy and Katie put up our christmas tree for us while I cooked dinner. Our christmas tree is beautiful and it was so nice to get it up and dinner was really good.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Visit to Smithfield

I went to Smithfield, Utah to visit my mom and sister.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Back in Twin Falls again

Nancy finally came to stay at my house. We arrived at my house at 11:30pm on November 11, 2011

We traveled back to Twin Falls late Monday night so Nancy could work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and I could take care of Tommy and Whitney.

Whenever Whitney got attention, Tommy wanted to be included too.

Tommy at his "wild" time of day - using up all his energy

Grandma and Tommy watching his favorite movie "Cars"

November 17, 2011

Visiting Betty and Dawn in Victoria

Mark and I arrived at Dawn's house (Uncle Charlie's sold his home to Dawn) at noon on November 5th. We flew home on November 11th.

We spent most of our time helping Betty with her finances. When Dawn and David moved in all her papers got thrown away by accident.

We drove to Goliad to Betty's sister's old home. She died 2 years ago and it sits just like it was when she died.

A Day with Robyn

On November 4th my son Ben drove me to the Seattle airport. I picked up my rental car and d rove to Robyn's home. I didn't arrive there until 3pm. We talked and visited, and she showed me her awesome garden. She works hard on her garden and it shows. Then David, Robyn, her friend and I went to dinner at a mexican restaurant. Then we went to the Houston Symphony. I really enjoyed it. Then we walked around downtown because David wanted to show us where his new office would be. Then we drove to Danny's eagle Project, strain. When we got back to the house Robyn and I stayed up until 310am am talking. The next morning I was late getting up and therefore late getting to the airport to pick up Mark.

Trip to Ben & Becky's House

I left Idaho Falls at 3:30am on October 27th. I left my car at Nancy's house and drove with VICTOR AND Nancy's to the Ben and Becky's home in Auburn, Washington.