Mangum Memories: January 2012

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Negative 33 Below

This week we got our first taste of winter. With wind chill the temperature reached 33 degrees below zero. Surprisingly, it didn't seem that cold- I guess we are turning into true Minnesotans :) One nice thing about the cold winters here is that people just don't sit around inside and wait for spring to come, they plan festivals and outdoor activities. Fun but cold! We attended two of these outdoor activities in the past two weeks and are still alive to tell the tale.

Our first adventure was Red Bull Crashed Ice in St. Paul. The website describes it as ice hockey, downhill skating and boardercross; to me it looked like men on ice skates racing down a bobsled track. Check it out for yourself.

The course began at St. Paul's cathedral and wound around and down a hill to the location where we were standing. There were also small hills throughout the course that made the run more of a challenge. This is definitely something we will check out again next year!

You can check out the website to see more races at

http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Red-Bull-Crashed-Ice/001242785030624

Our second winter adventure took place yesterday at Lake Nokomis at the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships. The entire lake froze over and they created several mini ice rinks on the lake. Cody and I bundled up with our omni heat pants, coats, gloves, hats, and boots and we were still freezing. We were so glad that there were warming tents with heaters to help us thaw. We stayed for a total of an hour and visited the warming tent three times! We saw a grand total of one half of a hockey game before the cold wind forced us to leave.

"The way hockey was meant to be played" (out in the elements)

Apparently we are not tough enough...

One of the games we watched

These outdoor activities helped me to appreciate our hot chocolate/ apple cider maker!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Christmas Break- Christmas

My Christmas break this year was short but sweet. I worked up until Dec. 23 and was back to work on Jan. 2 so we were only able to spend a week in Utah, but what a week it was! We flew out on Dec. 24 and landed in Utah just in time for the annual Christmas Eve festivities at my aunt Jackie's house. We had a yummy dinner and then we all congregated downstairs for family talents, a reenactment of the Nativity, and the White Elephant. The Lambs sang a short rendition of Alvin and the Chipmunks 'Christmas Don't Be Late'- which I hope was quickly forgotten :) I then helped the younger kids in the family to find costumes for the Nativity. Cody was chosen as Joseph and Mary was not happy about this decision and scowled at him during the whole reading of the Nativity. My favorite part of our Christmas traditions, the White Elephant, was saved for last and it did not disappoint.

We woke up early Christmas morning and exchanged presents.

Our Traditional Christmas morning picture on the stairs. Dad is filling in for Melanie.

Christmas Tree in the Living Room

My favorite present to give- an authentic Ryan Michael Painter as a pirate bobblehead

Close up of the bobblehead

Cody and his loot including a new golf club- it wouldn't be Christmas without Cody getting something golf related :)

My new laptop! Now I don't have to steal Cody's or get angry at my old one :)

We were then able to drive to Spanish Fork to have breakfast with my Grandma Lamb. After breakfast we hurried back to Sandy for church. I loved the Christmas program, especially the music, it brought a wonderful spirit to the day.

Melly sent us a Christmas package that included a scrapbook of pictures from her mission, a version of Green Eggs and Ham that was all about the Book of Mormon, and a puzzle that we had to put together to reveal a message she wrote to us.

Putting the puzzle together

The finished product! We were then able to talk to Melly via Skype for 40 minutes. It was wonderful to be able to see and talk with her; our family was finally together for Christmas :)

Christmas Break- Anniversary

December 26 was our 4th anniversary. Cody made me eggs benedict for breakfast (my favorite) and gave me these beautiful flowers.

I had a little bit of a cold and couldn't smell, but I could smell these flowers and they made the whole house smell wonderful :)

We then stopped by some of the after Christmas sales, made some pottery at Color Me Mine, and went to Christophers Steak House for dinner.

Syrup dish and trivet from Color Me Mine

These past four years have been the happiest of my life and I am so grateful to have Cody as a husband. I am so glad that we have eternity to spend together!

December 26, 2007

Christmas Break- Snowmobiling and Taste Test

As my family gets older, we are getting more and more adventurous. We went jet skiing for the first time this summer and loved it. So we decided to go snowmobiling during our Utah vacation. It was not a white Christmas and there was no snow to be found in Sandy, but we went up near Strawberry and there was plenty of snow. We rented the snowmobiles and departed on a guided tour. We had a grand time and hope to make it back soon.

First in line in Cody, then Ryan, and then me

At the top of the mountain

After a while we pulled into this open area where we were able to do a little riding and exploring on our own. Ryan went for quite a ride here and ended up supermanning off his handlebars. I had the video camera in my lap, I only wish that I was filming :)

That night we began a new tradition- Taste Testing. (I stole this idea from my good friend Andrea- thanks for the fun idea!) We were each in charge of finding 2 food items that are available in 3 brands or flavors, etc. We then placed small samples of each food item in small cups. We went one by one and tried each of the 3 brands of each item and decided which one we liked the best and determined the winners.

Here are all of the samples ready to be tasted

Our winners were: Virgils Cream Soda, Black Forest Gummy Bears, Orange Powerade, Better'n Peanut Butter, Original Cream Cheese, Pink Lady Apples, Grandma Lamb's grape juice, and a tie between air popped popcorn with butter and Orvil's natural pepper popcorn.

Christmas Break- Catching Up

I was grateful that we were able to see a lot of my family during this trip. My cousin Nelson and his wife Robyn, my cousin Kellee and her husband Bryce and their twins Kambry and Myka, and my aunt Susan were able to come over for dinner one night. I was able to see all of the Jenkins, the Carters, and my Grandpa Jack and his wife Lynette on Christmas Eve. We were also able to see my Grandma Lamb on Christmas day. Two of my cousins, Stephanie and Kirstin, are pregnant and we had a baby shower for them over the break. My aunt Peggie and cousins Nicole and Hilary came for the shower and it was fun to catch up with them too!

After the baby shower we had an afternoon to rest; we had been going full speed ahead, which was good because we were able to see a lot of people and do lots of things! Cody was able to try out his new golf club, I figured out my new computer, and we both played with Molly.

Cody golfing in the park behind my parent's house

Molly "Devil Cat" Lamb- the only time to play with her is after she has had a nap and even then you are playing with fire

That evening we went to see 'A Christmas Carol' at the Desert Star Playhouse. I remember going to several plays there when I was younger. We would always order rootbeer floats and popcorn.

After the play, Cody and I watched a Kings game (only the parts where Jimmer was in) with our good friend Mark. We met Mark while Cody was at BYU and it was good to catch up with him and his family (Mark now lives in New York).

Christmas Break- Snowmen and Cupcakes

I've been in a crafty mood lately but Minnesota doesn't have quite the crafts that Utah does. So I knew that we needed to go to the Wood Connection while we were in Utah. We found cute snowmen, hearts, and owls to paint. We decided that the snowmen were the most relevant and I packed the rest away in my suitcase for later projects. I convinced Cody to paint with us and he ended up spending the most time on his snowman- to his credit his snowman was very intricate, he is more patient than I am.

Painting the snowmen

Finished product! I made the snowwoman with the snowflake pin and the snowman with the blue scarf, my mom made the snowwoman with the red scarf, and Cody made the snowman with the tuxedo

That night my friend Megan and her family and my friend Russ came over for dinner and to make cupcakes. This is a tradition that started a few years ago. We get together at Mama Hong's house (Megan's mom) and have dinner and then make holiday cupcakes. We have made Easter cupcakes, 4th of July cupcakes, Thanksgiving cupcakes, St. Patrick's Day cupcakes, and Valentine's cupcakes. This time we convened at my parents house and we made New Year's Cupcakes.