Frozen New Years Eve

Dad received an unexpected gift this year that decided to arrive the day after Christmas...

...a kidney stone...

Yep.

Who knew it would cause SO much pain that we'd end up at the hospital, but thankfully we were only there a few hours. They gave him a lot of fluids and he ended up feeling much better by the end of the night. In fact, he was feeling perfectly fine when it was time to drive up to Cascade for New Years Eve.

Looks like we have some snow waiting up there for us!

However, we received another unexpected surprise when we got there...

Is that... ICE?

Yep.

We had no idea that a wind storm knocked out the power to our trailer a few weeks ago, tripping the breaker to the furnace and shutting down all the heat. We got the furnace running again and heated up the oven in the kitchen to start thawing our frozen pipes, but the damage was done. The filter casing to the well pump was shattered, so we weren't able to turn on the water. 

We had a decision to make. 

Do we turn around and drive all the way back home? 

Or do we stick it out and use our "luggable loo" to get us through the night until morning?

The kids voted to stay. 

So we played games, watched movies, ate snacks, stuck our faces in the snow at midnight, and peed and pooped in a bucket.

...It was a night to remember...

If dad can pass a kidney stone... 

...and make it through an entire year without video games to complete his 2025 resolution... 

...he can pretty much get through anything at this point...

Bring it on, 2026!