The Hammonds were kind enough to let me stay for Christmas this year, and I was glad that I didn’t have to go a month without seeing Julia. We drove there on Friday Dec 20 and partied until the 1st. Julia had four siblings in town for Christmas: Connor, Dylan, Tessa, and Pippa.
We went skiing twice over the break. I’ve only ever been skiing once when I was 13~14, so they signed me up for a ski lesson. There were six other people in the lesson and they could hardly stand up in skis. After 30 mins I realized the instructor was going to be helping the super beginners the whole time, so I decided to teach myself. After and hour or two and a dozen wipeouts, I was following the Hammonds on all the routes they were skiing.
We also played lots of pickleball, ultimate frisbee, and soccer with Julia’s neighbors. We managed to find a few hours here and there when it wasn’t raining to go on walks. They have a few fruit trees at their house, so we pruned them. I was surprised at how much the trees there grow in a single year.
On the evening of the first, me and Julia drove to her grandparents house in Portland and stayed the night. They have a very nice home. Then the next morning, we went to the Portland temple to do sealings. While kneeling at the alter during the 3rd or 4th proxy sealing, I started to get light headed and my legs began to tingle. After the ordinance I asked the sealer if I could sit down for a moment because I knew I was about to pass out. Although I was sure I’d be fine, the sealer sat me down in the hall and called up the temple security 😂🤦♂️. Me and Julia chuckled in the hall while we waited for the EMT to arrive. When he did arrive, he was surprised that I wasn’t an old person. He asked me a couple questions and took my blood pressure for fun, then assured me I was as healthy as an ox. By that time, I wasn’t feeling dizzy anymore, so we went back to do more sealings.
After Oregon, we went to Uncle Mike’s cabin with all the cousins and had a blast. We stayed Friday night and had lots of delicious food. We had tenderloin, shrimp, and scallops for dinner, then pancakes and eggs the next morning. Going to Burgdorf hot springs was my favorite part
Snowmobiling to the cabin and the hot springs: