Big Mark

Despite the fact that Rocky has had some mixed results when it comes to finding the perfect Christmas tree in the Utah forests, this year we trusted him to lead us to the promised land and he delivered.

The outing started with breaking Ricker out and then a trip to Reed's Drive-In for the donut sized onion rings.

Three cousins getting their saturated fat for the day.

The kids got their snow stoke on.

Cute mittens.

Sara loves these kind of outings, but in her head she builds them up to be a picture perfect event, where you walk 5o maybe 100 yards in the beautiful snow and then suddenly spot the perfect tree. She was a little surprised to start out repelling down a snowy slope, then bushwhacking through winter foliage and finally crossing a frigid stream, but she was tough and thoroughly enjoyed the whole outing.

After hunting for quite a while we finally found the perfect tree. Sara thought it was too big. It didn't fit in the camera lens but I was sure it would fit in our house.

(Have I mentioned lately that my wife is hot?)

Bringing the trees back across the stream.

Those are the two Smart brothers who are smart enough to work a chain saw. Roman and Beetle went to cut down trees last year and got the saw running but couldn't figure out how to turn the safety off. Eventually they decided to take the blade off and rub it back and forth on the trunk of the tree. It was like combining lumberjack technology with caveman intellect. You can probably guess that the trees they ended up with looked more like sticks and the chain saw was never operational again. I'd say you could classify it an epic fail.

Danny was a workhorse pulling the trees back to the car.

600 miles later the tree was perfectly placed in our front room. It literally had only a few inches to spare. We measured it at 13'6". I named it Big Mark, after my all time favorite Utah Jazz player.

There is Big Mark in all of his glory.

Oh wait a second, there is Big Mark in all of his glory. This is one of my favorite christmas presents. Already in worship position, he really adds to this nativity scene. Next year I am going to get him into the local Creche Festival.