The Last Days of Winter

As I bid winter its final adieu, I realized we did a lot of fun winter activities over the last month that didn't get blogged. So, as a final hurrah- here are our favorite wintertime memories from the month of April.

Amberlee & I took the babies for a day of snowshoeing. I am a novice snowshoe-er & was a little nervous- but it was really fun, and a great workout!




We took the kids up to snowbasin to watch their Papa Art compete in the Winter Xterra series. He did a great job- it looked insanely difficult.


The kids got a little bored watching the ski races, so we took them to do a little sledding. Their favorite!


This is Smurfy's first time on skis. As you can see by his attire, we didn't intend to take him skiing, but he was watching the other kids & wanted to try it so bad! It was pretty funny. All we had to put him in was a big sweatshirt & some borrowed snowpants, but he had a blast!

TRIP TO GRAND TARGHEE!!!!




These are some pictures from our trip to Targhee with our friends in the neighborhood. They do a spring skiing special that is such an amazing deal & the kids had a blast! We will definitely make it into a yearly tradition! It was such a fun little getaway.





So there you have it. The last of our winter fun! I'm a little sad to see it go.....actually, that's a lie. I am sooooo ready for SUMMER!!!!! Just a little more enduring the painfully long & unpredictable mountain Spring & it will be here! I wish you all a good spring & a hot, hot summer full of fun!

Easter!

TaGgeD!

Ok- so I'm responding to Amberlee's Tag......against my better judgement. The Tag was to write 10 honest things about your true self- or something like that. The problem is, I've been thinking about it for 3 days and I've only come up with 5 clever things. So, I had this great idea. I would make Seth come up with the other five, since he hasn't contributed a post for a long time. Pretty soon here, you're going to see the basic difference between men and women, and why men, for the most part, do not blog.

So, without further adieu, here's my five things:

1. I hate getting out of bed every morning to get the kiddo’s off to school. Each morning as I lay there, I contemplate briefly what would happen if I just didn’t- just this once. I mean, really, how bad is it to be late for Kindergarten & 1st grade, right? Only problem is, I think about it nearly EVERY day. “Just 10 more minutes….. they’ll still make the bus” “I don’t really have to do Kenna’s hair today- her yesterday ‘do will totally pass” “Maybe if I just send them out the door with toast & a baggie of cereal, they can eat on the bus.” Yes, people, I torture myself with these kinds of rationalizations EVERY day!
2. I watch entirely too much t.v. Here is a list of the t.v. shows that I must see on at least a weekly basis (some are bi-weekly or even daily. Gulp….) Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Scrubs, The Office, Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, The Biggest Loser, LOST, Oprah (that one’s every day!), Heroes, The Bachelor (when it’s the season- luckily we’re on break), and Desperate Housewives. When I have extra time, I also don’t mind catching an episode or two of Thirty Rock, Kath & Kim, Law & Order, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Friday Night Lights, Saturday Night Live, is this list looking pathetic yet? I must say, this could not be done without the magic of Tivo. I put the kids to bed , then Seth and I enjoy about four hours worth of television in a little over an hour and a half. I get my daily Oprah fix while folding laundry, running on the treadmill, or cooking dinner, so I’m not a complete couch potato! However, If I’m really being HONEST, I guess I’ll also have to count the daily episodes I can’t help but see of Dora, Diego, Wonder Pets, Max & Ruby, and a whole bunch of other cartoony-crap. The good news? I haven’t seen a commercial in 4 years. Yippee!
3. I want one more baby! I know, I have too many already- but something inside me just tells me there’s one more. Unfortunately, something inside my husband says “Run like hell!” if I even mention the topic. He is positively against the idea. Its sad :( I feel bad that Makenna will never have a little sister. But, then again, even if I did get pregnant, what are the chances I’d even get a girl? I’ll tell you what they are. THREE to ONE. Those are tough odds. So, for now, I’ll just dream about a baby & hope someday Seth will come around. Unfortunately, he only has about 5 months to get on board, because THIRTY is my deadline. Bummer.
4. I’m addicted to sales. Better than many people’s addictions, but still a problem, eh? It’s not so much sales, even, but CLEARANCE! Oh, how I live for a good clearance. Every so often at Old Navy, they’ll do their 50% off clearance sale and I swear, you’d think it was my birthday I get so excited. First the clothes are marked down to a really great clearance price, then, you get to take 50% off THAT! I walk out of there with clothes for the kids for a BUCK – no exaggeration. The problem is, I go so hog wild that I end up with $300 worth of $2-3 clothes, half of which I DON’T NEED and/or don’t end up using. I just think “Well, for 2 dollars, I must need 3 of them!” It’s the disease of my long-lost aunt Sylvia (who isn’t really my aunt at all, but this crazy cat-lady my mom made us visit when we were little). Bless you, Sylvia.
5. I’m too involved. That is to say- I participate in too many activities. I know I should cut back, but I love the interaction with other members of my community, my church, my circle of friends, etc. I attend bunco, book clubs, cooking classes, play dates for the kids, “picnic in the park”, aerobics classes at the gym, enrichment activities, gardening seminars, freezer-meal exchange groups, scrapbook and/or stamp clubs, and girls nights. I volunteer at the school in 2 of my kids classes, at the gym (to get a free membership), to babysit for family and friends, and in my church where I help with enrichment & now am the nursery leader (groan……) I regularly ski, run (am currently training for the Wasatch Back), hike, mountain bike, and waterski. This summer I played in a soccer league of old ladies that was so much fun!!!! In my spare time, I have two part-time jobs, one as a real estate agent, one (my new passion!) as a shoe-party consultant. Oh, and did I mention I’m also trying to raise 4 kids, put a hot meal on the table each night & somehow not allow laundry to entirely consume me?????? Yes, I think its time to cut back.
Ok, here goes:

Now, Here are Seth's Five:
1. I love to ski.
2. I love to talk about skiing.
3. I love to read about skiing.
4. I am a little bit obsessed with the end of the world.
5. I hate housework/projects.

You See? Man vs. Woman. So different. Oh Well. Hope you enjoy reading them both. Now I'm supposed to tag: Tami, Rachel, Hillary, Lisa, Jami, Heather, Chris, Megan- really, anyone who bothers to read my dumb blog. Lots of love to ya'll.

Goose on the Loose

So, its spring break & the weather outside is positively frightful! I looked out this morning to see the ugliest, gray, snowy day possible for mid-April, and realized this is one of the only things I don't love about Mountain Green. Spring takes ages to arrive. Anywho- back to looking out the window at the ugly grayness.... so I look up the hill in our backyard where there are all these huge old dead cottonwoods & I see a freakin goose. Yes, a goose. A huge gandery-looking thing perched at least 40 feet in the air on a dead tree stump. After doing a little more investigating, I notice that his mate is comfortable riding out the storm in the hawk's nest up above. Yes, this nest was previously home to a lovely hawk family. They have returned every year for 3 years, but apparantly this year, they have been kicked out by a big, fat goose. I swear, I have never seen one of those things so high up in the air. Its not normal. But, then again, nothing about spring in my neck of the woods is, I suppose.

Mandy & Tiffany's Amazing Day!

These pics are a little old, but I've been wanting to share them for awhile, so here goes. There's really nothing like a fresh spring powder dump. Tiffany & I managed to both get a kitchen pass one morning & made a run for it. The snow was 2 days old, so we didn't think there would be much powder left to enjoy- we were so glad to be wrong. Blair came also, & I was worried I would feel like a third wheel, but Blair made sure it was all about the ladies day!! He followed us around taking our pictures. It was so awesome! We know we still look like girls in these pictures, but at the time we felt like superstars. We kept saying "Oh, I looked good in that one, didn't I???" Also, I should mention that this was (I think??) my first time making tracks down No Name. After we hiked to the top, it was pretty foggy & I was freaking out, but once we dropped in the sun came out & the snow was amazing!!! Tiffany has been through hell & back in the last year & I'm so glad she got to have this day. The Gardners are amazing people & we are so lucky to have them as neighbors!



P.S.- Just a quick shout-out to Blair's new hobby: If anyone out there wants him to follow you around for a day skiing, Mt. Biking, Snowmobiling, whatever- he takes amazing pictures and the fees are reasonable. And really, who doesn't love a good ego shot of themselves now and again????

Mexico-a-go-go

Once upon a time there was a happy couple. They enjoyed their lives & did lots of fun things together. Then they had four kids. While they still enjoyed their lives, they one day realized it had been TEN years since they went on a real, romantic vacation- just the two of them. (no kids) Since their ten year wedding anniversary was right around the corner, they decided to go for it.
The moral of the story: BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!
Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly of our big, "romantic" getaway.
I'll start with the bad:
1. We arrived at our hotel to find out that since it was the busiest weekend of the year, they were short on rooms and they had taken the liberty of pairing us in a "junior suite" with Seth's brother. (Romantic, huh?) That went over for exactly one night before Seth stormed back to the front desk, demanding that they find us our own room. They did- but sorting out the fiasco wasted about one day of our trip.
2. Day two- we got our own room. Yeah! However, Seth decided to come down with a monster case of the flu. He spent one night, one day, and another night shivering under his covers, begging for more blankets. (It was roughly eighty degrees). So, I spent that day hanging with my in-laws by the pool.
3. During said pool-time, I fell asleep with my sunglasses on & got the most ridiculous sunburn on my face.
4. Seth emerged from his coma feeling terrible. He spent the next three days terribly congested & sweating like a crazy person.
5. Seth's brother came down with the same flu the day before we were leaving.
6. We payed an insane amount of money for a tour of Chichen-Itza that turned out to be a "sell-me-some-souveniers" tour, led by two majorly annoying tour guides. The bus ride to get there took nearly FOUR hours. I was so carsick when we arrived I could barely stand walking around the place.
7. While walking around, however, I came down with an emergency case of the "Mexico Sickness". We were in the middle of nowhere & there wasn't a bathroom in sight. Let me just leave it at that.
8. We arrived back home to find out that all four of our kids had come down with the same flu Seth had while we were away. They were terribly ill & had also caused their Grammy & cousin to get sick.
9. We missed the BIGGEST snowstorm of the year, which dumped a reported FOUR feet of snow on Snowbasin (Seth's mothership). That was the most depressing news we could possibly come home to (other than four kids with raging fevers, I suppose).

Allright- enough of the pity party. Here are a few GOOD things about our trip. My goal is to come up with more good things than bad.
1. Our hotel was BEAUTIFUL. Neither of us had ever been to the carribean side of Mexico & I'd definitely recommend it to anyone.
2. The weather was perfect. I could live there year-round. 80 degrees, sunny & a perfect amount of humidity for my dry, Utah-winter skin.
3. Because of the room mixup fiasco, the hotel gave us all free massages, a $100 credit to the gift shop & upgraded wristbands that included free meals at a lot of really nice restaurants.
4. We went cave snorkeling- very fun!
5. I am glad I saw Chichen-Itza, although I probably will never go back. There are a lot of other cool ruins that are much closer to the hotels.
6. I ate lots of really good food- and it didn't cost a penny. I love all-inclusive hotels!!!! We also ate at a great little place in Playa-del-Carmen that had amazing authentic Mayan food.
7. The beach and the water in southern Mexico are amazing. I would actually love to take the kids there someday.
8. My horrible sun-burn never peeled :)
9. I did eventually find a bathroom out there in the middle of Chichen-Itza, but sufficeth to say, I will never be welcome to use that restroom again.
10. I have a few great photos to look back on. Someday, it will all be a big laugh!

I did it!