Winter Snow

Yes! We are always so excited when we get a little snow around here because it only happens once or twice a year! The kids enjoyed an early winter break with an added snow day and they took advantage of it playing in the snow for as long as they could. It's just so beautiful and it makes me so happy and it's the one time I don't mind being cold because it's worth it!

Ethan loves me following him around to get fun snow pictures! He loooooves it!

Ski Season | 2012-13

This year we decided to bite the bullet and buy season passes for Jason and Ethan and it was the best and dumbest decision we made this year. The best because they boys had so much fun and went up every opportunity they could. It was the dumbest decision because we should have bought passes for all of us! The rest of us made it up a few times but we wanted to go up just as much as the boys. Especially Audrey!...she is a skiing machine.

All of these pictures were taken with either our GoPro2 or my cell phone. I gotta say... I loooove our GoPro. You can take the coolest shots with that thing. Jason loved to just attach it to his ski pole and get cool shots. Some of these pictures were actually taken from video stills. They aren't the best quality, but I still love them.

Ethan is a dang good skier. He easily keeps up with dad and he may possibly be even better than me. Shhh... don't tell him I said that.

Audrey worked her butt of this season and got so much better! She is really good now and can handle most any hill at her own pace. She is the crazy one of the bunch and even if we get up to the slopes right at opening, she will ski until closing, from 9am to 10pm! Craaaaazy. The first time up she made me ski for so long that one of my toenails turned purple. (I think I need new boots.)

Dad decided since he and Ethan get to go up so much that he and Audrey should have a daddy daughter ski date too. He took a day off of work and let Audrey play hookey at school and they had a blast!

There's always time to play in the snow too!

One evening after work and school we went skiing with the family. David did so good. He just zips down that mountain so fast. He freaks all of us out a little. He hasn't mastered the snow plow so when he wants to stops, he turns so that he skis back up hill. Luckily, for my sanity, he started figuring out how to slow down by doing the "pizza slice". Crazy boy!

We have definately learned our lesson and next year we will be buying everyone a season's pass! It is such a fun family activity and I am so excited that everyone loves it so much!

snow & ice | jan 2012

What an adventure last week turned out to be. Lots of snow and lots of ice. The kids didn't have to go to school all week, the power went out for two days, trees fell down and snapped in half (even in our own backyard) making traffic a nightmare, we went snowmobiling at night through the neighborhood, the whole family slept in our room with the toasty warm gas fireplace, and we did a whole lot of eating out.

So many people hated it, but I will admit I kind of enjoyed it. Didn't have to do laundry. Didn't have to cook much. Didn't have to do any work on the computer. We were able to just hang out all day, play, read, and eat junk food. We went shopping at the mall and then saw a movie, went out to dinner again with the Munks... What could be more fun? Okay... honestly, it was fun for a few days, but if it lasted much longer I would have started going a wee bit crazy. Phfewww.. We were super excited when the power came back on yesterday evening.

The sad little trees in the "ditch" behind our house got coated with so much ice they just kept leaning further and further until the tips of them touched the ground. A bunch of them snapped in half. So sad.

Aubrey, Audrey, and Kinzi enjoying the first day of snow! So exciting.

Kids spent hours every day all week long sledding. I wish I would have spent more time out there with my camara, but the skies seemed to almost always be dumping snow or freezing rain and I didn't want to worry about keeping my camera dry. I did find one evening when the skies cleared for a bit and went out to get some pictures of the girls.

David spent so much time playing out in the snow. He would play from morning to evening. Burrr...

It was fun while it lasted! Maybe we'll get some more this year?... If not, can it just be warm and 70 deg already?

Beautiful, but COLD

Every day when I wake up to actual sunshine streaming through my windows I just get an extra burst of energy and last week on one beautiful sunny day, David and I decided to take advantage and head to the park to visit the ducks. However, we quickly realized that athough it was sunny, it was SO stinking cold! The puddles were frozen over, there was hardly anyone at the playground, and I just kept asking David if he was ready to go. Hopefully in the next few months, it will start to warm up so we can get out a bit more. Because anyone who knows me is well aware that I do NOT like to be cold. I'm a baby and so I conviced David to head home and play a board game with me instead.

Throwing pine cones into the water. It didn't matter how hard he tried, every attempt landed in just about the same spot.

David has been obsessed with Pokemon Sorry lately. We play this game at least twice a day!