February Happenings

February was a fun month!  Other than Colorado, nothing too exciting happened.  But I think we managed to have some fun.

Sage got tattooed up for Valentine's Day.  That girl cracks me up.  Holidays are such a big deal for her that I feel major pressure to up my holiday game.  We got home from Colorado only a few days before the big day, so that made things a little tricky.  I still managed to get our Valentine's mailbox out.  I try to do a week or so of little notes plus random little toys every day.  Crazy how excited everyone can get over a $1 toy.  On Valentine's I actually made a nice breakfast for everyone with a little treat by their plate.  When they got home there were some presents (nothing fancy) for each person with a nice card.  And for dinner I made some homemade bread, broccoli cheese soup, and a fruit pizza for dessert.  Nothing says love like my mom's comfort food:)

Kate got to do a fun fashion show for young women's.  Her leaders got each girl a prom-type dress (no idea how they figured that out), and for months they've been altering the dresses and learning how to do hair and makeup.  It was fun to see them all dressed up.  Kate looked beautiful and way too old!

We of course did some skiing.  Thank heavens for skiing because otherwise the winters would get really long.  This winter has been long and cold.  Like hardly any days have even been in the 30's.  There was one weekend when we couldn't use our ski passes because of blackout days, and it was a long weekend.  Not a lot to do in the winter if you don't do some sort of winter activity.  Every year when we pay for passes and skis I cringe because it's not cheap.  But it's really worth it.  Kate has become a good little skier.  So now Jake and Zack and Kate take off on blacks and double blacks and Sage and I find an easier way down.  Sage can ski the harder stuff just fine, but this year she's decided she wants no part of it.  Fine by me because I'm happiest on the groomers.

We've had a lot of deer in our yard this winter

Ready for Valentine's Day!

We live in a beautiful place!

Jake decided to grow sprouts

Fashion show Kate!

My ski buddy Sage

Beautiful day for a Sunday walk

My friend Audrey and I. We've skied together every week for years and this is the first picture we've ever taken!

Zack was nice enough to spend hours chipping away at the snow so that we could have a fire.  The fire was so huge that we were all hot!

Good thing the pond was frozen

Colorado Fun

We got to go to Colorado last week!  Finally, a fun outing!  Although I'm so sick of winter this year that a tropical outing would have been nice.  Anyway...  Our trip started off a bit rough.  Jake fell twice on the ice right before we left.  Flat on his back.  He was/is in so much pain.  Great way to start a ski trip.  So I drove most of the way there so he could writhe in pain in the passenger seat.  The roads were so bad that the normally 6 hour drive took 8 hours.  And it was white knuckle driving the whole way.  Colorado doesn't use salt on the roads because it's hard on the environment, plus a bunch of other reasons I'm sure.  Well, due to the lack of salt, the roads are pretty much snow packed if it snows at all.  Bless Utah for using salt is all I have to say.

We had great fun skiing, even with the back injury.  Jake wasn't his usual crazy self on skis, which meant I could kind of keep up.  The first day the snow was amazing but it was freezing.  For reals, freezing.  I think with wind chill it had to be like 10 below.  Even Zack, who is never cold, was almost in tears.  It was brutal.  So we didn't ski long.  But the skiing we did was awesome.  Second day we got some good skiing in, just got a late start due to being at the instacare.  And on Saturday Jake wanted to try a different resort, so we drove to Breckenridge.  Along with a million other people.  I've never skied anywhere what was so crowded.  Ever.  And we had no idea where we were, so Zack and Kate were lost from us for like an hour.  This did not make them happy.  And once we were all together we couldn't figure out where to ski, and everywhere we went there were tons of people.  So thanks, but next year we'll stay at the same resort.

Our evenings were spent in the hot tub, playing games in the lounge, and doing some major relaxation.  We participated in the night time glow worm down the hill again.  Fireworks at the end.  Super cool, except that a bunch of old ladies did it who couldn't ski so the worm got all split up and they were getting mad at everyone for passing them.  Lame old ladies (they were probably my age - le weep).

We made it home in one piece, driving on good roads, so that was a plus.  We had a great time.  Someday Jake might be able to move again.  Or maybe not...  Here are a million pictures.

Sage is such a trooper.  We take her on some pretty big hills

You cant tell, but this was like knee deep powder

Trying to thaw out on our first day

The candy cabin our kids love going to.  Can you tell how cold Zack was?  You pay by the pound.  It's super expensive and Zack always has to put candy back.

This picture makes me laugh.  This hill was really steep with big snow piles.  Sage was not happy.  She said she was going to die.  Or just live on the hill so she didn't have to go down.  Then Jake told her if she did 7 turns in a row he would give her a candy bar.  And boom, 7 turns in a row no problem.  Killing me.

Sage and Jake up at the top

Getting ready for the broken glow worm

Kate loves skiing, and did awesome this year

Sage was so excited to get her face painted

Playing games in the lobby.

The back of our car after driving through 6 hours of snow.  There was seriously like 6 inches of snow stuck to the back.  Our doors were almost frozen shut.  Bless the car for making it.

January Happenings

We survived January!  Yay!!  Not my favorite month, that's for sure.  It actually went by pretty fast, but I'm still glad it's over.  I can't even think of anything exciting to write about, and my pictures didn't help much.  We went skiing almost every weekend, which definitely helps us survive the long cold months.  We had a huge amount of snow one day.  Like 15 inches in a day.  Poor Jake plowed our driveway in the morning and then had to plow another foot off that afternoon.  We did manage to get him to take a break so we could all go skiing.  And the skiing was amazing.  Hooray!

Most of the pictures I'm including are from February, but if I don't include them there's nothing to talk about or look at.  Yes, we're lame.  Anyway, yesterday we went to Salt Lake, which we really don't do much.  When we need to go to "the city" we usually go to Provo since it's closer.  Anyway, Zack's been looking for a new-used mountain bike since he outgrew his old one.  He finally found one, so we all jumped in the car for a road trip to Salt Lake.  While we were there we walked around at Temple Square and City Creek.  It was kind of fun to be there without a million other people.  In fact, I don't think I've ever been there when it was so empty.  We goofed off a bit, and most importantly, got out of the house.  Always a plus in the winter.

Awesome props in the Joseph Smith Building

I just realized we're all lined up by height! 

We spent a few hours staining some timbers

Sage frequently takes my phone and next thing I know I have a million selfies from her:)