President's Day Tour Part 1, St. George

There were a couple of reasons we decided to take a trip over President's Day weekend and extend it into the rest of the week until the next weekend. They were all good, trust me.

Leg 1 of the trip found us in St. George with the Randall clan. It was a full house with Tricia and her five kids; Becky and Branton with their three kids; our family of four; and Boyd and Susan. Full houses can have their downsides but the girls went to bed like champs so we didn't feel any of the bad and just got to enjoy being around everyone. It was a great weekend with a lot of games, a run along the Virgin River, discovering a new trail around Snow Canyon, trips to the park, feeding ducks, and a lot of games. Did I mention that already?

The other highlight was that we got to see the Hassells as they were up in Brian Head and stopped by on their way home. We were stupid and didn't take any pictures but it was great to see them. It's funny how normal it is to see people after not seeing them for a long time, at least that is the way it is with good friends like them. They had their daughter Hailey with them as well (she didn't stay home to watch the house at the ripe age of almost two. I actually believe she could though) who is ridiculously cute as well. She must have gotten that from Brooke. (I couldn't resist at least one small dig. I'm human, OK?) It was a great trip with really the only pictures being from the hike so here they are. I have to have pictures because my girls are cute, admit it, you think they are too.

From there we headed to Santa Monica on Monday to visit the Jones family. Addie was very excited about this leg of trip as were we. It is late so that will officially be put off for tomorrow or whenever I can blog next.

Skiing (Catch up post)

I feel some sort of obligation to keep blog posts chronologically correct and as we have a trip to blog about I have to get this post out of the way because I feel it is vital to the health of the nation that I discuss how awesome Addie is. She continued her domination of skiing on February 8th. Alta has a deal where they open up the beginner lift to anyone for free at 3:00. That was too much to resist. Addie was psyched.
















We went up with: Natalie's sister Tricia; two of her kids and a friend; and Natalie's brother-in-law with two kids as well. Here was most of the crew minus Natalie who was behind the camera.
















As the picture below makes clear, Addie rocks. She is totally relaxed out there and leaves slack in the line quite often.

















It was hard work getting all of those kids down the mountain but a lot of fun. I think the consensus was to make it a more common occurrence. Here are a couple more pictures of the family enjoying the day.

Yet Another Addie Quote

I can't help it if my kid says really funny stuff. I believe that the whole world wants and deserves to hear the really funny ones so here you go. This is Natalie's description of a conversation they just had...

"Addie cleaned the bathroom door and said "Dad is going to come home and say 'wow, who cleaned this door' and he'll think it was Santa Claus but then I'll say 'I did it.'"

Guess what I will be saying when I get home.

dance

Last weekend Addie had her first dance recital. It was pretty cute although she needed a couple helpful shoves from her friend in the class to get her on the stage.

Note to self

Rule #1- just because your child is three feet away from you doesn't mean they can't get in trouble.
Rule #2- don't leave printer ink refill bottles in low drawers unless you want your daughter looking like a smurf.

Christmas, December and everything else.

Nick is off camping in the snow with the scouts so I thought I would finally take the time and update the blog. I am not jealous of the boy since it is 27 degrees and only getting colder, but he thinks its fun. Addie was ticked though. She wanted to know why he got to go camping with the "old men" and why she couldn't go. I explained to her again that it is with the young men and she couldn't go because she was a girl. She still didn't like that answer. Anyway here are some pictures from December. We had a great Christmas and enjoyed our friends and family very much.

November

November was a really busy and fun month. Here are the highlights:

My birthday always a highlight:>

Lizzie learned to walk
We spent a cold day at the zoo and learned the names of all the giraffes

Lizzie moved into Addie's room and I have a den again.
(No Lizzie does not sleep with this many animals. Addie decided to "make her very happy" after nap time)
We got new carpet and now wrestling time is a little bit less scratchy

I just added this because I think she looked cute.