Winter Get Away

This year our Pass of all Passes included free skiing and free snowboard or ski rentals.  We decided to take advantage of that and plan a ski trip with our neighbors the Hintze's.  We love the Hintze's.  Their kids match up perfect with ours and they all get along great.  The Stott's also met us up there on Wednesday.  I didn't have my camera out when they were there, but it was so fun meeting up with them.  

We had an amazing time.  I was so nervous beforehand because I've never been skiing before.  However, Amber was super sweet to teach Ashlyn and me and it ended up being so much fun.

This is the magic carpet that the beginners started at.  Ashlyn spent most of her time here.  She got so good that she could go up and down all by herself.   Funny story about the magic carpet.  My first time on it, I fell backwards while trying to get on.  I could not pull myself back up.  So I rode it up flat on my back.  I felt kind of dumb learning with the little four and five year olds.  But oh well, better late than never!!!

 Mickell and Aubrielle

 Kell is a natural.  By the end of the first day, she was going on all the big hills.  She loved being with her friends!!!

 Tanner and Braden

 Our cute friends, Amber and Chris

 Ashlyn did awesome.  For the most part she was super patient and had a great time.  There was only one meltdown on one of the days when her boot was hurting her.  But, nothing a quick break in the lodge didn't solve.

 Tanner did amazing on the snowboard.  He is definitely a fan.  Most of his conversations include the word "snowboarding" now.

                                                  

               
                                     
I'm proud to say I conquered my life long fear of getting off ski lifts.  The first time I was so sick to my stomach as I rode the lift up.  I had the person at the top stop the lift for me.  But after that, I was totally fine and didn't even fall once!!!

 Hailey was such a trooper.  We have a snowboard her size so she spent one and a half days trying to learn that.  She was so patient.  Baylen would take her up the lift and then try to teach her.  He said that she never got frustrated that it wasn't coming to her.  She would just sit down, eat a little snow, and then get back up again.  Part way through the second day, we decided to rent her some skis.  She went down the magic carpet hill once and then never looked back.  Within 10 minutes she was going up the lift and down the hills all by herself.

 We found an amazing deal on an awesome condo.  We got it for $75 a night with NO TAXES OR CLEANING FEES!!!  It ended up being perfect for our two families.   It had three bedrooms and a couch bed.  We ended up putting all the girls in the master suite.  They had a TV and king sized bed.  So, at night when we wanted to watch a grown up movie, they were set in the basement with their own movie.  We played lots of games, ate tons of yummy food, and spent time in the huge hot tub each night.  

Hopefully this trip will become a yearly tradition.  January and February tend to get a little dark and depressing, so it was a fun way to get a break and enjoy the outdoors and being with friends!

More Holiday Fun

Here we are with the Bird family at our annual ice skating day.  The kids did SO MUCH BETTER this year.  It's amazing how much their roller blades have helped them with ice skating!

 We also had our Whipple family sleep around the tree night.  We had yummy food and played lots of fun games... including the couch game and signs.  Unfortunately, this is the only picture I got that night.  I was trying to get a picture of Bailey giving Ari a kiss.  However, it didn't really turn out.  The picture does show Ari in her cute pj's, though.

 Tanner and Jackson are best buds.  They are so cute how they wrestle together.  This picture was taken before Jackson started climbing on Tanner's head.  Tanner loves every minute he's with Jackson!

Aubrey

I love this girl.  December 27th was definitely one of the highlights of my Christmas break! 

Aubrey was in my laurel class the two years that I was in that calling.  When I was being set apart for my calling I was told that the girls I taught would remain my friends throughout the eternities.  I love that promise because I LOVE my girls!  

Aubrey and I were pretty close during those two years in laurels, but she has become a good friend since then.  The day that Colin was going to meet Aubrey's parents for the first time, she was over at my house visiting.  She had plenty of time before he was suppose to be there, but we lost track of time.  Colin got to her house and ended up having to sit and visit (without Aubrey!) for over 45 minutes.  Her dad (our bishop) kept trying to call my house, but I assumed Baylen would answer it if it was someone we should talk to.  So, after 45 minutes he finally had to drive over to my house to get her home.  OOPS!

I feel like I know pretty much every detail leading up to this wedding day.  She came to me several times for advice (which was kind of a scary feeling).  So, it was the most amazing feeling sitting there watching her kneel across the altar from Colin.

I am so happy that she is so happy... and doesn't she just look beautiful!

Merry Christmas

This was suppose to be Baylen's year to work on Christmas.  We were pretty bummed because not only was he scheduled for Christmas day, but they scheduled him for Christmas Eve, too.   Well, Christmas eve rolled around and as we were doing last minute things to get ready, Tanner was outside playing hockey.  He accidentally rolled his hockey ball into the sewer.  Baylen went out to try to retrieve the ball.  He pulled the grate off without realizing how heavy it was and ended up dropping it on one of his hands.  It hurt bad enough that we took him in to get it x-rayed.  Long story short, he ended up with a doctors note that he shouldn't work that night.  Yay!!!  We had a really fun night.  We had a delicious dinner, played games, and then the kids did a little program.  Here they are in their nativity costumes...

 I love Christmas eve for many reasons.  One reason is that my kids go to bed better than any other night of the year.  Jared looked up on his computer that Santa was in New York all ready.  That's all it took to get them off to bed.  As I was putting the kids down, Ashlyn turned to me and said, "When I said my prayers tonight I prayed that Santa would be safe as he travels."


With the kids asleep super early, the adults actually had time to watch a movie without any interruptions.  (I forgot to mention that we stayed over at Grandma and Grandpa Whipple's house!)


Here are the piles of presents (not including what Santa left)

 Here are the excited kids in the morning.  It was super fun spending Christmas morning with cute Bailey!  We were lucky, they all either slept in or laid quietly until 8:00!

 Our big gift this year was a wii.  The kids each asked Santa for a different wii game.

 A popular gift this year was these wiggle cars.

 It was actually really nice that Christmas was on Sunday this year.  We were able to break up the present unwrapping with celebrating the real meaning of the day.  Here are the kids and grandma after church.

Celebrate!

So, I'm realizing now that I didn't take very many pictures during the holidays.  Now that Baylen does the majority of picture taking, I think I'm out of the habit.  We had a great Christmas break.  It was even better this year because Grandma Betty flew down to spend it with us.   We got together to do something just about every day.  Here are a few of the things we did...

We went to see the Up house again.  This time we got to walk through the inside.  It was pretty awesome!

 We made gingerbread houses.  Ashlyn ate most of her candy before it made it to her house.

 The houses got super creative this year.  Tanner and Baylen made the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

 Leslie got back from Russia two days before, so she decided to make Russia's famous Spilt Blood building (I can't remember if it's a cathedral or not).  She wanted to make it as close to the real thing as possible.  I think the picture of Jesus on the front just completes it :)

 The Kiddos... minus Jackson

 One evening we went with Doug's family to This is the Place Heritage Park for their little Christmas thing.  They had a lot of fun things to do.  This is Mickell and grandpa learning how to dance- pioneer style.

  Watching a puppet show about how Santa ended up with reindeer...

                                      
         
                                      
And of course, we had to visit Santa.  Here is my proof that Grandma was flirting with the old man (of course, this was after she wrote her name on the naughty list).  I think she was trying to redeem herself.

 Ashlyn insisted on giving her letter to Santa in person.

The Lights

Baylen had to miss temple square last year because of work, so it was top on the list for this holiday season.  We had a fun night together as a family!

 We took a couple of indoor breaks to warm up!

 The reflection pool is so pretty!