More snow...even in spring

Well this is a catch up post obviously since it is now May and I am blogging about snow. I wanted to post these fun pictures. I had a great winter. I realized that being active outside even in winter makes a huge difference. Instead of just surviving the winter and waiting for the nicer weather, I really enjoyed it. We went skiing about every week and I also tried cross country skiing for the first time. That is a workout! I have a whole new respect for those Olympians. I also got a pair of snowshoes for christmas and tried that a little too.

This is my friend Alyson and I on a snowshoeing adventure. How can you not enjoy a view like this? I love my double chin as I was taking our own picture.

We were being silly and striking some poses. It was so warm this day that we were sweating!


This is my kids and Alyson's on a most gorgeous day in the best snow ever at Brighton. Everyone's legs were tired from all the powder.

Kenzie would not try downhill skiing but we did get her on cross country skis. She liked it and went a few times. I love this picture. She really looks like she's loving it!

Maddie and her friend Alyce relaxing at the top of the mountain at Sundance. What a life!!

How old am I?

This is me today- feeling old and saggy. My child can now legally drive a car. The permit is in his hands and he is ready to go. I am now officially middle aged (probably have been there awhile but now I am admitting it). When did my son get taller than me and old enough to drive? I need to go take some vitamins and possibly an aspirin for the tension headache.

Ski bunnies

We have been hitting the slopes hard this winter. My girls have found a love for skiing! Kenzie is the only hold out. She says next year she will try it. We shall see. I have no pictures of Tanner because he has gotten good on his snowboard and he and his friends are off finding jumps in the trees as soon as we let him out of the car. I love where we live! 20 minutes from our house and we can be pulling into Sundance for the afternoon. We have gone up after school for a couple of hours. So fun!
Who's got attitude?
Paul and I on a snowier day. Good powder!

Christmas etc.

Christmas snuggies!! Cheesy, yes, but cozy! I guess this shows that my kids watch too much TV and that all the advertising works on them, since they all asked for these for Christmas. Also the "Touch n' Brush" which is a nifty little device to put your toothpaste on your toothbrush. Yes, my kids are capable of doing this for the most part but it is still fun and surprisingly it works well. We can now get every last bit out of our tube!

A "real" piano!! It was time to ramp up the piano playing and this is their new motivation. It has worked like a charm and piano music is heard more frequently now that the kids don't have to go "all the way downstairs" to practice.

Tubing during the Christmas break.

Tanner turned 15 and got a new desk for his room. I guess studying upstairs with lots of sisters to distract was getting old. Now he is studying for the driving test! Yikes, do I really have to start teaching him to drive? We are dragging our feet a tad!

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was one of the most enlightening books I have read in awhile. Do you ever think about where our food comes from and how far most of it has to travel to get to our favorite grocery store? I can honestly say I really never gave it much thought until I read this book. This is the story of the author and her family's quest to eat local and in season food as much as they could for a year and they do it and enjoy it. Most of the food they grow themselves on their farm in Virginia so it's not as if any of us could actually live this way to the extent that they did. But the lessons they learned are applicable to everyone. I am not always a huge non-fiction fan. I usually read to escape, not examine real life (shallow as that sounds). But the way she explains this totally ordinary life on their farm is also quite entertaining. How can you not enjoy a description of onions coming up out of the ground as "visions of Wonderbras". In one section she is making cheese (never knew you could actually do that in any kitchen, but I am actually considering trying it!) and when she tells the grocery clerk that, she is amazed and says, "Now that is a real homemaker!" The author says it took her along time to get to the point that she considered that a great compliment. Feeding our families well is an important work!

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What a week!

For some reason things seem to happen in large bunches at times. That was our experience the week of Halloween. It was all wonderful stuff though! It started out with a piano recital for Kylie and Maddie on Monday. Costumes needed to be done for that- check. They played well and looked cute! On wednesday Tanner was awarded his Eagle Scout. It was a nice night. We tried to keep it simple and focused on the boys and I think it was perfect. We are proud of his accomplishment and now I can say good bye to the scout store and sewing on patches. (which I found out I had done wrong as you can see in the picture-oh well) Friday was all the school celebrations for Halloween. I love that costume parade, the kids are so dang cute! Saturday was Maddie's baptism. It wasn't till the afternoon so after that it was pretty much eat dinner and say good bye to everyone so we can all go trick or treating. The baptism was wonderful and Maddie was so excited. She looked beautiful in her white dress- so grown up! We hit our neighborhood and came home with plenty of sugar to last for the next year. Unfortunately it will be gone in a week or two. Tanner was too old to trick or treat this year (sigh) but Maddie and Kenzie were full of energy the whole night and Kylie still went with her friends. I was just ready to collapse that night!

Three generations of Eagles

Cruisin' with the Fam

We got a fun treat for our Fall Break this year. We went on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera with my mom's side of the family. There were 15 of us all together and it was a blast! The ship was beautiful, we had gorgeous weather when we were in ports, and spending time with everyone was the best. When we got home I asked the kids their favorite part and they had a hard time picking one thing. One fun thing was that we were upgraded to a 2 bedroom suite with a living room and balcony. We felt like we were living the life and every night they would bring in chocolate covered strawberries. Wow so spoiled!!

Our first port was Puerto Vallarta and I had arranged a jungle zip line tour. What an amazing ride! We were so glad we did that. Kenzie could not come with us because she was too little but was happy to stay on the ship with Grandma. At the end of the tour they had a little petting zoo and you could get in the cage with monkeys! Maddie was a little freaked out but we survived.

Next we were in Mazatlan. We were unprepared for the barrage of people trying to sell you something CONSTANTLY. It was amazing. Even Kenzie got good at saying "no thank you" every 10 seconds. We went to a resort and hung out at their beach and hotel. Very nice and relaxing (except for the salesmen). The ocean was the absolute perfect temperature so we spent some time in the waves.

Our final stop was Cabo San Lucas and it was our favorite. It is beautiful. Paul, Tanner, and I did parasailing and it was awesome! After that we met up with everyone else at a gorgeous resort on the beach. Lots less people bugging us there, but the girls did get their hair braided. We did not want to leave our perfect spot but the ship was sailing so off we went back to LA. After spending one more night at Rod and Rona's it was back to reality. We were just glad to find all was well at our house after being gone for so long. I think Simba missed us.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I went out and bought this book the day it came out and finished it the next day. I never do this kind of thing but I really could not wait to read this sequel and it did not disappoint! It is an exciting ride, though also quite violent. But it's hard not to be when the whole premise of these books is a society that puts kids in a match to the death. But there is really so much more to these books. There is the main character growing and learning about herself, her mixed feelings for the 2 guys in her life, a rebellion in it's infancy, and it is all interesting. I like that Katniss is a strong, smart girl but also acts like a teenager at times. Although you can't blame her for having grown up a lot quicker, with everything she has gone through in her life so far. A good read!

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Recap

Well obviously I haven't been too good at blogging during the summer. Everything seems to change during the summer and my resolve at actually getting anything done was quickly quelled with the demands of having 4 kids in the house every day. We had a great summer that went by so fast it's hard to believe the kids are back in school. So here's a quick recap of the happenings of our summer....

Swim team- Maddie and Kylie both spent lots of time in the pool. Kenzie also took lessons for all of July and was swimming all by herself by the end of the summer.

Family Reunion- Paul's side of the family had a reunion in Idaho and we saw the sights of Yellowstone. Good times and no major injuries so it was a raging success.


Paul's races- We pulled an all-nighter for the Wasatch Back Relay. I tagged along as a van driver so got the experience first hand (without the sore muscles). We also trekked back up to Idaho in July for the Spudman triathlon.


Tanner's sports- Tanner had a busy summer keeping up with his teams. As a freshman the high school teams kick it up a notch so he had basketball workouts and camp, football weight training and two-a-days, and basseball practices and games. He also decided to learn golf with his friends in the morning. Guess who was the taxi? This is the trophy from the State tournament.


California- Because of the state win, we had an impromptu trip to So Cal for the regional tournament. The team didn't play so hot against the heavy hitters from CA but we made it into a fun family trip and went to visit my family. The kids were a little distraught that we stayed about 10 minutes from Disney and didn't make it there but the beach was a good alternative.

Camps- Kylie got to go to Girl's camp for the first time with all her friends and Tanner had a week with the boys too at High Adventure.


Birthdays- Kenzie turned 5 and had a princess party with a bouncy house in our backyard and lots of cute little girls. Kylie turned the big 12 while we were in CA and we took a trip to the mall to get her ears pierced. She also got a party with her friends this year and we took them to Jump on it, a big trampoline place.

When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I have a hard time reviewing this book or even deciding how many stars to give it. At the beginning I was frustrated but kept reading hoping for more, and by the end I was really drawn in. What frustrated me was the switching back and forth between time periods and points in his life. I had to read a whole page in to a chapter before I could say for sure is he a child, teenager, grown man. His writing is also so descriptive and a little too sappy at points I was thinking- get on with it already!

The story is a sentimental kind of Nicholas Sparks genre about a man hiding from his past and how a little girl who needs a new heart brings him back to himself. The characters really grew on me and I did care about them in the end. I also liked how, though not a religious book, he was not afraid to talk about the faith and hope that the characters held. I think anyone that is in such a situation would have to find something to believe in and hang on to that.


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