Missing AZ

This is what my google home page is showing me! I think we might get a snow day tomorrow because it will be too cold. It's a good thing that some new movies come out tomorrow because it's too cold to even take the kids snowboarding. So to all my AZ friends... I AM JEALOUS! It's weird to go from hating the summer to now looking forward to it. I have a brand new 'HAPPY PLACE'. It's now in the family room in front of the fire with my favorite white blanket.
Clear
79°F
Current:Clear
Wind: N at 0 mph
Humidity: 20%
Thu
Clear
76° | 43°
Fri
Clear
76° | 43°
Sat
Clear
74° | 43°
Sun
Clear
77° | 43°

Snow
11°F
Current:Snow
Wind: W at 4 mph
Humidity: 72%
Thu
Snow
9° | -6°
Fri
Chance of Snow Showers
4° | -6°
Sat
Chance of Snow Showers
16° | 14°
Sun
Snow
23° | 13°




Snow Bunnies

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We have a small ski resort about 15 minutes from our house and we made our first visit today. I wouldn't be so excited about it if my kids were already good at skiing or snowboarding but since they are learning it will be perfect! It isn't Utah or Colorado by any stretch of the imagination but I think it will work great for them to learn and there are some other resorts a couple hours away that we can visit once the girls get more comfortable. Sydnee's friend Natalie came with us and they all took lessons. They did an intro lesson with a group in the morning and after lunch we put them back in another lesson with just the four of them. It was a beautiful day with sunshine and a blue sky (which doesn't happen every day here so you really have to take note and be grateful when it does). Del and I watched and took pics and video from a deck next to the bunny hill. They might be sore tomorrow but all of them gave the overall experience a 9 or 9.5 out of 10.

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Carli's first time up the lift with her instructor.

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Carli in deep concentration.

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Sydnee practicing on her heel side.

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After their lesson Del decided to rent a board and took the girls up for a few more runs. Next weekend I guess I'll join them on the slopes. I'm probably a little bit rusty but I can work on my skills with the girls!

Merry Christmas


Santa found us this year and it was a fun day. The kids woke us up a little before 7 and we had such a relaxing day playing with some of the stuff they got and eating and napping. We packed up and flew to Atlanta the day after Christmas to spend some time with our family down there.


Carli could not believe her eyes! She has wanted this bike for a long time.


Sydnee was pretty surprised, too. Those gray Uggs were hard to come by this Christmas Season.

Lulu was in tears when she opened a cell phone! She was so surprised - it was pretty cute!

We made a yummy breakfast of quiche and ebelskevers. We had lots of peppermint bark, too! Lindsey had given Del a tin but I think Sydnee and I ate the whole thing!


We worked really hard on our puzzle and finally got it done.

Del and Carli had to bundle up for a bike ride. It's not like Arizona where we can wear shorts on Christmas Day. I guess if you want to ride your new bike bad enough you have to SUIT UP!

Atlanta & Happy New Year

Our trip to Atlanta started out a little rough. We had a 3 hour delay on our flight and had to sit in the airport and entertain ourselves. We all learned a lesson from smarty pants Del. He told us we should ALWAYS bring our power cords with us for our laptops but Lindsey and I didn't think we would need it! We learned our lesson and fought over the one power cord we had for three laptops. Lindsey also found a broom and entertained us with a broadway style dance. Del put the video on his Facebook page and it's pretty hilarious. We finally made it and it was well worth it. We played cards, walleyball, ate lots of yummy food, and had a broom ball hockey party on New Years Eve and finished the night off with a party at Jared & Tiffany's house.


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Waiting at the airport.  Lindsey had a chocolate shake and a laptop with a movie in it.  
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Carli was very into the card games.  Courtney and Jon taught us some new games.

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These two cuties have been known to get into trouble.  My favorite was when we found them in the pantry playing "recipe" with lots of ingredients out.  They are so dang cute it's hard for anyone to get mad at them!

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The kids must have found a big stash of balloons because there was always a game of "don't let the balloon touch the ground" going on.
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I'm sure Jon, Sam, and Del Sr. didn't appreciate the chaos in front of the TV.
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While we played  walleyball in the racquetball court the little kids helped themselves to unlimited popcorn and soda (probably Dr. Pepper).  No wonder they never wanted to go to bed at night.
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This is Charlotte the duck.  She was MIA for a couple of weeks and Carli and I discovered she had a nest and was sitting on 8 eggs!  I can't wait to see pictures of her babies waddling behind her.
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One of these guys is going to be a proud papa in a few weeks.
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The start of the Broom Ball Hockey party.  We are all smiles because we have yet to find out how sore we will upon waking tomorrow!
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The ice was so slick.  Knee pads are a must and elbow pads are an advantage.  I wished I would have had football pants with hip pads.  Both of my hips are bruised.  Andrea and I even said we would wear helmets but we know people would make fun of us Big Time!
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Tiffany had just finished remodeling her kitchen and the workers were there right up to the last minute.  I don't know how she pulled off a party but she did!  The food was great and even though Del and I left before midnight to go to bed (yeah, we are old) the girls stayed and spent the night and stayed up sooooooooooo late.  They had fun playing consequence uno and I heard stories of some ding dong ditching and someone having to crawl through the doggie door and howl. Good clean fun!  We all had a fabulous time and came home on New Years Day.