Life is not Fair!

So I know that I really shouldn't have done this, but it was just so funny! After a absolutely beautiful day skiing at Beaver Mountain in Logan, Utah Avery had a meltdown! We couldn't have had a more perfect day except that fact that Dave couldn't go because he injured himself SERIOUSLY in the crazy sport of snowshoeing two days prior to this. That is a whole other story that I have been meaning to post but just haven't gotten around to it. So Avery really does amazingly great all day skiing for a four year old. One small problem is, she follows just about anybody in front of her, so Myah goes off a jump, she tries to go off a jump. This was the case with this temper tantrum. We were on the cat walk and Myah found a little lip to get a little air off going up hill. Avery can't quite handle this yet, nor would she have enough momentum to continue on the cat walk so I snagged her right before she went off the little tiny jump and this is what happened!

Crazy Christmas

Who would have thought in Portland, Oregon we would have received 16+ inches of snow and it stayed for more than a day? This "Arctic Blast" had a myriad of effects on the locals-namely school and Christmas travel. Needless to say it put a little pinch in our schedule when were scheduled to leave for Utah on Tuesday the 23rd, but I-84 had not been open for three days, it finally opened about nine that morning. At that same time I-84 and I-86 were closed by Snowville, Idaho and Pocatello, Idaho. Due to the weather and various other circumstances we bagged the trip for a few days and celebrated Christmas at our house for the first time ever! Whoopee! We headed out for Utah on Friday morning and finally got into Logan about 12:30 that night. As we left Portland 84 by Snowville was still closed, but fortunately it opened a couple of house before we got there!

Macy's in Portland

When we moved here six years ago we started the tradition of taking the kids on the Max to the downtown Portland Meier and Frank. We were so sad to see it be bought out by Macy's only two years later. Meier and Frank had classic window displays, amazing decorations and the best was the miniature monorail on the ceiling of the 10th floor. The kids could ride it as many times as they wanted. The monorail brought back the nostalgia of Christmas! When Macy's bought them out they dismantled the monorail and changed the whole layout to downstairs. We were blue to see the old Meier and Frank go but we continue our tradition of visiting Santa Clause, playing on the dismantled monorail and eating Mall food at the Lloyd center!

Happy Birthday Aurora

After a long 10 hour drive to Twin Falls Aurora had a Texas Sheet cake waiting for her made especially by her Great Grandma Harris to celebrate her birthday. Lucky Girl! Yes -we drove to Twin Falls on her ninth birthday. Avery was more concerned about driving on her birthday than she was.

Her "friend" birthday party choice was Out of this World Pizza. I am convinced this is a perfect place for a party. The kids are entertained the whole time, there is the food option, the mess and prep was not at my house, in fact the only thing I did prep was her pizza birthday cake. We found out as we brought it in that only store bought items were allowed, but Alex the employee let it slide! Whew!

I am not quite sure why she isn't smiling, because she had way more than her quota of fun. She really loved helping me put together her pizza cake.

Happy Birthday Aurora!

The Japanese Encounter

Myah was elated when she had the opportunity to dress up at Epcot in a Kimono. As I went to check in for our dinner, Dave was hanging out with the girls in the Japanese gift store. When I left, the girls were ohhing and ahhing over the " Hello Kitty" paraphernalia, the origami and the amazing puzzles they had. We hadn't made it to the "pick your own pearl out of an oyster" or the whole kimono area yet. When I came back down to the gift store, Dave was in the very back with the girls and Myah was being pampered on by this cute girl from Japan. She even put an amazing hair comb and the cool flip flops on. We then went to dinner and had some amazing sushi and rolls and headed back down to the store-our girls couldn't get enough. We looked a little longer and tried to leave. As we are leaving both Aurora and Myah are begging to pick an oyster and get their own pearl out of it. They were completely mesmerized by this for about the last 10 minutes in the store. Usually at 7 and 8 we can persuade them out of "things", but Dave nor I were getting anywhere with our usual tactics. I honestly thought Myah was going have a nervous breakdown if she was not able to pick a pearl. We quickly walked back into the Japanese gift shop for the fourth time, paid for the pearls and then waited in line for a few minutes and then watched Aurora's and Myah's eyes light up as they picked their pearl. The top picture is the cute Japanese girl shucking the oyster. Whew, what a night!

A trip down South

To Disneyworld we went! Here are just a few pictures.

Aurora danced along main street with a very entertaining
group of singers and dancers!

Thank heavens for Walt Disney-As Dave said, "Maybe

Disney should govern our country! "

And of course at Epcot. The girls are wearing pin lanyards.

They had fine tuned the art of trading pins at Disneyworld by the time we left.

It was another great way to entertain our children by trading pins with cast member and other kids.

Plenty O' Patches

So we scoured the pumpkin patches again this year. Unfortunately we still have 7 large uncarved pumpkins sitting sadly on our front porch. We even had two grow in our garden from seeds I didn't plant. (Myah!) How this happened-I have know idea?

I love the picture of Avery trying relentlessly to push the wheelbarrow at Lakeview farms, but it was going nowhere with it's bum wheel. We managed to make it home with plenty of large pumpkins, about 20 "baby" pumpkins, farm fresh eggs, squash, more tomatoes and a five suckers and had to turn around and exchange pumpkins because we had the wrong one!