That's my girl

We enjoyed our quick trip to Utah this weekend for Dave's parents 50th Wedding anniversary. Dave and I were able to go skiing-BY OURSELVES- at Snowbasin. Wow that is an amazing resort. The snow was lousy, but it was a fabulous date with my husband. We had a great time riding the gondola up and talking with the other people on the lift. It must have been senior day on Thursday because there were so many older people up skiing and many of them had patched on their coats saying 70+ skiing club and 80+ skiing club. Can I say I was AMAZED. Kudos to those men and women who have beaten the odds and taken good enough care of themselves to still ski at that age! We were talking and said it cost us just as much to go skiing as it does to go to dinner and a movie and pay a babysitter. Dave enjoyed the next day snowmobiling with his brother. On Saturday we prepared for the reception for Dave's parents. We had it at the senior center in North Odgen, Utah. There were quite a few people show up. We had loads of fabulous treats and it turned out beautifully. Congrats Don and Tanny to a great 50 years and I know there will be many more.
My nephew's wife Cassandra was in charge of taking pictures and she did a fabulous job. She was asking Avery a a few questions and the conversation goes as follows:

Cass- "Avery, if your sisters Myah and Aurora had a foot race who do you think would win?

Avery- "HMM-I don't think either would win, I think my mom would win because she has three gold medals!" (finishing medals from 10K's and 1/2 marathons-they think they are fabulous)

Cass- "Do you think your Mom could run faster than your Dad?"

Avery-"Ah yes! I don't think I have ever seen my Dad exercise, especially not run!"

I promise- no brainwashing involved!

A few good days

We have been spoiled this year skiing! We have had some fabulous, sunny, 45 degree days. The opportunity we have to go skiing is a little daunting sometimes with three little kids. Yes, I know we make a choice to go-but I do have to say, it is much more enjoyable when the weather is sunny and beautiful. In fact I have been downright hot a few days, mostly because I am still pushing Avery around a little, but I love the "warm" skiing weather. The girls have become quite good skiers and Avery will follow anyone she can recognize into about anything. Dave has had to have a few gentle reminders that he has a little shadow behind him and unless he want to wind up at the "Mt. Hood Hospital" he has to watch out where he is going.

The weather on this particular day was obviously not as nice, but the clouds were amazing and they continued to change throughout the whole day.

Avery thinks she is deprived because we have not bought her poles yet so she has improvised by using her arms as little fins to push herself along.

The 4th of the 4th

Tag of the 4th of the 4th! Here is my fourth picture from my fourth folder . It is a picture of Avery dressed up in a Tinkerbell costume at the Elementary school my girls are at. Every year the school has a "Fairy Tale Ball" for the second graders. So this is Aurora's ball last year. The music teacher teaches them some dances and songs. The event is really cute and of course Avery needed to dress up for it too. I tag Julie, Robyn, Maile and Lisa.

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!