Look what I made!

I'm still working on McKinley's room. It's painted, it's arranged, but it needs decorating. Like the cute girl stuff on a shelf....pink towels for her bathroom...pictures on the wall. I feel like I have such a perfect picture in my mind that I just can't find the right stuff. But I found this idea online and ordered my blocks for my project. It was my kind of project...delivered in the mail, pre cut and ready to assemble. I had to pick out the scrapbook papers to go on the blocks and that was hard enough. I'm really excited about how they turned out. At least I now have 2 items for her shelf.

Check out www.iasign.com if you want ideas!

Cheerleader!

McKinley told us that she wanted to be a cheerleader for Evan's basketball team. She remembered a friend of hers cheering last year and was ready. We were a little hesitant with her personality, but we always let her try things out. We figured she would do great at practices and shrink like a violet on the court in front of 100's of strangers. But....we were wrong. This girl loves to yell and cheer on the court and sideline. She beamed, she jumped, she screamed. She's got spirit...yes she does!!

Kitchen Hardware

So after two years we finally got the hardware for our kitchen cabinets. I'm hoping it keeps the fingerprints off the wood! I love the new look and it was something easy that I could do to change things up around here...

Before:

After:

Our last day...

By our last day in Utah we were ready to come home, but still didn't want to say goodbye. We'd been gone for 17 days and wanted to go home and sleep and come right back!! But that is not to be right now...so, we said our goodbyes.

Goodbye to all our cousins...so many little girls for McKinley to play with...

And the last picture before we walked out the door...Nana and Grandad Smith. McKinley was too sad to be in the picture!!
A great big thank you to both our families! You took us in and fed us and housed us and loved us. We love you all!!

Snowboarding or Skiing??

This post is out of order because I forgot that I took these pictures with our old (and smaller) camera the day we went up to Brighton....

David and Austin decided that they were going to try out the sport of snowboarding. Since I knew that the new sport would slow them down a bit I decided it would be a good day for me to ski. Also we were able to meet our friends the Volks and the Mismashes from Maryland out there too, so I would have people to hang out with.

The morning started out well with getting our lift tickets and skis/snowboards. Then the fun began. David and Austin (and I) headed over to the bunny hill to see how things worked. I was amazed at how easily skiing came back to me. Kind of like riding a bike I guess. I haven't been in 5 years, but I was still at my lovely green run level!! And I was (and still am) happy with that!

Snowboarding for the boys was another matter. They had about 30 minutes before their lesson, so they tried to figure it out on their own. No good. Bad. Worse.

There are no other sports that have ever given David (or Austin) trouble. They are usually naturals and can figure things out. But not snowboarding. It kicked (and bruised) their butt!!

Things did get better with the lesson. 2 hours of instruction greatly improved their one skill of using their heals to move around. But the falling continued for hours, and hours, and hours. I do think they had some fun mixed in there, but it was very frustrating for them and not a sport that David would like to talk much about.

It boiled down to one conclusion for us: Since we get so few chances to ski...ski, don't snowboard.

Maybe one day if we live near snow they will have time to fool around and pick it up. It's been said that the learning curve on a snowboard is pretty fast once you get the hang of it. It's just that we don't have enough time to waste on learning that when you could be out there skiing!!

My experience that day was great! I spent most of the day skiing with my good friend LeeAnn. She is my kind of skier...probably better than me, but content to stay on the blues and a few stray greens by accident all day. It was the best weather for skiing and we were never really cold. I wasn't sore the next day and I only fell once and it was with David on the last lift of the day when I got off. But I didn't dare compalin after seeing his sore black and blue butt the next day!!

I'll stick with skiing!

Up, Up and Back Down

After two delays due to bad conditions we were finally able to go up on our hot air balloon ride over Park City, Utah today. We woke early in the morning to temperatures around -6 degrees and headed to the meet up place. We were very cold IN the van...but managed to bundle up and get to the launch site without freezing any limbs...

Once at the landing site we were able to watch them set up the balloon using 2 great big fans. Brrrrr.
After 10 minutes or so the balloon was 1/2 inflated...still freezing cold!

Finally the balloon was ready to lift off and we loaded into the basket with our guide. We ended up with 10 guests and a guide for our flight. Here's our crew from left to right: Libby, Jeremy, David, and Nina, just before lift off.
We were one of two balloons that went up...this is the other balloon, which chose to go straight up very quickly. We were glad of the more gradual ascent of our guide. It was a gentle, slow ascent up to 2500 feet above a snow covered Park City mountain view. It was beautiful!!



Here we are near the top of our ride...still smiling and enjoying the view. Not nearly as cold up in the air...strange, but true. There is no breeze when you are in the balloon since you go with the flow of the air. The burner, which emits 500,000 btus, kept us warm when it was on. But they were turned off for our descent and gradual return to land.
And after two almost landings we were able to land at a rest stop beside the highway. Our landing was incredibly smooth, with a 20 yards of skidding across the asphalt and then stopping in a snow bank. We quickly headed to the waiting warm van and watched the crew pack up the balloon. After a trip back to the car we enjoyed a lovely breakfast at No Worries Cafe and headed home. It was a wonderful experience...so glad we went.

Christmas 2009

What a wonderful Christmas we're having here in Utah. We spent Christmas Eve in Draper with Dave's parents. We had the traditional breakfast for dinner and PJs before bed. I think McKinley was the only one who didn't know what her present that night was going to be. Here they are for Christmas 2009:First thing the next morning we were up to see what Santa had brought for us. Our stockings were filled with goodies and a few games and toys for everyone. Then we were able to give our presents to Nana and Grandad and receive presents from them too.
After that we packed up and headed up to Park City where we had the rest of our presents under the tree at my sister's house. We were there with my Mom and Irv, my sister, her husband and her 3 kids and my Uncle Jeremy from England. It was a great crew and we had a crazy time opening (too many!) presents. The kids are all getting along so well and they seemed to be pleased with the gifts they got. It was so fun to see them open their presents.

I especially liked the girls tutus and wings that I found at a boutique in San Antonio. They are 4 of the cutest fairies I've ever seen. Another special gift was a handmade matching bathrobe from my mom to McKinley and me. They are sparkly pink butterflies with the softest lining I've ever felt. They are awesome.

After sledding the men took off to the sled hill (otherwise known as the road!) to go sledding. After bundling everyone up they were out for 2 hours while we cooked in the kitchen.

The dinner list included a deep fried turkey in Jim's new turker roaster. It took a little work to figure it all out, but eventually it was warmed up, the turket was dunked, and cooked in 48 minutes!

With many hands in the kitchen for most of the day we were finally ready for our Christmas meal. It included Leg of Lamb, Turkey, rolls, brussel sprouts, green beans, cranberry sauce, roasted potatoes and carrots...followed by lemon meringue pie, pumpkin pie, and ice creams! Wow...what a wonderful Christmas meal.
All in all a wonderful day!