Frozen

We took the kids to play on the frozen lake after church.  It's an amazing thing to walk on a frozen lake.  Todd and the kids found fishing holes and tried to break them by throwing rocks - but the ice was too thick to even crack a little.  Todd put his arm in one of the holes and it was over a foot deep.  Gabby and Luana were amazed by it all and had a blast.  I started to get a little cold so Todd let me wear his super warm hat that he has for Canada.  It was awesome. 

Flashback Friday - Sledding

I am tired of the snow so I'm posting a time when I liked the snow. This is at our house in St. Louis I think the first winter we lived there. We moved from Arizona to California then to Missouri so this was the first time I lived somewhere with snow. I'm in the sweet blue coat with the pink pants, red hat and green gloves. Behind me you can see the top of Danny's head in his spiderman hat (it was a full face one .... sweet) and David is on the sled getting ready for the ride of his life I'm sure.

That metal sled had to be as old as my parents but man did it go fast. My parents would tie a rope with one end on the back of the car and the other on the sled then take us around the neighborhood. I'm pretty sure it was dangerous and most of us hit at least one mailbox a year but man did we love it.

A few other things I love about this picture are the truck and camper in the background. We had some good times going on vacation in that camper. Riding up top, looking out the window for miles and miles of highway. Taking naps when we got bored, being able to eat, go to the bathroom and play games all while driving. And the best part is that my parents were both in the cab and didn't have to listen to us. Some days I wish I had that option when driving with my kids. :)

The Boots

For some reason snow boots are only on sale in Utah until the end of October. During January and February when we were hit with snow 5 out of 7 days a week every store had swimsuits but NO snow boots. Anyways, my brother Steve was taking his boys sledding so he invited Tayson and Luke to go along with them. Of course my boys had no snow boots since I didn't prepare last fall for the heavy winter we had. Todd and I were both at work so my parents ran them to Wal-Mart to get them boots. No snow boots...but there were some sweet rubber galoshes. Luke's fit him great, but the next size up from Luke's were size 5 adult which my mom bought for Tayson so he would at least have something. This would have been fine if they were only used for sledding. However, they have turned into their favorite shoes and I had to force Tayson into different shoes every morning before school. His boots are hilarious and he can barely walk in them, but he wears them every chance he gets. He LOVES his boots. Yesterday they both wanted to go outside to play since it was sunny and not too cold (high 30's) so they put on their boots. We had them pose for a quick photo op when they came in from playing. Yep, Luke is wearing basketball shorts with his boots and Tayson's really do go up to his knees. The second Luke took his off Claire put them on and then stood in the same spot ready for her picture too.

Let it Snow

We are on our third storm this week and today's was a big one. It is so beautiful! I love waking up in the morning and seeing fresh snow on the ground and in all the trees. I love it when the mountains are covered in snow, and not just for the skiing. Of course, I have only skied once since Tayson was born and that was right before Christmas, but it was a blast and I hope to go again this season. Claire loves the snow too. Everytime she sees it she just stands at the window saying "noooo mama nooooo". I didn't get to cuddle back into bed after I saw the snow since I had to teach spin at the crack of dawn this morning - and lots of people ventured out in the snow to join me at the gym so it was great. The parking lot at the gym was pretty funny since no-one could see the lines there were cars all over the place. Then this morning poor Tayson was at the bus stop for 30 minutes (the bus was 25 minutes late and I sent him out early since I thought it would take him longer to walk in the snow). Of course he decided not to walk and Todd was nice enough to drive him to the bus stop. The kids just played and had a big snow ball fight while waiting for the bus. Back in the days of school buses for me we never would have had school on a day like today. We would have seen the snow (even 2 inches) and turned on the radio to hear all the school cancellations. Ours almost always got cancelled because we had some "country roads" people that came to our school. I loved snow days growing up but my kids will never see them living in Utah where no-one is afraid of a few feet of snow. It's hard to sit in my office looking out the window at the snow fall, it is the perfect day to be at home in warm jammies with hot cocoa and a good book.