The Slopes and the Aggies

For Christmas, my parents gave us all lift tickets to Beaver Mountain and a few weekends ago, we took all four of our kids for a beautiful day on the slopes. Garreth and I haven't skied in years - we took Grace once when she was about five and haven't been since. We put the kids in lessons for the morning so we could ski with my parents, then after lunch we all skied together.

Sam and Declan's private lesson might have been a waste of money if it hadn't given us time to ski with the grown ups. They were so excited about playing in the snow that they didn't really learn much!

But Grace and Liam did great.

And it was so much fun to be on the mountain.

This guy was definitely the quickest learner, little athlete that he is.

Check out how Sam holds his arms - I love it!

Declan was not interested in technique, just pure speed. My biggest struggle all day was trying to teach him how to stop properly, instead of just flying down the hill as fast as you could go until you crashed.

It was such a perfect day and we had so much fun together! Thanks, Papa and Nana!!

After skiing, we went to soak our tired legs in the hot tubs at Riverdale Resort and spent the night in Preston. The next night we went to Logan to watch the Aggies basketball game, which was another thing Garreth and I haven't done in years - not since we were students there. Our kids are at such fun ages for things like this now.

The people that sat around us were especially grateful for the free foam fingers the kids got handed at the door. They ended up under my seat sometime in the first five minutes of the game!

Perfect family weekend.

Garreth's Birthday

My favorite person had a birthday last month.

We celebrated with presents,

which included his very own custom-designed shoes from Mi Adidas.

(Even if you don't want to order your own custom Adidas, they are dang fun to design.)

Then it was on to dinner at Applebees. (Where we might have mourned for a few minutes about the disgraceful, utter lack of good eating establishments in our town.)

Then home again, to beat on some birthday bongos,

and eat cake and ice cream.

We sure adore that birthday boy.

New Years Weekend

The day before New Years Eve, we headed over to Preston to hang out with the fam. The next day was the annual Beckstead Christmas Party, which is always so much fun. I don't know what has happened to me (maybe 5 kids?!) but I have become truly lousy at taking photos these days. I mean, only three pictures from one of our favorite annual events ever? Pathetic.

Cousin love.

Vinny gets a first taste of musical chairs.

A lot of my family, waiting to pass presents.

We also had a party at my parents' house (again no pictures). Our 2nd annual white elephant gift exchange night is fast becoming one of my favorite traditions. Then we headed down to Salt Lake, where a whole bunch of us stayed in my grandparent's apartment near Temple Square. We walked through to see the lights.

And we went to Eve, the big New Years Eve celebration downtown. The kids had a blast in the hall filled with inflatable bounce houses and slides, and also in the huge dance party. Here they are, mad because I made them pose for a picture when all they wanted to do was shake some serious booty.

We were planning on letting them all stay up until midnight, but after a snack stop, they were ready to forgo the fireworks and go to bed.

On New Years Day, Garreth and I took Grace, Liam, and his mom over to the conference center to watch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform "Music and the Spoken Word." It was so beautiful and a perfect way to start the new year.

On Monday, we left Salt Lake and went to Park City to go tubing with the Schmidts. It was a lovely day, and unfortunately a lot of people had the same fun plan as we did and it was pretty crowded. Next time, this will be a take-the-kids-out-of-school event.