Eleanor’s First Sled Ride and Igloo Building in Utah

March 2, 2019 by

Utah trip continued…
The snowfall was the most they’ve had in March in a long time, so we totally lucked out while we were there!
We bundled Eleanor up in her baby bunting suit and took her on her first sled ride!
She was mesmerized by the snow and giggled the entire ride.
Meredith loved pretending to be a reindeer pulling her sister in the sleigh.
WHAT IS THIS WHITE STUFF EVERYWHERE?
She wasn’t crawling very well yet, so it was easy to park her in the snow!
UM… IS SOMEONE GOING TO COME GET ME?
All right, I’m cool chilling.
Swing ride in the snow.
After Eleanor went  inside to warm up, the other girls stayed out with Jake and Uncle Mike for hours building an EPIC igloo.
They spent a lot of time getting the foundation right!
Snug in their very professional looking igloo.
Voila!
Pretty impressive!
All bundled up and very hot! It took forever to squeeze her out of this thing.
Other indoor fun… playing the piano with Grandpa.
Our family friend, Susan, brought over a birthday cake for the twins and we did an early birthday celebration! Red velvet cake was exactly what they had wanted and they were so excited to have cake then AND on their real birthday.
Happy early 6th birthday!
Making pancakes with Grammy in the morning.
 
Eleanor chowed down every meal, as usual.
Swinging on a non-snowy day.
Nothing beats hot chocolate after hours of playing in the snow.
Grammy and Jake also took the girls out to the Natural History museum in Salt Lake while they were there and the girls had a blast.
 
The girls are on a quest to color at every single place they visit.
Watch out for those velociraptors… and I don’t mean the dead ones.
Lots of love,
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Spring Snow Fun in Utah

March 1, 2019 by

At the end of February/beginning of March we took a road trip to Utah to ski and get all the wintery stuff out of our system since we don’t experience a real winter where we live. We felt like we had traveled back in time going from sunny weather at our house to cold winter at Grammy’s! We did an overnight in Vegas this trip to break it up and left early the next morning to get to Utah as early as possible. Eleanor hated being in her car seat, but other than that, the trip was manageable. Meredith and the twins were occupied with coloring and movies the entire trip, so as soon as Eleanor gets to that point, we’ll be golden. It’s going to be a long couple of years though…

First winter sports activity to check off: ice skating! Good times at the Peaks Arena in Provo.

The skating stabilizers were a huge help with three kids who couldn’t skate very well!

       

move

 

 

Meanwhile, Eleanor enjoyed her vacation in the warmth of the house playing with toys.

 

While the weather was cold, there wasn’t any snow on the ground until the last two days of our vacation. We woke up to beautiful snow covering the ground! We were the only ones at the park that morning sledding and building snowmen… since it was March, I’m sure all the locals were sick of the snow by then! But to us it was so novel and the kids played for hours. They couldn’t get enough!

 

Hauling snow for their snow princesses.

Meredith was obsessed with getting the balls of snow perfectly round.

One down two to go.

And then there were three.

 

The girls then demolished their snow princesses to create an igloo.

The snow wasn’t great for sledding, but it was packable and PERFECT for an igloo.

 

\We had a bet on whether the igloo would be there the next morning and it lasted the entire time we were there!

Two bears snug in their cave.

Proud of her handiwork!

Meredith LOVES the Going on a Bear Hunt book and had fun pretending to be a bear when we entered the igloo.

   

Attempting to sled.

 

Not the most thrilling sled ride ever, but that didn’t stop them.

We loved experiencing the winter wonderland for a few days (and then going to home to warmer weather!)

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Snow Fun in Utah

January 12, 2017 by

On Christmas, we woke up to a winter wonderland and Samantha, Amelia and Meredith spent the rest of the week begging to sled and play in the snow… for about twenty minutes at a time. I have no idea how families who live in colder climates deal with this, because the effort it took just to get all the snow gear on wore me out for the rest of the day, not to mention the cost of all the gear that will only fit them this year and maybe next. I couldn’t imagine this being a daily reality of just getting to school! We were happy to get our “snow fix” and then return to home to the warmth where we only deal with rain jackets once in a while!

There were absolutely zero options for snow gear around where we live, so my mom shopped around locally for some cost-effective options and the house looked like a department store filled with snow gear by the time we got there. This bunting for Meredith was the only practical option that fit her, and worked well, even though we were not excited about the navy color! Poor Meredith transformed into a boy for our sledding adventures, but still managed to look cute.

Grammy with a bundled up Amelia, 2013:

After narrowing down some finalists for clothing, and after 45 minutes of tugging and squeezing clothes and boots on, we were ready to go.

That picture of the girls going down the stairs reminded me of one taken a few years ago, with Uncle Mike holding on for dear life with Amelia down the stairs!

Samantha and Amelia fought over who got to hold Meredith for their epic ride down the hill. Meredith looked slightly terrified, but didn’t complain.

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?

HELP.

2013– the twins’ first encounter with snow:

Meredith is normally wiggly and high-energy, but the snow seemed to have a calming effect on her high octane personality. She was totally mesmerized and just lay flat on her back in the sled, almost comatose!

Timber!

The girls had to try out the frozen playground.

Sammy with icicles hanging down her hat.

After making fun of Jake for collapsing after his fiftieth round as head sled dog, he gave me the reigns so I could see for myself what it was like pulling 95 pounds on a flimsy sled. EASY.

It was actually pretty grueling. I didn’t even make it up the hill once.

Peekaboo, Meredith.

The girls were fascinated with the concept of snow angels. Later in the week, they went on a walk with Grammy and she said they had to stop in every single neighbor’s yard to make a snow angel.

The last time the girls played in snow was in 2014 when they were not quite three years old, so they didn’t really remember what it felt like. The freshly fallen snow was too powdery for making snowmen this go around.

Loved Samantha’s circa 1985 snowsuit!

The girls couldn’t get enough of tasting snow. We educated them about yellow and brown snow just in time.

  

Jake attempted to teach the twins about how to have a snowball fight, but they were completely uninterested and instead took the snowballs he made them and carried them around in their sled, pretending they were “their kids.” I overheard them asking each other how many kids the other had and then each would practice counting their little bundles of joy. Such girls!

Despite Daddy pelting them with snowballs, the girls didn’t fight back.

More sledding with Samantha guiding the sled.

Amelia takes the reigns…

 

Sledding into the sunset.

The poor snowballs sat unused until the twins decided to eat them instead of throw them.

More snow fun included Jake and I going on an anniversary date to Sundance for some skiing (we also spent half the time relaxing in the lodge for lunch and hot chocolate). We have both snowboarded for the past fifteen years and I hadn’t even been on skis since I was a kid; although it felt very different from snowboarding, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. When we put the girls on skis, I’m sure they will be better than me in about five minutes because they have no fear, whereas I kept freaking out and tried to reduce my speed at all costs.

We can’t wait to be entertained watching the girls learn to ski next time… is it mean to start laughing while imagining them doing the splits on skis?

Lots of love,

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Christmas 2016

January 9, 2017 by

After surviving the airport and plane ride to Utah, and shell-shocked by the chill in the air, we made it to Grammy and Grandpa’s house for Christmas week. We received a lovely early Christmas present from the city of Lindon in the form of a Boil Order hand-delivered to all the residents the day before Christmas Eve! Apparently, a routine water test taken a few hours earlier that day, had tested positive for E Coli!! Cue my complete nervous breakdown and panic.

Luckily, before we even heard about the Boil Order in Lindon, Grandma Celeste in Ogden had heard it on the news and had called Jake about it while he was driving home with the twins from visiting. He stopped to pick up the very last of the bottled water on the shelves in town! The city workers toiled non-stop through Christmas weekend, but the Boil Order was not lifted until the day after Christmas, which meant we drank only bottled water, had to wash our hands with bottled or boiled water, boiled the bottles and dishes, and sponge-bathed the kids with boiled water all weekend! We ate off paper plates, cups and silverware to minimize the dish boiling and postponed Christmas dinner for a few days. We felt like we had gone back in time to the 1800s… or to a third world country! Costco lasagna was our Christmas dinner this year! At least we didn’t have a huge party or relatives coming from all over the place that weekend, as did some of the angry souls posting livid comments on the city Facebook page.

Our precautions were probably overkill, as we ran into some city workers testing the water across the street from the house, who told us our block was fine, but that they had to shut down the entire city’s water as a precaution. It was better safe than sorry. Despite the annoyance, it definitely made us more grateful for safe running water and gave us a small slice of what other people around the world deal with on a daily basis. Nothing like a mini disaster to teach us a lesson on gratitude this Christmas!

Onward to Christmas Eve… (Boil Order in effect, me freaking out, and everyone else chilling and making do with paper plates and plastic silverware!)

The twins made cookies for Santa and Elfie and left some reindeer treats as well. We had to cordon off the Christmas tree with furniture, as Meredith was attracted to that giant sparkling tinderbox like a moth to a flame, but she still managed to wiggle over there and knock down ornaments like she was having the time of her life.

Our Christmas caroling attempt pretty much sums up our life on a daily basis… chaos! And a few sweet notes.

Christmas morning! The twins thankfully didn’t wake up earlier than normal, but leaped out of bed and ran downstairs in excitement the moment they awoke. Santa had left footprints leading out from the fireplace, which Samantha and Amelia quickly deduced were fakes. “This feels like chalk!” exclaimed Amelia after investigating. “And it doesn’t melt!”

Touché.

The girls’ favorite presents of the day were probably their stocking stuffers. Glow dough, reindeer noses, nail polish, bouncy balls, necklaces, kaleidoscopes, candy canes, chocolate oranges, and little eggs that hatched into animals when you put them in water… who could ask for more?

Got your nose!

Mommy was obviously not in the room for this:

Our Pinterest attempt at Christmas breakfast: reindeer pancakes and candy cane pastry.

The girls opened a few presents before Meredith had to go down for her morning nap, and were amazingly patient waiting another hour and a half for her to wake up so we could open the rest.

Samantha and Amelia cleaned baseboards and completed other family responsibilities early in November to earn money to be able to buy Christmas presents for their siblings. I took them individually to the store to pick something out and it was interesting to see what they chose for each other. Amelia picked out a matching number locks game for Samantha, which was a smash hit, while Samantha’s gift for Amelia, a shapes brain game, may take a while to warm up to! While at the store, I tried to point out different things I thought her sibling would like, but each girl turned up her nose at my suggestions! So independent.

Samantha picked out some sensory pokey balls for Meredith, while Amelia gave her a fire truck. Random, but Meredith loved all her gifts!

Amelia had asked for a Vet Kit, and Samantha a castle from Santa this year, and the fat man delivered, apparently overlooking all the painting catastrophes, candy-swiping, and tattle-telling that went on this year.

The girls loved their Utes necklaces, wooden people painting kit, personalized stickers of their favorite people (themselves), and the aptly titled, “Chaos Reigns” photo calendar Aunt Sarah gave us.

Meredith mostly got clothes, but was only interested in the wrapping paper this year.

I love my first Christmas!

  Jake gave me something I’ve wanted forever– my blog in print! The other years of the blog are currently in the works, but Jake gifted me a tome of 2015– made in Belgium and 600 pages long! As much as I love having everything clutter-free and in the Cloud, it was immensely satisfying to hold a real live book of our writings and pictures from last year! Loved it!

My mom gave Jake what he always wanted as a kid– RC cars! Meredith spent the better part of our vacation chasing them around.

This Christmas thing is exciting!

Grammy cuddles.

Amelia’s favorite gift was the kitty that came with her Vet Kit from Santa. Kitty sat by her at every meal, went sledding with us, and still sleeps in her bed at night. Jealous at her lack of kitty, Samantha asked to “borrow” the super cuddly, soft Jellycat kitty Meredith received. I have a feeling they will be begging for a really kitty soon.

I’ve been looking for a good poetry book to read with the girls for ages, and all the ones we have are too long or old for the twins, so I decided to make my own. I collected a bunch of my favorite classic, age-appropriate poems and commissioned Grandma Celeste to do the drawings. Her watercolors came out totally adorable and I am in love with our new book!

Amelia of Christmas Past:

Samantha:

The twins:

Our new addition, Meredith, of Christmas Present!

In between presents, I forced the girls into taking a few pictures before there were no more wrapped presents to sit on.

Amelia Christmas 2016:

Some of my favorite Christmas morning memories from the past:

Amelia now races that scooter through the neighborhood like nobody’s business.

Sammy, that little cuddlemuffin!

We had some mischievous elves at our house last year….

I just loved their haircuts last year!

This year, one of their other favorite gifts were their mermaid tale blankies from Meredith. Whenever we cuddle up to watch a movie with them, they flip flop on over to Meredith, give her a hug and say, “Thanks for the gift, Meredith!”

 

Please rescue me!

Yay shoes!  

Meredith ripped off her My First Christmas sticker for the photo, so we had to tape it around her outfit, just to get it to stay on. I think it gives it character!

   

There wasn’t any snow on Christmas Eve, but Christmas morning, we woke up to a world blanketed in snow. The girls couldn’t believe their eyes!

Meredith watched the girls build a snow fort from her cozy spot by the window.    

Samantha the snow beast.

The fun of twins… they can make it look like one of them has really long legs!

Stuck. Again.

The twins and Grammy ended their busy day with an epic Hungry Hungry Hippos tournament (their new favorite game).

Despite the water situation, Meredith’s 1st Christmas was full of sweet memories and it was solidified what Christmas was really all about. Costco lasagna and all!

Lots of love,

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