Tahoe 2010

We all had a wonderful trip on our annual trek to the Sierras with the
Hughes Family and the Mathison Family.

This family photo capture each kids' attitude toward the snow: BiggiE -- eating it, Moose -- hollaring and Jelly Belly -- looking perturbed, but not wanting to go inside.

The dads carved out a great toboggan run that started up on a hill, curved around a sharp left, went under a tunnel and shot out the other side so you could climb the stairs and begin again. Watching BiggiE we decided he may have a future in luge. He would lay back on the sled completely relaxed and seemingly unconcerned to be hurtling down the track.










Breck and Jelly Belly were adorable so bundled up they could hardly move, but they seemed to enjoy the antics of the others kids.


Brown Ted and "Brown HEAD" Bearby had a budding friendship, along with Leif and BiggiE. It was so much from to watch them bond.


Michelle and Kelli brought up lots of fun art supplies which made for wonderful inside fun. These two moms have been pivotal in my growth of being more (care)free in doing art with my kids.


I just had to get a picture of these stairstep kids.




Moose and his much planned for "Tahoe Flag".

Today's Winter Party

It has been a rainy Northern California winter this year. The kind of dreary unending rain that makes this Colorado girl wonder if the characteristically ideal weather the rest of year is worth this stretch of gray.

I have always loved snow. My heart starts to quicken with anticipation at the thought of being in the snowy Sierras next weekend. I also love rain, BUT only for a day or two. Rain is such so much more wet than fluffy Colorado snow.

And it has been SO cold. I am curious if my fellow Coloradans transplanted to California would agree that 40 degrees in NorCal is just as cold as 20 degrees in Colorado. My theory is that wet cold penetrates to the bone more than dry cold. At this point I should give a shout out to all you up in the Great Lakes region. Wet cold and -20 degrees. You guys are tough.

All this weather discussion is merely to explain how I happened to be hosting a "Winter Party" this afternoon for the kids and their friends. My plan was that if it was going to be dull we should at least embrace it.

So we made a variety of frozen, colored shapes in muffin tins and ice trays -- all set to hide outside for an ice hunt. We made homemade hot chocolate and had mini marshmallows on hand. We got out a large blanket and cleared the hardwood floor for some inside sledding. And then we waited for our guests to arrive.

The one glitch was that instead of 40 degrees and gray it turned out to be 65 degrees and sunny. I laughed, because who would pout about such weather, and the snack we prepared was the perfect fit for a warm and sunny California winter day.

These tasty fruit snowmen are featured here.

Shot Through the Heart

Shot through the heart... um, I mean, head.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Celebrity in Town

In an effort to give Moose plenty of opportunity to work on his penmanship we had him posted on a billboard by his school so he has lots of autographs to sign.

Our New Digs

I took advantage of a brief break in the rain to snap this picture of our new house.

We are really enjoying having so much more space. The boys are enjoying their bedroom downstairs and there are three secret hide outs in the house. Jelly Belly is in her own room upstairs with us and she is most thrilled about the stairs. One of the first things she did in the new home was climb the stairs. I really want to take a video of her coming down. While she was quick going up right from the start it took her a bit to figure out how to come down. Now she slides down feet first on her belly at a surprisingly quick rate. It is hilarious watching such a little person move so fast.

Celebrating a Decade of Love

We celebrated our 10th anniversary this past week with a wonderful trip to Big Sur and San Francisco. Os's mom came to stay with the kids. (As she said she was pinch hitting for my mom who was still in recovery and unable to come.)



It was the greatest of great trips. It felt so decadent to be in a beautiful place with the man I love and have no schedule. As if this were not gift enough, Os surprised me with a sapphire necklace and a long love letter.

We are very good at relaxing together and it was fun to remember that skill. We took about 20 photos from the deck of the place we were staying. We could see both the sunrise and the sunset from our studio and it was heavenly.









We've also always enjoyed exploring together. We took a couple hikes in Big Sur then stopped at Point Lobos State Park on our way up to San Francisco.

(Can you see the bird just above the wave in this photo? It is hard to capture scale, but these waves were big.)

As icing on the cake we saw gray whales migrating south and some sea otters. I love marine mammals and felt like a little girl seeing these animals.












In San Francisco we shucked our original plans of going to a museum and just walked the streets instead. We refueled with delicious food and drink.



We ate our anniversary dinner at Acquerello and it was, quite possibly, the best meal I have ever eaten. It was so romantic, though occassionally the setting made me think we might witness an 1950s-style Italian mob shooting.


We also had a lovely meal at Boulevard.


We ate a late breakfast on Sunday before driving home. The Pork Store is an experience in itself and this greasy spoon is yummy.


I love you, Babe! Praise God that we get to live life together!

Merry Christmas 2009

We had a lovely Christmas at home with Os's brother, Drew. The men made an amazing Christmas Eve dinner which included shrimp bisque and lamb. Christmas morning we enjoyed opening presents and had a grand time putting together the boys' new Star Wars legos. I have many fond memories of playing legos with my brother through most of our years growing up, so there was something really special about playing with the boys. It only took 2.5 hours, 3 adults, 2 children and one neglected toddler to build two star ships (V-19 Torrent and Anakin Starfighter -- Moose and BiggiE appreciate the usage of the technical names.)


Miss Jelly Belly had several lovely holiday gowns given to her as gifts. This one is from our friend, Alison.


We had our usual cookie decorating extravaganza, though we sent 20 of the cookies to school with Moose. I think the season may have snuck up on me because for some odd reason I did not get my holiday sweets binge this year. I suppose that is a good thing, but my internal sugar cookie meter feels below the normal level. (I like this photo because BiggiE is double-fisting the knives.)


The jammie kids Christmas morning.


Jelly Belly loving her doll from Grandpa and Grandma.


The lego fun. The ships of actually for kids quite a bit older than our boys, but they both did a good job of finding the right piece needed and putting most of it together if you showed them where it went.