Snow Trip

So in order to make up for the fact that I didn't get to go see my family this Christmas, we headed to the snow to give me a little taste of home. We took Brecken and Tim's mom, Julie, up to Sierra Summit for a day of skiing & snowboarding. It was Brecken's 1st time, of course, and let's just say he took a while to "warm up" to the whole thing.

If you turn your sound on, you can hear Brecken screaming all the way down the bunny hill while I run alongside saying, "Isn't this fun??"

Overall, it was a great trip. It was fun to get back out on the slopes, it makes me feel young & cool again...that is until I slid 100 ft down a sheer ice face of the mountain. It was pretty scary because I could not stop, no matter how hard I tried to dig in my edge and it was pretty steep. At one point as I slid down, I couldn't see anything except a little edge that I was headed for. I didn't break anything, but I'm a little sore.

Secret Santas

We just want to say a heartfelt "Thank You" to our Secret Santas (I hope you're reading this)!

We loved having Secret Santas, awaiting your knock every night and hopefully giving you enough time before we opened the door. I loved that each night's gift was related to a scripture about the "real" Christmas story and the way you gave us a tree the 1st night and adorable little ornaments each night after that was so creative. Thank you so much for making our Christmas so wonderful!

Santa

Brecken had a great time at our ward Christmas party and he was so excited about Santa that he sat on his lap twice!

Fall is in the Air

Tim & I both had Monday off, which was awesome, so we took Brecken to Avila Barn with some good friends. We went on a hayride, picked pumpkins, fed the animals, went through the hay maze, and ate tasty treats.

Family photo op.

Here's Brecken picking just the right one.

Got a little tired after all the hoopla.

PG-13

So, this picture is a little gross, but I had to show off this crazy bruise I got from my gallbladder surgery a couple weeks ago. I was excited to get it out b/c my gallbladder has been making me sick for a year now, but the timing was not ideal because I had the surgery on Friday and then classes started on Tuesday and Wednesday I started my traineeship (I now have 2 part-time jobs, full-time school, and, of course, a 2 yr old). Anyway, the first 2 weeks were pretty rough. I was super tired and definitely sore, but I am all healed now and feeling great. Not only that, I can eat fat with wild abandon (well, not really, actually, but at least I won't spend a weekend puking my guts out if I have some olive oil).

P.S. They had to pump my stomach full of gas, hence the swollen look. I do do the occasional sit-up.

Party Like it's 1999

Due to a temporary setback, I currently have no photos, but I've been excited to tell about our concert last weekend. Tim & I went with Chris & Emily up to Sacramento, where we stayed with our friends Cliff & Kim. Trevor & Kiwi also went up. We got to go to the temple on Saturday morning (it had been so long!) and even though we almost didn't make it, they squeezed us in at the last minute. The temple was followed by a delicious lunch at Olive Garden where Elizabeth met us. Shopping at the nearby outlets ensued and then it was time to head WAY out to the amphitheater to see Weezer & Blink 182 in concert!
We were surrounded by drunken 16-22 year olds in the middle of nowhere, but the music was fantastic. I consider myself a bigger Blink fan, but I have to admit that Weezer put on a better show. They were awesome! I really did feel like I was in high school again (except that I didn't buy a band T-shirt and I wasn't trying to impress anyone). We stumbled in sometime after midnight with our ears still ringing...just like the old days.
We hit IKEA on our way home, so all in all, it was the best possible weekend.

Time Out

No picture for this little doozy, but Brecken gave both Tim and I a time-out today! He made me sit in his room with the door closed and he put a sticker over my mouth so I couldn't talk. It was hilarious (though he was very serious about it).

P.S. For those of you about to call my work on me, I swear I have never taped his mouth shut in any way. He doesn't even get time-outs in his room.