snow trip {shaver lake}

The youth of the San Luis wards were planning a snow trip, so we went a day early to "scout things out" and have our own snow play day. Friday was perfect... warm, blue skies (at times), easy, no chains required, good friends, sledding, tubing, snow angels galore= good times.

Saturday was also fun, but it was snowing buckets. We had to put chains on a 1/4 mile from the entrance to the snow park, which the guys were not happy about, but it turned out to be a good thing because they were VERY MUCH needed on the way down the mountain. Finley was NOT a fan of falling snow- it got in her eyes. Also she was so well dressed that I don't think she could move very easily (and had a hard time getting to her "bb"). She played for a bit- tried to make a snow man and then spent the rest of the day in the car with the heat on full blast. Emerson was loving the whole experience until she took a tumble with Paul- he had her in the backpack, slipped on the way up a snow bank, and her face hit his head. She was done after that and joined Finley in the car. Avery was not deterred- she LOVED every minute of the white stuff. The bigger the hill, the more air she got, the harder the crash, the better! She was going strong until she stopped for lunch. Then, she realized she was cold and that was the end of the fun. I think that was the case for most everyone. We packed up camp and went home... back to our much warmer climate.

The snow is fun to visit, but I have to say I do love my 75 degree February days!

holiday fun {disney style}

Disneyland at Christmas time is pure, over-the-top, amazingness. Decorations everywhere (my favorites were the decorations in toon town- big, colorful, lots of fun), lights galore, and snow (ok, soap, but it looked like real snow floating from the sky- the girls learned the hard way that it didn't taste like real snow, but they didn't care)! It lived up to all the hype. We went before schools got out for winter break (one of the few joys of not having any children in school yet:), so we didn't have to battle crazy crowds. Plus, it was forecasted to rain the entire time we were there, which probably deterred a lot of people as well. It worked to our advantage. We basically walked on every ride in both parks, all day long. The weather held out- sprinkled a little bit, but for the most part we stayed dry.... cold, but dry.

We rode lots of rides including several we had never been on before because the lines are usually ridiculously long (LOVED Toy Story Mania so much we bought the Wii game to play at home), talked to Tinkerbell through the hedges, the girls batted their eyelashes at Poppi until he took them to get their faces painted, sang along to the parade music, visited with minnie every chance we got, plugged our ears during the fireworks, marveled at the "snow" falling from the sky, woke up way too early, stayed up too late, missed our bus back to the hotel and walked a distance in the dark with 3 kids and no strollers, added to our baby princess collection, sat on santa's lap, got some good laughs from the green army men, froze our faces going on Screamin' several times in a row in the rain, scared the tar out of Finley having her go on the matterhorn with us (she is not a big fan apparently, but we tried)... we maximized every minute and

had a wonderful time at the happiest place on earth!