Brian Head

Our family spent a night at the Brian Head ski lodge and here's some photos of our two hour tubing trip. It was so much fun and the kids LOVED playing in the snow.

Cole got a little tired and decided to take a rest.

Mia loved spinning all the way down the hill.

Here's a view from the bottom. It's much faster then you think and by the time we were done with our two hours, it was practically ice.

Here's a photo of Drew, Cole, and Mia on their way down the hill.

Little Luke is missing from our photo. He was at the ski resort day care enjoying snacks and toys.

Boxing on the Wii

Luke wants to be just like Cole. He's always trying his best to keep up.

What Happens in Vegas...

Three of my wonderful friends from Texas flew in for the weekend. On Friday I met up with them at the Bellagio to have dinner at the buffet. Traffic was TERRIBLE getting there, (thanks a lot NASCAR) but I made it just in time. The food was wonderful. Who knew a buffet would include such things as Alaskan King Crab legs, Veal Marsala, Mushroom pasta with truffle sauce, and sushi. The deserts were unreal. We made sure we ate PLENTY. Here's a photo of our dinner (minus Wynette - she's behind the camera). After dinner we drove to the Wynn Casino to see Le Reve, a Cirque de Soile show about a girl and her crazy dreams. It was so AWESOME and I think we had the best seats in the theater.

The stage changed between a pool and a real stage. I've never seen anything like it. The performers were fantastic and the special effects were so incredible. I LOVED IT. I wish I could have taken pictures during the show.

After the show we went back to the Bellagio to just walk around the strip. The fountain was so awesome. At one point we were surrounded by fog and could hardly see five feet in front of us. We also went to Caesars Palace.

On Saturday I drove up to Logandale to spend the entire day with the gals (kid free). It was the most fun I've had in a long time. We started off by making a shamrock door decoration. We all wore our matching shirts (thanks Wynette).

Several ideas were tossed around for the afternoon and we decided to skip the pedicures and go 4-wheeling instead.

Wynette could ride in the standing position. Gotta protect the little baby.

GayLyn was voted most radical driver. Deanna had to experience the speed so she hopped on back for a ride.

We could hear her screaming from far away.

After the daylight disappeared we drove to Mesquite and saw "Confessions of a Shopoholic". Perfect chick flick by-the-way. Then we drove back and finished our shamrocks and made dinner.

Our fondue dinner lasted until 11:00pm. I ate way too much.

I finally fell asleep on the couch at 2am and drove back to Vegas with Kristen early Sunday morning. I love these gals and I'm so glad they came for a visit.

SMORE!

I had the wonderful opportunity a couple of weekends ago, to spend the entire day with the greatest friends in the world. We mostly visited and ate. The kids played and when the sun set, we made smores in Wynette's backyard firepit.

I thought this photo was cool because my camera took a picture of the "heat" coming off the fire. Crazy.

Mia took this great photo of the four of us.

It was such a fun day. I'm so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life.

Utah Snow

So we went up to Utah the week after Christmas and had a blast. It was a short trip but full of fun. Unfortunately we didn't get to see all of our family, and some of them we only saw for a few hours, but that's what so great about living close. We can always go back.

Part of the trip was spent visiting Grandma and Grandpa Swasey in the middle of No-where-ville. Cole LOVED Grandpa's "Sand stinger", as he calls it. Check out that mug.
Drew pulled the kids on a sled tied to the back of the 4-wheeler. You can just see the excitement in their faces.


And we also went sledding on a road by their house. Normally I'd be totally worried about that, but like I said, it's the middle of nowhere.

Part of the trip was spent visiting the Clark side of the family. We went sledding in Kaysville one evening and had a blast. Here's Uncle Brock pushing Mia and Reagan down the hill.

Here's our crazy train. Yup, we sled until it was too dark to see anymore.

After all the fun we headed back to Brock's for hot chocolate (Thanks Jill).

This was the first year Mia and Cole really played in snow. It brought back a lot of memories of when I used to play with my sisters in the snow. It brings out your creativity.

The kids also made a snowman that they named "Bush" (um, Okay?) at Grandpa Clark's house. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of it. The trip was so much fun. My kids learned a lot,... like that the word "donut" isn't just a food, but an activity... (an activity that Drew just couldn't seem to get enough of on the snow filled streets). We are so lucky to have such a great and loving family.

Christmas Morning

We had a great Christmas this year. Here are a few photos of Mia and Cole opening their presents. The kids were so excited that they finally got a Wii. They spent almost the entire Christmas day playing on it.

Fireplace

We found these great lounge chairs for a deal at Target, so we decided to enjoy them on our patio. It was about 40 degrees but that didn't stop us. We just lit a fire and sat around telling Christmas stories.

WE DID IT!!!

Mia and I performed in our first Christmas recital last night. It was so much fun. Mia's class did a tap number to "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus". My class did a contemporary routine to "Song for a Winters Night".



Here's Mia and I in our costumes. I wore a lot of make-up, including red lipstick. When I came down the stairs after getting ready, Cole looked shocked and said "Mom, you look brand new. Let me give you a hug." It was so funny.

Mia's favorite part was being on stage (although wearing make-up came in a close second). Katelyn is her best friend and they had a blast dancing together.

Here's the seven of us, crammed in our tiny backstage dressing room. From left to right Top row: Lindsay, Amber, Kristen, Rachel, Jen, Bottom Row: Melanie, and Me. All but one of us are Moms, and five of us had kids performing that night as well.

I would post the video of the performances, but we live in the dark ages and our video camera is still an 8mm (NOT DIGITAL). So you'll just have to imagine that they were the most beautiful performances ever performed in the history of dance. OK?

It was a crazy night. They had two shows to accomidate the 250 students' families. Our performance was at 5:30pm and our husbands raced to the theater to get a good seat. It was madness. Luckily we left Cole and Luke with a babysitter so it wasn't that crazy for us. A ton of people in our ward were in the audience, so that was a little intimidating. But we survived.

Mia's show was the 7:00 show. It was great seeing them perform. Mia did a great job. Afterwards we went to Baskin Robins for ice cream with Kristen and Katelyn to celebrate.