The Snowshoe Experience{s}

For the past couple of years, we have been lucky enough to be invited to go with the Jensen's snowshoeing up to the Jensen's family cabin. Unfortunately, I didn't blog about this little experience last year, but fortunately, I found the pictures. So, here goes my dual post of our 2011 and 2012 snowshoeing experience.

Warning, it's going to be a doozy...

2011-We loaded up in the Jensen's Subaru and left all of our kids behind. Before hitting the mountain, we stopped at Cafe Rio to fuel up for our 2.6 mile hike. No pictures.

2012-We loaded up our gear in our Subaru and met Trent, Amy, Doug and Lindsay at REI to do some shopping where we bought a couple last minute things like ski goggles. Following REI, we stopped at Molca Salsa.

2011-We hiked the whole time hardly resting and in the dark. No pictures until we got to the top. The hardest part was the last half mile straight up. Ouch.

Can you see how happy we were to be done?

2012-We took our time getting geared up.

 Trent and Amy were always the first to be ready

Luke and I were always the last

 But Doug and Lindsay were just right.

We made sure to take pictures of our adventure up. For some reason, it took a lot longer and I felt it a lot more and fish tacos were not sitting well.

2011- Arrived at the cabin happy to be there. Unloaded the little items that we had and heated up with a nice hot cup of chocolate. Sat around chatting in front of the fire where we all also slept with loads of blankets. It was heaven.

2012- Happy to be done after that killer climb up. I sware it was longer this year and we had a lot more weight.

This was just our food.

Trent and Amy packed super light with only the essentials.

Doug and Lindsay packed enough food for an entire week including canned drinks, heavy duty tin foil dinners, and much much more ;)

And I'm going to say that Luke and I packed just right

(I may get some guff for that one)

2011-We woke up the following morning to incredible views and headed up the mountain for some extreme sledding. We had pretty good weather even though it did start to snow. It was awesome.

This picture makes me laugh every time. Luke huffed and puffed the whole way up and he was such a good sport when we teased him about it.

See, he was still happy.

And this was the sledding in 2011...

2012- We did not have as good of weather. It was super windy and snowing and freezing!

Can you tell?

The guys still did some extreme sledding...

And after attempting a few runs, the girls decided to opt out and take pictures instead.

But seriously, it was painfully cold so we decided to sled back down to a nice warm cabin. So happy we had goggles too.

2011- We lounged around all day long in comfy clothes, napped and watched a couple of movies in one sitting including Meet Joe Black and A Time to Kill.

2012- Again with the comfortable clothes, naps and double the movies- The Town, Undercover Blues, Behind Enemy Lines Enemy of The State and The Illusionist.

2011- We ate when it was necessary

2012- We ate all day

Amy and Luke also went out again for one more sled run when the weather cleared up,

Love them.

 And we played some games.

2011- Before leaving the cabin, we had to take an engagement {looking} photo.

2012- Added a special someone to the engagement photo.

2011 and 2012- Sled down the mountain. The best part.

(2011)

(2012)

2011- Had an amazing adventure with Trent and Amy.

2012-Were so thankful that we got to go on this adventure again and this time with even more friends.

2011& 2012-Have these two to thank for two amazing back to back snowshoeing adventures.

This one's for YOU

Hi Sarah.

Thanks for reading. 

BANFF '12

Last night Luke and I headed to BANFF. Something that we look forward to every February. This is our 4th maybe 5th year going...neither one of us can remember.

As usual, it was awesome. And as usual, We didn't win in the prize drawing. Bummer. But we had a great time watching some {what they call "Epic"} videos.

For the record, I hate that word.

And if you want to know more about what BANFF is. Go here. Like I said, It's awesome.



Dont you hate it when...

You've been walking around most of the day and even out in public with raccoon eyes because you forgot you had put on mascara that day and then rubbed your eyes?

I do.

The Weekend

We had a pretty good weekend around here. We decided to stick around this time which is unusual for us when we have a 4 day weekend.

Friday:

Oliver and I hang out together most of the day. We met with Luke for lunch which was so nice and we decided to spoil ourselves with some purchases from Backcountry.com. More of that to come. Friday night we hit up Momentum Climbing for their late night climb. Rita and Terrel joined us. Finally at 2:30AM, we decided to go to bed.

Saturday:

 Lindsay, Amy and I {and kids} ventured on up to Park City to hit up the sales while our husbands were out doing their own thing in the snow. We did good. 

My favorite are these pictures below. We asked an older lady to take a picture of our group. As you can see, she sort of missed Lindsay in the first one, but managed to get some of her in the corner on the next. Ha!

 We shopped, till these girls dropped...

and drooled.

Luke and Oliver went sledding up Big Cottonwood Canyon. They didn't get any pictures, but they did get some video. I love that Oliver is getting old enough to go out and do things with Luke.

The rest of the weekend, we plan on being lazy and catching up on some Zzz's and movies.



Survivor

And I am so happy that it is back. You'll know where I'll be Thursday Wednesday nights from 7-8.

Do not disturb, unless you want to join me. Viewers always welcome.

Red. Pink. Hearts. Love.

We had such a great Valentines.

This is what we did.

Oliver:

The night before, Luke and I had stayed up late and snuck into Oliver's room to

decorate with hearts and reason why we love him written on them. Oliver Loved it.

He came into our room in the morning like he usually does. I asked him if he saw anything different in his room and he whispered "Yeah, there are things on my door." He left and I heard him go back into his room which he usually doesn't (He usually goes to watch cartoons). I got up to see what he was doing and when I walked into his room, He was laying on his bed looking around at all the hearts in his room. He then said "Mom, did you do this?" I told him that his Dad and I did and that we did it because it's Valentines day and that we love his so much. Oliver then got so excited and ran to tell Luke that there were hearts all over his room and to come see. Later in the day we gave Oliver his present. He got rain boots, another Hex Bug, Jammies and a tiny laser gun.

Luke and I:

When I got home from work, I then decorated Luke's side of our room and his closet also with hearts of the many things that I love about him. Oliver helped me put up 1 single heart. He didn't want to do anymore. When Luke came home Oliver was so exited to tell him that there were things on his wall in his room. Luke also loved it. And my favorite was later in the night, walking past our room and seeing  Luke in there looking up at all the hearts and reading them. We decided not to do gifts since we buy a lot of stuff on days that it isn't Valentines. That night we went to the Relief Society activity. They put on a dinner for the women and we got to bring our Husbands or a date....I decided to take my husband this time. We had a great time watching some ward members play the newly wed game and then watching a video that our fellow ward members and friends, the Marujis put on. Following the RS activity, we headed to Orange Leaf...again. If you wonder why we're getting so chubby, it's all Orange Leaf. When we got home, I saw that I too was heart attacked. My amazing Visiting teachers put hearts on my front door with scriptures of love. And I loved it too. Maybe February isn't so bad after all...

And in case you wondered. This is the video that we watched last night. I got a teary eyed in a few spots. 

Be mine

I am glad that they are mine, and I am theirs...

Happy, Happy Valentines Day!

How we do.

This is how we do Grammy Sunday at my Moms.

The girls + my Bro in law watching the Grammys...

And the boys + Ashlyn watching Napoleon Dynamite...

Oliver and Jack ran around back and forth most of the night and played on the ipad and Mom watched her Spanish shows in the kitchen.

We sure are a family that likes our TV.

Saturday's a Special Day

How did we spend our Saturday this week? Well, I'll tell you. We slept in. Got the house taken care of. Oliver was interviewed for an upcoming Valentines video that our ward is putting on. Luke took us out to lunch for Valentines...okay not really for Valentines, but I'll use that as an excuse since I'm trying to better about the holiday. We all LOVED it. We ate like pigs and Oliver did well for the first half of the meal. After running to a few stores while Oliver napped in transit we took him to play with Jack for a couple of hours. Luke and I hung out and took care of a couple things. We made a quick run over to orange leaf where we indulged in our favorite frozen yogurt. And finally ended the night watching Breaking Dawn...well, I did. It was a pretty good Saturday.

My handsome little guy with his prongs at rodizio grill.

My husband is a hottie and I'm lovin his new hat.

Luke's pick: Cookies and cream, brownie batter and cherry chocolate with butterfinger hot fudge and waffle cone.

My pick: Classic Tart and Mango banana strawberry with cheesecake bites, strawberries and waffle cone.

"Calories calories..."

A Happy Purchase

Luke surprised Oliver with a sled.

And in the process picked one up for himself and me. As you can see, Oliver was thrilled. Now if only it would snow we could actually go out and enjoy them.

SUPER bowl

The only reason I like it is because it's an excuse for party food.

This year we didn't have much going on. We decided to go hang out with my mom since she was going to be alone. So we bought Pap Murphy's stuffed pizza...the night before of course, had chips and salsa, popcorn, candied almonds, cookies and drinks. It was awesome. The 4 of us hung out watching the game, commercials and halftime show...which I wasn't much impressed with any of it.  My mom and I were cheering for the Patriots and Luke was cheering for the 49ers so he really didn't care who won. Oliver took turns playing with the adults, but mostly with his grandma. He made forts, had so much junk food and played with the camera. Here are some of the pictures he took of our night....

 The game.

 He thought it was so funny to take a picture of Luke's belly.

 I taught him how to hold a camera so that he wouldn't get him fingers in the picture. It worked most of the night.

 I tried to take a nap...

But it didn't last. Wonder why?

 When I tried to take a picture with him, he didn't like it.

 After getting flash after flash in the eyes. The adults were done.

And my personal favorite. Grandma Lili.

Luke and I agreed that was one of the best super bowl parties we have been to.