January 2009: Durango Colorado

We caught a flight to Durango Colorado on New Year's Day for a little snow skiing / snowboarding at Purgatory.  Life is wonderful when you have amazing friends!  Nolan and I met Scott Allen with his twins, Matthew & Lindsey, when we went to work at The Sunflower House in Peru.  They quickly became wonderful friends and we discovered that they are also VERY generous! They live in New Mexico and own a condo across the street from Purgatory in Colorado and guess who they let visit . . .

Nobody complained about doing dishes here . . . even Keaton!

India waited for opportunities to go upstairs . . .

Nolan's specialty . . . eating!

Landon was always ready for family time . . . a movie!

The snow was falling and it was beautiful!  India played out in the snow for hours and decided to make her very own snow palace!  We all wanted to help however, Thomas proved to be the expert.  All dad's should know how to build palaces for their princesses!

The guys discovered that there were other ways to entertain themselves and us . . .


1.  Build a snow fort.

2.  Build a mini snowman.

3.  Look innocent after throwing snowballs at others.

4.  Juggle.

5.  Sled downhill - sometimes using sleds and occasionally . . . NOT!

And then, there was fun together time . . .

The boys had a wonderful time snowboarding while Thomas & India skied.  I skied some and even took lessons but bad news:  I'm still not a pro!  (I didn't expect anyone to be surprised.)

The snow was falling heavily during the first few skiing days.  The ski pictures resembled television static and the days were overcast, however we were having a fabulous time and the boys are excellent snowboarders while India & Thomas impressed me with their skiing abilities.  This wasn't our first trip but they are excellent occasional snow birds.

The last day was beautiful, complete with a blue sky and I was wanting to try snowshoeing!  I have the best family in the world and they all agreed to go with me!

We got our shoes and off we went . . .

I wasn't a professional at hiking up the mountain either!  We actually all slid down a few times!

Nolan made it look easy!  He blazed a trail and eventually, with his help, we all made it up to the top and had a magnificent view!

What a great way to start the year!

(P.S.  Thomas tied the camera to a tree, set the timer and ran to join the family!  He made it and we have a great family picture to capture our top-of-the-mountain memory!)

Girl in a Whirl!

I'm all on my own and attempting to post on my blog! Is this working or could I be wasting my time??? I've been searching for at least 5 minutes to locate the right button that will allow me to post new things and now that I think I'm on the right page . . . I may never figure out how to get back again! However, I'm hoping to make a girl in a whirl attempt at summarizing our life. For posterity's sake, I'm going to rewind to January 2009 and make a whirl wind review of the ultimate year!

Nolan has been safely deposited at the Provo MTC in the new and improved "kicked to the curb" fashion! We have anticipated this moment for the last 19 years and it came much faster than we could have imagined. I am so thankful the Lord inspired me to educate my children at home because I realize I have few regrets or thoughts of missed conversations I wish I'd had. What haven't we done?!?!

1. Adopt a million pets . . . check!

2. Dissect creatures for biology . . . check!

3. Attempt to adopt children . . . check!

4. Become expert practical jokers . . . check! . . . . . . .

We also foresaw this moment when our family dynamics would be changed for . . . well, forever. I hear a 21 year old return missionary is a very different character than the 19 year old I last saw. As we contemplated how our lives would change, we made a plan to create as many fun memories as was humanly possible this last year! I think we were very successful!!

I will now attempt to post this entry, figure out how to add pictures and blog 2009!