New Years Day Fish

As most of you know, Darin is a fishing fanatic. When we arrived at the lake he decided he was going to throw in a line off the dock with a bobber just for kicks. Jeffe' and Gary laughed at him and basically told him he was wasting his time at first until he caught a trout on New Years Eve. Then Gary decided to throw his line in as well. After a fun long night of ringing in the New Year, we all got up with the kids. Darin went down stairs to check on his line. Before we knew it he came flying up the stairs with a huge trout in his hand. It was the biggest trout we have ever seen from the lake let alone the biggest trout anyone has ever caught at the lake. It was beautiful. Darin was a happy camper. Hailey helped Daddy as he got them ready to clean so we could take it home to show Papa. I have never seen a grin on Darin's face for such a long period of time, well almost.

New Years Eve Snow Day

We headed up to the lake Thursday, December 30th for an extended weekend of fun with family, friends and the snow. The Murray family, Laura, Gary, Matthew and Andrew along with Jeffe', Robyn and Vayda came to stay to help us ring in the New Year. We got up on New years Eve and headed to the snow, well about 11 am we headed just past Arnold to Blue Lake Springs. We found the perfect spot...the golf course. It was just the right amount of snow and the perfect size hills to sled down. Sydney and Matthew immediately made snow angels in the snow. Hailey was loving every minute and enjoyed taking it all in, such an exciting new experience. Hailey had never been to the snow. We all enjoyed playing on the hills and sledding down. Even Darin, Jeffe' and Gary started to think they were young again and decided to stand on the sled going down the hill, like a snow board. They all bailed several times, it was quite hilarious! We were laughing hysterically even though each of them got up in pain. Why is it we do that? Someone is in pain and we still giggle? The kids attempted to make a snowman but the snow was super light and fluffy and was extremely hard to form. We stayed for 4 hours without even realizing it. We had so much fun! We headed back to the lake and had a yummy New Years Eve Dinner. It was a great day! :)

Christmas Cards

We finally got a good picture of the family for our Christmas Cards. Thanks Jill for your patience. We love our paperbox press cards!

My girls

We went and took pictures with all the "cousins" early this year, first week in November to be exact. I love this picture of my sweet girls. Makes my heart smile! I promise to post more very, very soon! Sorry i kind of fell off for a while. Time is flying.

Silver Lake family trip

After 4 years of not being able to make it up to Silver Lake, we were FINALLY able to go up with the entire family for the weekend. We went up with Grammy, Grandpa, Uncle Scott, Auntie Kelli, Auntie Missy, Dave and of course all our family...oh and can't forget Carter and Hilda (the dogs). Darin was thrilled to be able to go fishing up there in a boat this year. He has been a fishing machine this year. It did help that Matt, our cousin decided to come and join us up there, which was great to see him and quite the treat. Sydney and Hailey loved being in the cabin and spending time with their cousins and playing games. Hailey especially loved playing with the dog bed that was in grammy and grandpa's room, go figure out of all things. She thought it was a great place to play! We went on a few small hikes which Sydney did really well on but Hailey on the other hand had a different idea. She wasn't interested in walking or being carried in the backpack carrier. She wanted to be carried everywhere we went which explains why we only went on small hikes to the lodge, to the waterfall and just past the waterfall to glass rock. That was far enough for Hailey. At the waterfall the kids raced boats up under the bridge to see who's boat (stick) would finish first. Scott, Darin and Missy always did that when they were young. We also had some surprise visitors on Sunday, Uncle Craig & Aunt Danette came up with their dogs to hike and hang out for a while. We had an awesome weekend up at Silver lake. We always love going up their to smell the fresh mountain air and enjoy the sounds of "True" nature.

Salad Anyone?

It was a gorgeous day outside yesterday so, what better way to end the day but with a BBQ? We ate outside, it was awesome. As we wrapped up dinner we all sat around enjoying each others company. Sydney on the other hand decided that she was still hungry. Sydney is a huge fan of Caesar salad so, she figured everyone was done so instead of putting more Caesar salad on her plate, she decided to just bring out the entire bowl. We were laughing. She can be so quirky sometimes.

Last Day of School Fun

Sydney's last day of school was fairly early compared to most of her friends and cousins. Yes, her last day was in May and before Memorial Weekend! Crazy right? Well they start in early August, so it makes sense. Sydney's last day of Kinder, all the Kinder classes played games, made bracelets, played pass the bean bag, played ring toss, play dough, and many other activities. It was bitter sweet knowing that it was the last day that Sydney would be with all the same friends in a class and that I wouldn't be helping her teacher Mrs. Esteves anymore, she was such a blessing for Sydney. Sydney had a fantastic year at Monticello Elementary! Summer here we come!