Sleeping Giant

The 6th grade girls had the opportunity to ski for a day as a part of their PE unit. Parents were strongly encouraged to attend along with their child. Bailee was so excited to go and really wanted Mark or me to go along with her. I decided it would be a great way to spend a day together and to be a part of Bay's first skiing experience....one small problem...I myself have not skied since High School and that was not the best experience for me:( But I decided I would try to be a good example and conquer my old fears. We spent the day at Sleeping Giant, a ski resort up near Yellowstone which reopened last year. We were lucky enough to have our friends Miranda and Paige along with us to show us the ropes. I forgot how difficult those things are to just maneuver in, let alone make it up and down the hill.


It was a bit shaky at first, but Bailee felt like a pro by the end of the day:) I was just glad to not make a scene involving youngsters being taken down with me.

The weather could not have been more perfect!! We had such a fun day together...who knows maybe we will turn into "ski bums"

Winter Fiesta

Saturday Bailee had a swim meet in Powell. She swam in 4 events and did really well in all of them. She has so much fun with all her friends on the team and it is so fun to watch them all root for one another!! This is a picture of about half of her team..the ones we could round up. Cody will host our annual meet in a couple of weeks:)

After the meet, this is what we saw around our house all weekend!

Lucky 17

Last Saturday Mark and I celebrated 17 years of marital bliss. Okay so maybe it hasn't been exactly "bliss" all the time, but it has definitely been the best years of my life:) This happens to be Marks "lucky number" so we will see if the year brings us any luck...fingers crossed!!


His annual snowmobiling/ice-fishing trip was planned for that Saturday and I "forced" Mark to go since we had not made any big plans. So he spent the day in this Winter Wonderland while I spent the day at home staying warm with my girls. (I had a lot to do to get ready for my lesson Sunday). My thoughtful little girls surprised me with a homemade lunch. This was no ordinary lunch...it was a special recipe from the "Kids Cookbook"... a tortilla wrap filled with ham, sour cream, cheese, mayo and CORN. Yes that's right...and lucky for me we had all the ingredients. Mmmm!! In fact it was so tasty that I insisted I save half of it for Mark when he got home (he thanked me for that later) Thought trumps taste on this one and I was just so touched by their thoughtfulness....sweet girls!!

They also made us the cutest little poster for the door with nice little messages and Bailee whipped up a slide show on her computer with pictures of Mark and I....I shed a tear or two:)

The girls helped me make the number "17" and hearts with chocolates...17 of each kind and I made a list of "17 Things I Love About You" for my Marko. When Mark got home at around 7 we ordered pizza and watched a movie together.



The girls had a sleepover in Bailee's room. This here is the reason our 17 years have been so amazing...we are so in love with these girls (and each other too) One of these weekends we may even sneak away for a real anniversary date:)

Family Room Campout

For Mark's birthday this past weekend, we wanted to give him a day of what he enjoys most. Well...when your birthday is in January and it is 20 degrees it is a bit tricky to spend the day in the Great Outdoors. So the girls and I came up with a plan to bring the outdoors to him. We put together a regular camp out in the family room. We ended up making a last minute trip to Billings that morning because Mark wanted to get some trim for the basement rooms. It was a fun day, but it also gave us less time to get everything set up for dinner that night. We had to lock him away while we got everything ready...but I think it was worth it:)

We made foil dinners in the fire (oven) and they tasted pretty darn good...just like camping!!

We ate dinner under the stars that the girls had made...each one had a special message they had written for Mark.


Bailee read us a Yellowstone ghost story

We roasted marshmallows over the fire (space heater)...yeah this didn't really work, but the "heat" had the girls convinced that it was in fact making them toasty brown:) It did make the marshmallows nice and warm.

And after eating Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies, which Mark requested instead of cake, we watched the Great Outdoors in the tent (I thought it would okay for the girls to see because it was PG, but it was clear this was before PG 13 came about...I had totally forgotten about the "bad words" that were so freely thrown about...good job Mom!!) The girls thought it was funny, but not quite as hysterical as Mark!! We all enjoyed a good laugh and when it got late and little girls were starting to ZONK, had a little sleep over in the tent.


We hope Mark had a memorable birthday filled with smiles. We love you Marko!!