Ski Bums

This winter has been so mild....although as I type this, snow is falling continuously outside my window.  Unfortunately we have not had the chance, or weather to get out skiing much yet.  Mark did take Bailee and Karsyn on a Cross Country ski trip on some trails around the Wood River near Meeteetse and they had great time.  

Since it was the first time out this year, there were some falls....but they weren't taken too seriously (at least not for Bailee:)

Karsyn is a little crazy woman and cannot get enough of the downhill stuff  ...unless of course she falls!

 I can't wait until we can all get out there again:)

Birthday Boy

Mark celebrated a very big day on Sunday. We are both huge fans of the Amazing Race and so when I was talking to the girls about what we should do for Dad's birthday, the idea for a race of our own was born ...perfect!!

Since they would all have to participate, I didn't let them in on too much of the planning, but they did give me some ideas to work off of for challenges:) First thing was to get into teams .....

They were given a clue at each Pit Stop and had to figure out where to go next. There was a lot of team discussion....

and some confusion as well:)

One of the clues was in the "little furry mans" territory. I thought I had tucked it away in a good spot ...hard to find, but out of his grasp. When the clue was found....I found I was WRONG!!

Once they got to their destination, they were given their task. Challenges included: counting fence posts/boards


...searching book baskets for a "Birthday Book" and completing some birthday trivia (I was surprised how many pairs of our extended family share a birthday:)

Building cake towers

Putting puzzles together ...

Rolling fruit with their nose......

...and eating cup fulls of peanut butter M&M's to find the one with the smiley face (sounds scrumptious until about the 4th mouthful).

It was close...but Bay and Kars squeaked in first earning a McD's gift card and Mark and Emm crossed the finish line within seconds winning some Red Vines which I am sure will be shared with a movie.

We all had so much fun ....I think Mark even liked it;) We finished off the night with pizza, cake, ice cream and the girls gave Mark a new shirt and some accessories for his Kindle. He also asked for a trip to fish for Steelhead ....which we granted! These girls are lucky to have such and AMAZING dad! (I think he's pretty great too;)

Bolsa Chica Beach

After our 2 day Disney marathon, we were in need of some serious relaxation. The beach was just the ticket. We headed to Bolsa Chica along the Pacific Coast Highway. A dreary fog had settled in that morning and it was only about 55 degrees when we got there. That didn't stop our crazy girls. They were slowly shedding more and more clothing and pretty soon were asking to change into swimsuits because their clothes were already wet!

We pretty much had the entire beach to ourselves....it was GREAT! There were a few out for a stroll on the beach and of course the surfers that were fun to watch, but no others as brave as us!

The sun broke out after a few hours and it warmed up a bit. Not enough for me to get too close to the water, but the girls were drinkin' it up:) We even spotted some dolphins swimming out about 100 yards.....no joke!

Bailee was busy building houses in the sand ...

Karsyn was playing with kelp and marking how far the waves came up...

Emmrey & Mark were running from those darn buttkissers!

And me? I stayed bundled up in my sweater and blanket enjoying just watching my girls play. Oh ... and I munched on this delicious Smoked Gouda dip...yum! (Had to be in color to get the full picture:)


It felt good to just put our feet up and play in the sand:) Ahhhh.....I could get used to this!