Now that we are in the swing of spring break, I figure I better post about winter break.

Have I mentioned how much I adore time off of school? 

We’re all pretty happy about that kind of thing around here.2012-12-25 elle's iPhone 68968
I love being able to be in charge of our own schedule.

And staying in our PJ’s all day if we want to:2012-12-31 iPhone 67453

The plan this year was to have my whole family join up in Utah.  We haven’t been together at Christmas-time for ages and my little sister started planning over a year ago for us all to be there.

Oh boy did I ever want to go.  But trying to maneuver Christmas was rough.  With five kids and all the festivities and concerts that surround Christmas we decided we couldn’t leave until right after.  And then there were crazy storms on the roads we would be using and our non-four-wheel-drive car would have never made it all those miles.

So we stayed home.

I made us up a calendar so we could keep track of our days.  We kind of made up a Christmas break “bucket list” on that thing.

We went to a college basketball game with cousins (because we have this cool pogo pass thing) and pretty much had the whole place to ourselves.2012-12-29 iPhone 67420
…which meant the girls got on the jumbo-tron over and over again.2012-12-29 iPhone 67435They were pretty delighted about that little fact.

On New Years Eve our very kind friends invited us over for a fondue dinner.2012-12-31 iPhone 67458
Wow, I thought we did fondue right in our family…but they’re the ones who have that thing down I tell you.2012-12-31 iPhone 67461
After that we headed over with friends to do our third annual Frisbee dodge-ball game.2012-12-31 new years 673632012-12-31 new years 67370
Once again, fun was had by all.

Check out that father/daughter/son team intensity:2012-12-31 new years 673782012-12-31 new years 67383More on how that game works back here.

Next we headed with everyone over to a dance party.2012-12-31 new years 67398Dave was “in the zone” I tell you.

He pulled out all the moves.  There were all kinds of awesome prizes if they called the number you stopped on when the music stopped. 

They served breakfast outside until midnight and we watched fireworks.2012-12-31 new years 67408
Our friends kinda know how to do things right:)2013-01-01 new years 674122013-01-01 new years 674152012-12-31 new years 67404
On New Year’s Day we opted out of our hiking plan (much to my chagrin but man alive it had been a late night, especially for our teenagers who had split off from us after the dodge ball).

Instead we had a big celebration breakfast with sparkling cider…2013-01-01 new year 675302013-01-01 new year 67532
…and packed up and headed up to the mountains to find a little snow.2013-01-01 iPhone 67472
When you live in the desert, views like this take your breath away:2013-01-03 iPhone 67500
The first day Dave took the big kids off to ski.2013-01-02 new year 67538
And Lu and I set of to make our goal: “build a snowman.”2013-01-02 iPhone 674762013-01-02 iPhone 67484
The snow was sparse and total powder so this is all we could come up with:2013-01-02 iPhone 67485
Let’s check that puppy out a little closer:2013-01-02 iPhone 67487There we go.

We had a fun lunch date:2013-01-02 iPhone 67491
…and some very exciting memory games.2013-01-02 iPhone 67492
That night we felt our way in the pitch darkness to the hot tub…so dark that the camera couldn’t focus, but oh-so nice and warm. 2013-01-02 iPhone 67495
The next day we skied with cousins.2013-01-03 iPhone 675062013-01-03 iPhone 675072013-01-03 iPhone 675082013-01-04 iPhone 675172013-01-03 skiing 67524
And finally, after all my years of begging, Dave consented to let Lucy try ski school:2013-01-03 iPhone 67510Can you tell she was pleased as punch about that?
2013-01-03 skiing 67521(We couldn’t catch up with Max for long enough for a family pic., darn it!)

I loved that the girls squeezed in a quick snow photo-shoot before we packed up and headed home.2013-01-04 Cabin getaway 675452013-01-04 Cabin getaway 675562013-01-04 Cabin getaway 675642013-01-04 Cabin getaway 675742013-01-04 Cabin getaway 67587
Love them.

Happy New Year.

In March 🙂

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7 Comments

  1. Love the post. Cute little snowman too. It is good to know there is a little snow to escape to in the winter time. Love family ski activities.

  2. Oh I loved those snow photos. I live in North Queensland, Australia, where the nearest snow is about 3 days drive away. It is just starting to get not incredibly hot and I am getting very excited about the little bit of winter that we do get. ckfloc

  3. love the snow pics and the dance party! Especially the dance party! We're always looking for kid friendly stuff to do on NYE.

    Wow. This statement really struck me "after years of begging Dave consented to let Lu try ski" Sometime it's good to get a little glimpse behind the curtain and see what "honoring the priesthood at home" really means! I wonder if you both would have a different perspectives if he stayed back with Lucy while you took the big kids skiing?

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