2014 Winter Olympics at Island Park

 What better way to watch the Winter Olympics than to snuggle up by a cozy fire in a cozy cabin in beautiful Island Park with people you love?!

We went the week before Valentine's Day and we enjoyed every minute. We left later in the evening so the kids slept most of the way and when we arrived at midnight, it was -34 degrees!  Brrr!

For the next 5 days we watched did lot of snowmobiling, a lot of olympic watching, a lot of playing in the snow, a lot of relaxing, and a lot of eating delicious food like homemade corn dogs :)

A few high lights:

-Millie and Sambo are official pros at driving their own snowmobiles and they did a great job keeping    up with the bunch! Will did some driving too, in fact he and Sambo traded off.

 -The kids {with the help of BS} dug/built an enormous awesome snow cave.

- We snowmobiled to West Yellowstone and celebrated the Jan/Feb birthdays at a party at Wild West.

- Watching the skiing, figure skating, and snowboarding Olympic events in our jammies!

1.Snow fort  2.Quinny & Grandpa  3.Lots of snow&blue skies!  4.The gang

 1.Chilly!  2.The trail to Yellowstone  3.Will  4.Millie & Alix  5.Quin & Bode 

 1. Grandma & Grandpa  2.Holly & Heidi  3.Sleeping Quin & BS  4.Sam & Holly

5.Mills & Grandma  6.Sambo & Millie

 1.Inside the fort  2.Wild West Pizza party  3.Chops {LOVES going}  4.Big Springs bridge

Some indoor fun:

Making donuts and corn dogs!  

Opening Valentines from Grandma

Christmas 2013

We spent Christmas at the cabin for the 2nd year in a row!

Last year was wonderful so we wanted to do it again.  

Grandpa wins the prize for getting the best Christmas present this year...a hot tub from Grandma and the rest of us.  We have been putting money in a pot for a few years and we finally did it!  It faces the river and mountains so it is very nice and relaxing. Thumbs up :)

 At the top of Quinny's Christmas list was a "Flippee," an animal hat. She got a kitty hat with a tail that flips up when she squeezes the pink part. Q loves anything that involves animals.  Will was so happy to get a new remote control helicopter.  Those things are so cool and he is a good pilot!

 There was plenty of snow for snowmobiling and sledding. BS got sassy on the old Summit catching some sweet air haha!

 More gifts included "Beats" by Dre, some ultra tech headphones (all 4 kids got them, but only so BS and I could use them), bike ramps, pedicure & shelac set, go-carts, iPad, air-soft guns, skis & ski gear, a Joke Box for Will, games, ...

Here, we are eating at Taggarts, one of our favorite Morgan spots after the boys spent the day hunting for rabbits and coyotes.  They got skunked but had fun anyway!

 What would a week at the cabin be without good food?  Millie kept busy in the kitchen baking up delicious goodies with Grandpa and Grandma and giving mani's and pedi's. The boys stayed busy playing with their new games and toys and having air-soft wars with the big boys.

It was another perfect holiday week and we feel very blessed for wonderful family and an awesome place to spend Christmas! <3 nbsp="" p="">

Cone of Shame

Pork Chops had to go to the doctor.  He had a rash on his belly.  

He had to wear the cone for two weeks. Two weeks!  And it was not your average size cone.

He couldn't fit through a doorway straight on.  It was shameful.  Poor guy.

8th, 6th, 4th, and FIRST!

People who know me best know that I am not a fan of school starting.  It just means that summer is over and my kids leave me and we have to wake up early and have a schedule and keep track of a million papers/dates, and then do homework and many various projects.  Ugh!

Usually I am somewhat prepared for this.  But this year it snuck up on me from behind and it hit me HARD!  In the weeks leading up to the big day I was very busy with the start-up of our new business (Aerie*) among other things.  Traditionally I plan a fancy "back to school" night for the kids where I cook a favorite dinner and decorate and and have a fashion show and we get all pumped up.

This year it didn't happen.

School started on a Tuesday so we settled for FHE with a steak dinner at Texas Roadhouse.  Lone Peak football had a big kick-off party as well with a scrimmage so that was fun too.  And of course, because I was so unprepared, I was taking the boys to get their hair-cut at 8:55 pm, just before they put up the CLOSED sign.  There was no way I was going to let them start school with crusty hair-dos.

Texas Roadhouse

Well, ready or not, the morning came and here they are, so cute and excited for their first day of school:

Notice Sambo is in a white polo and navy shorts. That's because he is going to a new charter school for 6th grade.  Surprisingly, he is not too bugged about wearing uniforms.  That was until he had to wear a white shirt and tie on Monday.  Every Monday.  I was nervous for him, starting a new school - but when he got home the only complaint he had about his first day was "there aren't very many cute girls there."  So I figure if that's the worst thing, then it's going to be ok :)  

First day at Mountainville Academy

Mrs. Burnside's class

Mrs. Worlton

BS and I got the kids dropped off (because we do a lot of being together these days thanks to Aerie*) and I came home and started doing the dishes.  And then it hit me and I started to cry. And then I started bawling. The reality of it all came at me so hard and so sudden...the reality that we are officially on to the next phase of life.  The phase where there are no more littles at home.  No more buddies to play/eat/run errands with. Call me weird but I like having kiddos with me at home.  I've been doing it for 13 years and now here I am.  And I missed Quincy already. I don't want her to be so grown up. Any of my kids.  Then BS came downstairs and saw me crying and then we decided that we were at a huge milestone and that we needed to celebrate!  

So we went to the movies!  Here we are, the only people in the theatre at 12:15 in the afternoon, with our feet on the chairs and a huge bucket of buttered popcorn and a soda from the fancy soda machine.

It helped me feel better.  

As I write this, school has been going now for 7 days.  I have yet to have some time to myself at home while the kids are at school (again thanks to Aerie*).  So yes, I am still bummin about them being gone.  But I'm sure once I get a taste of it, I will like this new phase more and more.

The kids and friends after their first day of school. They all had a great day!  Except for Chops.  Just when he thought things couldn't get worse than the cone of shame, he had to go all day without the kids around and he got lonely :(

Just for fun, I took some pics the next day of the 2 littles walking to school together.  

So. dang. cute.  I LOVE that they can walk and ride their bikes together.  And I can go with them too!  And Chops!  I feel really lucky that each of my kids are excited for school to start and not sad, nervous, or whiny about it :)

 

Still have tons to blog about from summer, but wanted to get school started.

*Information about Aerie coming.  Stay tuned.  

A Birthday and a Green Day in Vegas

This half Leprechaun had a birthday!  Yep, he turned 9.  And what better place for a money lovin' guy to spend his birthday than in Las Vegas?! 

Actually, we were hardly near any slot machines or casinos because this year the 6 of us stayed just outside of town instead of the Polo Towers.  We went down with the Clark clan for their traditional Spring Break trip (for the college students), but because we are a big family we got our own place that was a mile outside of the action.  The best thing about the condo was definitely the swimming pools which included a lazy river!  The weather was in the 80s all weekend and we couldn't have asked for better weather.  It's always so great to get the kids all to ourselves and away from the hustle and bustle. 

 

Quincy is a total fish. She loves to retrieve diving sticks and pennies from the bottom of the pool.  At first the lifeguard kept telling her she needed to be with a grown up in the lazy river but he soon discovered that she was as good a swimmer as the grown ups! 

Another good thing about where we stayed was the convenience of yummy food options and the new outdoor shopping mall just down the street.  Dunkin Donuts and smoothies (can't remember the name) for breakfast.  We discovered a drive-thru called Raising Cane's which has delicious chicken fingers, fries and fry sauce, garlic bread, and good ice.  Random but yummy.  We went there twice in 3 days.  And *BONUS* they had GREEN lemonade on St. Patrick's day!

We didn't make a big deal out of St. Patrick's day this year because we were too busy enjoying our vacation, but thank goodness for the green lemonade to save the day.

We also went to one of our favorites, Qdoba.  Yum!

Our family likes to explore and go on hikes (as long as you don't call it a "hike"), but we have never ventured out in Las Vegas.  BS did some research and found an awesome hike that was in Red Rock Canyon called "Calico Tanks."  We filled up the Camelbaks and headed up the trail.  It ended up being a perfect hike for us with the right amount of exercise and fun.  It took about 3 hours both ways.

This is our 4 little troopers at the top.  You can see the tall hotels on the strip in the background:

There were lots of fun rock stairs, caves, and structures to play on:

Love this guy

 We met up with the rest of the Clarks (Grandpa & Grandma, Adam & Jess, Sean & Meg, Jordan & Jenny) a couple times at their place.  The girls went shopping at the Miracle Mile shops while the dudes went to the "Pinball Hall of Fame" and The Zombie Museum
(except for Quincy - she's half boy sometimes).

Just when they didn't think it could better than a Zombie museum, Uncle Adam took them to the Pinball Hall of Fame which is the best Arcade ever!!!

Uncle Adam, Uncle Sean, Uncle Jordan went too!

Then we all met up together for Will's birthday dinner.  We went to Caesar's Palace, of course.  We love the fish tank, the Atlantis show, the shopping, designing shoes at the massive Nike store, and Cheesecake Factory.

Quincy could have spent hours watching the sea life.  She named all of the fish.  This one is Peppermint Patty

And finally Will's party!

Good food, good company, and good dessert at Cheesecake Factory.

He couldn't be happier.  What a day!  What a weekend!

Everyone knows Will loves to get money $$$

When we got home, we had to have yet one more celebration because it was his actual birthday.  But we kept it boring with brownies and ice cream on the Special plate.  He got an XBOX 360 remote and 500 water balloons.  Just want he wanted :)

And we couldn't forgot Pork Chops...it's his birthday too.  Happy 3rd birthday good ol' boy!

Here, have a bone.