Ski weekend with JB and Megan

Matt was away for a weekend in January so I invited my cousins Julie and Megan to come ski with us. We all drove up Friday night and the moon was beautiful and in view the whole way. I had Reid and Ben with me and Julie had Chase. Matty and Isabelle stayed home with Rusty. I also brought up or babysitter Jessie to help with the kids and so she could get away too. When we woke up Saturday morning the moon was setting and it was gorgeous. I took some pictures through the slider but they still came out pretty good.

We had a great ski weekend, good snow and good weather but cold. Jules, Meg and I tore up the Mt and we were all sore for a few days afterwards. Julie, Meg and I went to the bar for dinner and drinks Saturday night while Jessie watched the kids, thank you Jessie! We had a great time and talked about old times. Did we walk back to the condo? I'm not sure but I do remember the huge ring around the moon that night, I've never seen anything like it. And sure enough it really did mean snow because we skied on 4-5 inches of fresh powder the next morning! In the picture below Julie is posing while I'll test the camera.

And here is Me, Megan and Julie.

And Jessie and I. Thank you girls for a great weekend!

Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas! Christmas morning was wonderful this year because I could sit back and enjoy it. Reid and Ben are old enough to open their own gifts and Reid was able to read the tags and hand out the gifts too. Here Ben is opening his stocking but can't seem to get past eating the peanut butter cups.Reid is under her present from Santa, a silk bower. She now has this hanging over her bed in her bedroom.Reid and Ben are enjoying Ben's gift from Matt and I, Magna-Tiles. Ben loves to play with these at preschool and Reid as well at Kindergarten.And here is a very beautiful picture of me in my new running outfit from Matt and Grammy.

Christmas Eve 2008

Tristan was with us on Christmas Eve this year so we opened presents with him on Christmas Eve morning. If possible we will open presents from Matt's parents and Aunt Sue as well so Reid and Ben have gifts to open as well. This helps make Christmas morning less crazy too. We got a Magic Bullet from Matt's parents and all the kids were interested in were the colored glasses that came with it!Here Ben is opening his Fire Engine from Aunt Sue and he loved it!Hanna is enjoying Reid's gift from Aunt Sue, bunny slippers, and Reid loves them too.

Tristan is so happy he finally got Guitar Hero for the Wii.

And the excitement of it all took it's toll on Matt and Ben, however this does happen quite often in our house.

We had a chicken stir fry for Christmas Eve dinner and the kids had of course Mac-n-Cheese.

Christmas with the Pyle's

Shelly and her family came down to our house the weekend before Christmas for a little get-together. Mom enjoyed having us all together right before the holiday and so soon after her getting home from the hospital. The kids enjoyed tubing in our backyard, in the picture below is Reid, Keenan and Tristan.
Keenan and Tristan are in the tube below while Matt holds on so I can take a picture. My dad is in the background cleaning up our driveway....thank you dad!

Ben and Reid's turn for a tube ride.

I think Shelly and Matt are happy but it's sure hard to tell from the picture below.

Keenan and Ben seemed to enjoy each other.
And here are all the grand kids, Reid, Keenan, Ben, Quinn and Tristan.

Ice Storm 2008

Here are some pictures from the Ice Storm this past December. We were without power for 5 days. This was more of a problem than normal as we had just got my mom home from the hospital the night we lost power and she was supposed to rest for several days. We made it through ok and stayed in a hotel for 3 nights with my mom.