I got to take the three older kids snowboarding/skiing! I got a pass for Dylan to ski free in Idaho (5th and 6th graders, three times resort) and I wanted to take Sadie with me when we went with the school but they didn't offer lessons (or at least they never had before but they actually DID this year.) So I wanted her to have a lesson so she would know what she was doing before we went. We decided to start her out on skis. She was adorable! She had a one-on-one lesson and she did so awesome! Didn't crash once. By the end of the lesson she was tearing up the bunny hill. I asked her teacher if she could go on the smaller lift now and he said, "oh no, she needs to learn to turn better first." Since I don't know much about skiing, I didn't dare take her after that. So she stayed on the bunny hill. She did awesome at the little tow-rope and she had a lot of fun. She didn't even need me there to supervise. So I went down the hill with the other kids and checked in with Sadie periodically and stopped in the lodge with them for snacks.
Kylee is an old pro. Dylan asked her to go down with him once when I was with Sadie, but once was all she could handle. He was too slow for her. But she and I sure have fun.
Isn't her new board so cute??
Considering Dylan had only been snowboarding once in the 2nd grade, I think he did pretty great! But it is hard. He hung out on the bunny hill with Sadie a bit. He came down a few times with me, and he hung out in the lodge. I planned on him doing lessons at the school night. He just came this time because it was free and he had Kylee's old board. We just rented boots (which were $10 and I only paid like $20 to buy Kylee's so now I want to buy him a pair). The first school night ended up being when I was in Hawaii, so he went with his friend Mitchell and did a skiing lesson. I guess it didn't go too well. Skiing is hard, lol. He said they went down the mountain once by themselves after the lesson and crashed hard and it was too hard. Once I got back I took him and he did a snowboarding lesson and he had a lot more fun. I was surprised how long he stayed out there with his friend. He was one of the last ones on the mountain. Maybe he will decide he wants to do more of it this next year. He enjoys it, but he is also a home-body and doesn't like spending the whole day up there with all the work it takes to get gear on and what-not (the same argument I hear from his dad, hehe).
I was dying to try my new board. And the weekend after Ryan got back from Arizona happened to have snow in the forecast. So I pulled Kylee out of school at half-day and we went up. So FUN!!
The conditions were a bit windy/chilly which made it look pretty cool up there.
But there was definitely lots of snow! We wandered off to parts of the mountain we haven't explored before and ended up in this really deep powder that nobody else was using for some reason (pictured below). We fell and got stuck a lot and laughed and laughed the whole time. But then we ended up on this really long cat-walk, and I was remembering why we never come to this side of the mountain. This catwalk had inches of untouched snow on it, but one path the size of a snowboard. If we stayed on the path and didn't go into the powder, we kept moving. But it was tricky. I was in front of Kylee and I got ahead of her quite a bit. After awhile I came out onto a more well-traveled but still flat area, and I stopped and waited to see if Kylee was going to make it. I was worried she might've stopped and not been able to get going again. I thought I would have to take my board off and hike all the way back there. But nope! She came through just fine. She's awesome. We decided that is a skiier area and we would stick to our regular runs. My quads thanked me.
Dylan earned his Arrow of Light! That's what happens when your mom is the Webelos Leader, you get it six months early, haha. But he did the work and we are proud of him!
They get to cross this bridge into Boy Scouts, and right their names on the bridge too.
He also earned his Webelos pin that he got to pin on me.
I got to pin his Arrow of Light pin on him too.
My mom was in town for the ceremony because we were leaving for Hawaii the next day. Lucky timing!
Family time in the winter, we decided to go to an Escape Room together. We did the Tooth Fairy room and we solved it with only one hint on a really tricky part.
The kids had been begging to go ice skating, especially Kaden! Which I thought was funny since he can't really do it that well. I'm not sure what he was expecting, but it's hard! And it was busy so they didn't have any of the "assists" so I was basically holding him up the whole time. We eventually got our hands on one of the assists and that helped, but it still wasn't what he was expecting I think. The girls had fun! But the skates tend to hurt your feet after a bit, and the girls had these newer skates that hurt more. So we didn't last all that long. But I'm glad we went. Dylan opted out and I didn't push the issue.
During Christmas break, I took Kylee and her friends to the temple. We had to wait for about two hours for them since we didn't make an appointment. I should've just done a session, but I did initiatories and then sat with them. It was worth the wait. I got to help by handing out towels for a bit.
Collin Kartchner came to Idaho Falls to speak to us about how phones and social media are ruining our lives! Lol, kinda. I have been following him on Instagram for awhile now and I've had my eyes opened a lot from things he has posted. And we have come to the conclusion that our kids will not be on social media for a long, long time. But there are other concerns too. Anyway, I was looking forward to hearing his lecture and it was really good. But the best part is that he also visited Sandcreek and so Kylee got to hear what he had to say. Her biggest take-away was that kids need a total of eight 8-second hugs a day!
I was inspired after seeing some friends out there running even though there had been so much snow. It wasn't all that cold, just snowy. So I decided to go out in my trail shoes. It was actually really fun and nice! The snow is soft. I wore thicker socks and my feet stayed really warm. It was slow, but I enjoyed it. Can't say I've ever ran in snow before!
Kylee started on the Sandcreek Swim Team. This was her first meet during the breaststroke. She was SO far ahead of everyone else it was funny. The rest of the strokes and the rest of the meets she was not this far ahead. It was more even. It was fun for her, but the meets are looooong and boring.
She had her friend Lizzie and JT doing it and carpooling with her.
We spent an afternoon at the art museum with friends. There's a lot to do! And they have cookie decorating on certain days. Fun!
We didn't get to see Carol at Christmastime so she came to see us in January. We had a good visit with her!
While Ryan was out of town I got pizzas for the family. Pizza should be simple but it's gotten really complicated with our family. Dylan won't eat pizza if it has red sauce on it now. Kylee and I are both avoiding gluten. So that means at minimum we have to get three pizzas. Three of the kids all had a free mini murph coupon so we used those and I got one with white sauce for Dylan. Then I got a veggie pizza for me because it is so yummy at Papa Murphy's. And a regular pepperoni and sausage for Kylee. But it was on sale too so this was all quite cheap! I was proud of myself. Unfortunately the mini murphs are too small for two of the four children already. They have to eat more.
Kylee has become quite the nail artist! She got some nail tools for Christmas so I had her paint my nails before I left for Hawaii. She did good!
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