BRACE Yourselves.....

Ice Castles

President's Day was a BEAUTIFUL day for a drive up to Midway to see these Ice Castles. That would be the Abominable Snowman's hand in the back ground (aka our good friend Larry). Because our children always have such great attitudes and behaviors, Rich  has resorted to the "appropriate use of weapons" in raising our children, hence the stick. If anyone from Children's Services is reading this, the aforementioned sentence is what we call SARCASM and holds no truth to real or imagined events.Yet.

The Ice Castles are man-made structures that are really quite impressive. There are signs everywhere PROHIBITING the breaking off of icicles and a variety of other activities that any six-year-old would be unable to resist. 

I love that even at a young age children know how to give the "Mom-do-you-really-have-to-take-my-picture-now" look. I don't think Sam was too impressed with the Ice Castles. This might be due to the fact that he refused to wear his gloves and was soon unable to feel his fingers.Or it could be because he is two, and most things don't impress him.

I think perhaps Superman used to live here...

but for now it's Super-kids.

Snow Beautiful

It was snow beautiful in American Fork Canyon on Saturday.

(Evidently that opinion was not shared by all)

(Can I also just say how much I hate my smile parentheses? I swear I look just like the Grinch sometimes---think the little green guy from the 1965 cartoon, not Jim Carey)

There was a great sledding hill....

and AWESOME snow caves (about 10 of them) built by some snow geniuses somewhere. (Okay, they were probably just scouts, but these snow caves were AMAZING!)

Snow joy!

Snow toleration. (let's just say Ben doesn't love the snow...)

Snow buddies.

Snow Dad.

Snow cute!

When the snow blows sideways

What should you do when your backyard looks like this?

Go swimming at the Legacy Center! (too bad you can't see Sam's swim shorts and snow boots)

P.S. And for no extra charge, the power kept going out while we were swimming---spoooooooky!

San Francisco

Rich and I escaped for a few days to chilly, rainy, BEAUTIFUL San Francisco. Some observations from a temporarily childless Utahn on vacay with her husband in SF:

• arriving at the airport two hours early and waiting through endless security lines to board your flight is actually fun when you don't have your offspring with you
• never mind what it costs in the airport to buy a bottle of Dasani and a box of Junior Mints---it feels so classy and so un-stay-at-home-momish that you will do it anyway
• Have I mentioned that I got a Kindle for Christmas and I love love love it? Tres chic on the airplane. The young stylish college student next to me also had one. We bonded.

• Eating at Bette's Ocean View diner in Berkeley is really fun. I had a really hot date (who planned the whole trip--love him)
• If you think you will leave Utah in January to escape the cold weather, you might be mistaken:

(cold, foggy, and windy! Did that stop us? Noooo)

• If you love to shop or just window shop, SF is the place to be:

(a five-story Gap!)

• the Golden Gate bridge is amazing, especially sailing underneath it

• The Point Reyes Lighthouse is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. The look on my face when the stranger snapped the shot? Not so much. The views from the Lighthouse? Much better than my face.....

(fyi, there are 300 steps back up from the lighthouse, which is equivalent to walking up a 30 story building)

• Big cities are exciting, but I would take small-town Utah anyday (this coming from a Los Angeles girl!)

• I think I did a pretty good job of trying to blend in and look like a local. The neon pink hoodie with "San Francisco" emblazoned across the front and the ever-present camera on my shoulder really helped with that

(Muir Beach, north of SF)

• My favorite part of the trip? Driving HWY 1 north of San Francisco through tons of small, quaint towns surrounded by the Pacific on one side and towering Redwoods on the other. Rich is so good to me---he stops at every historical marker we pass (something you can't do easily with kidlets) and lets me take my time perusing old cemeteries, old farms and ranches, and plenty of other insignificant but interesting to me sights along the way:

(historic ranch cemetery--we parked at the bottom of this hill in the middle of nowhere and hiked through the rain to get there)

(WWII-era bunker used for a look-out post above Muir Beach)

(and finally, Sea Lions, because I thought they were cute...but not as cute as this guy---

We had fun, we missed the kids, the kids missed us...now we're back to wishing we could miss the kids again. I'm thinking someplace tropical, someplace WARM......