What a Week

What we've been up to the last week:

- 4 new babysitters (all of them awesome)

- New dog walker for days I am gone

- making plans for a 10th birthday fete

- one date night

- girl scout cookie selling wrap up

- one trip to Utah for work

- lots of juggling as we look at the upcoming soccer schedules (three of them)

- Nick joined my gym!

- the kids started a pre-kickboxing fitness class at our gym

- Ella & Greta started new gymnastics classes

- Rocky ate my decorative wreath

- Ella finished her science fair project (big show tonight)

-biggest snow storm of the season

- I mapped out the "final" draft of summer plans for the kids

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Recharging My Batteries

I had to travel back to Utah for work last week.  This was the dainty ride I was given. It was a PAIN to park & navigate through our very narrow parking garage & the very crowded hotel parking lot. I have a lot to learn about business travel.

Because I wanted to be home for the kids on Valentine's Day, I didn't have a long visit & I crammed a lot into my stay. I had a much needed dinner with Kim & Kari the first night. The three of us made a good team when we were all at the Montessori school. I felt recharged just spending a few hours with those lovely ladies.

I was very proud that I woke up early the next morning & made it to the hotel gym. I spent my second night in Park City with Shauna. She took me to her favorite spot to recharge - the utterly amazing Montage Resort in Deer Valley.   The hotel smelled like a new car - leather everywhere. The spa had an AMAZING (non-leather) and intoxicating smell as we took a tour. We had a cocktail by the {massive} fireplace while listening to live music. I felt 10 years younger by the time we went to dinner.

What was most amazing about the hotel was that the average hotel bill per night this time of year is over $1000. Watching all the young families enjoying a ski weekend made me wonder what in the world they do to afford such luxurious weekend getaways. 

 We had dinner in the reasonably priced pub. The bowling lanes are to the right & the pool tables, counter service & massive Wii game room (free) are to the left. The sandwiches we had were so good. Shauna is my kind of dinner companion - insisting that we try two desserts. The apple pear crisp was perfect.

The S'mores sundae had the most fragrant cinnamon. I understand the summer rates are much more reasonable. I hope we can spend a night playing {archery, biking, swimming} here if we make it back to Utah this summer.

Friday morning, I woke up early to take Kate, the 8 pound Chihuahua, on her 4 mile walk. At over 8K feet & 12 degrees, I was grateful to borrow some winter clothes for the trek! What a great fabulous way to start the day. 

I'm so glad I was able to get up to Park City on this visit. With all this snow & pretty lights, it felt like Christmas all over again!

I even managed to sneak a coffee break with a friend before heading into work Friday morning. I was exhausted by the time I made it back to New Mexico, but so happy to see so many dear friends again.

Black Island Farms

We had such a great October.  We were able to do so many of the activities on our Halloween Fun List.  Of course, we didn't do them all as a family, but the kids had a lot of fun thanks to babysitters and good friends.  For instance, I'm borrowing all these photos from the fabulous Kim. I'm just too tired to think about posting Halloween photos right now and I want this special time between Ella & Tia memorialized.

Kim generously took Ella & Tia to Black Island Farms. Love this creative photo!

 
Ella adores Tia. And from the looks of it, the girls had a fabulous time at the farm. 

 
Kim, your photos are fabulous! As much as Ella loves her siblings, it is great to see her out & about & having fun with kids her own age. She's growing up so fast.

 Life is moving along quickly here. Nick flies home Friday night for a weekend full of moving activities.

I've been in busy mode selling the TV, both toddler beds, kitchen chairs & bar stools. Yeah, pretty much everything we use on a daily basis.

But, the kids are adapting. I was surprised there was no fuss about losing the TV (and only two instances of watching TV on the web). This weekend will be a mad rush to get a long to-do list finished before Nick leaves on Sunday night.

Monday morning the movers come to start packing us up.  These good-byes, even temporary ones, are going to be tough on all of us.

Howl-O-Ween

The kids got lucky this year with two days of trick or treating - when Halloween falls on a Sunday in Utah, trick or treating is Saturday night which leaves all sorts of time for the non-natives to find secondary celebrations on Halloween proper.  I thought this hawk in our neighbors yard was a spooky omen of the day!

I took the kids up to meet Shawn, Shauna & William for Park City's Howl-o-Ween on Main Street. Thanks Shauna for snapping a pic of my little goblins!

It's kind of a popular event - especially on nice fall days.  

All of the Main Street merchants have treats for kids (and some of the fancy restaurants handed out $25 gift cards for the parents) - the longest lines were for the mega suckers & hand made cotton candy.

We had so much fun seeing all the cool costumes!

But, of course, the dog's stole the show.

So many cute puppies!

Hogan would have ditched this wig pronto (though Buster has been known to enjoy a pink bob cut wig).

This was the hot costume this year.

And there were lots of divas in the mix as well.

Charlie was a little intimidated by all of the people & sent Ella & Greta into the shops to get his treats.

The kids were a sticky mess in no time flat!

I had bundled the kids up because it was chilly, but in the sun it got a bit toasty.

With some luck, we caught up with William & his friends.

Shauna, I still can't believe we missed another chance to take pic together!

My favorite family of the day!

It started to get too cold & we opted not to sit & watch the dog parade down Main Street.

Thank you Shawn & Shauna for yet another fabulous get together! We will miss you all!

Children of the Corn

The kids had a day off this month & we decided to check CornBelly's off our Halloween wish-list.

It was crazy busy with school fieldtrips.

We started off with pig races

and moved on to climbing haystacks.

We went on a hayride and counted scarecrows.

Someone started to get tired.

Greta ran through the belly of the dark scary monster three times.

We rode go-karts  

and texted lots of pictures to Dad of our adventures.

This game was fun until Greta got bonked on the head.

They tried to lose me in the corn maze.

But, these mountain kids got nothing on a Hooiser in a corn field.

If we make it to Cornbelly's again, we'll look for coupons online & pack a picnic lunch.

And maybe spend a bit more time in Cinderella's coach.

We were pushing our luck with the last nice day of fall and it was starting to get a little chilly.  So, we picked a pumpkin & headed home.