Sledding

Saturday we had a family get-a-way and had so much fun!  The snow is beginning to melt and we are being teased with Spring.  The temperatures are now getting up to the 40's and we can go outside and feel the warmth of the sun.  With basketball season over we decided to go up to the mountains and do some sledding.  The sun was so warm, and the sky was so blue.  

We parked at the turn off for Doughnut falls, up Big Cottonwood Canyon, and walked up to some hills where children sled.  

We didn't know what to expect with Alyssa.  Would she love sledding?  Would she get to cold? How would she like our excursion?  After a short time of being there she insisted on going down the hill time and time again.  After each trip she would say it was the other parents turn to ride down with her, "Mommy take me".  That evolved into wanting to walk up the hill by herself and cary the tube.  A short while after that she finally dared to go alone.  Once she tasted that freedom Jill and I would never ride with her again.  I got some great video of her going down the hill by herself and it was so cute.

After a short time the coats, hats, and gloves came off.  

The boys had a terrific time. In years past Logan loved the snow, but Landon always got cold and didn't have as much fun.  This year they both went up and down so many times it got me dizzy trying to keep up with them.  When Logan got tired, Landon was still going strong.  When they got to the bottom of the hill they both would yell, "Awesome!"

When we finished up we ate a picnic lunch.

It was early afternoon when we got home and I tried to put Alyssa down for her nap.  She was a bit restless and tossed and turned. I laid quietly by her and at one point she said, "Ready, Set, Go."  I'm sure she was remembering the exhilaration of going down the hill on her tube.

Later in the evening Jill and I had dinner with Jon and Liz Shakespear.  They are such great people and it's been a while since we have gone out together socially.  Jon went off to medical school so we didn't see each other for a long time, but his medical training paid off during Jill's cancer treatment.  His specialty is diagnosing and treating breast cancer treatments.  He told us he tells about 1-3 people a day that they have breast cancer.  When Jill was diagnosed Jon was our second opinion about the treatment plan.

Speaking of breast cancer, Jill was given March 22 as her next surgery date.  We had thought it would be fairly minor, however after talking to Jon Shakespear he said it will have her down for a while.  We continue to pray for Jill's speedy recovery.  She is 100% cancer free, everything now is cosmetic, but it is still surgery and is never fun to have to go through surgery.

Sunday after church as we had lunch Alyssa got angry at Landon for taking the middle stool at the bar. She said, "Landon make me have a hard day."  So adorable the things she says. 

Lots of Sports

Superbowl Sunday has been a big deal in our family for many years. I grew up going to uncle Dan's house and eating delicious food and watching the game and commercials.  The last few years we have celebrated at Jake's house, but because of his travel we opted to have it at our house instead.  It was so much fun to "break the fast" with amazing Super Bowl food.  Jill made 7 layer dip, mom made shredded beef burrito's, and Kandis, Shanel, and Becky Jo all made amazing food to contribute.  

Alyssa loves to pull faces when getting her picture taken lately. 

Shanel makes the most amazing Oreo Truffle's in the shape of a football.  I think I ate 6 of them, SO GOOD!

While the men watched the game, the ladies visited, and the kids played.  Taylor was nice and played with Alyssa. 

The SuperBowl tradition usually involves Jake doing out taxes, but this year he will file them a bit later for us.

The Blue and Gold banquet was also this week.   Logan got his bobcat award and his good manners belt loop!

Our family all went to see the Sacramento Kings (and Jimmer) play the Jazz on Monday.  Before the game we ate dinner at Rumbi Island Grill at the Gateway.  The kids love cheese burgers. 

We got to the game and I saw a man in a blazer talking to Dad.  Due to some crazy circumstances, and an unused suite for the night, the man in the blazer offered Dad one of the Jazz suites!  I've never seen an event from the suite before.  It was so much fun! The kids LOVED it!

Alyssa loves to go to games, but she doesn't love noise.  As the Jazz Bear came out and throttled the motorcycle it made her cry.  But with Grandma there to console her she was better the rest of the night. She loved looking through the "goggles" (binoculars).

Saturday because of the cold and snow I took Landon and Alyssa to Scheel's.  It's a new enormous sporting good store.  Inside they have a ferris wheel, aquarium, and playhouse.  There were some long lines but we were able to do the bowling.

Jill and I celebrated Valentines a bit early this year. We met up with some friends Brett and Danielle Utley at the new Texas Roadhouse here in Riverton.  Then after dinner we went to The Chocolate, a quaint old home converted to a dessert shop.  We ate an decadent hot cookie with a scoop of ice cream,  called a Cazookie.  While we were out we had a babysitter named Alison.  Having just been to Disneyland Alyssa keeps calling her "Alison Wonderland".

Basketball

The boys have been playing Jr. Jazz basketball since December, but with everything going on cancer, Christmas, Disneyland I haven't had a chance to post pictures.

I'm coaching Logan's team again this year and it's so fun to see how the team has grown. They are so much better than when I started coaching them 2 years ago.  It's the same kids that are on the soccer team which is mostly kids from our neighborhood.  The kids all play great together and the parents all visit like an after church social.

Landon is also playing basketball this year.  He is so much better than Logan when he was in kindergarten.  Having an older brother helps boys this age be better than their older siblings were.  It's so nice for me to go to his games and just watch them.  Coaching Logan's team causes me so much stress that I'm exhausted after his games. Landon has a great coach and he gets to play with his cousin Hudson.  There is also another boy on his team from our neighborhood named Tate.

Both boys are key players and usually score at each game.  Logan has had as many as 6 of his teams 18 points and Landon averages 4 points each game.  Next week is the last game, it's been a very fun season.

Disneyland Day 3

The last day in the park was so much fun.  We were able to use our Magic Morning to get into the park an hour early to ride some of the rides and have fun.  Everyone did their favorite things.  The boys liked Space Mountain and I took Alyssa over to the Tea Cups and Dumbo.  She and I had a very fun time just daddy and daughter.  Our last day we divided up to do our favorite things, Robert came with our family. 

Then just after 10:00 a.m. we went back over to California Adventures to ride the Cars ride and of course ride Screamin.  We also did Toy Story Mania for the first time, its a favorite ride of ours too.  

 
While over at the pier we saw some characters the boys like from a cartoon show. 

Alyssa loves her cousin Makenna and while waiting for riders on Soarin, they danced to some music.  It was loads of fun to watch them, then they ate some cotton candy.

Food at Disneyland is so good.  There is an amazing treat shop over by Splash Mountain and this year we bought treats again.  They boys got an amazing mouse cookie, Jill got a cup cake, and I found an amazing white chocolate cookie. It is all so good. 

We rode our favorite rides right up until closing time at 8:00 p.m. The kids were exhausted but wanted so badly to use their money to buy a lego set.  Our rule is that they can use their money for a souvenir to be bought on the last day.  The first day at Downtown Disney the boys found a Lego set that they "had to have". The rest of the trip they didn't even want to look for other souvenir's.  So as the park closed on Thursday we walked back to the Lego store and picked up their new Lego Ninjago sets.   Then we had another long walk back to the hotel.  Their feet were getting tired, but they all made the long journey (Alyssa got to ride in the stroller).

We all got to bed and woke up Friday morning for an early morning drive back to Salt Lake (8:30 a.m.). The kids traveled well admiring the boxes their Lego's came in.  I wouldn't let them open up the sets until they got home.

We all had lunch in Las Vegas at McDonalds, then got back on the road. Just north of Vegas we waved to our great neighbors the Burton's as we passed each other, they were headed to Disneyland.

It was quite the site seeing the Roundy's van, the Buxton's van, and our van all driving in a convoy. We love our Honda's.

The temperatures were in the 70's while we were in California and driving back to the inversion and 7 degree temperatures of Salt Lake really makes me wonder why in the world we would want to live here.  The inversion has been horrible this year.  So many days without even being able to see the sun has everyone's energies down.  With such dreary weather, it made the timing of our trip so great.  The sunshine we all got to feel was just what we needed to make it through the rest of the winter.

We pulled into the Salt Lake valley and all had one last dinner together at Kneeders.  The next day the Buxton's would be driving on to Omaha (another 12 hour drive). It's always so cute seeing the kids say goodbye to each other.  Logan and Landon get so sad and even cry.  Many tears were shed as we left Kneeders. We will miss the Buxtons.