Play Time

Between work and school all week, we are ready for a break by the weekends. Trust me, we pack them in with lots of fun activities!

Instead of trying to catch you up to what we have done, I will start with last weekend so this blog post does not end up being longer than it already is.

Last weekend, Nick and I went for a GORGEOUS hike. We have all of these beautiful mountains right next to us so we searched a trail and went for it. We have never been snow shoeing, and apparently when you hike in the snow you should have snow shoes, but we didn't mind, we still went.

At the beginning of the hike, there was a muddy trail we followed and then after 15 minutes of hiking we didn't have a trail. Instead we made one up. We figured as long as we were going up the mountain that was good.

We got to see many different animal tracks in the snow including baby tracks. It was really neat.

This was such a cool valley in between the mountains. The picture doesn't do justice. I kept thinking a bear was going to come out because it was a perfect cave-like valley. No bear.

When we sat down for lunch nothing stopped Nick from making a snow angel. Snow ending up getting in his pants.

I mentioned we didn't have snow shoes, right? Well, the funny part about that is the groves in my shoes kept filling with snow and I would fall. So this is how I looked probably 25% of the time on the way down. It was pretty hilarious. I got soaked, but it felt nice because I was so hot.

After our awesome hike, we came home, dried off, and changed our clothes because we were pretty wet after that. About 20 minutes later we jumped in the car and headed to Seven Peaks Ice Arena to ice skate.

He is the happiest and greatest man I know.

Do you ever do tricks when you ice skate? We do. This is one that he came up with.

I loved skating on the ice because it reminding me of my brother Landon. He played ice hockey before he left on his mission and this is where they practiced. I miss him.

After coming home, we couldn't rest too long because all of my sisters were in Utah, except for Mattie (We missed her so much). B was staying with Lou Lou and Andy Rice for a couple of days and then they headed down on Saturday afternoon to party with Nick and I.

Rooga came to Utah for scholarship auditions at UVU and we got to see her a little bit too. She stayed with a good friend of our family's, Lauren, because she is a dancer at UVU as well.

Saturday night was filled with games, the wii, Cafe Rio and the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. There is nothing like an amazing dinner and a caramel apple for dessert. YUM!

On Sunday, we all went to church and then hung out some more. Nick and I made an especially delicious meal for all of us. One of our best friends came over too, Steph! Steph is like a sister to all of us so we all wanted her there.

Unfortunately Rooga didn't come so that was a big bummer.

There were a lot of women at the house and Nick definitely held down the fort. He told me once during the night, "I now know how dad feels having all of these girls around."

My sisters are my best friends and I love when we are all together. Its the best.

This weekend, we headed up to Park City to spend the night with some cousins. Annie and Ian were staying in the St. Regis Resort and invited Kristen and Brent, Nick and I, Ian's sister and her roommate up for dinner and the Freestyle World Championships.

We just love Annie and Ian, and Kristen and Brent. They are so much fun to be around. We are fortunate to live close to Kristen and Brent, but Annie and Ian live in Colorado which is a bummer because we have so much in common. (i.e. outdoorsy things)

Nick and I riding the St. Regis Funicular up to the Resort on the mountain. (I didn't know what a funicular was until I rode on one, it is kind of like a gondola, but not. You can look it up it you are really interested.)

After hanging out and having a delicious meal we headed up the slopes for the Freestyle World Championships.

I couldn't believe how few of people were there. It was free, and there were probably 200 people there if that. I was amazed!!! Seeing this on TV is amazing, but nothing like seeing it in person. UNBELIEVABLE!!!! These men and women were extremely talented.

The lights are really bright so you cannot really see, but we were so close.

Nick, Ian and Annie.

The whole group back at the St. Regis.

Because it was so cold, we came back and had some hot chocolate. What an amazing night.

Nick and I have wanted to go sledding for quite some time because we got brand new sleds from Lindsay and Andy for Christmas. Nick found the most beautiful place up Hobble Creek Canyon. It had snowmobiling, snow shoeing, cross country skiing, tubing and sledding.

The drive and view was breathtaking on the way up this canyon. When we arrived, we and one other family of 4 had the entire hill to ourselves! Talk about lucky!

We gave our sleds a go and WOW are they fast.

Nick in action.

These sleds are so fast that we flew up and over this hill behind Nick. That hill is supposed to stop you from flying over it. It was pretty funny and a little a painful landing on the other side.

Me in action.

I don't think Nick and I have laughed this hard in a long time. What an amazing afternoon.

After, we came home and warmed up a bit, we headed to our cousins' place (Tim and Aubrey) to play and have dinner. They have the most darling children, and Tim and Aubrey make us laugh pretty hard. We are so lucky we live close to them.

Well, thats all for now folks.