Fantastic Moment in my Life

I would like to share with you guys one of the greatest moments of my life:I wish I had a video 'cause she was shaking her booty and dancing along with the music. It took all evening to get her to do it, but once she finally did . . . I can't even tell you the joy that it brought to me and my entire family.

Snowshoeing!!!

My sister (Britney) has been talking about going snowshoeing this winter, just to try something new, and last saturday we made that happen. I was excited because I had gone once before, and really enjoyed it. I was also incredibly nervous because that one time I was in Young Women's and in much better shape than I am now. But I decided to do it, 'cause I thought it might be fun, and heard it was a great workout. Word on the street is you burn 1,000 calories every hour. I was pretty confident I was going to suffer, but have fun and burn calories in the process so I was on board.

Turned out all three came to pass, but to higher extremes than I thought. I had an absolute blast, got the best workout of my life, and was more exhausted than I thought I would be. The weird thing was that it was easier physically than I thought it was going to be, but it was being out of breath that got me. I thought it was going to be pretty flat with a slight upgrade, but most of it was a pretty good upgrade, and a good portion I had to really dig in the spikes on my toes to get good leverage to get up the hill. So, while I felt a great burn in my calves, and could tell that my entire body was getting a great workout it was huffing up the hills in the cold air that really slowed me down.

The greatest part for me (treehugger alert) was the scenery. It was gorgeous!! Up in the fresh mountain air with nature and the fluffy snow all around, it was very quiet and peaceful. Although it was cold to start out with, I ended up sweating up a storm (TMI?). I brought my camelback and drained the entire thing. I started out all bundled up, but started taking off layers and didn't even need my gloves until the way down. I definitely want to do this again, and would one day like my own pair of snowshoes so I wouldn't have to rent each time. And if anyone is looking for a great full body workout, I highly recommend it!

I stole a bunch of pics from Britney and Jeff, so you can enjoy the beautiful scenery as well!

Huffing up the hill

The trail- very peaceful looking

Bringing up the rear.

A beastly hill to get up, and it felt like it was never going to end, 'cause it just kept going! Coming down was hard too 'cause I kept slipping, so I just sat down and slid on my butt all the way down. It was lots o' fun.


Jeff jumping across the creek. Or, for our southern friends "crick". I wish I could be that cool. I had to inch to the very edge and very carefully make my merry way across. I would also like to point out that the sides are pretty steep on each side, although it doesn't look like it from this angle . . .

So it's a good thing we can look at it from this angle as well, right?

In conclusion, ladies and gentleman; it was very fun, very exhausting and very worth $8.99 rental fee, and a saturday afternoon.

Christmas Upgrade!

So, this post is a little out dated and old news, but better late than never! Since I'm a little behind it's going to be a long one, sorry!

For Christmas we kinda went all out and gave our condo an upgrade! We got ourselves the Wii and Guitar Hero III (but we got that before Thanksgiving 'cause we were worried that we wouldn't be able to get our hands on one after Thanksgiving so that's yesterday's news). We thought we had gone overboard as it was, but we found a really good deal and so we got some couches. I love them 'cause our last ones were hideous, so we had covers on them, but the covers were a pain to keep on straight because once you sat down it would go all screwy again. Then, our TV stopped working for some unknown reason, and then when we got it working again the picture was all screwed up and we couldn't fix it. So, we went TV shopping and found another amazing deal, so we got a TV! And about a month ago I burned some popcorn in my microwave, and I mean we're talking smoke billowing out of the microwave, the house filling up with smoke, and the inside of the microwave being stained a gnarly yellowish-brown. And it was white. But, Jordan's dad got us a new fangled microwave for Christmas! Honestly though, if I had not ingrained burned popcorn smell into the last one, we would have needed a new one anyway 'cause the one we had was pretty crappy. Moving on . . . At my work Christmas party they had a killer raffle, and while they were calling out names, I was just saying to my group that if at least one of us wins something I would be happy, and then my name was called! I had won an iPod Touch. Which is awesome, but if you think about it, it's just an iPhone without the phone capabilities. I was going to sell it, and then I thought I could probably get more out of it if I returned it to the store. I then found out that an iTouch costs more than the iPhone, so i just traded it in for the phone, and had enough left over to get a cool case for it. SO, I got the iPhone Free! Pretty thrilled about that. So, I feel like my entire life got an upgrade for Christmas! And the best part is I didn't have to go into debt for it. Now if I can just get my house painted I would be beyond satisfied, I would be in bliss.

Christmas was great. Well, Christmas Eve was less great, but Christmas Day was awesome! Christmas Eve I went up to the Mutual Dell up AF Canyon. My mom had been trying to reserve it for about 5 years, so she was excited to finally get it this year. So, the kiddies could play in the snow and go sledding, and we all ate dinner in the cabin. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it. After dinner we were kicking back and relaxing. Well, the adults were relaxing and the kids were all running around and all of a sudden I hear sligh bells. I thought I was hearing things 'cause I was laying on a couch half asleep and it took me a second to realize that they were real. I then hear a jolly "Ho ho ho!" and am certain I'm not crazy. I sit straight up and go into the other room and sure enough, there is Santa! The kids had all sorts of different reactions. Celeste gave him a shy hug, and Savannah ran up to him and said "Look how fast I can run!" and took off in a circle. It was adorable. He sat down and passed out gifts for everyone. The grandkids (my neices and nephews) all got coloring books and crayons, and christmas pajamas. And dang--I got cute pics of the kids with Santa, and then in their pajamas, but I left my camera at home. Anyway, then each kid got to sit on Santa's lap and tell them what they wanted and he said he would try to set something aside for them. It was kinda funny 'cause right before he came Celeste was asking her mom where Santa was and she (not knowing Santa was stopping by) said probably in Europe right now. AND then he walks in the door. So, she kinda had an inkling something wasn't quite right 'cause she whispered to my sister that she thought he might not be the real Santa.

Christmas day was crazy and super busy. We woke up, got some breakfast and ran over to my parents to open presents. We got some great presents including some wii games and board games, and such. I got some new ski goggles which I really really needed, and they are awesome and my parents got me a gift card for Alta! Hurray! I'm pretty thrilled about it. Then we ran home and did our Christmas with just me and Jordan. This was my favorite part of the day. I got Jordan some super hot shirts, cologne and Guitar Hero World Tour. He got me the world's cutest hoodie from Abercrombie and a perfume that I wanted. Most importantly I got the Wii Fit! I was so excited, 'cause I wanted it really bad and I absolutely love it! It's pretty much the only thing I wanted for Christmas and my wonderful hubby totally delivered!

Then, we were already running late so we had to hurry and get dressed (we had just gone over to my parents in our pajamas, which was nice and comfy) and rush over to Jordan's mom's house where we had a delicious lunch, and then went to a movie. We saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I LOVE this movie! I hightly recommend it. It was really long though, and we were late to Jordan's grandparents' dinner. So, we had to rush over there and had dinner, and hung out for a little bit and then we had to go to Jordan's dad's house 'cause he had a stocking and presents there. When we were leaving there Jordan's car got stuck in the drive way (blessed snow) and we couldn't get out. I said I was going to get out and push and Jordan didn't seem to like that idea but I said it's ok, I'm just going to push! So, I skip out into the snow and start pushing and pushing. I didn't manage a whole lot of progess to be honest, I was able to rock it forward a bit, but we were pretty stuck. What I did manage to do was this- the driveway was really slick, and so were my shoes, so I was pushing along and my feet went up and my chin came down on the trunk and my knees his the pavement. I have been more thrilled in my life then I was at that moment. It wouldn't have been so bad, but I slipped and ate it in my parents driveway that morning. So, my knees were getting a beating that day. Anyway I bounce back up and my chin must have been the straw that broke the camels back 'cause Jordan was able to pull out.

We were relieved to get home, and our poor needy kits who have been stuck home all day were happy to see us.

Phew, what a Good Day! ;)