Skiing!

Saturday, Austria learned to ski!  Fortunately the resort we went to has some man-made snow, otherwise, look off to the side of the run :), we wouldn't be skiing there.  Austria did great!  And she wants to go again.

 Since we had no snow in the yard to practice on, we did the next best thing, the basement.  And, hey, when else are you going to be able to wear a nice skirt and cardi while dawning skis?

 Not a fan of goggles, she ditched them, but she didn't really need them.

Olympia

Olympia: "I love you."

Me: "I love you too."

Olympia: "I love Washington better."

Occasionally I take Olympia with me to do a "drive-by", which consists of only looking at the outside of a house that is for sale.  I've tried to explain that the house we are living in isn't ours and we will need to buy our own, but the concept of rent is a little much for a 3 year old.

Olympia: "We need to buy a new house."

Me: "Why?"

Olympia: "This one is broken."

Olympia: "Can you get a babysitter?  Do you have a meeting?"

Guess she was tired of me that day. :)

Fall

It may take awhile to adjust to the cold.  And it isn't even "cold" yet.  I've seen many people in shorts and shirtsleeves while I'm in a coat, hat and gloves.  It's all relative.  Our neighbors who moved here from Canada think it's balmy!  (They are part of the group wearing shorts wondering why I'm all bundled up.)

Anya came running in my room the other morning, "Dad's car is broken again!  There is all this smoke coming out of it!"  It was cold enough to see the exhaust.

Anya was innocently riding her bike at my parents house and wiped out.  On ice.  She just thought it was wet.  I forgot to warn her about ice.

Washington is not a happy camper at the playground when he touches the metal slide (he refuses to wear gloves) after school while we play for a bit.

And many a package have been ordered for things we never had before: boots, boots and more boots.  We reason if we live in this type of climate, we have to dress for it, because staying in all day is not an option.  Well I guess it is, but it tends to make people crazy.

Halloween!

My kids changed their minds about 99 times what they were going to be for Halloween.  No final decisions were made until Oct. 30, and for Olympia, Oct. 31 at about 5pm.  John and I recycled our monopole costumes and didn't even take a picture!  We enjoyed the warmer than usual temperatures and having two extra adults to help (didn't get a picture of one of them!  In my defense, I was the scone fryer at the trunk or treat party).

The New South

Now that we are in the West, Florida is no longer a short jaunt south.  We miss Florida, but Arizona is beautiful and warm.  We headed there for Fall Break.  Though we were only there for less than 48 hours, we saw the new temple, some family and some friends.  And of course, swimming was included in our activities as well.

Fun Runs

The girls have done their fair share of running lately.  If I would do as much as they do, I'd be in a lot better shape :).  They had two races close together.  The first they ran 2 miles!  They also got to stop when they wanted, drink water, eat fruit snacks, etc.  The next race was for school and they only had 15 minutes, but they both ran about a mile.  Which surprised me because the two times we've walked to school (0.9 walk), there has been a lot of complaining, I guess I'm not fun enough.

Slide

This summer we were able to reunite with some of our Georgia peeps.  Our friends father put this awesome slide together and I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, the adults or the kids :).  It might be hard to tell from the pictures, but you started down a huge black tube and then came out on the red tarp.  We had hoses in two spots and at one time, busted out some soap to slick things up!  I was an idiot that day and thought I had lost my camera (it was actually just lost deep in my diaper bag) and so these were taken by others (THANK YOU!).

Horses

It has taken a few years to get to the point where my kids will actually touch a horse.  In their defense, horses are big!  And they were never around them.  Since moving, we now live very close to 3 horses and deliver apples and carrots often to our new furry neighbors.  During our visit north this summer, we were able to see some more horses.  One of my best friends growing up is a barrel racer and always has 4 or so horses at her house.  She was kind enough to let us brush them, sit on them, ride them around.  Even Olympia got in on the action.

Birthday Bash

At our household, birthdays and swimming go together.  I don't know why.  Maybe due to our last name.  Last week we met up with some of our peeps and enjoyed a new swimming hole.  We will definitely be returning!

Catch Up

Amazingly, I have survived with no internet for 2 months.  Kind of.  I did use my parents wireless and John's smart phone.  So it wasn't a true fast.  The blog has suffered during this time.  Facebook didn't. :)  

Just a few highlights of the last couple months:

• Washington learned to walk
• Olympia turned 3
• Anya and Austria both lost tooth number 2
• Speaking of teeth, Washington finally got 2 teeth
• Anya and Austria started school and are in the French Dual Immersion program
• We can walk to church, school and the grocery store, it's totally awesome
• We survived 3 weeks without John
• Austria turned 6
• We spent a week at Bear Lake
• Olympia is now "brave" and goes to Nursery by herself 
• We had visitors from Canada, Brooklyn, Idaho, Washington DC, Colorado and Georgia
• John got 0 tickets driving 3 times from Atlanta to Utah (unless he forgot to tell me . . . )