For Family Night last night we went to Pirates Island in Orem, UT.  It is a restuarant/arcade similar to Chuck E. Cheeses but with WAY better food!  Everyone that works there is dressed in pirate garb and the whole place is decked out in pirate decorations (really cool).  When we were seated they gave Spencer and Josey pirate hats and after we put Josey’s on she wouldn’t stop saying, “Aarrrgghh!”  Spencer on the other hand was VERY reserved and downright quiet and a little leary of the pirates.  Chris told him that if he wasn’t careful the pirates would take him, or better yet he would sell Spencer to the pirates.  Spencer said they didn’t want little boys and Chris told him that they buy little boys to mop the decks of their ships.  Spencer listened to this and watched as pirates came and went past our table and then piped up and said, “Dad don’t sell me!” 

While we were waiting for our food to come out we went and played arcade games, except that Spencer clung to Chris’ leg and wouldn’t do any of the games.  He warmed up a little after dinner, but when it was time to leave and we headed down the “tunnel” to the bathrooms Spencer would NOT go in the Mates bathroom by himself.  Oh that boy cracks me up!

So exactly 15 hours after returning from our night at Snowbird and all day skiing, I repacked our clothes, food and snow gear and hit the road by myself with both of my children to go to Joe’s Valley for the long President’s Day weekend with Grandma & Grandpa Teeter and my sister and her kids. 3 hours later we pulled into the cabin and unloaded all of our stuff via a sled that my nephew, Austin, and I pulled by hand because the snowmobiles decided at that moment to be finicky! After truly exhausting myself from trudging through a foot of snow we had everything unloaded.

What a FUN weekend. We ate too much good food; played lots of games; watched movies; went sledding; went snowmobiling; cousins had a blast playing with each other; and enjoyed just being together and making memories! My sister’s and my parent’s cabins are at the top of this steep hill. They have runner sleds so we decided to check out the hill and see if it was any good for sledding (because they say that sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t), well it was perfect! They kids, Josey included…which SHOCKED me!…raced down the hill and by the second time trudging back up it they shed their hats and coats because they were sweltering. My sister, Heather, handed me a runner sled and said, “Your turn!” I sat on that sled and took off and a multitude of childhood memories washed over me as I raced down that hill! You see, we lived on top of a very long, steep hill in NH where I spent my early childhood and every winter we would race down our hill on runner sleds! What memories! Needless to say I went many more times down the hill with and without my children and had a BLAST!!!

As long as the drive was and doing it by myself was not so fun, the end result was worth it!

Spencer did it!  He figured out skiing his first day trying!  I am so pround of him!!!!!

Our friends, Jason and Shelley, invited us up to stay with their family at Iron Blossom Lodge at Snowbird for the night.  I thought it a great opportunity to give Spencer the opportunity to learn how to ski.  I have wanted to get him up  on the slopes for the past two years and we finally made it! 

We woke up to find that it was snowing this morning…which makes it a little harder to teach because you get cold faster, but we had today and had to make the best of it!  The first hour was REALLY frustrating for both of us.  Spencer cried a lot and I had to take a lot of deep breaths, but when we hit the chairlift life got good.  The first few runs down the hill were a little challenging and he HATED the “edgie-wedgie” (bungie cord aprox. 4 in long that link the tips of his skis together), but by the third run Spencer was getting the hang of it.  We took a break and had lunch at the lodge.  We shared a hamburger and hot chocolate and then we got back out on the slopes!  I asked Spencer how many more times he wanted to go down the hill and he said, “Just two and then can we go back and go swimming?”  I said yes, and when we finished the two runs, he said just two more?  We had a great time and the last several runs he did it all by himself without falling down, and he said at the end that he was glad to have the “edgie-wedgie” on his skis.  He was so proud of himself and I have to say I was really proud of him too!

We have a condo up at Midway, UT and decided to get away for a couple of days to spend time together as a family.  We went up Thursday after work and spent two nights there.  We went swimming, watched a movie and totally relaxed.  We had a lazy morning enjoy the fact that we had no schedule and nothing that we HAD to do.  We walked down the road to see the “Ice Castle” at the Zermott Resort, but we could only look from the gate since they didn’t open until after 3 pm.  The Lawsons came up Friday at lunch time.  We tried to go tubing at Soldier Hollow but with 40 degree weather (even though with the wind chill it felt like it was 20) the snow turned slushy and made it hard to slide down.  After 2 attempts we went to the lodge to get a certificate to come back another day.  On our way back to the condo we saw the Soldier Hollow train station with access to the frozen Deek Creek lake.  We were already dressed in our snow gear so we decided to go adventuring.  We crossed the train tracks and treked out into the almost prestine snow.  It was so peaceful and gave a beautiful view of Provo Canyon.  When we came back to the station there was a man there having his break and so we convinced him to take a picture of us laying on the train track.  Spencer wouldn’t do it..”NO WAY!” he said.  Five minutes after we climbed back up onto the train platform the Heber Creeper came rumbling around the corner and blew its whistled and scared the kids half to death!  We spent the afternoon at the pool and then had dinner, After dinner we walked down to the Ice Castle again which was now all lit up with lights.  It was really cool to see and we even had a chance to thank the artist for sculpting this really cool thing out of ice!  Amazing!  We went back and watched movies and played games until the wee hours of the night. (I was 3 for 3!  Poor Greg.)  So glad to have good friends to make memories with and that there are these beautiful places within a short drive from our house.  Thank goodness for rejuvenation!

So at 7:15 am this morning I was sitting in the living room on the love seat reading my scriptures with my book light and all the lights off.  5 minutes later I hear Spencer getting up and sigh because he usually sleeps in until 8 or 8:15 giving me my much needed morning quiet.  I hear him go to the bathroom and hope he will climb back into bed, but a few minutes later I look up and see him sneaking down the stairs quietly.  He gets to the second to last stair and stops.  (Our bottom stair creaks when you step on it.)  He carefully steps over the bottom step and does this spy pose at the bottom.  I am watching all this unfold and trying not to laugh so he wouldn’t know that I am there.  I wait to see what he’s going to do and hear him pull the stool over and he is rummaging around in kitchen.  I say in a rather loud voice, “Spencer!  What are you doing?”  I hear him get startled and he says timidly, “Mom is that you?  Where are you?”  He gets off the stool and comes around the corner and finally notices me sitting on the couch.  We had a good laugh together!

What a funny guy he is and SCARY that he already knows how to skip the creaking step and he is only 5 1/2!!!  We are so in trouble when he is a teenager!