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Playing Man.

Fun Family Weekend PART 2

So, I had this all ready to post a while back...just needed to add the pictures. Oh well. Here goes!

President's Day 2009 - part 2 of our fun family valentine's weekend!

I will fully recognize that to most of ya'll, snow is not a novelty and is probably more of a nuisance. But, if you are like my children, born in The Valley of the Sun and don't really have reasons to venture to the snowier corners of our fair country ('cept to visit those we love but we can't always do that) then snow is a fairly vague concept. Cold. White. Christmas songs. SO this year, Molly and I decided to take advantage of the fact that though we live in Arizona there ARE parts of our state that get a fair amount of the white stuff and we would try to plan a surprise snow trip to go play and have a fun outing. As luck would have it, President's Day Weekend was a great snow weekend. There had been a fair amount of snow in the "High Country" and the weather and roads were clear making it an easy drive.

We begged and borrowed gear from more well equipped friends (thank you thank you!) and ended up with snow pants, heavy boots, and waterproof gloves for the little ones.

I didn't TELL the kids we were going on a snow trip, in fact, we woke up Monday morning to Lindsay and Caroline designing games and decorations to celebrate President's Day! I celebratory sign, pin the star on the American Flag game, that sort of thing. They were really mad when I gave them clothes to put on - they were weird outfits of long shirts with jammie pants and didn't match. (Perfect to wear under snow clothes when we got there.) I finally had to break down and tell them where we were going and may have to postpone their celebration of President's Day! They were OK with that.

We met up with Molly's family and after a couple of mishaps getting on the road, we were finally on our way. The big girls were mesmerized as we came into the Flag area and there was snow on the sides of the road. Their eyes were trained out the window on the white stuff for the next 1/2 hour until we made it to our destination.

The warming shed - with a fire pit and tables. Not bad for a free facility.

The view up the hill from the warm, cozy fire.

We went up around Flagstaff to Oak Hill Snow Rec Area and had a blast! Seriously, snow is such a novelty and Lindsay commented that it was for sure different than she expected. I thought for sure they would be scared to down the hill on the sleds but the kids were hooked! Up and down, up and down they went - never really being able to control or steer - hitting moguls and spinning around backwards and occasionally crashing - and having a total blast doing so! Cousins riding with each other, sisters, daddy and his girls, and mommy went a few times too. We brought along folding chairs, hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies to keep us warm. No one got seriously injured, thank goodness! There were only a couple of other families there - next to no crowds at all - how did we get so lucky???

Our cute little snow bunny all bundled up to stay warm. She got a little action on a sled but mostly chilled (figuratively and literally, I guess.) I tried my best to keep her warm and comfy.

Caroline getting busy in the snow - Caroline usually wanted someone to go with her or pull her up the hill so she could then ride down with someone. Her patience wore thin a few times but she was back at it ready for more snow action. Getting her in and out of her snow clothes was not so easy but she was grateful for them when she realized she was dry and warm underneath!

Lindsay was made for this, I think. Up and down, up and down she went, never giving it a rest. She would go down head first like nobody's business and spent the day with that giant ear to ear grin of hers. She got to make her first snow angel ever - she loved this except she had taken her gloves off and the cold snow on her little hands? That part was no fun.

Finally we were worn out and packed it up, headed into Flagstaff for some dinner at Cracker Barrel. A perfectly warm and down home ending to a wonderful fun filled day in the snow!

Yes, we will do this again! A three hour drive to the snow wasn't so bad and if the weather cooperates, we can be in snow in 1.5-2 hours. And come back to the warmth of the Valley. Gotta love Arizona!

Hmmm. For breakfast I'll have...

Toast. Wheat bread toast with butter. Lots of butter. And some sliced bananas.

And if you would, kindly leave me alone while I stuff my face. Thank you.

Baby Kate is 10 months old!!! Oh my goodness. My little critter is desperately trying to grow up but I think she is listening when I say "don't grow up too soon!" She has not been too quick to get up and into trouble but I am sure it is just around the corner. She sprouted a couple of teeth around the end of February and can now get up on her knees, scoot herself backwards on her belly, spin around in a circle on her belly, and push herself back up into a sitting position. But crawl forward and pull up on stuff? Not yet!

She does love her pink fuzzy blanket - we have now started calling it her Happy Blankie - we love watching her eyes bug out and then squint as she squeals with delight and buries her face into its yummy softness.

The sistas schoolin' Kate in the finer things...back yard play, to be exact!

I am so glad Steve got to be there for the tests. He adores these little girls of ours (of course) and is such a wonderful, tender, loving, and attentive father. Thanks for rescheduling meetings during a busy time at work so you could be with us!

Last week we took Kate for some tests of her renal system to check if her kidney infection was caused by Urinary Tract Reflux which has a fancy name and I forgot. Steve gave her a blessing and we spent the morning at the Children's Hospital having a long ultrasound procedure to measure all her anatomy (she loved it) and a VCUG (She hated it.) This involved her having a catheter (which took 4 tries to insert - ouch! I think she has met her quota for being cath'ed for a while...) and filling her little bladder with a contrast liquid that would show her "pee" on an x-ray machine. The other not fun part was being strapped to a backboard that rotated her back and forth so she could be x-rayed from various angles while they made her pee - the old warm water trick! She hated it for sure. But in the end she survived and got to "pick" a beanie baby for her trouble. We found out she does not have the reflux which is good news. But, the ultrasound, which seemed the least likely to pick up anything strange, showed she has a 3rd kidney! Apparently, while in utero, her body tried to duplicate her kidney so she has this extra "abnormality" on her right kidney. Alrighty then. It should be of no trouble (or of any use) to her. I figure she can use it in the future when at a party and plays the get to know you game, "two truths and a lie" one of her truths can be that she has 3 kidneys!

We are grateful for the outcome of the tests showing no functional abnormality in her system. While I know it is not too big of deal to have this condition, it was just great news that she didn't it and her kidney infection was just a fluke.

So as not to forget the goofy little things we do, I had to get this down - I say this to Kate all the time lately:

"Hey you! Over there! With the big blue eyes...and all the fancy hair!" (or messy or matted or crusty hair...depending on the moment.)

We love little Kate!

Blessings and fevers and The Beaver

Today after church Caroline showed us a paper she had worked on in her primary class.

It looks like this:

Dear Mom and
Have I ever had a blessing? Please tell me about it.
Caroline

Oh, this was sooooo cute!! She told us she wrote it all by herself but her teacher wrote it on the chalk board and they copied it on their paper but she did it by herself. (She is really getting confident - not reading or anything but so much more confident than 3 weeks ago when she would throw her pencil down in frustration when trying to write a "K".)

So, we started to tell her about last spring, about a year ago, when she was really sick for all of spring break and we called our home teacher Bro. B. and he and Steve gave Caroline a blessing of healing. She had fevers over and over and we were in and out of the doctor, getting lab work, back to the doctors and more fevers and fevers and fevers and...

We were interrupted while telling this story of faith and healing to hear the following...

Caroline: "Mom, do we still have that show "Leaver to Beaver?" "
Mommy: "What?"
Caroline: "That show Leaver to Beaver! I really like that show. Can we watch it again?"
Steve: (rolls on the floor laughing burying his head in a pillow)
Mommy: "Do you mean Leave it to Beaver?"
Steve: (continues to roll on the floor laughing)
Caroline: (getting mad) " "Leaver to Beaver! Leaver to Beaver!"
Mommy: (laughing too burying my head in Steve's shoulder) I think you mean "Leave IT to Beaver." Does that sound like fevers and fevers?"
Lindsay: (Matter of factly from behind a book) "I Like "Leaver to Beaver"."
Caroline: (buries her head on the bed and is mad at us.)
Steve: (still busting a gut.)

Blessings and fevers and The Beaver. There you go.