Christmas - 2013

Every year Christmas gets better and better. I love watching the magic through Andrew's eyes. He loves all of the decorations, excitement, and of course the presents. This year he asked Santa for a pedal race car and since he was a good boy, that is what Santa brought!

The morning was sent playing with all of our presents and then in the afternoon we went over to Scott and Michelle's house.  They hosted a great Christmas dinner and the kids all had fun playing.

Do we really have to wait a whole year to do this again?!  Maybe we will do Christmas in July this year.  :)

Christmas Eve - 2013

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to send it with the Kinzel family. Sadly, Zack and Karla couldn't join us this year but we had fun with the rest of the family!

Visit to Santa

Andrew is making sure that Santa knows what he wants this year for Christmas!

Shoes for school

No Andrew, you can't wear my ski boots to school today!

First ski trip of the season!

Thanksgiving in Tahoe is our new family tradition and I absolutely love it! We were a little scared that the ski runs weren't going to be open but Mother Nature cooperated with some cold weather so they were able to make snow. There were only a few runs open but it was perfect. Andrew could ski down all of them and we had a blast. And, there weren't any crowds (which is always nice!). We had a week of fun: skiing, ice skating, eating S'mores at the Ritz and relaxing. My mom and I even had time to get a massage! I tried to convince Brian we should live in Tahoe for the winter but he was being more realistic and said we had to come back home. I'm counting the days until we get to go up again....

First ski day of the season!

Look who is skiing all by himself.

Having fun on the chair lift

Entertaining mommy while we were stopped in the gondola

Happy Turkey Day!  Skiing on Thanksgiving.

Best part of Tahoe...snuggling!

Yes, that is my mom trying to fit into Andrew's fort.

Move Over Mozart

Look who started taking piano lessons!

EMBA Graduation

You can officially call my Master Wing now!!

After 18 months of classes, papers, tests, a sailing trip in San Diego and a visit to New Zealand I am done!

Snow Hunting!

While the dad's went on their annual Pumpkin Hunt adventure, we went up to Tahoe on a Snow Hunt! It is nice to be able to take the boys (and Zoe!) up to the mountains and just have mommy and me time. It will be even nicer when we can go to Tahoe and have just mommy time!!  But until then,we have so much fun running through the forest, playing in snow, having cocktails (mommies, not kids), visiting the fire station and relaxing.

I think the best part of the trip was taking the kids up to the Ritz.  They got to run around on the mountain and there were two older kids who entertained the boys by making snowballs and playing with them.  They also had a Smores roast so we decided to stay and pretend we were guests of the hotel.  As one could expect from the Ritz, they had five different flavors or marshmallows, four different kinds of chocolate and they put the entire thing together for you.  It was a blast and I know where I will be at 4pm each day next time we are in Tahoe.

Grey and Andrew found their first pile of new snow!

Playing on the ski slopes.  They were happy there weren't any skiers.  I was sad that there wasn't more snow!

Let's hope there is more snow than this in two weeks when we are back!

Wait?  Who is watching the kids?!

Andrew looks at me and says "Look at my snowball."  It's a rock dude.  Put it down!

Nothing but 5 star treatment for the kids!  Perhaps getting them used to the service at the Ritz is a bad idea.

No room on the couch, no problem.  Andrew found his own seat.