Bear Lake Chocolate Festival

The Florence clan all went up to Bear Lake over Valentine's weekend for their Chocolate Festival. We had never been before but we LOVE chocolate so it sounded like a great way to spend the weekend. Well, when you hear 'Chocolate Festival' you would probably think that it would be a festival all about chocolate, right? Wrong. There was a table or two of chocolate stuff and then the rest was just your run of the mill boutique fair; purses, jewelry, various crafts, etc... We were a little disappointed but that didn't keep us from getting our fill of chocolate!



We had read in the paper that... um, crap... I can't remember the name of the city in Idaho...Paris, maybe?... anyway, a city in Idaho at the other end of the lake was hosting an ice sculpture contest so we thought it would be neat to go check it out. It was about a 45 minute drive and when we got there we all started laughing (in our cars, where no one could hear us) because I guess we were expecting something different than this...

Now that's not to say that whoever did these didn't work hard and do a good job, but it certainly wasn't worth a 45 minute drive.
After the ice sculpture, my brother Landon really wanted to check out a frozen waterfall to see if it would be good for ice climbing. We thought that would be a cool sight, so we all drove up the mountain... to look at a pretty small waterfall. We actually drove past it and then a couple miles down the road stopped and said, "Wait, was that it?"

So, after spending the weekend driving around looking at stuff that really wasn't much to look at (don't get me wrong, we still had a great time) we got to celebrate Valentine's Day. The kids all wrote little notes to Grandma and Grandpa and then we decorated their door when they left to church so they would be surprised when they got home. (We all went to church btw, they just left before us)

It's a tradition at our house to have a special breakfast on Valentine's morning. We decorate the table with rose petals and candles and flowers and then we eat heart shaped waffles with strawberries, chocolate syrup, whipped cream and sprinkles. So, we brought the tradition up to the lake and had our special breakfast with everyone! Well, it was actually lunch because we ate it after church. Happy Valentine's Day!

Park CIty Ski Trip

A few months ago we gave the kids a choice for our family vacation. They could pick between Disneyland or a ski vacation and to my surprise they picked skiing. So, we joined up with our good family friends the Lewis' and rented an awesome house in Midway and spent a few days skiing at Park City. We had a blast! The kids are learning to ski so fast, Mady even went down a black diamond run... it scared the crap out of her but she did great! The little kids are fearless, they just cruise down the mountain and I think everyone's skills have bypassed Brittany's and mine. We've decided that we are too old to learn how to ski, we watched some footage of us and laughed our heads off because we look like two grandmas going down the slopes.





We didn't just ski the whole time. There was plenty to do at the house. We had a pool tournament, played various card games, and we played air hockey. One day we took the family tubing at Soldier Hollow. That was soooo much fun. It's great to go flying down the hill and then not have to walk back up it, they have a rope tow that just pulls you back up the hill on your tube.





We also went to look at the 'ice castle' in midway. It was pretty cool... literally.




During our down time at the house the kids got a little crazy sometimes...



They loved hanging out in the hot tub. Especially when it was snowing.



The theater room in the house was awesome! We watched plenty of movies in here and all the guys were excited to watch the Super Bowl on the 'big' screen (when we finally got it to work anyway). Everyone was cheering for the Colts so I decided to make things interesting by cheering for the Saints. Turns out that was a good choice!



The kids just couldn't get enough of the snow, so even when we weren't skiing you could find them outside playing in it.



We can't be at Park City without eating at Baja Cantina and after all that playing there's noth'in like a delicious meal that I didn't have to cook or clean up!

Valentine Creature Cookies!

We love cookies! And since my kids also love to create things I thought this would be a fun activity for them to do. We made tons of heart shaped sugar cookies (all different sizes) and then the kids had a great time making all sorts of animals and bugs with them. The only bad thing about this was that no one was allowed to eat the creations... boo. Good thing we had extra cookies! (Not to mention all the cookie dough we ate beforehand... that really is our favorite part!)


These are Kaden's fish that he made. I think he's trying to show me his fish face...


Breckyn made an adorable bunny rabbit and fish


Mady made the cute little ladybug and Ash went to town making all the others. She made even more after I took the picture. I LOVE that little mouse, the front teeth crack me up!

Happy Birthday Grandma Nanny!

It was my mom's birthday over the weekend and she was out of town so the kids wanted to make her a BIG birthday sign to put on her garage to welcome her home. We just got a call from her tonight and she loved it! (of course)

Class of '93!

Wow it has been a long time! I went out to dinner with some friends from High School the other night and it was so much fun! I haven't seen these ladies for 10+ years... how ridiculous is that? It was great to see them and catch up with everyone and just hang out and talk and laugh and have a good time! It's crazy that even after all this time everyone is still pretty much the same... except for maybe a few more wrinkles which a pushy salesman pointed out to me in a very non-discreet way at the mall right before I went to dinner. That's all I needed was for some punk to tell me that my eye cream isn't working. Anyway, aging aside, I am so glad for these friends who stay friends even when you haven't talked to each other for an embarrassingly long amount of time. Luv ya ladies!

P.S. Please keep in mind that this picture was taken at about 11:00 at night so we are all looking a bit tired by then, remember the whole aging comment, we can't stay up as late as we used too!

Daddy Daughter Date at Deer Valley

Whoo, that's a lot of D words. Too bad I'm not playing Scattergories. Anyway, Ashlyn got to have her dad all to herself yesterday when the two of them spent the day skiing. Lucky girl! They had a lot of fun until Ash crashed pretty hard and hit her head, giving her a massive headache. Thank goodness she was wearing a helmet! Here is a little commentary from Ash at the start of their day. They were supposed to shoot some more footage of them actually skiing but I guess they were having too much fun to think about it!

1st Ski Day!

Here are some pictures from our first ski day of the season! We went up to Park City Ski Resort on New Year's Eve with our good friends the Lewis family. We had a great time! It took some of the kids a little bit to get their 'ski' legs back but by the end of the day everyone was doing a fabulous job!







Kaden was out of control during the line. He kept goofing around and tipping over. Eventually, he just stayed on the ground and Dusty would scoot him forward on his skis.


Dusty had the little kids line up behind him and they would just follow him down the hill. It looked so cute, like little ducks following their daddy. Although, I guess I should mention that I was at the end of that line ...