:: an afternoon at the movies ::

Danny & I traded time to ourselves yesterday. He went snowboarding in the morning & I got to escape to the movies in the afternoon. I feel pretty excited to have discovered that our local cinema, 5 minutes down the road, charges $1.50 for a ticket! How crazy is that? I couldn't help comparing it to the Toowoomba cinema which charges something like $13. I will definately be going back!

I went to see Life as We Know it, which is a chick flick about two Godparents who end up having to take on a 1 year old girl when their friends die in a car accident. See the trailer here. It was just the girly escape that I needed yesterday afternoon - I laughed, cried, envied clothes & may even have appreciated the male leads physique just a little bit (but only because he reminds me so much of my husband :) It was pretty funny to see all the challenging parts of parenthood so well portrayed in a movie.

I returned home in a good mood for having taken some time out. It is amazing how you appreciate being able to sit down & watch a movie uninterrupted for 2 hours when you have little kids. What a phase of life this is!?

{this moment}

A time in our lives that I don't want to forget...

Hike to Landscape Arch, 

Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

+ very cool cars +

A couple of months ago Jamin received an Automoblox car for his birthday & since then we have become big fans of their toys. They are basically really stylish wooden cars that drive beautifully & can be assembled & disassembled pretty easily. Jamin spends a lot of time taking his apart, making it into different shapes, then putting it back together. When Kael started wanting to play with Jamin's we decided that to save on fighting, he could have his own for Christmas. 

He doesn't look very excited in this photo but believe me, he does love his new truck!

I loved these cars so much that I bought a three pack & sent it back to my nephews for Christmas. Ainsley has done a bit of research since then & says that they are substantially cheaper here in the States. So if anyone wants a special little present for their little boy or girl let me know & we can organise to get it back to you in the next few months. 

:: a chilly winters morning on the slopes ::

Winter here in Salt Lake City has been getting me down over the last week... so much so that if Danny said "time to pack up & go home" I would have whooped in excitement. But today seemed to make up for some of the summer homesickness that I am feeling. I am finally becoming more confident on the snowboard & am starting to really love it! It was a chilly -12'C temperature when we stepped out of the warm car this morning but we just geared up so that not an inch of skin was exposed & hit the slopes. The sun came out an hour or so later & the day got even better!

On the Sunrise Lift heading up the mountain. Its super slow but the scenery is spectacular.

Here's a little video to show you how my skills are progressing. This was at the start of the morning & I had actually improved a lot more by the end. It is just amazing to have the opportunity to learn to snowboard at a resort 30 minutes drive away. Rather than having to go through a painful week or two of a holiday on the slopes dealing with beginners injuries, we just head up a couple of times a week to have some fun & build on our skills.

And here is another quick video of the end of my last run for the day.

Danny had a great morning as well except I am not quite as skilled as him yet to be able to get a video of him while riding. Next week maybe? He went and explored up the Powderhorn II lift a few times to snowboard down Sunshine Bowl & Gary's Glade. He is doing so well & absolutely loving our new sport!

So for all you skiers & snowboarders out there turning green with envy while reading this... buy a ticket & come over to check it out. We have a basement that is just waiting for you to crash! You just have to put up with family life the other 80% of the time we aren't in the slopes.

:: knitting update ::

The knitting of the most beautiful scarf in the world is going well although I would really just like it to be finished so that I can wear it now! I was slowed down a few weeks back by that nasty tailbone injury from snowboarding and therefore could not sit down without extreme pain. Who wants to sit down to knit when it hurts that much I ask you...? Not me & therefore not much knitting got done for a while. Then I stumbled upon the car knitting time slot & haven't looked back. The car is a great place for me to knit - the boys are strapped into their seats & relatively happy, I was in the back next to them while we had visitors so there wasn't much to see out the window & we were doing a lot of driving around. So my scarf grew & grew. 

It doesn't normally sit on the Christmas tree like this but I was searching for an appropriate hanging spot but both of the boys are in bed & couldn't help. I also thought this might be a nice time for you all to farewell the tree who is returning to the lovely old man who we bought it from. Danny has absolutely no faith in my ability to keep it alive over the next year & we are also planning on being home in Australia for Christmas next year so won't use it again then. I am not sorry that we chose to get a living Christmas tree, especially now that we are starting to see them all dumped on the sides of the road awaiting their fate as garden mulch. I sigh in self righteousness that my tree will live to celebrate another Christmas, with another loving family. 

Goodbye lovely tree - go in peace.

:: saturday sledding fun ::

Despite the freezing temperatures we all ventured out of the house on Saturday afternoon for some fun sledding at the swimming pool park. No bike riding or swimming or even playing on the equipment this time though... too cold! The only thing to entertain us was sliding down the hill on our new sled.

Noteworthy moments of the outing were Danny dumping Jamin head first into the snow while pulling him around on the sled & the pain my fingertips were feeling once back in the car. Just how cold does it have to be to start getting frostbite?

I am missing Australia & the warm summer so much this last week & am dreaming of our trip home in 5 weeks. The snow might look like lots of fun but really with two little boys its more of a chore being stuck inside than lots of fun outside. It seems like I spend longer getting them dressed to go outside than the actual amount of time we are outside. And we always end up coming in with one or both kids in tears. Usually because of a face full of snow. 

Anyone have any snow play tips for little kids? 

< inside slidin'>

Most days I look at the little indoor slide I picked up for $30 & think that I am a genius. The boys must climb up & down it at least 50 times a day & I just smile inside thinking of all the pent up energy they are exerting while we are stuck inside with the freezing weather. Of course there was a day last week where Kael fell off twice & managed to give himself a bloody nose each time. Then I wondered if I needed to be supervising him just a bit more closely. 

Now I just need to figure out a way to get the trampoline out of the -2'C cold in the garage & up into the living room & we will all be happy. 

Here's a little video showing some of their tricks.