Snow!

It snowed! Like, once. What a weird Utah winter this year. I'm glad we got enough snow, even if just this once, to test out the snow tires we thought we'd need living up by the foothills (they work great), and to test out the dirt pit next door to see if it's sleddable. Great news: it is! Basically we live next to a big water retention bowl that isn't grassed. Luckily, if we get enough snow it is still a blast for sledding, and at least this year, we had it all to ourselves. I hope we can get one more big snow this year so we can invite the cousins over for a sledding day. The hill closest to our house is the perfect size for little ones, and then the hill on the other side of the pit is 3 times taller and steeper--a blast for the big kids. I love having the ability to immediately run back inside the second the cold became too much for Alice and warm up with some cocoa. I also loved that the next morning, Jack could run outside and sled the morning away while I stayed warm in my house and could easily peek on him from the kitchen window. It's a winter dream come true. The Pit is one of my favorite things about our house. 

We also got to introduce the kids to ice skating at Jared's work party this week. His employer invited everyone to come to the Olympic ice oval in Kearns for dinner, a magic show, and ice skating. They also had curling lessons, but we ran out of time for that before we really needed to get the kids home for bed. For me, ice skating is an activity that I always think is going to be fun . . . but then it kind of isn't haha. Don't get me wrong, I loved the experiencing of watching my kids experience ice skating for the first time, but it took half an hour to go one lap around and everyone was in pain by the end--Jared's back from hunching over Alice to hold her up, and my ankles because I have terrible skating form. Jack and I hovered on the edge, at first unable to really stand up at all, but by the end of the first lap we were a little faster and no longer hanging onto the wall. The kids loved trying something new and are begging to go skating again soon. I do think it would be fun to get Alice in a lesson but doubt it will happen this year. 

And now for some pictures:

^^Alice has been playing "Baby Lovey" all week, and carrying her lovey around in this little handkerchief blanket. It's adorable. 

^^We spent an evening ribbon dancing the night away and having Detroit-style pizza that my brother Tim made. He's impressive.

^^Chris came over to help us do the final caulking for our powder bathroom . . . but unfortunately, quite a bit of wallpaper came off with the painters tape when we peeled it off above that top trim line (the caulk made the wallpaper damp), so now we will need to add another trim piece to cover that up. I'm glad it will (hopefully) be a pretty simple fix, but this truly is the project that never ends. I have learned a LOT of renovation lessons with this tiny bathroom that I thought we'd be able to finish before we moved in two months ago.