Reason 1999 why my husband rocks

On Saturday afternoon, Ben got pulled over for speeding. He was coming down from Butterfield Canyon, and was doing 37 in a 30 mph zone. Luckily, he talked himself out of a ticket, and got away with just a warning.

Oh – and he was riding his bike!

**Edited to add: This is not a joke. He seriously got pulled over for speeding on his bicycle. Apparently the whole "Share the Road" bike campaign goes both ways. He was riding down a steep and windy road down a canyon, and the cop said he was worried about his safety. blah. blah. blah. More like a slow afternoon in my (humble) opinion. And apparently he's not the only one who has had this happen. But hey - at least its a good story. Right?

St George picture overload

This is the first installment in my posting of the St George pictures. We travelled down there last weekend for a cycling festival. But Blogger is being stupid and won't let me load anymore pictures :( So, I guess this is a teaser. It may be hard to believe that there are more pictures to come. What can I say? I love my camera!
The kids decorated a poster for their dads so they could cheer them on at the finish line.
G was very worried that the wind was blowing down the balloon arch at the finish line. She and her cousins spent an hour trying to make the balloons stand up against gale-force winds. It was a losing battle, but so fun to watch the kids try and solve a problem.

I told Bryn to smile. What a goof!
Daddy gets a congratulatory hug from Bryn. He finished his ride through the canyon in just over 4 hours. He survived 1000s of feet of elevation gain (and loss) and winds measured at 60 miles per hour.

Goofing off in the grass.
G and Daddy waiting for Uncle Matt to come in.
Uncle Matt finished about 3 hours later. He did the century ride (100 miles). This picture shows him trying to cross the finish line, but it was so windy that the balloons wouldn't stand up. I also like the cheesy grandma papparazzi trying to take his picture. hahaha
Real men wear spandex.

As you can probably tell, we had a blast. But I'm ready for another vacation. A real vacation where we actually have time to relax and stuff. And mommy gets to shop. I didn't hit one store the whole weekend.

Date night

Ben and I rarely get a date night. After having the girls in daycare 4 days a week, I feel guilty leaving them with a sitter on the weekends. But on Saturday when my mother-in-law called and offered her babysitting services, we couldn't pass it up. And we knew exactly what we wanted to do: night skiing at Snowbird. From 5:30 - 8:30 they have their "bunny hill" open. But its only $7, and its skiing (or snowboarding for Ben). Where else can you get that much fun for only $14. Even if it is just the easy hill.

So, we dropped the girls off and swung by my parents' house to pick up our gear (we store it there since they live so close to the canyon). Then, we were on our way. The drive up the canyon was fun, because there were coyotes on the road chasing our cars - just like regular dogs. We got there quickly, and before we knew it, we were on the lift.

Although it was just the "bunny hill" we had so much fun. On the side of the run, we could get into some fresh powder and even ski a bit through the trees. Someone had also built a descent jump there, so Ben gave me the courage to try going off the jump - something I'd never tried before. Imagine a 30-ish, slightly chubby mom going off a ski jump with all the teenagers. I'm sure it was a sight to see me flailing through the air - it was probably pretty freakin' hilarious. I never actually landed a jump, but I gave it my best and came pretty close to landing a couple of times. And at least Ben was there, landing 360s to balance me out.

It was a great night. We laughed. We goofed off. And we even made-out in the car like teenagers (until someone walked by the car and freaked me out). It was wonderful to reconnect with my husband. We're good at the fun stuff. Unfortunately, we're not always so good at the day-to-day stuff, like bill paying and house cleaning. So often we get frustrated with each other. We need to try and reconnect more often to help us get through the monotony - Saturday night was just what we needed.

Christmas 2007

Christmas morning dawned cold and snowy - the perfect start to a Christmas day (of course by the time the sun rose, we had be awake for 2 hours).
We had a couple of inches of fresh snow on Christmas Eve - just enough that Daddy had to shovel. And at 22 degrees that morning, it was still not cold enough to need a coat and gloves when he shoveled (his body must still be used to living in Siberia, although he's been in Utah for 9 years).
Christmas for us comes in 3 rounds: our house, G'ma Debbie and G'ma Mary's house. Round 1 started bright and early - at 5:25 am. Lucky for Daddy, I kept the girls in G's room for an hour before they could no longer be contained, and Daddy got to "sleep in" unti. 6:15 am. Santa brought the girls a box full of dress-up items. Bryn immediately had to try on some of the items - the dress-ups were a big hit (which made Santa very happy, as he had been collecting items for months).
Mommy also gave the girls baby dolls, who appear to be well-loved . . .
Complete with their own strollers, which are incredibly fun to push around on the wood floors.

Round 2 began at 9am at G'ma D's house. The drive there was incredibly fun. My parents live in the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains, and they get lots more snow than we do. On some of the roads, we were the first car to have driven in the freshly fallen (and unplowed snow). It was amazingly fun. And our car did great - even when we tried to spin out, the car stayed in control. Shortly after arriving at G'ma's house, the present frenzy began again.
This is my brother wearing a new shirt. He loves shirts with funny sayings - especially the ones about the states (like "its all relative in West Virginia"). We also have a family joke that comes from driving I-15 through the state. Central Utah is very unpopulated, and 2 of the biggest towns along I-15 are Beaver and Fillmore. We always makes jokes about driving through the "Fillmore/Beaver" area of the state. This shirt came from my sister and her hubby, who stopped at the rest stop in Beaver a few weeks ago coming home from Vegas. Just in case you can't read what this shirt says, it has a basic map of the state, and reads "I found Beaver in Utah". Its very appropriate for my newly divorced, party-boy brother. And pretty freakin' hilarious.
I couldn't get a serious picture of G all day.
M and G (being silly again)
Daddy and Bryn

Round 3 began at 1:30 at G'ma Mary's house. Bryn fell asleep on the way there, and crashed for 2 hours in the play room. Notice how she is surrounded by toys?
Daddy and G - I love this picture.
My in-laws lived in Switzerland for many years, and brought home a love for European cheeses. We had the yummiest cheese bar, and I ate waaaay too much. But it was good. I think I ate about 20 apples and gouda.
Bryn finally woke up, and had a blast with her cousins.
Oh - and did I mention that we got MORE presents here?

It was a wonderful day. We are so blessed and grateful to have such an amazing family.