ski day

i have been meaning to post these pictures for awhile. we had a great ski day a couple weeks back...my dad skied with us and took these. lucy and todd quit early but rileys little legs lasted longer than mine....he is really getting to be a great little skier!

...actually it was our last ski day as right after that the snow turned to rain and rain and rain....so sad to watch the snow base shrink and shrink and shrink. it is a la nina year so we expected the precipitation we just wanted it in the form of snow!!! the rain has stopped finally, though it hasn't snowed since.....we are all trying hard to THINK SNOW so we can hit the slopes again!

hope you are getting some winter play in!

lucy is four

what a day of celebration as we end the holiday season with lucy's fourth birthday. she started her day with chocolate chip pancakes (shaped like a princess), then opened some gifts. she got many calls from family wishing her a happy day, and her brother tried his very very hardest to be kind to her (he mostly succeeded).

then in the afternoon she got all dressed up in a princess dress with her new "up" shoes. she had her best little buddies over (also dressed up in their princess dresses).

...riley even got into the spirit and put on a dress!

....we had pizza and then to top it off a pink princess cake!!

....then we busted out the glow sticks and had a little dance party.

....she was smiles (mostly) all day!

happy birthday lucy!

a new year

happy new year!!

we had a great new years celebration.
we spent the new years eve day up on the mountain skiing. it was one on those perfect snow condition kind of days, crisp, clear and cold... the snow was squeaky and smooth (skiiers you know what i'm talking about)...great ski day


then back at home we celebrated new years eve with our good friends steve and janet and kids mel and lani.


so our new years eve tradition is to make a bunch of different appetizers for dinner. this tradition has roots from when todd and i were in the peace corps in lesotho and were spending thanksgiving at my site. now when you live in a remote mountain village in a small african country you don't get many visitors, but as we were just starting to make samosas (cause that sounded good for thanksgiving abroad) we got a knock on the door. to our suprise we had two visitors, one australian and one american who were mountain biking through lesotho. they got off track and needed a place to stay. and as it turned out the australian woman was of indian origin and so taught us how to make samosas!
we used to make them every year around thanksgiving but as this is a holiday with its own food traditions the samosas migrated and ended up being our new years tradition. we added other appetizers to round out the meal and a tradition is born. we look forward to them every year.

we all had a wonderful celebration complete with a game of charades (the kids really got into it).

happy new years!