Sunday, January 30, 2011

New Year's 2011

For New Years 2011 we happily traveled to Black Butte for several days of absolute, total relaxation.  We are very fortunate that Kurt's uncle and aunt are so kind as to let us invade their home away from home there a couple times each year.  We always appreciate their generosity so very much, as Black Butte has become the Moke crew's favorite place on Earth, and this trip did not disappoint! 

We arrived late our first night as snow was beginning to fall on ground already covered in several inches of snow.  When we woke up the next morning we were THRILLED to see it had snowed all night long, providing nearly a foot of gorgeous, beautiful, perfect snow!  It continued to snow over the next 24 hours, leaving nearly 2 feet in which we enjoyed plenty of sledding, long walks, and playtime during our mini-vacation, in addition to lots of great food, hot chocolate, and warm, cozy fires. 

To make the trip even better, we were joined by our dear friends, Tasha, Matt, and Sawyer, for several days.  It was so much fun to relax and play together, not to mention watch Emma practicing her big sister skills with baby Sawyer.







Rewind: Christmas 2010

I am remembering now why I took a blogging hiatus from the old blog a year ago:  Because it is SO hard to keep up!  Between filling roles as mommy, wife, 5th grade teacher, friend, housekeeper, cook, personal shopper, recreation coordinator, and chauffer - all while growing a healthy new human being and preparing for his arrival - precious little time is left over for anything else.  I'm finding any spare time I am lucky to have is designated as much needed rest/sleep time, and that's only after properly researching preschools, investigating options for swimming lessons, and bargain hunting for the new baby gear we're going to need.  Needless to say, I am feeling stretched extremely thin lately!  Extremely.  Thin.

In spite of all that, this holiday season was too wonderful and too memorable not to share at least some little snippets of it.  We had our regular 3 days of Christmas, this year spending Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family, Christmas morning to ourselves at home while the afternoon was with Kurt's side of the family.  The day after Christmas my dad's whole side got together, so it worked out perfectly.

This was the very first Christmas where Emma fully understood everything, as she soaked up every moment of each holiday celebration with every family member.  It was such a joy to watch her take it all in, and absolutely magical to see Christmas through her innocent little eyes.