skiing is fun

Yesterday I arranged for my mom to watch Huck & June for the afternoon so I could go up to Sundance and ski with the boys (who were there with their school ski program). I talked Christine into going up with me and even though we got there late and only got about 5 or 6 runs in, I thought it was a total blast. I was really struck with how beautiful it was to be outdoors, how nice a resort Sundance is and what a great resource it is to have it so close, how fun it is to have kids getting older and more capable to do fun grown-up things with, and mostly how nice it is to do something outside of our usual routine.

Here's a snapshot of our lives today:

Huck and June are asleep right now. Oliver went next door to play and Brenden and a group of friends walked over to the Wilk to play at the arcade. I'm going to put that in the "Pro" column for living in Provo - if I'm going to have an independent pre-teen who wants to walk to the arcade, I'm glad it's at BYU.

I'm in the middle of sewing new curtains for the guest room in the basement. I'm anxious to finish that project. I'm also in the middle of knitting a Christmas stocking for (new baby niece) Mi Na - nice and early for Christmas 2011. I'm in the middle of finally refinishing the chair we picked up at the beach a couple of years. I picked fabric and painted the chair so it should be done soon. I'm excited about that. I want to put together a new photo wall in my kitchen. I've been talking about it for about a month now but need to just sit down and do it one of these days.

This weekend I need to: make a spotlight poster for Oliver to take to school on Monday. He's supposed to do an Oral Presentation in his Chinese class - I hope he'll let me go and film it. I also need to make and deliver birthday party invitations for Oliver - I think we'll take a group to Power Tumbling (trampolines, foam pits, gymnastic mats) - seems like a good place for energetic 8-year-olds to burn off steam. I really should work on Valentines this weekend, since next weekend is going to be crazy, but I'm not sure we'll get to that just yet. Anyone have any cute ideas for homemade Valentines? I need to come up with something.

I'm in the middle of scheduling concerts and tours and firesides for The Lower Lights for the upcoming year. It's like a total jigsaw puzzle figuring out 12 work/vacation/family schedules plus venue availability plus host availability plus expenses and accommodations, etc. Good things I like puzzles.

I'm also in the middle of figuring out the lineup for the 2011 season of the Rooftop Concert Series. We're hoping to have the funding and lineup all figured out and ready to announce by April 1. I'm really having a blast working with Mindy Gledhill, Justin Hackworth, and Courtney Kendrick again on that project - getting to have weekly meetings with those guys makes the extra work totally worth it.

I've got a couple new assignments at work these days which are actually kind of exciting and fun to work on - it's been a while since work has been stimulating and not just drudgery.

For Christmas Scott got me a slow cooker cookbook from Williams-Sonoma which has totally changed the way I do dinner. I have tried about 10 of their recipes so far (about 80% success rate so far) and the family is loving it. I have the time & energy to prepare food in the morning which I absolutely do not have in the evening. We've gone from about 1-2 home cooked meals per week to about 5 or 6. Pretty impressive. We'll see if I can keep it up.

Huck had his 18 month appointment this week - he's 80th% for weight, 70% for height. Dr says to continue to just ignore his high-pitched-blood-curdling-screaming - he needs to know that's not how you get our attention. Unfortunately it sure gets the attention of anyone we see in public. Huck is in his water phase now - obsessed with pouring water from one cup to another or really pouring water on anything. He is not satisfied with sippy cups. He is also obsessed with buttons - the car door, light switches, garage door, TV, CD player, door bells. He doesn't talk much - Uh oh, No, Mom, Daddy, P.U., Hi, Bye, Nigh-nigh, and Dadu (we think this is Dog or Creature or Animal or something), are about his only words. The Dr said not to worry too much about his speech - just continue to read books and work on flash cards with him - yeah ok we'll "continue" to do that. Oops might have forgotten a few developmental steps with this 4th baby. He climbs like crazy, is a bit OCD about closing drawers and cupboards, and is overall still a total rascal.

June asked me to sign her up for skating lessons. I should look into that.

We are still hoping/planning to go to the East Coast this spring. I need to figure that out.

I've become totally addicted to chips and salsa lately. Well I've always loved chips & salsa, but I found a new brand of fresh salsa that I'm loving (Jack's Special from Costco) and unfortunately, like any of my other food obsessions, I've gotten to where I go through a whole bag of chips (Tostitos bite-size rounds) and a whole big jar of salsa in about 2 or 3 days. By myself. So now I'm going to have to cut myself off. (Well I don't really mean "now" - but you know, eventually pretty soon.)

I'm finding myself a little disappointed about turning 35, and this is the first time I think I've ever cared. That's starting to sound rather old to me. No longer close to 20. No longer barely 30. Now I'm entering almost 40 territory. That's kind of sad.

Guess that's all for now. I should go put a bunch more pictures in and link to all my friends/family/products/groups mentioned above, but I'm going to keep this simple and ease myself back into the swing of blogging.