Snowy Sunday

Yesterday it snowed about 3 inches worth. The night and early morning were above freezing point so the snow had started to melt some by the time it had warmed up enough for us to take Owen out playing in it mid-afternoon today. It sure was pretty outside; it was quite mild and the sun was shining brightly in cloudless blue skies... I love the snow when the weather is like this. Fortunately, Owen has the best snow gear out the 3 of us so he was kept snuggly warm and dry while he sledded and threw snowballs. Alfredo & I sure were given our afternoon exercise running round the field and up and down the hill with him on his sled! It was fun to see Owen have so much fun though and I thought I'd share some of these pictures with you.

Thanksgiving.... and a lot to be thankful for..

Wow.. I cannot believe that it is the time of year again when we sit down to eat turkey and all the trimmings with friends. Thanksgiving morning was as beautiful as one could hope for on this special day.. clear blue skies and brilliant sunshine amid a very crisp cold air.. gorgeous! We started the morning with a semi lay-in (does 7.30am count?) and by 10.30 we were on the road south to the town of Hurricane with good friends Roger, Arlene and their 4 kids for an afternoon gathering at Roger's parents' place. The Olcott family are the most welcoming and friendly group you could ever wish for - they're simply awesome people and I am so happy that we got to spend our Thanksgiving with them. There were 17 of us sat down to lunch which was cooked to perfection and perfectly coordinated by Roger's dad. Around the table were us 3, Roger, Arlene and the 4 kids, Roger's sister Shay, her hubby and their 2 kids, my best work gal pal Becky (who is Roger's sister and my desk-mate at the Sheriff's Office), her husband Kyle and their 2 boys and of course Roger and Becky's parents who were such wonderful hosts. Owen had such a fun time with all the children, who although a lot older than him, included him a lot in their games and with a 'grandkid cupboard' full of toys, he was in his element. The home was all decked out gorgeous for christmas and looked really festive. Food was plentiful with the traditional turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and everything else you expect from a Thanksgiving feast... and there were 4 kinds of pie for dessert... wow, we were all very uncomfortably full to say the least, in a really good way! After clearing away the tables, we sat around talking and laughing and then decided to hit the stores for a spot of sale shopping, unfortunately the sales don't really get underway until tomorrow which is Black Friday - the most awesomest sale day of the year!, so anyways, we left the women shopping and 5 of us decided to start the journey North and for home. Tomorrow I am going to attempt to battle the crowds in the sales for what few bargains I can find, so let's hope the die-hard shoppers who will be at the store at 5am haven't pipped me to the post and taken everything by the time I get there at 10am or so!. Wish me luck! What a very fun and lovely Thanksgiving we had today with such wonderful people who we are so blessed to have each and every day in our lives. We have so much to be thankful for in our life here in Utah and I think that Thanksgiving is a really nice holiday to celebrate - there is no gift giving or commercialism (if you don't count Black Friday bargains!) like at Christmas, and the whole point of this holiday really is to get together with friends and family and to just enjoy being together and be thankful for everything we have.

Baja 1000, Ensenada, Mexico

I think pretty much everyone knows that Alfredo recently spent a week down in Mexico working on the Baja 1000 off-road race.... he was originally intending to be part of the support crew for a guy who had signed up to race solo but the course was somewhat rougher than expected and plans changed at the last minute and Alfredo got signed up to be the race partner which of course he was thrilled about! The race was 675 miles off-road and between Alfredo and Eric, the 2 of them finished in just a little over 28 hours, a time to be proud of given the technical difficulties the course posed. So anyways, here are some pictures of Alfredo in action!

Veterans' Day.... and Mommy and Owen's fun day

So today is Veterans' Day and I am fortunate to work for a company who observes this holiday and gave us the day off! - yay for me!! ... As on all holidays, we woke to find a gorgeous American flag flying outside our house, blowing proudly in the breeze... that's one of the things I love about this country, we're so patriotic!! Owen always gets well excited when the town puts a flag outside our house - he loves it! So, on a day off, never one to sit home and do nothing, I wanted to go do something fun with Owen. Our day started off at the Highland Park in St.George (love that place!) - this park is awesome. It's less than 2 years old so is still very clean and is in a really nice area of town and the grounds are very well maintained and Owen just loves it there - there's so much for him to play on. The park is huge and atop a big hill so has awesome views of the surrounding mountains. After he'd expended some of his seemingly limitless energy for a good hour and a half running round, we headed to Costco where they have 4 big aisles full of christmas toys and he had a wonderful time running round pressing buttons and testing stuff out. We had a quick slice of pizza for lunch then headed to the Washington City Aquatic Center to use up some more of my little man's energy! .. LOVE the Aquatic Center!!! This was only like the 3rd time we'd been in the 2 years or so they've been open but Owen totally remembered it and couldn't wait to get there! They have the classic lap pool but the majority of the Aquatic area is devoted to the play center for kids. They have a baby area for little tots and then a bigger play park, for want of a better word, that is inside the pool area that is full of so many fun things and there is this huge bucket on the very top that constantly fills with water and every couple of minutes dumps gallons of water on anyone unfortunate enough to be on the play park at the time.. it's so much fun!.. So anyways, we're back home now and i'm struggling to keep my eyes open; we had so much fun at the water park and we went up and down the waterslides so many times I was getting dizzy, lol. Owen practically passed out with exhaustion in the car on the way home so I know he had an awesome day since he rarely naps in the afternoons any more. So all in all, a very fun day and what a treat to have the whole day with my little man on a Wednesday!.... back to work tomorrow...

Horsing Around!

I just had to post these pics of our sweet neighbor Dave and Owen in the horse wagon that Dave just got done making... how awesome is this! He made it totally from scratch out of an old bicycle - how ingenious! Anyways, so I get home from work today and Dave is in our front yard with Maple the horse and this wagon and had come to give Owen a ride round the block. Not being able to resist, I hopped in the wagon too for a spin! Maple was in her element trotting down the street (we actually ended up going about 2 miles); she was such a good sport but had little disregard for 'STOP' signs or rules of the road, lol... it was fun, especially taking corners so fast we were practically on one wheel. Owen loved it though, he was giggling away. What a treat it was to get to take a ride!