Ice Fishing w/ Kyes Fam

Sunday Kami called and asked if she could take Bowdee boarding to the Canyons with Izak. You just can't say no to an offer like that so we sent Bowdee on his way to have a great day with his bud. Thanks Kami for giving Bowdee such a great experience.
Then we headed up to Deer Creek to go ice fishing with Kyles family. Emilee had never done this before so she was nervous to get on the ice. But she was a real trooper and I think she really enjoyed it.
She caught one fish and I caught 3 I guess there was a little girl power going on because the boys didn't catch anything. Not that I am bragging or anything but we even baited our own hooks.
The kids had fun pulling each other around on the sleds and playing their little games. The girls would take turns fishing but as much as they wished it the fish just wouldn't bite their bait. :(
It was a good time! After fishing we went to see the ice castles in Midway again. However, we got there and they were gone. So we found them in the city center to find they were closed on Sunday and this year they are charging $5.00 an adult and $3.00 for children. Which was a bummer.

5th Grade Boarders

So when your child goes into 5th grade they are offered a skiing/boarding passport for just $25.00. With the passport they get 3 passes to each ski resort in utah and some others in different states as well. So on Friday I checked Izak and Bowdee out of school early and took them to Solitude. All it costed us was the gas to get there. I choose to save my money to board with the family so I sent these 2 boys up on the lift all by themselves.
I seriously got a tear in my eye just like when I sent them to Kindergarten. I could feel the thrill they got from the independance and it made me sick. Ya I am happy for them and I trust them but at the same time it made me realize in just a few years they will be going without me at all. They had a wonderful time they got on the first lift at about 12:00 and didn't stop until 4:30 when they closed the lifts.
Well they did stop to take a quick hot chocolate break with me. But I think that was more for me then them. I think they felt bad for me just sitting at the bottom of the hill reading my book and watching for them to come down and wave to them after each run. I tell you what the whole ride home they were as quiet as can be and yes they sleep so good that night.


I remember coming home from ski days with my family and all of us just crashing to watch a movie with my mom. All 6 of us were spralled all over her room where ever we landed. Ah the feeling of complete exhaustion after a great day on the slopes... There is nothing like it! I must say going back to Solitude made me homesick for the days Kami and I worked there. I have never had a job I liked better then being a Mountain Host... Ya I would ski around all day getting paid to look for people who were lost, hurt or lonely. It was a job of a lifetime.

Why is it that when we have a weekend and we don't do anything adventurous we feel exhausted and weak? When the adventurous stuff we do should be exhausting, but it just makes us feel alive and rejuvenated. This weekend we had a few items of business we had to take care of which kept us from going boarding, or ice fishing or even sledding. So by the end of the weekend Terry and I were both going crazy because we didn't do anything to get our wiggles out.... I guess we both have a case of ADHD because we are always looking for a thrill and to keep us home on a weekend could kill us. Saturday we had Basketball games for Tia and Bowdee. Which was great don't get us wrong. But there was no sun involved or activity for us.

Then Sunday we went out to visit Terry's parents and wish them happy birthday. This was so nice to have dinner with them and just talk to them. We do love that, after we visited Terry's good friend from Grantsville and his family. Which we need to do more often. Then he took us over to his friends house that needed to get rid of some chickens. They were getting 2 dozen eggs a day and just couldn't go through that many. So we took home 4 new chickens to up our coop to 6. The kids were all thrilled to have 2 chickens each. Our chickens just started laying eggs this last week and they have LOVED going to check for eggs!

Then Monday Bowdee had a birthday party which he just had to go to. So we let the kids play with their friends while Terry and I got sad we didn't go out adventuring the whole weekend. It is crazy that we are both this way and I don't think it is a good thing. We definitely need to learn to stay home sometimes and just get stuff done around the house when we must. But we just have so much fun when we go play it is hard. Discipline is what we need to enforce upon ourselves.

Ice Fishin' Strawberry w/ Troys

So we headed up to Strawberry this morning to see if we could catch anything. So we set up the shack at about 21ft deep so we would be close to the hill to watch the kids sled yet deep enough to hopefully catch some fish. We set up at about 11:00 and tore down around 5:30 it was 1 degree when we started driving home.
It was cold but with the shack and heaters we kept pretty warm. The kids sled most of the day.










Of course Matia put in the most fishing hours. She watched that fish finder and was sure to tell us when and where the fish were.
Between Troys 6 poles and our 5 poles we only caught 1 fish the whole day. It was surely a keeper though a nice Cutthrout at 23" and about 3 lbs.
Terry and Troy had so much fun fighting this fish and getting it out of the hole. Then they just played with it like little boys until they gutted it.
These are some quality cousin moments I hope it helps build friendships that last FOREVER!
Treg and Terry getting ready to head back to the truck. We love the snowmobile. Check out Tregs red cheekies, yes it was cold.
Of course we all hit Wendy's for a nice cheap dinner. Man I love these moments, we had a great time. Thanks again Terry for getting us all up and out of here to have some fun.

Basketball here we come!

Matia and Bowdee are back at it in basketball again. Terry is Bowdee's coach again and they both seem to love it. They have a great team and all the boys seem to be excited about playing. This is the first year they will have an extra hour a week to practice together and then 1 hour game a week. They had their first practice game on today and it was amazing to see Bowdee go for a layup and actually make it! Wow it looked so GREAT! Good luck Bowdee & Terry.Matia has the same coach she had last year which she really enjoyed. She is a little defender, I love to watch her intensity. She also has most of the same players on the team so they are all excited about that as well. Matia I know you will only improve your skills the more you practice. Keep up the good work we are so proud of you. So here we go every Saturday we will have games for the next 8 weeks.

New Years Celebration 2011

This year to welcome in the new year we invited Troy and his girls and the Garricks to come and celebrate. Of course we invited Kye and Kamis families but unfortuantly they had other plans.
So we started the evening just chillin letting the kids play. Then we got out some games, we played poker, Mad Gab, and the shocker game. Then we set off some fireworks and gave away our first kisses of the year. Then at 2:30 we hit the sack hoping to be able to sleep in!
After sleeping in till about 11:00 we cleaned the house then headed to Tangled with the Covingtons for our traditional movie on the 1st. This year Grandpa paid for everyone and made reservations for seats at Thanksgiving Point. Man he is always going the extra mile to make things so nice for everyone. Thanks mom and dad we love you tons and tons. Happy New Year everyone we wish you the best this next year.

Ice Fishing Fighting the Blues

Here's the skinny we are getting ready to send Terry back to work. Yes he got a job only 9 miles away from home which is good news, however, it has crappy insurance is the bad news, its fun work good news, but less pay bad news. So since he has to go back with very few days off we headed to Strawberry to get out of the house and enjoy some outdoor fresh air.
Strawberry Bay Marina at 2 p.m. 25 degrees on Monday the 28th. Heavy snow at few spots on snowpacked road to the marina. More snow now than I saw most of the year last year. Looked like the whole lake was froze over.
Drove back to Mud Creek for the thicker one inch top ice with 8 inch slush and 4 inch bottom layer ice. Six other groups on the ice. Two poles with white tube jig and night crawler at 1' off bottom at 14'.
Two fish, one 14" rainbow at 2:45 p.m. and a 10 inch rainbow at 4:15 p.m. We were the last group off the ice at 5 p.m. and 10 degrees. Kids had fun sledding.

Christmas Season 2010

This year has come and gone so stinking fast we didn't even have time to put lights up on our house. It was everything we could do to get the letter written and out in the mail, then to make rice krispies and plates for our dear friends who mean so much to us. We didn't even put up snowbabies, see the temple lights, or do much of anything else.
oh well we did make it to Ryan and Kristi's temple sealing in Logan.
We made gingerbread houses with Troys family. We saw the reindeer and lights at Thanksgiving point with the Callaways.
We visited Santa at Gma and Gpa Townsends which we always enjoy.
We enjoyed a Hager family Christmas Party.
Then we had a spontanious Christmas party at our house which we did the nativity with the Covington cousins and listened to Kyles entertaining stories.
Then ended Christmas Eve with some good old fashion Famiy Rockband! So all in all it was a fun Christmas season but a little to quick for our style! We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Matia's Dance Grinch

Oh how we just love going to Matia's dance performances and it is so much funner when she has her friends in her dance with her.
Matia is dancing with Daisy, Lexie, Mia, Ellie, and Meghan.
Grandma and Grandpa Covington came to see her dance which she did fabulous. Thanks Matia for giving it your all and letting us enjoy your talent!

Carnival Cruise

So as most of you know our Spendor ship caught on fire 2 weeks before our departure date on our 7 day Mexico cruise. So we were forced to reschedule on the Paradise Carnival boat going to Ensenada Mexico and Catalina.
Our kids were just too excited to go on the boat so we couldn't disappoint them and we went anyway. It was fun and we had a great time and here are a few photos from our adventure. I will post more about it later if I ever get the chance... I feel like I am still drowning in laundry and Christmas adventures.


What a bunch of darling kids. This was the only night we ate at the "NICE" restraunt due to our time being scheduled at 8:30 due to our rebooking last minute. But the kids had fun dressing up and acting all sophisticated. Treg stuck with Chicken Nuggets and Fries, Matia had salmon, Bowdee & I had steak and Terry tried the lobster. But the best part was the dancing.

This was our night life! And we loved every minute of it.

We never got tired of the all you can eat ice cream.

Man I sure love this guy!!! Thanks for everything Terry.












So sad to be leaving the ship. All in all I think the kids had a great time.
















Our first stop was Catalina island. We had spent alot of time and money planning on taking the kids snorkeling there. When we got there it was really cold which we expected.

However, we didn't expect the visibility to be so poor and the sea life to be so scarse. So this was a major disappointment.
We also didn't enjoy the beach in jackets and binnies as we would have in swimming suits and sunscreen. But oh well it was an experience we will never forget.


Encinada was our second and last stop before going back to California. I can now see why Terry called in Tijiuana. There wasn't much more to do then walk down the main street shopping the same stuff over and over.

However, when we got off the ship there was a booth set up for some Save the Animals program and they had these cute baby lions the kids could hold and get a photo with for a fee. It was worth the fee I don't think the kids will ever forget this moment in their lives.