St. Patrick's Day

I hope everyone had a fun, festive and mischievous St. Patrick's day.  Unfortunately, Harris' trap failed to catch the pesky leprechaun, but he's pretty sure where he went wrong and has already made plans for next years trap.   We did give homage to the day with a snack of green milk and scones* in the shape of clovers.

*I used my favorite scone recipe and added the green color to the milk before I added it to the dry ingredients.

Rainbow Cupcakes

I made these rainbow cupcakes to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Harris' class.  They were so easy to make using sour belts, lemonheads and a little bit of chocolate.  I just dipped the lemonhead in chocolate to make it look like a pot of gold.

Aren't they happy little things?

Dog Sledding in Utah

Grace has always been infatuated with Huskies and dog sledding.  She's read a lot about both and has dreamed of sledding and visiting Alaska.  On our trip to Utah we were able to help her realize her dream of sledding (Alaska will have to wait awhile!).  On the day she turned 10 we surprised her with a dog sledding adventure!  It was such a joy to watch her take it all in and enjoy herself so much!

Here's a little video of the sled running.  These dogs were so beautiful as they moved as one!  It was amazing and thrilling to be a part of!  (I have no idea why it is so small!)

Utah

It's a little overwhelming trying to post about our trip to Utah with Kathleen, Jack, Will and Caroline because it was such a fantastic and awesome vacation.  I'm not really sure that words can convey what a great time we had.  Instead, I think I will let the pictures (I had 500 and something!) do most of the  talking...

Our trip started with a very early airplane ride and a Chick-fil-a biscuit.  We were off to a good start!

Our flights landed in Salt Lake City within an hour of each other.  Kathleen and I have been best of friends forever and Jack and Bryce were roommates in college.  Their children, Will and Caroline, are exactly 7 months younger than Grace and Harris.  Will was Grace's very first friend.  The children got along famously for the entire week.  Not once did they have issues with each other which made things so pleasant and nice!

We stayed at The Canyons in Park City.  It was nice.  Very nice.

When we arrived, they didn't have a ton on snow on the ground (the mountains, yes, but not around the resort) but it started snowing and pretty much kept on going all week!  It was wonderful!  When we left this tennis court was inches deep in snow!

Our first full day there we rode gondolas, drank hot chocolate, toured the charming downtown and generally had a good time.

The skiing was amazing.  The children all took three days of ski lessons and did unbelievably well!  Grace only got in 2 1/2 days due to a ski injury. She had a leg laceration from another ski but that didn't phase her too much.  

I should note that Harris has created a new family story.  He fell off of the ski lift!  His instructor was beside him and instructed the children to start scooting forward and he scooting a little too far!  It was at the end, right before the platform, so he just fell into deep powder- it was never a dangerous situation but it makes me laugh every time I envision it.  He claims that he skied backward for a bit before he fell down.  We are going to go with that version because it's awesome.

There was lots of snow play.

And goofy play.

(a dance party)

And pool play.

We also celebrated Grace's 10th birthday.

On our last evening we took a sled ride.  It snowed and it felt pretty magical.  We even saw moose!

 We had such a great time and will cherish this vacation with friends forever!