Mammoth Mountain

For Christmas, Peter put two things on his letter to Santa this year. 1. 6 feet of snow (everywhere) and 2. And infinity dollar gift card to anywhere. 

Kid has it all planned out apparently. Since #2 was out, we decided to tag along with Travis' co-worker up to their condo in Mammoth for the weekend where they had just gotten 4 feet of fresh powder. 

After the meltdowns of the previous year, I spent quite a bit of time on gathering heavy-duty snow clothes for the kids. Luckily, all the hard work paid off and everyone had a blast playing in the snow (even Miss Nora).

The kids sure liked the sleds, but Nora and Benji liked just sliding down on their bums.

Sunny, fresh snow, and cool, clear air ... we couldn't have asked for a better weather!

Mammoth Mountain was also hosting their Night of Lights and we all went up to the resort where they had a big fireworks show and skiers wearing glow-in-the-dark suits dancing on the hill. It was pretty amazing but also about 5 degrees to butt cold freezing. The kids were done not long after we got there. 

After Peter got a snowmobile ride, we hopped on the gondola to take us home and caught the final firework show -- which was really the best place to watch it -- high above, in a cable car.

 Because this little snow bunny is too cute.

Sometimes it's hard to take a picture with your little sister...

 But this gorgeous snow could make anyone smile!

We enjoyed a perfect weekend of sledding and beautiful weather and I think Peter was okay with the fact that no snow actually fell at our house.

Kindergarten Christmas

For weeks Benji tromped around the house singing Christmas songs at the top of his lungs in preparation for his school's holiday program.

Our little elf did so great!

Checking out his class afterwards.

 Benji and his fabulous teacher, Mrs. Larsen

Nora with her little friend Charlotte Dunn after the program.

The kids (and Travis) all begged to get a real Christmas tree and this year Peter decided he needed to set up a ginormous train track around the tree. Peter used to be obsessed with trains but they haven't seen much play since he discovered Legos. It was really fun to see all the kids play with the trains over and over again.

 

Just before Christmas, I took the kids to see The Nutcracker at LPAC. Nora has been obsessed with Ballerinas lately and was beyond excited. She kept pointing to the stage and saying, "Look at they dresses, Mommy! Look at they feet!" It was pretty adorable. Especially since she's been dancing around in this little dress and shoes pretty much nonstop.

We hosted Travis' co-workers for another gingerbread house making party and these are the boy's creations. Peter had definite ideas about how his should look and told me he was making it look like Fort Dunmont from WWI. Perplexed, I asked him to explain some more and finally figured out that he was talking about Fort Douaumont near Verdun, France. He had read about it and got the shape pretty darn close and even made a 'hotwizer' (howitzer), guard posts, and sharpshooters. That kid is too smart for his own good.

My little lumberjack catching some zz's.

Odds and Thanksgiving-ends

Only way to make it through an early morning soccer game.

For Veterans Day, we took the kids up to the Base to mess around on the rock climbing wall there.

 For some reason, all of the kids would rather free climb than use the harness and ropes. They still got pretty far up on their own though.

 Unless Travis let them swing and then they were all about the harness.

Travis was able to take some time off over Thanksgiving and since we opted not to go out of town this year, we took them down to the Discovery Cube for the day. Travis likes to stay sharp and so practiced his lock picking skills on the way down. Crazy man. Don't tell Peter but he is getting a lock pick set for Christmas too (Travis' eternal mini-me).

 They had a Lego exhibit and of course, my kids were in heaven.

We enjoyed a quiet Thanksgiving Day with just our family enjoying good food. I even got a wild hair and saved all the turkey bits to make several gallons of turkey stock. 

And lastly, Travis and I at his work Christmas party - it's always a good excuse to get fancy especially with a masquerade theme this year.