March Mayhem! (and a bit of madness)

March has been a flurry of activity and trips to warmer climates. I started out the month with an impromptu trip to Vegas with some girlfriends. We did some shopping, some much needed pool time, and typical Vegas things like going to a show and watching the freaks on the strip. It was a ton of fun!

Yes we are professionals...

All dressed up for a night on the town!

 Me and one of my besties Megan

 Another bestie Tehra

Had to search for the sun but we finally found a good pool! Heaven...

Two weekends later it was back in the car we go for March Madness baseball tournament in St George. This time was a bit trickier because Wade was coaching Jake & Zacs teams! He is amazing, and the absolute best Dad I know. Zacs team was very new, only having practiced a few times in doors but managed to win a game. Zac loved having his dad involved & was a beast on the mound and behind the plate nearly the whole tournament. When your the MVP on the team you have a lot of responsibility!

Jake's team has been together for so long now that it was truly like watching a well oiled machine on that field. They were scary good, anticipating each others moves and playing flawless baseball. Jake was asked to pitch in the championship game and he did 5 incredible innings with a mad curve ball sitting even their best hitters down. I was a nervous wreck and so proud. They won all 7 games. Scored 74 runs against their opponents. Only allowed 7 runs in. They are the champions out of 48 12U teams. It has been a great beginning of this season with only great things to come for the Rebels.

The boys had a wonderful crowd cheering them on that weekend. Luke was there with his best friend Lewis. Grandma Lynn & Grandpa Bryce were there. Jodi & Rory and the kids came down for final day of play. And Keely and her family were troopers and watched 3 games on championship day. My only regret from this trip is not getting a big group photo of all the wonderful people that were there to support my boys. It was truly amazing the amount of love and fun we had.

On the last day of our trip Wade, Luke & Lewis went golfing for the day so the boys and I met Jodi and Rory and the kids for a bit of hiking and some lunch. It was so fun watching the kids scamper around the red rocks together, climb the narrows, and watching baby Kole drag Lexi around on the leash saying "let's go... come on".

Jake & Zac Waaaay up there!

Cute cousins

Group photo!

March was also the month that Zac met the baseball... in the nose. Here was the result.

4 hours post injury

18 hours post injury

4 days post injury

Poor little guy couldn't breathe out of his nose, had to wear an ice bag for a few days, missed a day of school, and had some serious headaches. A testament of his sweetness is that he was showered by gifts and well wishes by his friends, neighbors, and teammates. His teacher also let him wear sunglasses to school for 2 days to lessen the blow of how strange he felt. A few days in he decided it was funny to chase people around like a zombie since that's what he looked like anyways. Play with your strengths!

We woke up this morning, March 23rd, to 5 inches of new snow. Blech. That's why I'm sitting here pretending it's still a beautiful spring day outside. Let's hope April brings us some warmer temps!

i heart valentines day

 Ask anyone. February is my month. I love it. I love my birthday being in February, Wades being 2 days later, and Valentines 12 days later! Most people hate this month because the winter blahs are making them suicidal. Not me! I love everything about it. The color red has always been a weakness for me. I truly believe in the power of love and celebrating that! What's not to love? I decided to brighten (in the shade of red) your day with my version of Valentine happiness.


Entryway table (with a photo bomb by Lexi). Quilt courtesy of my fabulous mother in law.

Even my bedroom must have a pop of red.

Kitchen counter gracing my favorite bottle of wine ever. It has a Lexi-like dog on it and a little red heart! Found it at Wine-fest in Colorado last summer. Flowers in it are from Zac's art class (swoon).

Glass table in office. (free printable.. thanks Pinterest)

My project this year! I have a new found crafty addiction called 'Crafty Wood Cutouts'. It's in Orem and they have tons of fun holiday projects! Just finished this one on Sunday. It was my first Mod-Podge experience... won't be my last!

My dining table light's are adorned with these adorable photo hearts that my Mom made for me when she was watching my kids last year while we were away in Belize. Love them.

And the best part this year was helping Luke prepare for Sweethearts Dance. It's girls choice so all we had to do was matching outfit and corsage! Easy Peasy. She chose this adorable pink sequined dress. We all went shopping together and chose for him a pink matchy shirt, charcoal gray cashmere sweater, and black tie with white polka dots for a little whimsy. Their flowers had coordinating polka dot ribbon, and she had a ribbon in her hair. Can you say AH...DOR...ABLE! Such a handsome couple. This is Kaitlin btw...she is now part of our family so to speak.

 
Well, I'm off to make 4-5 dozen heart shaped, pink frosted, giant sized sugar cookies which is tradition in our family. At 3:00 Wade and I are off to celebrate V-day(cuz I have to work on Thursday) with a little spa time. Don't hate me because my day is perfect...

xoxoxoxox

Snowed in... Breckenridge, CO

 January 26th was finally here and we packed up all our gear and headed for higher elevation. Wade and I were both wishing we had chosen a warmer destination for our last family vacation before Luke leaves for college, but alas...reservations were made and we were stuck. Line em up boys, let's go!

After a 7 hour drive stuffed full of thick fog and mountain traffic we finally arrived and checked in at our great hotel the Grand Timber Lodge, or GTL for short (which also means Gym Tan Laundry in Snooki language) It was beautiful and situated just perfectly on the mountain. It also had a bevy of options to keep us busy when we weren't on the mountain.

Next morning we hit the slopes around 11:00. The great thing about our hotel was that when we were ready to ski, we literally crossed the road, skied down a short trail, and jumped on the lift! It was a bright sunny day with temps around 35 degrees. Since it hadn't reached above 15 at home for the entire month of January, we were in heaven with these temps. Here's lunch time on the mountain!

Jake starting to do some serious shredding. He's really fun to watch. He had saved his money from work and bought those adorable yellow pants the day before we left. It's all about the image with this kid.

The best thing about this vacation was that I didn't do my hair or makeup more than twice the whole week. We would go from mountain, to hot tub (as you see here) to dinner, to movie in front of the fire. Who needs to look hot for that? I loved it.
This hot tub soaked our tired bones every night. God bless its existence.

We explored the town a bit and they happened to be hosting the Annual Ice Sculpture Contest! Cool... literally. I slipped and fell right on my booty while admiring this emptied out egg shaped sculpture.

Totally Breck...

It's traditional on our family vacays that the kids get to pick something out while shopping. Usually a hoodie or something like that to remember the trip by. This year with such great winter sporting goods stores around they were on a mission to top off their snowboarding needs. We shopped adorable Main St. all day and walked away with a helmed for Jake, some goggles and a new beanie for Zac, and a thin quilted black jacket for Luke. It took ALL DAY... but it is such an adorable area you can't help but fall in love!

Went to dinner that night at a Taco Bar that boasted 20 different types of Margarita's. It was a very young, cool, college type feel and yes the Margarita's were fabulous. No Marg mix used here, they use fresh squeezed orange and lime juice to achieve a super fresh flavor.

We were well rested from a nice day off (shin bruises had minimized) and we were ready to hit the slopes again. I pestered some poor gentlemen to take one family photo for us. A hard sell when everyone is covered in snow gear from head to toe. He didn't do a great job but oh well, here it is!

My youngest little man, Zac, looking devastatingly cool in his new goggles and beanie.

 It was a full day of mountain fun, but MUCH colder since a storm had moved in the night before. It was 7 degrees that day... -14 with wind chill. Needless to say we melted in the hot tub for a long time that night.
The next day dawned with serious wind and snow blowing sideways ALL DAY! Good day to take a break. We filled our day with pool...

and board games in the lodge...

And then we trekked to the sister hotel and swam in their pool which included an outdoor slide which the littles couldn't resist. That's not fog in the background, it's serious blowing snow. Mountain was pretty empty that day.

Wade and I ditched the kids at the Hotel that night and managed a little away time. The hotel had a shuttle that picked you up at the front door and took you anywhere you wanted to go in the city of Breckenridge. Very handy for date nights, no parking, no warming up a cold truck, no DD! We went to a great restaurant recommended by a friend called Blue River Bistro. Live Jazz, Busy bar with after skiers, AMAZING food. Wade had steak (surprise surprise) and dubbed it the best he'd ever had. I had lamb chops and risotto. Truly wonderful place nestled right on Main St! The best thing about Breckenridge is that there is never a moment where you feel under dressed. There are people in ski pants and sweats everywhere.

And my biggest boy, soon to leave for college, teaching his little bro some skills.

My favorite pic of the week, all my boys ready to hit it.

It was a wonderful week. The boys said it was their favorite vacation yet! No, we weren't truly snowed in, but it felt that way because we didn't leave a 1 mile radius for 7 days! It was all family time. We watched a half a dozen movies together (everyone got a night to pick the movie). We hot tubbed and steam roomed until we were prunes. Zac learned to carve, Jake landed a 180, Luke managed to be away from his girlfriend for a whole week. We missed quizzes, tests, practices, work, and a hundred school assignments that will take us weeks to mend. It was worth it. Summer vacations are not conducive to our busy baseball lives, so this was perfect for us.
 

The boys already have lofty goals to visit Aspen, Vail, Telluride, Steamboat, and Copper Mountain in the future. Colorado mountains have not seen the last of us!

Playing Catch Up...

 December was a whirl of activity (as it usually is). We started out with a quick trip to Vegas...

 For a baseball tournament and a 2nd place trophy!!!

While we were away my Grandma Helen died (which is always the case in a funeral directors life) , so we came home to a whirlwind of funeral planning and getting family home. It was nice to have everyone in the same place even though it was for a sad occasion... Miss you Gma Helen!

We had some EPIC snow storms, Wade was so glad he invested in a new super powerful snowblower this year!

The traditional family party at Gma Lynns...

And Christmas Eve at Gma Patsy's...

And finally Christmas day! We surprised the boys with a trip to Breckenridge, CO for Christmas. These are their early morning super surprised faces. (also known as bed head)

Christmas break was marked with day trips to keep my sanity. We went to Trafalga (with friends in tow)

And discovered a Nickel Arcade in Springville! Wade happily played Frogger and Pac Man for hours.

We also went tubing at Soldier Hollow... (a Walker Christmas break tradition since 2008)

The month of December also brought us exciting news of Luke's college acceptance to the University of Utah and all the planning that comes with that.

I got to watch one of my adopted daughters (AKA Luke's latest squeeze) at cheer competition. Having surrogate girls is so fun!

And many days were spent out in the white stuff having snow ball fights, making snow forts, snowboarding, and riding saucer sleds down the neighbors homemade luge.

It was a great month that was over too quickly! Oh yes.. I forgot we all suffered from the flu AT THE SAME TIME for about a week and a half of this month. That's what made it go by so fast.