The unexpected winter break and Valentine's Day

Two week ago I never would have imagined we;d be out of school again for the biggest storm we've had since 2010.  It dumped 18" of snow.....the kind that makes good snowmen, snowballs, and a great luge track.  So after a 18 day break over Christmas, a 5-day break over MLK, and now another 5-day break over President's Day, that's nearly a month off from school since late December. We will be forced to make up 5 of those days at the end of the school year, but nothing else can be made up at this point. Thank goodness, as I already feel getting out mid-June is painful.

So with the snow we spent a great deal of time watching the Olympics and racing down our own snow covered luge or skiing on some real snow at our local resort. I think Jared has been the most enthusiastic about the Olympics by watching at least a portion of nearly every event and he even gave a High Council talk today tying directly into the Olympic Motto: Citius-Altius-Fotrius: Faster-Higher-Stronger and the Olympic Creed: The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.

One of the upsides of growing up, is that you get to dress yourself!

Because of the snowfall and unexpected ski day that landed on Valentine's Day, we had our traditional candle-light dinner on Sunday. I was feeling crummy with a low grade fever and Caleb was well into his high fever with a wicked sore throat sickness that Gavin had the week before. Sooooo, Jared bought groceries the night before after picking up Liam from his scuba-diving class and pulled together a great pork tenderloin meal for all of us. After we sat up and gave the food rave reviews he admitted that he was a little nervous to be put in charge of  this particular meal because the expectations from previous meals were high. He came through beautifully and wow do I love him for that!

I had put new coupons in their books and left them with a solid chocolate heart on their dinner plate before they came in. They were all excited (except Caleb who was asleep on the couch) and Jonah talked about how he's so happy that he's not a kid when Jared grew up because apparently Valentine's Day was only about lovers......no candle light dinner, no coupon books, or solid chocolate hearts! This boy loves a good celebration, and who can blame him?

The man can cook

I'm not going to lie, I LOVE that my boys enjoy cooking and learning with me in the kitchen. They are becoming more and more capable to take on new and different recipes all on their own as was written about earlier. But, I love that they are also interested in little tutorials on technics that make cooking some things absolutely necessary. To know that yeast dough should feel like a babies bottom after it's been kneaded the right amount of time. Knowing that creaming the butter and sugar for a long time is key to a great cookie and combining the wet ingredients before adding them to the dry ones makes for a perfect quick bread. Knowing you should always curve your fingers down and towards your palm when cutting something. Knowing that testing hot oil with water is NOT safe...... and the list could go on.

Several Sunday's ago Liam had the choice to make a boxed cake for FHE or one from scratch off the back of the Hershey's Coco box and he chose to try his hand at a homemade cake. Caleb pitched in and made the frosting with no recipe, just his sense.  It was a layered cake and they were so pleased with themselves and they deserved to be as the cake was absolutely moist and delicious.

As for myself, I've been experimenting with homemade tortillas for some time, which one would think would be as easy as anything, but it's not, or at least it wasn't for me. Getting the right dough was key and the first several attempts were received with little fanfare as they were truly pretty pathetic. Getting the right temperature on the griddle was also key.....note: the hotter the better. And finally being able to roll them out to paper thinness was a skill to be learned. So on an different Sunday I taught Gavin and Caleb what I have now learned about tortilla-making and at some point, I suspect I can put them in charge of making them start to finish.

I figure I want healthy kids and boys who will have one more tool in their dating portfolio, so I'll teach them how to cook! And with kids who can cook, I'm also guaranteed a night or two off in the future.

MLK Ski Trip

For several reasons, including the unusually high prices of airline tickets and feeling the need to have our own traditions, we opted to stay in Virginia for Christmas and go out west for some extended family and ski time over the MLK holiday. The boys had to miss one full day and two half days of  school and Jared was able to switch some of the days he was teaching at Darden to make it happen, but it was well worth the effort. The trip out was uneventful with the exception of finding out that on Frontier, an airline we've never flown with before, you have to pay for all snacks and drinks with the exception of water. Lame, but they did get us to Utah on time and on the return flight when there was the second Polar Vortex on the East Coast, they were one of the only airlines who didn't cancel their flights. Although, we were prevented from landing for a bit so Reagan Airport could clear the runway but unfortunately we didn't have the fuel to circle, so were forced to refuel in Norfolk, VA, setting us back a couple of hours. The pilot was comical and very casual as he announced our situation letting us know he had good news and bad news. The good news was we could land... at some point, the bad new was that we were running too low on fuel to hang around in DC airspace. At midnight we finally pulled up to our mailbox and made the walk up the "luge" and crashed into bed. Jared took another one for team and was up well before the rest of us to teach his 8:00am class. We were all still sleeping because it was the first of what would become 2.5 snow days off from school for the kids.

It was a quick trip, but we were able to ski 4 of the 6 days hitting Brighton for the first time and falling in love with the resort so much so that two days later we returned with James, Christine, Spencer, Katie, Ben, and Jeff. In between the two Brighton days, we skied Alta with Grandpa Hill and on President's Day they (I opted out) skied Snowbasin with Grandpa Hill. That first Brighton day we put all the boys in ski school for the morning and Jared and I got to ski alone together, something we've never done before. We had such a fun time together and even enjoyed some serious kissing on the lifts which totally embarrassed the boys when we told them. In the afternoon we all skied together with Caleb and Liam leading the way and not getting too far in front of me because they love going in and out of the trees and finding any sort of jump to hit.

When we were not on the slopes we were enjoying game nights with Grandma and Grandpa Harris, seeing cousins and enjoying Aunt Jen's great whipped-up soups, and seeing even more cousins at Cafe Rio where we took up a third of the entire restaurant and left the remaining space to what seemed to us every last resident of Lehi, Utah. Urban sprawl has taken over the entire swath of land from from Ogden to Provo and West to the Oquirrh Mountains. I'll admit I'm not fond of such sprawl and the polluted air that comes along with putting that many people between two mountain ranges. It makes me sad, but the joy the boys find in seeing their grandparents and cousins is worth all the red and itching eyes. After Cafe Rio we bid farewell to the Lehi and Idaho Falls cousins and headed to spend a few days with Grandma and Grandpa Hill. We spent time with Granny Knight playing her Steinway and visiting with her 92 year old self. We also got to celebrate Hailey's birthday with a girls lunch and short shopping spree for earrings since she and mom just had their ears pierced.

Playing a few rounds of Rack-O:

 Grandma is always the best playmate for all her grandchildren. She always has time to give and is always so very interested in whatever they are doing.

Picking and choosing from an assortment of soups from Aunt Jen's. Fun to see cousin Taylor.

So fun to see this girl who has a special place in our heart as the first of our nieces and nephews who ever spent an extended period of time with us.  She is now married with the cutest little baby boy.

Second day at Brighton with cousins and Uncle James:

Cafe Rio with cousin Spence, who lived with us in summer of 2012.

Girls table:

Caleb's officially taller than17 year old cousin Kate:

In Ogden, Gavin was a good sport to play princesses and castles with cousin Ruby.

Celebrating Hailey's birthday with Granny Knight and cousins. Gavin's going for the lowest note he can hit ;)

Ruby  wasn't so sure about Liam the first two days, but he eventually won her over.

T.R.O.U.B.L.E looks like this:

Granny won't be with us for too long, but I'm so glad all the boys will have memories of her, her house, her Steinway, her toy drawer and especially her dumbwaiter which they have all taken a ride in.

I think Liam said it best when we left Cafe Rio: "There is nothing better than being with cousins" and I'll second that!

Catch-up

I'm having a hard time believing that the "longest" month of the year is well passed and I've recorded nothing. There is the trip to Utah to ski and see family, there is the cello concert for Gavin and Caleb, there are tortilla-making lessons to be shared, there is a pinewood derby to be noted, there are flying lessons to be accounted for, there is the JRR Tolkien project to remember, but the timer has gone off and I'm out of seconds! But, in one single week, seven short days, my favorite holiday arrives and it too will need to be recorded, so I best get going.....tomorrow..... because really, the timer has gone off.