BYU!

Today I had the awesome opportunity to take my 7th graders on a field trip to BYU. We spent the day visiting the Paleontology Museum, the Bean Museum, and the Museum of Art. It was so fun to walk around the campus that I love and enjoy the beautiful spring weather.
One of the highlights of the trip was seeing Charles Abuo in front of the Marriott Center. I saw him from some distance and told the kids I was walking by who he was and swoosh! they were jumping around him begging for autographs. I was slightly embarrassed at having to keep telling them to leave him alone and apologizing to him--but he definitely seemed to enjoy it. He seriously must have signed thirty autographs--and all with a smile. After all the kids had gotten their autographs, I snuck in and took a picture with him on my phone--I know!

I thought to take pictures a little late so only got the last one. 

Me and Charles

Some students being statues by the sculpture pond.

Sew Busy

If you can remember my post about Christmas, you'll remember that I got a sewing machine from my parents.

While we were with Michael's family the week after Christmas, I was able to use it and learn to love it.  Since then however, it has been in the corner of my front room, in its box, makin gme feel guilty. So today I went on to pinterest and found the directions to a skirt I pinned long ago and pulled out my sewing machine.
This was the first time that I had ever attempted anything like a skirt. Square blankets, pillows and bean bags were the extent of my sewing répertoire--until this afternoon!
Luckily my mom thought to give me all the basic sewing essentials. I got out my measuring tape, pins, scissors and a handy dandy seam ripper, cut my material and sat down at my sewing machine ready to begin.
I had to re-thread the bobbin to navy, directions to do such I had to look up in the manual. Then I had to thread the lower and upper mechanisms (again, thank goodness for the manual).  When that was all done I lined up my fabric and pressed down on the pedal only to hear a CHUNK-CHUNK-CHUNK-CHUNK-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP. "E6" was flashing on the monitor, so I quickly turned to my manual again and found that "E6" meant that there was a tangle somewhere. 20 minutes later--after I took apart everything that could be taken apart--I found there was no tangle.
What was I to do? I called my mom, of course! She told me to take some things apart and clean different areas, which I did, but the dreaded E6 remained flashing on my screen as well as the horrible noise.
To make an already too long story short, I ended up doing what my mom told me to do, only a little more carefully and the machine worked! Thank you, Mom!
Two hours later, this is what I got. It's a little big (I was afraid of making it too small) and I can see two mistakes just looking at the picture, but I'm still proud--and I'm still wearing it to church tomorrow.

It looks long in this pic, but it is actually only about an inch or two below the knee. 

VACATION!

Ok, so usually the word vacation evokes thoughts of week long beach visits and relaxation, but this last week Stephanie and I both had Friday off of work, so we took a vacation!  Of course with just one extra day off we could really take a trip to Cabo San Lucas, so we opted for the best resort within 35 miles, Brighton!

Brighton Ski Resort had a special deal for the month with two free day passes if you stayed a night at the Brighton Lodge.  Since we love weekend getaways, and we love skiing even more, we were all about this great deal and made reservations for our weekend off.

(It's funny to think that such a simple vacation could have been taken on any weekend- just one night away, and one day skiing, could have been done without a friday off.  However waiting for this extended weekend to take such a quick trip made the weekend so much more relaxing overall.)

We went up Thursday night, grabbed some Café Rio and checked into the lodge.  It is a very simple, low key lodge but it does have it where it counts.  No TVs in each room (just one in the main lobby), but there's a hot tub... a HUGE hot tub, also a continental breakfast, a great place to eat lunch when skiing (fireplace, comfy chairs, hot chocolate!), and perhaps the most important, it's right next to the main lift at Brighton (Crest Express).  

Taken just outside our room.  You can see the lift in the background (and reflection)

She's pretty much a pro.

Lunch!

Warm boots after lunch... ^_^

Crest at night

The Snake Creek Heber Valley Overlook Point

It was an amazing day of skiing.  A little cold, but sunny with some great snow.  That day the reopened Milly's Bowl (after several snowstorms) so I had one movie-like powder run there, but the snow everywhere was awesome.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We had an amazing Christmas! We were able to get a beautiful tree that I loved! It made our apartment smell amazing. As we decorated our apartment, I realized that we had a lot more Christmas decorations than I thought we had. We put lights on our balcony and I loved walking into our front room and just feeling Christmas.

We were able to spend a few days before and after Christmas with my parents in Washington this year. All my sibling were there--the first time we've all been together since my wedding a year and a half ago! (And let's face it, weddings aren't the best time to get caught up with family.) It was amazing and I loved every chaotic minute of it. Here are some highlights:

Our tree!

A Danish pig

Another Danish ornament

Us with our tree

Michael with Ben and Sam

Uncle Michael

Trying to take our picture in front of the Columbia River Temple

Ben in blue, Sam in grey. At the playground in my parents' neighborhood

Charlotte

Beautiful Charlotte

Christmas Tree

Madeleine making Christmas cards

Attacking Uncle Michael

Michael's counter-attack

Waiting for the "okay" on Christmas morning

First looks

Classic Christmas 

Lydia inspecting a present

Ben and Sam 

A sewing machine!!!

Sam, excited. Priceless.

The best Christmas present ever! Thanks, Michael <3

Tyler's Christmas

The best picture we could manage of all the grandkids

Technically I "promised" not to post this. But it is the only picture of the whole family. Let it be known that this was early on a travelling morning and no one had makeup or hair done. And Vanessa is 8.5 months pregnant. 

The Original Ashby Family

Shooting on the farm

Ben and Sam with ear plugs in

Hannah being afraid of the .44

Shooting BB guns

Ben showing me the leaf he shot

My birthday cake :)

My birthday is the day after Christmas, So of course we weren't going to spend the day driving. That gave us the day to go visit my grandpa Ashby on the farm. It was great to be in the open and re-live so many childhood memories. Michael and I took a long walk (searching for Hannah's puppy) and it was fun to see the fields and feel at home. Grandpa Ashby is my last remaining grandparent and it was wonderful to be with him and get to talk with him about life. What an amazing man.

On the 27th we headed up to Eden, UT to spend a few days with Michael's family skiing and playing. It was great. His parents rented an awesome condo close to the ski resorts and a ton of room for Rollicking and fun family time. We get to see most of Michael's sibling on a weekly basis, but it was fun to see his two youngest siblings and his parents.

The snow was... limited, but the skiing was still fun. One day the boys went shooting and the girls stayed home and made some blankets for Primary Children's Hospital as well as some awesome flower clips for hair. It was a great week with the Murrays! Here are some pictures. (We seem not to have used our camera all that much...)

Meeting up with the Carters at the Church History Museum

Bjorn and his gun

Gavin and Bjorn's gun

It was a great, busy Christmas break. We had a ton of fun, but I think that next vacation we'll be sure to spend a few days of down time at home so we can actually rest a little.
Merry Christmas!!