Ruidoso Ski Trip {1.15-16.16}

It has been almost a year since we moved to West Texas. When we first arrived I thought being 4 to 5 hours away from the mountains was going to be miserable. Then I learned that driving to the nearest mountain range was not so bad for a weekend trip. We have been able to visit so many beautiful places since moving that I am very happy where we live and wouldn't trade it for anything else. This past weekend we made another trip to Ruidoso, New Mexico. We were just there in early November, but this time we had a ton more snow which meant it was great for skiing! We rented a small cabin surrounded by pine trees and snow with some of our friends. The cabin came complete with a hot tub and man cave. We played in the snow all day and soaked in the hot tub at night. It. Was. Perfect. I wish it did not have to come to an end so soon. Two days was not enough!

Ski Apache

I thought Tiffany and Colby were ready to get on the ski lift, but I was wrong. So I went up that time by myself. hahaha 

My 3rd time skiing! I did not fall at all this time woo hoo!

Did I mention that it was freezing!?! 

The second day we drove into town and bought some sleds to use for later. Then we walked around and went inside some of the cute shops of Ruidoso. We ate some Mexican food that was pretty good and bought a gourmet caramel oreo apple. It was delish!

This was our cabin the next day. It had snowed the previous night. We thought our corolla might not make it back up the driveway, but Colby made it happen on the first try. 

Monster Icicles! 

We bought a saucer sled and our friends bought a toboggan sled. The first time I tried it out I hit some concrete at the bottom of the road and it exploded to smithereens! Half of  the sled survived, but not for long. It soon joined the rest in the dumpster.

Thanks to our friends, Tiffany and Walt, we still had a ton of fun sledding! You can notice that for this picture and the rest the pictures that the quality gets much better lol  what a difference a camera makes. I want one! Good thing my friend is a photographer ;) 

I think they had fun too! 

Such a cute family!! 

It was Isaac's first time sledding and I think he liked it. 

Superman! 

Happy Polar Bear! 

The boys had fun exploring some other places to sled with jumps. They both managed to "get air." I think their faces say it all. 

Walt wins with this one! 

Last post for 2015 and First post of 2016!! {12.16.15 - 1.1.16}

This will be my official last post about the year 2015, but I would rather have it be late than never write it in the first place. In fact, I still have not taken my Christmas decorations down and packed them up. Either I dislike putting away stuff or I am just getting a head start for Christmas 2016! But the first is true. I very much loathe putting stuff away and "redecorating" to put my place back in order. Which is why I am finally writing this blog post instead of putting away my Christmas decorations. :) 

2015 was a great year for us! We had a great Christmas in Colorado with my family and celebrated New Years in Texas with friends. We did the usual during our family get togethers: we played lots and lots of games (John family favorite past time), went shooting in the mountains, made lots of cookies for Santa, played football at the Air Force Academy, had a Star Wars marathon to get prepared for the new Episode VII, had a birthday celebration for my awesome dad, and did our Christmas family traditions!

Pandemic! Our usual game after Settlers of Catan

Happy Birthday DAD! 

First Christmas without multicolored lights. But it sure turned out to be a great BYU tree!

Christmas Traditions at their best. December 23rd: Mom and Dad read Christmas stories while we sleep under the Christmas tree. 

 Christmas Morning!! Almost everyone is here minus one sister, brother-in-law and nephew! 

Christmas Day snow

Another game to add to our collection. This time it's all about oil. 

MMmmmmm smoked Turkey for Christmas dinner. 

Guitar Lessons

After our short visit in Colorado, we needed to drive back to Texas. However, we were delayed a day because West Texas had a record-breaking snow blizzard. Some places received over a foot of snow! And the farther you go down the panhandle the more likely towns won't have snow plows. Even though we delayed our drive by one day we still had hazardous road conditions and some towns were basically shutdown because everyone was snowed in! On our drive back we saw a ton of cars that had been left stranded because they were stuck in the snow. We even saw several semi trucks stuck.

Not what you usually see in the flats of West Texas, and this was a day later. I can't imagine what it was like the during the blizzard!

Many frontage roads were completely impassable because of the snow drifts. 

After we finally made it back to Texas we had a wonderful New Year's Eve and New Year's Day with friends. For New Year's Eve, we went to a stake dance from 8-10 pm. Then we went to our friend's house and had bunt cakes, set off fireworks, drank sparkling cider and watched Studio C. The next day we went to an old fashioned skating rank. We only fell a couple of times. You have to find the groove and keep going! After the skating rink we had some amazing dessert pizza and played Settlers of Catan.

New Years Eve crowds! 

New Years Day was our 5 year engagement day! I'm so happy I said YES!