SNOW!

This is what happens when two desert boys come upon snow, real snow, sticking-to-the-ground-snow. You'd think they'd been taken to Disneyland.




They didn't care that they didn't have any snow clothes. We don't even own hats, gloves or boots for any of our children. They didn't even care that they weren't wearing socks. They were definitely a little shocked with the actual coldness of the snow. It doesn't quite feel like the snow that Ethan's preschool teacher made for the class with her snow cone machine.


Needless to say, an all out snow brawl ensued between Dallin, Ethan and Jamie.



Eventually Grandma tore through her coat closet and found whatever snow paraphernalia she could, and they took to the slopes, or the small hill in Grandma's backyard. I had to stand at the bottom of the hill so the kids didn't slide right off the cliff.


I wish I'd taken a picture of Malynn. She was right in there with the boys. She wanted to ride the sled as many times as she could. We'd just plop her on by herself and give it a shove. She wasn't heavy enough to tumble. She just hung on for dear life until one of us caught her at the end.

Now Dallin and Ethan just can't understand why we don't live in this cool place. Dallin asked me today if we could move there. I've tried to convince him that it's so fun to be able to go to the park in January and wear short sleeves in March. He's not sold yet.

Traveling with Kids

Top Ten Necessary Evils of Traveling with Kids:

1. Packing for a weekend trip still requires three whole suitcases.

2. Airport security (shoes off everyone, fold up stroller, no full sippy cups, people rolling their eyes... thankfully we drove this one.)

3. Being woken up too early.

4. Eating fast food too often.

5. Not getting to go out to an adult movie ('adult' meaning non-animated... don't get too excited.)

6. Always needing a backpack full of diapers, wipes, binky, goldfish crackers, Nintendo DS, hand sanitizer, three small sweatshirts, and camera when we go out for the day.

7. Yelling, "Sit in your seat and put your seatbelt back on!" way too often.

8. Finding pieces of unidentifiable food under the carseats.

9. Cruising the aisles of small, snobby grocery stores with three children asking for everything from Cheetos to Root Beer while organic single people give you dirty looks.

10. Not being able to lay out and read at the beach. Remember those days?

Top Ten Reasons Not to Leave the Kids Behind:

1. It's so much more magical to view the ocean through the eyes of a child.

2. The simple things are where its at, such as bike rides, walks, and catching sand crabs.

3. There is no better reward for good behavior than a gelato at the end of the day.

4. Watching your children laugh, run, and imagine together and know that at this moment, they are each other's best friend.

5. Waking up early forces you to not waste the day away. We jam so much fun into each day, that at the end we are exhausted and very happy.

6. Putting the kids down before 8:00. The rest of the evening is ours.

7. No on-call, pagers, cell phones, and email.

8. Feeling such pride when smiling people ask me if those are my three adorable children. Thinking to myself, yes, they are adorable, aren't they?

9. Having unhurried, uninterrupted, undistracted time with each other. We have nowhere we have to go, no one we have to call, no place we have to be. We can lay on the lawn answering all of Dallin's questions, slide down the slide a few more times, add more bubbles to the bubble bath.

10. Realizing over and over again why it all matters, who I do it all for, the most important thing in my world... my family.


















These pictures were all taken at Corona del Mar in February.