New Year's Mountain Trip...

Welcome to 2015!  We had a mostly wonderful Christmas and New Year, and hope you did as well!  I was able to get on the snow several days with some friends before Brian, the kids, and our dear friends, the Blackwells, headed up to the hills.  We visited all my regular stomping grounds, and managed to HAVE A BLAST. The weather was great (mostly), snow was okay, and it was great to be back in the mountains...a place I cherish.

"Grumps Father Mountain"

Scared.To.Death.  The edge of the world...

The view from my secret spot...on the top of the world!

Sugar Mountain Ski Resort

Sweet baby girl named "Bailey"  Sure brought back some memories of my girl :)

With JC and Katie

With JC and Ashley

Um, Katie...you're doing it wrong.

With Sydney, Evan, and Kevin

Puerto Nuevo, giant margarita, and great friends!

Of course we hit the winery!  Tim, Sarah, Kevin, and Katie

When the kids arrived, they couldn't wait to try on their snowboard gear.  We had a few "in-house" lessons...Griffin seriously would have slept in his boots if I'd let him!

Ready for boardercross, like his momma!

OMG.  He is such a sweet little soul...

Catching that air!

New Year's Eve we were invited over to a friend of mine, Andy Dulin's place.  He has one of those round houses right on the slopes at Sugar.  We had mimosas, got the kids on their boards for a quick tutorial, enjoyed food, and loved watching the mess that is NYE on the slopes...ie-lots of wipeouts and yard sales.  Andy and Cathy were gracious hosts, and loved having our little monsters around for entertainment.

With Andy Dulin and Bobby Hitchcock

After quick naps, sticking with tradition, we had a bottle of wine at Grandfather Winery.  It was so cold that we ended up staying inside.  We then headed to Zuzda's for dinner and drinks, with Celeste, Chris, and their two boys, and Andy and Cathy.

Sweet P and Marley

These girls...

Payton and Marley...both will have birthdays in April.  Payton will be (gulp) FIVE and Marley will be SIX!  And Marley is big for her age also...look how close in size they are!  Our tall, healthy girls :)

With Chad and Julie

Mar and Me

Organized Chaos...and some pretty tired kiddos!

The kids were SO excited to go snowboarding.  Griffin wanted to sleep in his snowboard boots.  Seriously. We caught him getting out of his bed to put them on, after he was supposed to be sleeping.  He's too cute.  And Payton, well I think she can get more air than I can!  Their friend, Marley, had never been before.  She was super excited to get on a board also.  All 3 of the kids DID AWESOME.  Like, Payton and Marley are stopping on her own, and all three can strap their boards on pretty much solo.  They even toted them back up the hill on their own (last year it was way more whining, lots more help and encouragement, and getting tired fast).  Sorry to Julie for creating such a snowboard "monster" in Marley.  She can't get enough!

He LOVES it, which makes me one very happy mommy :)

Dream big, sweet girl.

She's getting her edges, and can stop now, toe and heel side.  Whoop!  Time for the chairlift!

Marley is addicted.  She's now putting the pressure on her parents for a set-up! (K2, of course!)

Payton's friend, Hallie, helping her learn some gymnastics moves

Taking advantage of a beautiful day...

 A few weeks ago I sent a resume/head shots to Carolina Talent Agency for Payton. She got an open call audition on Saturday.  When I told her about it, she said she did NOT want to go.  As the week progressed, I had her watching TV shows with kids in them, and she kind of got into it.  I've had so many people comment on Payton's personality, ability to capture an audience, and her confidence, so if nothing more, I just wanted to check it out, for the experience.  Although she wasn't called back, she did awesome...and ended the audition with a fist bump to the talent scout.  She had the audience cracking up.  I'm so proud of her for going through with it!  (A bribe of Dunkin Donuts helped, just a little). 

And, as you know by now, our PATRIOTS are SUPER BOWL BOUND, baby!  I had a party on Sunday, and enjoyed every second of that Colts beat down!  So, onto Arizona we go (and by we, I mean "they," because I certainly can't afford a SB ticket!)  GO PATS, GO!  Beat those Hawks!

And a few of my friends were even good sports and shared in our enthusiasm! 

I'm still waiting on snow.  Winter, where are you???  I'll be hitting the slopes a good bit coming up, so I'm hoping for some cold temps, white stuff falling from the sky, and coming home in one piece :)