Yurt

We trekked up to a yurt this weekend near Evanston, Wyoming.  If you are unaware of what a yurt is, it's a small round wooden and tent house, typically in the mountains.  Google it if you want to see what it looks like. We headed up on Friday early afternoon, loaded up the sled and got ready.  Here is our set up:

 We had the snowmobile, holding Fogg and the kids, Reed in back, Nora in front.  Then pulling a sled with food and gear, and pulling me skiing behind. 

Worked out pretty well until we had a few route finding issues.  We passed the trail that we should have gone up and Fogg disconnected us to scout around a little.  Meanwhile, me and the kids made snow angels, they thought that was great.

After this, it got a little hairy.  We got the snowmobile stuck after some time trying to find the correct trail.  It took hours of digging it out, then trying up the trail that simply wasn't working for our load.  The snow was rotten, and it got late quickly.  The kids were troopers, as the sun went down and they got a little cold (never seriously though) and hungry and tired.  Fogg and I pulled it together, and got our family out of there.  We got back to the truck late and decided to drive the 1.5 hour home to sleep in our own warm beds for the night.  We felt bad about leaving our friends in the yurt without half of their food and water (which we were carrying for them) but they were going to survive.  In the morning, we trekked back up, found the right trail and were there before lunch.  In fact, we ate our breakfast there.  All was good!

Anyway, the area was beautiful, we had a warm place to hang out, play games, take naps, eat snacks and meals, laugh and have a good time.  The outside was fun too, with a fun snow cave and a fantastic sled hill.  Reed was outside quite a bit, he sure loves the snow!  Here they are in the snowcave.

 The opening was quite small, perfect for little kids, a bit tight for a mama.

Reed went sledding on the nice groomed trail to the yurt.  He went down it a ton of times.  He even pulled Nora to the top so she could ride with him.

Nora sacked out after we arrived.

Reed and I played a game that I used to as a kid.  Reed won as you can see.  His number at the top is 47 if you can't read it, mine is 38.

Gracie and Nora played a little together, also fought over a few toys.  Nora is telling me in this picture that she doesn't want me to take her picture.

James brought sparklers and fireworks up which was awesome.  The kids loved it all.  

The next morning after breakfast we packed up and headed back to the truck.  Nora obviously found the snowmobile soothing because she fell asleep on it 3 different times.  She took the rest of her nap in the truck after we got back and packed up.

Reed went sledding some more and figured out how to jump.

It was a fun weekend, a little difficult at times, both Fogg and I were a bit sore from our hard work.  Fun to hang with friends and nice to disconnect a little.

Here are a few other pictures hanging around.

They hold hands in the car sometimes.  Nora gets upset and Reed will hold her hand.

They got new shoes!  Here they are showing them off.

I love little kid poses.  That would kill my knees and my feet would be asleep in minutes.  It's so cute when she does it though, isn't it?

 Reed made some chalk drawings on the driveway.  I love his little mind and evolution of his art.  There is a bike in there, actually two, which is pretty impressive.  He is learning to write his name in lower case letters so it now reads like reeb foee.  He's got the d backwards and the lower case g's as e-ish.

That's all for now! Cheers~

Survival Mode

I'm not starting off the year real great in blogging.  I have felt as though I have been functioning a bit on survival mode.  Every other week (for the most part) there is a group of working mama's that all get together to share our struggles with being a working mom, and to encourage each other.  We have a mentor who commented to us how we all seem put together and how she always felt like she was functioning on survival mode.  We collectively laughed and said that we feel like we are on survival mode too!  But I'm guessing that's not just a working mom issue, that is probably a mom issue. And frankly, it's not just a mom issue, it's a human issue.  Our "survival" is different, but in a way, we are just trying to get from one day to another by making money, keeping house, assisting in keeping our children alive and healthy, nurturing a marriage, feeding those around us, maintaining friendships and so forth.  My life is seemingly always busy, in different ways at different times of the year but always pretty busy.  And like pretty much everyone else, my priorities change frequently.

I'm working extremely hard on my new years resolutions and I'm pretty proud of myself.  They are a daily thought to me, and a weekly check in to my journal has been very helpful.  I make mini goals every week to work toward the greater goals of improving health, fostering intentional relationships and saving money.  I'm doing better at the first two, but it's always a thought.  So I'm taking time away from things that don't directly effect the outcome of those goals.  Unfortunately, blogging has suffered.  Fortunately, my relationships are improving.  In addition, work has been super busy and chaotic and hectic, so that has been taking quite a bit of my energy.

So, to catch up on the past few weeks, here are a few more pictures. I haven't been very good at pictures lately, but honestly, it's not like anything very exciting has happened either!

Reed drew a picture of his family.  I'm the one on the far right, I have no hair because "I didn't feel like giving you hair".

I went skiing by myself one day instead of going to work.  It was nice.

Does this get any cuter?  She just looked at me like this and I quick snapped a picture.  She is getting so adorable.

Our family valentine's date with some new friends (not pictured).  We went to the monster truck rally.  Our favorite part was the half time dirt bike trick show.

Despite Reed's face, he actually really enjoyed the trucks.

Have skied a few times.  Nora's friend Lucy came up to hang in the lodge with her.

Fogg went out of town for work last week.  One morning I took the kids to get some Dunkin Donuts.

Our friend Nik returned from Afghanistan and brought us back this beautiful scarf and neat stone.

We have SOOOO much coming up in the next 3 months.  We are very excited about many trips and events.  In March we have a yurt trip that I'm very much looking forward to.  Lots of things in April, many more things in May, a few things in June.  So, there will be many more stories and pictures to come in the next several months.  In addition, work is in it's slower time, so I'll have time to catch up on some projects (and hopefully blog).

Things that Nora is up to:

• Nora knows all of her colors and getting pretty darn good at shapes.
• She is pretty close to consistently counting to 10.
• She loves her paci.
• She loves playing with her brother - the two of them laugh a lot.
• She often says "I did it!" even if she didn't do whatever she claimed to have done.
• She will look at us and say "I not funny", which makes us laugh.
• She is very opinionated when it comes to her clothes and shoes.
• She loves two shows - Yo Gabba Gabba and Team UmiZoomi.

Things that Reed is up to:

• Reed loves to color and draw.  Pretty much brings home 5 or so a day from school.
• Loves playing with his sister.
• Has started helping with his chores, picking up toys, helping with London. He loves to help with his sister, put on her diaper, pick out her clothes, play babies with her.
• He loves playing with cars and trucks and planes.
• He is getting very creative in his play, making forts or roads or trails for his cars.
• Loves to go outside and play with his friends.  He can ride his bike, or sled or run around outside for hours.
• Looking at kindergarten's for the fall - crazy!
• Very excited for his 5th birthday in May.

The two of them are my joy in life and I love them for it (even when they drive me crazy).  The two of them are just the best brother and sister ever, I hope they stay close as they grow up.  The like each other so much, they decided that they wanted to share a room.  So we moved Reed's bed into Nora's room and they sleep in there.  I actually love it because they keep each other company and we have had a significant decrease in middle of the night awakeness and "scared of my room".  It's good for the both of them.  When Nora is ready to be out of a crib, we will look for some bunk beds for Reed's room for them to share.  For now, it's ok as is. 

That's all for now - on to surviving!