Hip Hip Hooray!

Eliza Earned the Outstanding Citizenship Award at school this week!
I can honestly say that Eliza worked harder for this award than anyone else in our family. Eliza is full of energy and ideas, and she loves to be active and spontaneous. She has been wanting to earn this award for quite some time, but as you can imagine it has been difficult for her.
We set some daily goals recently, and if she achieved them she would get to have another skateboarding lesson. Not only did she earn that lesson but she earned the Citizenship award as well. We are so proud of her and the effort she has put forth in the classroom. We are confident that her great behavior will continue. ( And she'll be skating like a pro in no time!)

Their Loss is our Gain!

We got a pleasant surprise this past week.
Mom and Dad Gurr, along with Richard and Calli, planned on spending a week at the cabin in Colorado to do some snowmobiling. They stopped here Tuesday night on their way up and planned on leaving early Wednesday morning. When we woke up Wednesday morning it was snowing, and they realized it wouldn't be safe to continue traveling to Colorado. It also wouldn't be safe for them to travel back to the Valley so...They stayed and had their snowmobiling vacation with us. We all went for a snowmobile ride on Wednesday up by Greens Peak. We couldn't believe how deep the snow was. In some places it was 4ft deep! We had a great time riding in all that powder and making a snow cave. On Thursday the guys all went for a "big boy ride". It snowed on them the whole day dropping another 2-3 feet of snow on the mountain. When the snow is that soft and deep it's hard not to get stuck, so they spent a lot of time digging themselves out, but they still had so much fun. On Friday School was cancelled for the kids due to the weather. We spent the day playing games then went to the movies and out to eat in Show Low.
I felt like I got a vacation without ever leaving town. It was great! We are sorry that Dad, Mom, Richard and Calli missed out on their trip to CO, but we sure had a great time with them.

Winter Games !

We had a fun day off from school today. We drove over to a hill by Sunrise for some sledding. The weather was a bit windy, and snowy, and cold, but the kids were troopers. They never complained. They just kept sliding down the hill and climbing back up. I don't know what's more fun... sliding down the hill, or watching the kids do it.

Caleb was the most daring sledder today and whether he went down the hill on his tummy, sitting up, going down backwards, sideways or off the sled completely, when he got to the bottom of the hill he would shout at the top of his lungs "THAT WAS AWESOME !"

The girls were so cute on their sled together. They found a sweet spot on the hill and rode it over and over. They started going down with "No hands" and thought that they were pretty hot stuff.

Adam had some fun on his snow board and even took the kids with him on it a few times. Adam is really good at snowboarding (and if you ask me, he looks pretty hot while he's snowboarding too!).

I was able to get quite a workout climbing that hill over and over in that high altitude. Whew, it completely wore me out but it was a blast.

I treasure these family together times and the memories we make. I'm so blessed to have these four best friends to have adventures with! Thanks for a great day guys.

Any The Wind Blows, Doesn't Really Matter.

Yesterday the kids and I attended an open house at the Dry Lake Wind Power Project. (or as Caleb called it the electric-city) We were able to get an up close view of the new windmills. We knew that these turbines were big, but once we got close we saw that they are HUGE!! 396 ft. tall to be exact. Each blade is 142 ft. long.
These 30 turbines can produce enough electricity to meet the annual needs of 15,000 average AZ homes. Those of you who have visited us here in Taylor know that there is no shortage of wind here, we are glad it's finally going to good use. I'm not exactly a tree hugger but I'm glad that this clean renewable energy is being tapped into.
The kids enjoyed our visit and they especially loved having to wear a hard hat. (I kept thinking "If one of those blades falls, how is a hard hat going to help?")
It was neat to learn more about how these windmills work, and now when the kids see them in the distance, they'll know how they work and what they do.

Skater Girl

Eliza got a skateboard for Christmas and loves it. She really wants to learn to ride it like a pro., but unfortunately her parents haven't the first clue as to how to ride a skateboard. Lucky for us, the best skateboarder in Taylor happens to be a friend of ours. Josh is only 15 years old, but he is an awesome skater and a great teacher. He was more than willing to teach Eliza the basics of skateboarding and he showed her some very cool tricks. He even made some adjustments to Eliza's skateboard making it better for her to ride. Eliza had the best time learning to ride and according to Josh she's actually really good at it. She's already looking foreword to her next lesson and wants to get good enough to try and "drop in", (whatever that means).:)

Check it out.

I started a personal fitness journal. You can view it by clicking on the link on the right side of the screen, just below the blogs I follow. Please don't add the link on your blogs, I don't want to go through the trouble of making this blog private too, but I only want my friends viewing it, and you can always get to it from my blog. I'll need every one's encouragement and support to meet my goals, so check it out!

Snow Much Fun !!! And Mom's Day Off !

We had a great weekend with The Andersons ( Adam's sis.'s Fam.) and Shane and Tacey Gurr's family (Adams cousin's fam.) They came up on Friday and we spent the evening lighting fireworks, playing games and watching movies. On Saturday the guys took the kids to go play in the snow. They drove their vehicles in the snow until they could go no further then loaded all the kids in the trailer and pulled it with the Ranger until that couldn't go any further. Then they built a GIANT snowman and did a little sledding.
While they were out, us ladies enjoyed a much needed break. We did a little window shopping, went out to lunch and played cards. I had such a wonderful time visiting and laughing. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard.
Saturday night was pretty much a repeat of Friday night with one exception, we played ROOK Guys vs. Gals. The Gals beat the Guys soundly and because the guys lost they had to write love poems for their wives. The poems were awesome but definitely not suitable for posting.(hee hee.)
We were all sad when our cousins had to go, but we are glad that School starts again tomorrow. Happy New year!