Spring Break in the SLC

Over Layla's spring break this year we took a little trip up to Salt Lake to see the family. The kids were aching to play in the snow after spending Christmas here in Phoenix, and they got plenty of it this trip. They made a snowman in the yard and had a snowball fight or two, then came the real fun. Grandma and Mimi took Weston and Layla to Gorgoza Park for a day of sledding and a (short) ski lesson for Lay. Dylan and I were supposed to accompany them, but early that morning there was a small incident.

I was cleaning up from breakfast when I heard Dylan start screaming hysterically. I rounded the corner to the bathroom hallway and saw Weston inside the bathroom trying with all his might to get the door shut, not understanding that the reason Dylan was screaming in the hall was that all four of her fingers were in the hinge of the door. By the time I reached her only seconds had passed, but her fingers were already purple and disfigured and the skin was broken in several places. I quickly called Aunt Jan (Mimi and Grandma were skiing together in Park City, so I couldn't leave the kids with them) and dropped W & L off at her house before rushing Dylan to urgent care as she screamed the entire way. They gave her Tylenol, iced her hand, and took some x-rays. Luckily nothing was broken. They cleaned up the cuts and wrapped her little hand in a big pink bandage and gave us several extras to take home. Poor little Boo couldn't pick things up or eat right for a week!

My wonderful mother offered to watch the kids for a day while I went snowboarding. I couldn't find anyone to go with me, so I had a great day riding solo at The Canyons. On Saturday we took Trax to the new City Creek shopping center in downtown SLC, where the kids had a great time watching street performers and dancing to live music, and I bought lunch in the most crowded food court I ever hope to see. It was another great trip to Salt Lake, as they always are. I am so grateful to live close enough to visit my family regularly, and to have family (both my side and Ryan's) that open their homes, lives, arms and hearts every time we stroll into town.

Weston & Layla enjoying a snowy snack

Silly Layla!

WB

Her first time playing in the snow

Cutest. Thing. Ever.

Ouch!

Weston trying on Ryan's old snow hat

Mama's free day at the Canyons!

That's some good lookin' fellers right there.

Beautiful ladies

Pura Vida!

I HAVE A WONDERFUL LIFE!

Really, I do. I have three healthy, beautiful, loving children; a wonderful, hardworking husband; a caring, supportive mother who loves me and my children enough to come and babysit them for a whole week while I jaunt off to explore Costa Rica; and a mother in law who invites me to jaunt off to Costa Rica with her. What more could I possibly want?

In early March Mimi, Makenna, Melanie Stucki and I flew into San Jose, CR and took a van down to the Los Suenos Marriott, a sprawling, ritzy resort right on the western coast. From there we did some amazing ziplining, toured the Manuel Antonio national park, explored the town of Jaco, and spent plenty of time lounging poolside. I went running every day, read two books, and watched zero television. It was glorious!

The country is absolutely gorgeous! It is lush and green with crystal blue waters and abundant wildlife. The locals are amazingly friendly. I could honestly move there today if my family and I spoke Spanish. I'm sure I appreciated everything a bit more since I was on vacation sans kids with no real agenda outside of a couple of tours we had planned. I can't wait to take my family back there when the kids are a bit older and can appreciate some of the more exciting attractions.

Halfway through our trip we relocated to central Costa Rica by the Arenal volcano. We stayed at the Baldi Hot Springs Resort, which was SO COOL! It is build on the side of a mountain at the foot of the volcano, and has around 25 pools and hot tubs of varying temperatures tiered throughout its grounds. We spent several hours walking up and down scenic paths testing out different pools, which ranged in temperature from tepid to scorching. You could swim up to your choice of several bars and order food and drinks to enjoy right in the water.

From there we took a tour that included a waterfall rappelling trip followed by white water rafting on the Balsa River. We had so much fun rafting that our guide, Jose, convinced us to cancel our volcano tour and do a longer and more challenging trip on the Sarapiqui River the next day. Sarapiqui was the highlight of my trip. We stayed cool, got great exercise, and had a blast.

Trips like this make me truly appreciate the adventures I was privileged to have (or sometimes forced into) as a kid. For most people a guided rappelling tour once or twice in a lifetime is as exciting as it gets. But not so for the Ahos! I hope I can instill the same sense of adventure and love for the outdoors into my children that my parents did for me.

Makenna and I getting ready to zipline

Weeeeee!

So much fun!

Mel, Kenna, Melanie and me at the El Avion restaurant near Manuel Antonio National Park

Our tour group stood and looked at this sloth for no less than 30 minutes, while he turned his head and scratched his armpit, one time each.

At the beach in Manuel Antonio. I just want to remember when I'm old that at one time I looked like this in a bikini.

Me & Mimi

Eh? A brown bat the size of a quarter? 70 feet up on that brown tree? Yeah, I think I see it. Maybe...

Me doing my best super-exciting sloth imitation

Our new girlfriend outside the Baldi Resort

Jose, River Guide Extraordinaire!

An evening shopping excursion in La Fortuna

There were iguanas everywhere. And they were HUGE!

Happy Valnetine's Day!

I guess as a mother there's always one thing or another to feel guilty about. It's impossible to spread your motherhood equally across your kids, especially in a given year, since they all have different needs at different times. I have unfortunately missed all of the parties in Layla's kindergarten class this year, as they are all in the afternoon, when Dylan is napping, and even if she weren't, they don't advise bringing toddlers and preschoolers, as they can be more of a distraction than an addition to the party. I do try to be involved with Layla's class in other ways, but I do feel bad when I volunteer to make a photo book for Mrs. Lende's end of the year gift and I don't have a single picture to add to it.

Weston's school, however, welcomes younger siblings into their festivities, as there is hardly anything that can be more distracting than a room full of three year olds. As such, I have been to all of Weston's holiday parties. And they are hilarious. Generally La Casa gives the kids healthy snacks every day, but on party days, they get a combination of juice, ice cream, cupcakes, cookies, marshmallows and whatever candy appropriately celebrates the occasion. And they let the kids have seconds on whatever they want. I'm shocked there hasn't been any vomiting yet, but there are still several months of school to go.

Dylan LOVES going to Weston's class, as she gets to explore the room, participate in stories and songs, and share the big kid snacks at the big kid tables. She can't wait to go to school. Someone please halt her maturation this instant, I can't take it anymore.

It turns out Weston is a bit of a class clown, which should come as no surprise to anyone who has met him. His favorite activity seems to be making other kids laugh, which he accomplished during the Valentine's Day party by stuffing eight marshmallow hearts into his mouth and trying to sing, putting his Valentine bag on his head and talking in a robot voice, and making poop jokes. He takes after his father.

Dolled up Dylan

All You Need Is Love

Mmm... marshmallows

Chubby Bunny

Look! Valentines!

And we're back to clowning around.

The only picture I got of beautiful Layla

GO BRONCOS!

We had so much fun cheering on the Broncos this year. Actually, the first three quarters of every game were pretty painful, but the fourth was a blast! The kids loved showing their team spirit with their head-to-toe gear every weekend. We can't wait to watch Peyton next year.

GO BRONCOS!

Phoenix Canyons

Right after Christmas I was lucky enough to get out to do some canyons in the Phoenix area with my dad, Merritt, Christian, and my dad's friend Rich. We drove out to the Superstition Mountains, which are only a couple of hours away from my house, and did three canyons.

The first day we hit El Capitan and Parker and the second day we did Salome Jug, which is one of the best canyons in that area. This was my first experience with enough water at a low enough temperature to require a wetsuit, and I was extremely hesitant. In fact, up until the day before I was considering not going, but Merritt and Dad talked me into it, and I'm glad they did. I'm also glad Dad found me a 7mm wetsuit on Craigslist at the last minute. Very glad.

El Capitan, our first canyon, was dry and beautiful. On the hike out I suddenly felt a stabbing pain in my ankle, and looked down to see a five inch chunk of cholla attached to the bottom of my leg. I tried to knock it off with a rock, but it wouldn't budge. I yelled for Christian, who came running to help. He tried to pry it off with two small rocks, but couldn't get enough leverage, and had to get two larger rocks and brace himself well before pulling very hard to get that nasty, prickly cactus off of my leg. It was sore for a couple of days.

Parker, our second canyon, had some water, so we strapped our wetsuits on our packs before we set out. The water turned out to be below thirty degrees, and any rocks sticking up had ice on them. Brrrrr... The canyon was great and the suits kept us warm enough, as there wasn't much swimming and plenty of hiking in between. We spent that evening eating charred cake that tasted like used matches and watching a movie in the car.

When we woke up everything that wasn't in the car (wetsuits, shoes, socks, clothing from the day before) was frozen. Solid. Brrrr... We met Rich at the trail to Salome Jug, where we hiked a mile or so before putting on our wetsuits in the warm sun amongst cacti and jackrabbits.

Rich, who had done the canyon several times, said the water was running high and fast. That water was also below freezing. And we had a lot of swimming. And it was cold. Very, very cold. It was a gorgeous canyon and the trip was amazing, but by the time we got out of the last of three 100+ yard swims without direct sunlight my feet and hands were colder that they have ever been in my life. We had a two mile hike of switchbacks up to our car, and although Rich assured us that we could stay at the bottom and take off our suits and we would warm up in the sun, Merritt and I decided to truck up the hill in full gear (hoods, gloves, neoprene socks and all), and hope to quickly generate enough body heat to thaw our extremities. Worked like a charm.

It was an awesome trip and, like childbirth, the pain and misery are quickly forgotten and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Merritt, Christian and me at the entrance to El Capitan

Mean, mean cholla

  

El Capitan

In full wetsuits in the middle of the desert. It just doesn't look right.

Salome Jug, flowing high

Can I just stand here and smile instead of jumping in? Please?

I cannot explain how cold the water was.

Christmas with the Hatches

In late October Ryan said to me, "We really need to do a better job of decorating the house for the holidays. For the kids. It really makes them excited and gets them in the spirit."

I looked around and noticed that the only thing that could pass for Halloween decor were a few cobwebs above the bookcase and a decapitated Barbie doll. Overwhelmed with guilt, I rushed to Hobby Lobby and bought a dozen craft pumpkins, a ghost pillow, a foofy witche's hat, and a bat wreath. Then I raided my craft room for orange fabric and whipped up an adorable pillow that says "BOO!" in a very cute font. I carved a few pumpkins and set out some Halloween-inspired picture frames that I whipped up, then sat back and admired my work. The kids thought it was awesome and I got a pat on the back from Ryan.

Well, Christmas was the next holiday that warranted home decor (I don't believe in decorating for Thanksgiving, on the grounds that leaves and turkeys just aren't cute and all things Thanksgiving related should be eaten), so in early December I collected bits of festive treasure everywhere I went. From Target to Home Depot to TJMaxx, I expertly chose the items that would make our home merry and bright and be the least likely to be destroyed by my children in less that a week. I picked out new decorations for our tree, and many, many strands of lights to adorn the outside of our home (remember hearing that the economy experienced a boost over the holidays? that was me). I even made a wreath to hang on our front door. Out of silver balls. Now that's classy.

We had the pleasure of hosting the Aho Family Christmas at our home this year, and most of the Aho's frown upon artificial trees, so I insisted on picking out a REAL CHRISTMAS TREE this year. Early one Saturday two weeks before Christmas Layla and Ryan went to a lot by our house and Lay picked out the PERFECT tree. O Tannenbaum! She was a beaut. While they were tree shopping I was busy setting out all of the decorations not yet in place in our home and prepping the ornaments, lights and garlands for a night of family tree dressing.

After the laborious task of hauling an 8' pine into our house and securing it straight up in a tree stand, we decided we should put up the outdoor lights before it got dark, then decorate the tree after dinner. We took what I thought was a million miles of lights outside, and after about 30 seconds of looking at the front of the house and the dozen boxes on the lawn, Ry deduced that we needed about three times what I had bought. Before heading back to Home Depot we decided to make sure we had the right kind of clips. We didn't. So we searched the internet to find out what kind of clips would work on a shingle-style roof with no rain gutters. None. We would have to use nails. Only we're renting our house. So no nails.

After standing outside staring at our house and walking around the neighborhood uncomfortably close to other people's houses to find out how they hung their lights (nails) for the entire afternoon, and after me vetoing the idea of throwing net lighting over our bushes and putting some inflatable cartoon character in a Santa hat in our yard, we abandoned the project entirely. Layla cried, but we gave her hot chocolate with a candy cane in it and she got over it.

The tree decorating went better than we could have hoped. The kids loved helping, and it turned out absolutely gorgeous. The rest of Christmas went off without a hitch. The Aho's arrived and somehow everyone managed to find a place to sleep. We had fun at the Scottsdale Train Park playing Bocce Ball and Viking Chess and consumed enough food the week of Christmas to satisfy all the Sumos in Japan. The weather was perfect and the company was better. And our house was merry and bright. For the children.

The Tree

They don't get cuter than this.

MJ, Layla and Weston at the Train Park

Merritt photo-bombing what would otherwise have been a very awkward picture of Layla and Grandma

Beautiful girls, Josie and Layla

Riding the train. Yep, that's my finger.

Tuckered out

Weston sporting his new Giants cap on Christmas morning

Dyl opening her gift

There really weren't a lot of quality photos from Christmas morning. Sorry.