Annual Soldier's Hollow Adventure

It's become a Peery-Fox family tradition to go tubing at Soldier's Hollow. It's one of my favorite Christmas events! We start with a deluxe lunch at the Dairy Keen in Heber. They have great burgers, fries, and shakes. We had plenty of shakes since they accidentally made them small when we ordered large. So we ended up with two of each flavor! The kids love the food and the model trains that chug all around the restaurant. It's a short drive to Soldier's Hollow--site of the cross-country races during the Salt Lake winter games in 2002. During the summer there is a golf course there, but during the winter they groom the hill into a fantastic tubing adventure. After checking in and gearing up in the lodge, we head to the hill. Each person gets a tube and then we stand in line to get pulled up the hill. The back of this photo shows some of this: My favorite part of tubing is sitting back while being towed to the top! Then we either race each other down, or hold onto each other's tubes and go down in a huge group. The heavier the group, the faster you go!

Christien, Parker, Adam, Emily, and Sam

Alex, chillin' in the tube

Hazel

Parker

Back in the lodge we take turns watching the little ones (under age 3) and sipping hot cocoa.

When our fun was over we went to Grandma's house for an impromptu sleepover!

Christmas in February

Happy Trails

If you can't tell, I've been organizing all my old photos. I came across this one, which just makes me happy.

Avery was long gone by the time I took the picture, but she left a trail behind. While it can feel like I do nothing but cook, clean, repeat. . . I am aware that there will come a day when I will not find hand prints that need to be cleaned off my sliding glass door, there will be no "treasures" of rocks and sticks that I have to secretly get rid of, and I won't come upon random tupperware left on my carpet. It's kind of sad, when you think about it. So for now, I'm going to try to enjoy all the trails left by the children I love.

The Three Stooges

These pictures are from this summer, when Adam was still wearing his patch. The kids insisted on having animal face paint. In case you can't see them very well, here are close ups!

Bumbo Boy

Jacob looks like a combination of cute baby and Yoda.

We love this boy!

My Somber Jedi

Adam: Mom, I'm worried.
Me: Why?
Adam: I can sense a lot of darkness in people.
Me: Oh.
Adam: I can sense a lot of people have anger in them.
Me: Hmm.
Adam: Yes. And I can sense darkness in me.

It's interesting to live in the world when you have a huge imagination, and lean toward the philosophical.

We're off to Temple Square!

My sister Kate came up from Las Vegas with her three kids, and we had such a blast! The kids played in the snow, played in the basement, and we made (and ate) gingerbread houses. The highlight of the trip was going to Temple Square. There were two essential ingredients that made the trip a success--a "train" ride (on Trax) and hot chocolate!

Here is Jacob, all bundled up!

Lincoln, Reagan, and Adam at the reflection pool.

Our family in front of the reflection pool, temple in the background.

Cool shot with the temple in back. From this angle, Adam is the only one without a double chin!

Kate, Lincoln, Reagan, and McKinley

And here is a great video, taken by Sam. The great thing is that everyone shows their personality in this short clip!