Cross Country Skiing

One of the high lights of our Cabin Christmas (for me) was that we got to go cross country skiing every day! We could just put on our skis and ski off the porch. Sigh.... bliss.

Our merry little group setting out for a nice ski.

Look how much I enjoy my time on skis! The point of this picture was that you could see the Grand in the distance. It's hard to see in such a little pictures though. (It's right above my head)
And we found a phone booth! Sadly it didn't work. But it had some interesting equipment inside.
I never did get the hang of can phones.

Ice Fishing

I learned how to ice fish over Christmas break! I even got my very own pole. Rory's mom brought us all See's candy suckers to savor while we sat around waiting for fishy bites.

Jolene with her sucker and her shrimp. She was the only one who was lucky with the shrimp.

Kathleen making a path between Rory's fish hole and mine for ultimate running between holes ease.
My first ever ice fishing fish!! What a beauty. I don't think they liked getting pulled out of the warm water and dropped into the snow.

Jolene and me showing off. What good fisherwomen we are!

Stubby Pringle

On Christmas Eve eve eve we got a visit from Stubby Pringle! He told us all about a Christmas where he helped out a family and missed a dance. This is fond Christmas memories in the making! Thanks grandpa! And the mustache was great.

Babies

Don't worry, I didn't have this baby or steal it. She's Kat's new little girl Adalynn. I was so happy to get to meet her. She's adorable! Newborns are so warm and cuddly. At least I think so. Maybe it's all the blankets they wear. Rory wouldn't hold her for fear of breaking her. It's crazy how many of my friends have recently had babies! I swear it's in the water.

New Home!

Since Rory got his new job we can finally afford to move out of mom and dad's house. I'm not sure who was happiest about that: Sam or us. We loved living with mom and dad but it sure is nice to have our own place again. And Sam's just plain happy to get his room back. Thank you so so much Grandpa and Grandma and Jake and Sara! (And Ruby) You guys were such good helpers! And, of course, a big huge thanks to mom and dad for letting us stay with you for a few months.
Our wonderful living room. This new apartment is so much bigger than our last one!
The entry way. We live in an attic.
Our weird little bathroom. It's the only room in the apartment that didn't get renovated. The retro toilet is kind of growing on me.
One of the best things about our new place is counter space!!!! Lots of it! No more cooking on the floor! And we have a teeny tiny portable dishwasher that we keep in the pantry.

So I married an ax murderer

Which one of us do you think it is?

Almost Tradition

Usually my family goes Christmas tree hunting the day after Thanksgiving. This year we did it the day after the day after Thanksgiving. I felt a little off. But we found a super cute little tree! After everyone had cut down their family's tree of choice the big kids got to go hookybobbing. It was a wild ride, but how could we expect otherwise with Uncle Brett behind the wheel? He slung us off a cliff and we nearly hit a tree, ran us through sage brush and over rocks, nearly rolled the truck, and to top it off we ran over Mark twice. I had a mouth full of sage brush and eyes full of snow by the end but I was laughing so hard! It was my cousins Mark and Kayla's first ever experience hookybobbing. Mark is from the D.C. area and Kayla's from Texas so they don't see too much snow. They said it was great. Even Mark had fun even though I'm pretty sure he's sporting some nice bruises now.