Cabin Paradise...

If there's one thing I miss the most about Utah, its definitely the mountains.  And that includes my parent's cabin.  We hadn't been up there in over a year-and-a-half and it felt so good to be up in the great outdoors, relaxed, and enjoying all the natural beauty there is to be seen.

The fall colors were unreal, and we couldn't get enough of our four-wheeler rides through the yellow aspen groves.  My whole family made it up to watch conference and it was so much fun (although very hard to listen).  The kids played non-stop and we were able to get Sansom family photos done with everyone there.  Utah keeps a tight hold on us with all it has to offer.

The men of the family.

We made sure to take a trip into Park City and ride the Alpine Coaster on our way home.

The Sansom Family.

The Duckworth Family!

Re-charging the Batteries at the Cabin...

Christmas night, us and my parents headed up to our family cabin.  On the agenda: veg!  We were all exhausted from the constant go-go-go of the holidays, and it was nice to just sit and not change out of our jammies for days.  On the 26th I woke up at 10:30am, ate breakfast, then went back to bed for another hour and a half.  It felt amazing!  

Most of our time was literally spent on the couch, but we did get outside into the gorgeous sunshine to sled, swing, and sea saw.  It was so mild up there we didn't even need coats.  Finnley got some fake glasses for Christmas and wouldn't take them off.  She looked adorable!

Documenting the belly!  It's getting big.  It seems like everyone I meet tells me I must be due "any day".  I've resigned to just saying, "yep!"  

 Mitch and Dieter bundled up for a late night 4-wheeler ride.  There was hardly any snow up there, so it was easy to get around on the four-wheelers.  Notice they are both in their flannel jammie bottoms still.  That's how we role at the cabin.

The Catch...

Wow, its summer and I am way behind on blogging. Gone are those long nights sitting in front of the TV watching shows and blogging. Here are the endless summer nights playing, traveling, and staying out way too late. I wouldn't have it any other way. I absolutely love summer!

Back in June we headed up to UT for a couple weeks. We were thrilled to spend the 4th of July weekend up at my parents cabin with most of my family. The kids loved swinging on the huge swing set, going for 4-wheeler rides, and fishing. My dad has a pond that he keeps stocked with trout just for those summer days when you wanna catch a fish (without too much effort).

Finn still rockin' her Rodeo Queen hat from the rodeo the night before.

Everyone caught their fair share of fish that day. I think Finnley caught 5 or 6 - although she didn't want to touch them.

We only had one tragedy. Its usually catch and release, but this unfortunate soul swallowed the hook and couldn't be saved. We ended up taking him home, let grandpa clean it out, and Sara fry it up. You can read more about the fish fry over here.

The rest of our weekend consisted of Stadium of Fire, singing songs around the campfire, celebrating more Dieter, and the 4th with the Duckworths. More on those to come...hopefully sometime before summer is over.

Happy New Year...

Wow, I can not believe it is 2011!

We celebrated by spending the weekend up at the cabin in the toasty 1 degree weather. Seriously, it was sooo cold. Highs of 1, Lows of -20 or more. The freezing temps didn't stop us from bundling up and enjoying the outdoors. We took out the sleds, snowmobiled, and even practiced our target shooting.

Poor Tuscan was freezing! He wanted to stay outside with the party, but his poor feet were so cold. He kept picking up his paws trying to get them off the cold ground, but he wouldn't go inside. He got a little frost bite on his nose and has two little white dots on it now.

Hmmm, not much snow at all!

When we weren't freezing our booties off, we were staying warm inside. We crafted, painted, did a lot of dancing on the Wii, watched a lot of football, and our favorite New Year's tradition...our annual game of 21.

Happy New Year!

I am so excited for what this year will bring. I have a good feeling about 2011.

Haul Out the Snow Clothes...

After our yummy dinners, and Diane's birthday celebration we headed up to my family's cabin. Can you believe it had almost been a year and a half since I'd been there!? I had been missing that place so bad, and it was everything I'd hoped it would be. Finnley remembered it like we were there yesterday, and Dieter had fun discovering it for the first time.

There was tons of snow, especially for Thanksgiving weekend, so the kids wore themselves out by trudging through the snow, sledding, and playing. We wish we could have stayed longer, but Mitch and I had tickets to the BYU v. UT game, so we had to head down early. My parents were nice enough to keep our kids, so they didn't freeze their booties off like we did.

Dieter climbed into this bouncy seat all by himself, and then Mitch snapped him in. Doesn't he look hilarious?! I feel like just yesterday we was little enough to hang out in a bouncy and now he's hanging off both ends.

Ahhh, what a disappointing game. I had fun supporting my team amongst all the loyal Ute fans. I was sure we were going to win and then that darn fumble-that-really-wasn't-a-fumble happened and changed the whole momentum of the game. I won't go into, but man that stunk. Oh well. Go COUGS!

And, to top off our weekend, we now have another niece! My sister Sara had her fourth little baby, Ivy, on the 28th. We missed her by about an hour, but look forward to meeting her at Christmas.

Hope you all had a Fabulous Thanksgiving! We sure did.

Over the River and Through the Woods...

There are a few things we must do EVERY TIME we come to UT. One is spending a night or two (and if we're lucky three) at the cabin. We love it up there...the sound of the wind rustling the aspens, the dust from a four wheeler, and occasionally the smell of fresh manure from the horses. We celebrated my brother's birthday up there our first weekend in UT. As part of the celebration, we drove down into Park City to ride the Alpine Coaster and eat at Baja Cantina. Unfortunately, we were "rained out", and unable to ride the coaster due to lighting, but the food was YUMMY!  Dieter slept the ENTIRE meal in the Bijorn...so nice!

I've realized I haven't posted NEARLY as many photos of Dieter as I did of Miss Finn.  He is the sweetest little baby.  He loves to cuddle with me, and is such a happy baby - that is until he gets in his car seat...that's a different story.  Don't you think he's a Mitchell Jr.!?

We ate WAY too much, laughed our guts out watching "17 Again" and let the kids enjoy a couple four-wheeler rides.  Steve and Mitch entertained us by pushing each other WAY TOO HIGH on the swings.  I'm sure the cabin will be on the TOP of our list when we return to good 'ole Utah in December.  Until then...

Happy New Year...

We rung in the New Year up at the cabin! We spent New Year's Eve day swimming at the Kamas pool - which was a BLAST! Then we grabbed our Oreo shakes from Dick's and headed back up to the cabin. We moved all the clocks forward (without the kids knowing) so we celebrated the New Year with them at around 9:30pm with sparklers, ice cream, a dance party, and banging pots and pans together on the front porch. They thought it was great that they got to stay up 'til midnight "and they weren't even tired". After they went to bed, the real party started! Okay, it wasn't anything too exciting, but it was nice to relax, watch the New Year's stunts in Las Vegas, and finish off the night with some Yahtzee Poker.

The dance-off was hilarious! Finnley has rhythm, and when the music comes on, her little body starts to groove! I love it! She wasn't about to sit out on the dance party. When Hadley attempted the worm (yes, on slate floors...ouch) Finnley got right on her belly and did her own version of the worm. Even grandma Jan showed us her moves. We like to tease my mom when she dances because she makes some great faces, but all in all, she has some good moves! It was such a fun New Year, and I am really excited about 2008 - I mean 2009! (It always takes me about 6 months to get used to writing the new year!) :)
Happy New Year EVERYONE!