Good Times

Since my last post, we have been playing a lot. I've also kept up on my resolutions: read the January Ensign, got all caught up on my scrapbooking, joined a book club to strengthen friendships, made a trip to the temple, and in all the FUN, I have spent some great quality time with my family.

So I thought I would document some of the fun we've been having. A few weekends ago, we headed to Laramie for a weekend. Because I spent nearly 6 years in Laramie, made great friends, got my education, had my testimony strengthened, met Tony, and had my first child there, Laramie holds a special place in my heart, and I always LOVE going back there. This weekend was no different. We stayed with Tony's brother and his wife in their college apartment, which was so much fun! I love college apartments--they bring back so many great memories! On Saturday, Tony took the kids swimming, to Burger King, and on a little campus tour while while I stayed at the apartment to have a baby shower for Michelle, my sister-in-law. Five of the eight kids in Tony's family were there for the weekend with their families, plus Tony's mom, so the kids had lots of cousins to play with and we had a good crowd for the shower. In the afternoon, we headed to the Arena Auditorium to watch the Cowboys beat CSU. The Cowboys are really good this year, and it was such a fun game to watch. The kids sat down in the first three rows right by the tunnel where they were able to give high-fives to the players as they ran in and out and even got a few autographs after the game. That night we ate at Corona Village, one of our favorite Laramie restaurants.

The kids with a few of their cousins that were there, getting ready for the game to start.

Getting autographs from the star of the game.Not EVERYBODY loved the game. In fact, this picture sums up the way Mariah felt about it.
Back in August, on our way home from AK, we had a rough time getting home--a cancelled flight, all night in the airport, a day at a hotel, a red-eye flight from Anchorage to Long Beach followed by a 12-hour layover there, etc. And all without Tony--just me and the three kids. Needless to say, it wasn't an ideal trip home. But JetBlue gave me a little compensation in the form of a $100 credit per traveler for future trips. I didn't really plan on using the credit since I figured that even if we got $100 off per person, we would still have to pay the difference, plus Tony's ticket. They had to be used in a year as well, and after that trip, I really didn't feel like flying anytime in the near future.

But . . . the first part of January I found out that JetBlue was a having a sale on flights between Salt Lake City and Long Beach for just $49 each way on selected dates. So, since we had enough credit to pay for a round trip flight, I went ahead and planned a trip. We couldn't make it work for Tony to come, and taking Mariah didn't sound like much of a vacation for me, so I just got three tickets and decided to surprise Mylie and Connor with a short trip. So last Wednesday afternoon, I picked them up from school and drove to the airport. I didn't tell them where we were going until we were actually at the airport, and they were going crazy guessing! It was so much fun, and we had a great trip!

We got into LB Wednesday night around 7 and took a bus to our hotel, which was a dump but just 3 blocks from the beach! (I love riding public transportation--you can't beat the $1.25 fare, compared to the almost $30 it would have cost to take a taxi, and the people-watching is fantastic!) We ordered pizza and watched TV until we went to sleep that night. The next day was our one full day there, so we made the most of it. The weather was GORGEOUS, probably my favorite part of the trip. We walked about half an hour to get downtown, but nobody complained. We were too busy enjoying the sun in our shorts and t-shirts as well as looking at the beach, buildings, and interesting trees and plants. Once we got to our desination, we spent the morning at a great aquarium, which featured sealife from all different parts of the Pacific Ocean. I am fascinated with ocean life, so I absolutely love aquariums! The kids' favorite part was probably the area called the Shark Lagoon.

Mylie posing with some massive shark jaws. They didn't have any sharks this size there!

Touching a huge sting ray in the touch pool.

Touching a bamboo shark. Connor and I loved this! Mylie, not so much.

Some beautiful black-tipped sharks.

The lorikeet forest was next to the shark lagoon. These little birds, which are native to Australia, were so colorful! Connor thought it was pretty cool having one eat out of his hand.

After viewing all the sealife, we decided to enjoy it in a different way by eating lunch at Bubba Gump's Shrimp across the street. After lunch, we rented a surry and rode up and down the fantastic bike path they have right on the beach there. Then we walked back up the hotel to get our beach clothes and spent the rest of the day at the beach. I though it was just a little too chilly for swimsuits, and for sure the water was too cold, but Connor and Mylie disagreed and had a fantastic time on the beach and in the water (although they only waded out to their knees) while I enjoyed reading my book and feeling the sand beneath my toes.

Connor photographed the surry. Not the best pic of me perhaps, but you get the idea. This was lots of fun, and there was some begging the next morning to do it again!

Wading out into the cold, cold water.

Rolling down a sand dune on the beach.

The next morning, we spent a little more time at the beach, got ice cream cones, and since I knew the Carnival cruise that ports there would be in port that day, we bussed over to the terminal so the kids could see the ship (and I could wish I was on it!) We had to get back on the bus to the airport a little after noon, so that was all we did that day.

Connor and Mylie felt pretty lucky to get to fly again so soon! After our Alaska trip I told them they wouldn't be flying again for a really long time. We really probably could have just flown to Long Beach and flown right back and they would have been thrilled! But I'm glad we did all the other stuff, since we had so much fun together. And, as always, coming home was great! I sure missed my Mariah-buddy, but was grateful for the time with my school kids.

Me and my buddy the night we got home.

Finally, since we hadn't had enough fun yet, yesterday, Tony, Connor, Mylie, and I went skiing. The weather was beautiful and we had a great time! (But I didn't take my camera, so no pics this time. Oh well, they'd probably look a lot like the other skiing pictures, but with Tony in them too. I suppose you can imagine.) And now back to our regular schedule, and back to work on those resolutions I've made. Life is so good.

Shish-boomers!

Ok, so I don't know if "shish-boomers" is an actual word, or if my dad just made it up, but Connor, Mylie, and I went skiing this past week, and they were both real shish-boomers! We have the Utah Pass of all Passes, which was an incredible deal, getting us season passes to both Seven Peaks waterparks, all UVU home athletics, both Trafalgas, and weekday skiing at Wolf Mountain (all for only $30 each!) We had never been skiing anywhere but Pine Creek (outside Cokeville), but we decided to go take advantage of our passes and try out Wolf Mountain, which is near Huntsville, UT. We LOVED it! They were a little short on snow, like all the resorts are, but it was a fantastic kid/beginner hill and a beautiful day! It was some of the best fun we'd had together in awhile.

This is Connor 3rd year of skiing. He's only been about twice each year, though. Skiing is an expensive hobby!!

Mylie was afraid to ride the lift at first, but after her first time up, she loved it!

Connor was excited to use his new skis, boots, and poles that Santa brought him this Christmas. It took a few times down to feel comfortable with the poles and longer skiis, but once he did, he was flying by Mylie and me!

It was only Mylie's second time on skiis, and she did great!
We can't wait to go back again--and hopefully Tony can come with us next time!

Resolve

On New Year's Day, it was my turn for our FHE lesson. So, I did what anyone would do on New Year's Day, and had a lesson about goal setting, complete with us setting three family goals for the upcoming year. (And then we watched "17 Miracles", which is a must-see, if you haven't seen it yet!)

Here is what we came up with:

1. Honor thy father and mother. (Surprisingly, this one came directly from Connor and Mylie, who both realize that they have some work to do in that area!)
2. Read the scriptures even on non-school days. (We do really well on school days, because it is first in our morning routine, but whenever we don't have school, we can't seem to remember. Definitely something we need to work on this year!)
3. Go on at least one family vacation. (We truly believe this is important. Look for another post on "why vacation?" coming soon.)

Everyone agreed that we can work toward these goals this year. I concluded the lesson by suggesting that we could also set individual goals for the new year, but that I would leave that up to each person to do on their own. I figured that I would set some, Tony might, but that would be as far as that went. That night, however, Tony came out from putting Connor to bed and told me that he had been in his room writing down his personal goals for the new year. I had to see them myself, so once he was asleep, I snuck in and opened his journal. My heart was touched as I read his three goals that he came up with all on his own:

My 2012 gouls are?
1. be a good freind at school.
2. Study scriptchers more.
3. Treat my sisters more cind.

This was one of those reassuring mom moments when you realize that maybe you're not failing as badly as you thought. Maybe they actually are hearing something you are saying. Maybe they do have righteous desires, and just need more practice at making their actions match those desires. At any rate, I've felt good about this experience all week.

I also set some goals for myself in 2012. I tried first of all to remember my last year's resolutions, and since I never wrote them down, I have no idea what they were, or if I even set any?!? So finally, 6 days late, I am going to write them down, right here on the blog:

1. Read the Ensign cover to cover each month. (I've done this several different years, and it's always such a good one. I can't wait to do it again!)

2. Finish "The Kingdom and the Crown" series. (I read Book 1 last spring, and need to read the next two!)

3. Develop friendships outside my family. (I usually set some kind of goal about being friendly, since this is a weakness for me. I've always been very content with just one or two close friends, and I still am. So my friendship needs are fulfilled just within my family. However, I know that there are those out there who need a friend, and if I'm that comfortable in my life, I should be reaching out more!)

4. Get caught up on the Tony Micheli family history. (This comes in 2 forms--my digital scrapbooks and our home videos. I finished our 2010 book last night--yippee!--, and want to complete 2011 by the end of this month. By the end of February, I would like to have all our home video, which is currently either on VHS or on our computer in short clips, onto DVD's that we can sit down and watch together as a family. I'm taking a movie making class right now so I'll know how to do the computer part, and I've asked Tony to take care of the VHS to DVD portion.)

5. Spend quality time with my husband and children. (This is always a goal, of course. But it's something I need to always be thinking about because it's easy to slip up!)

6. Attend the temple once a month. (This is a goal Tony and I set years ago, but we haven't done very well in the last year. Gotta get re-focused!)

So I know what I WANT to do, but apparently last year, that's as far as it went. This year, I RESOLVE to complete these goals, and I suppose that taking the first two steps of writing them down and sharing them with friends, are two steps in the right direction.

Highlights of Christmas Break

Although we dropped the ball Christmas morning, and only managed to take two pictures of the big day (both boring pictures of the girls unwrapping a gift), we did take pictures of some of the other fun and exciting things we did over the break.

Connor, of course, kept his priorities straight and played plenty of basketball over the break. He even shoveled off his outdoor court.

Our trip to SLC was fabulous once again! First we went to Trafalga for the first time, which was a lot of fun. Well, it was all fun other than this sad experience.

Our regular restaurant, The Mayan, was shut down recently, so we had to try something new. We decided on Tucanos, and it was a hit with the whole family! And, of course, the lights at Temple Square were spectacular this year too!

The kids had tons of fun on Christmas Eve, acting out the Nativity with a full cast of Micheli cousins.

We also got to ride on the Polar Express! (Okay, so it was actually a horse trailer, complete with poop on the walls, but everyone had a blast!)

And at the end, each of the kids got their very own bell.

A few days after Christmas, the girls and I headed to Cokeville for a few days. I forgot my camera, but we had tons of fun gaming, puzzling, visiting with family, watching basketball, and for Mylie, learning how to ski! We made it home on New Year's Eve. I didn't think we had any plans for the night, but Tony suprised us with Tucanos at home! He had a couple different meats, grilled pineapple, and even the Brazilian Lemonade!!! (And the kids didn't care much, but I also loved that he had vacuumed the house and cleaned the bathrooms! Wow, I love him!)

And now, we are back to "normal." Tony and the kids went back to school today, and Mariah and I cleared out all evidence of Christmas. Sigh.

I Scream, You Scream

We all scream for ice cream!

Last week, I took my two princesses to Provo for the Princess Festival. We had fun there, but probably just as fun was meeting up with Olivia for ice cream at the Creamery!! Mmmmm.

My Grown-Up Christmas List

For those expecting a deep post here about my desire for "no more lives torn apart, that wars would never start, and time will heal all hearts," I'm sorry. This isn't that kind of post. Rather, I'd like to talk a little bit about my actual Christmas wish list I wrote up about a month ago. It seems that every year in November and December, I get asked by my mother, a sibling, or Tony, "What do you want for Christmas?" I usually answer with, "I don't know," since in that moment I really can't think of anything. But this year, I decided to be prepared for that question by writing a few things down for reference. Nobody asked, and I kind of forgot about the list. Until the other day. And when I glanced at it, I had a flashback to my childhood. Every year, my mom would get some sort of domestic device for Christmas and seem truly happy about it. I couldn't understand why she acted that way, since in my juvenile mind, I figured that what she REALLY wanted probably fell into the wardrobe, accessories, or toys and games categories. But maybe it really was what she wanted, since my grown-up Christmas list (at the ripe old age of 31) looks like this:

wash cloths

earrings

good knife

electric griddle

apple corer/slicer

bread pans

Pathetic, right? I thought so for a few moments after seeing the list the other day. But then I realized that it's not pathetic. Although I am still Taffy, I have grown to love my role as wife, mother, and homemaker. I have embraced it to the point that when I think about what I'd like to have, many of the items are things to help me fulfill this homemaker role a little better than I currently am. I just need a little better tools, I guess. And the Taffy inside me would like a couple pair of earrings--I even like the dangly kind!

Best Friends

These two girls have become self-proclaimed "best friends." Mariah really does fine when Mylie is gone to school, but from the minute she gets home, they are inseperable. Last Friday Mylie didn't have school, and they literally played together all day! They play really well together, too, rarely getting in a fight or argument.

In fact, they say that they are "almost twins" since their names both start with M ("like twin names"), they both have blue eyes, they sometimes wear the same clothes, and they kind of look alike.

Both of these cuties have had birthdays recently. Mariah turned 3, and Mylie 6. Hard to believe. They're growing up so fast!

One thing these two friends love is to have "girl parties" with their mom when Tony and Connor are gone to basketball practice or games. Last week we had two girl parties. The first one was an ironing party. Sounds fun, huh? Well, they loved it! And I got my ironing done. :)

Then this weekend we made some fun (and incredibly easy!) Christmas treats. They had fun making the different shaped rice krispie treats and decorating them with sprinkles, or sparkles, as Mariah calls them.
Gotta love these girlies!