Miss Independent wanted me

Tenley has been such a stinker lately about doing things HER way. If I try to give her a bite of food from a fork, she'll push it away. . . but if I let her eat it with her hands, she'll gobble it up. If I try to read her a book, she'll throw it. . . but if she can hold it herself and turn the pages, she'll look at it for several minutes. If I try to give her kisses, she'll turn and thrash her head. . . but if she decides she's in the mood, she'll give tons of slobbery smooches. Basically, she likes to do things on her own or as she pleases. And sometimes she acts like she doesn't want me- rude!

On a family outing recently, Tenley changed her mind. 

The Tippy-Top.

I ski on a beginner level. JD snowboards. . .on an advanced one. Sometimes it's hard for us to be together on the mountain, but, last Saturday we went to Sundance and spent all our time together.

It was a lovely day for skiers and snowboarders alike. The weather was pretty much perfect. And I had a pretty good time. . . until JD convinced me I was ready for a blue (almost black) trail. Here we are on our way up to what felt like the very tippy-top.

And here I am after I started going way too fast, lost my balance, tumbled sideways, slid face-down in the snow for about 25 feet of mountain, totally humiliated myself, acted as a complete roadblock for all the pros, and provided a good laugh for the guests on the ski lift.

At least I was on skis and could get myself up. If I had been on a snowboard, it would have been much worse. I might've called the emergency guys on snowmobiles to come get me. Instead, I laughed a lot, picked the snow out of my eyelashes, dusted it off my tummy, and braved myself down the rest of the way. It was practically the scariest thing I've ever done. . .and JD boarded down backwards the whole way to make sure I was okay. He didn't even blink. Crazy boy.

Valentine adventure.

JD wanted to go on a really exciting adventure for Valentine's Day. His original plan was to spend the weekend in a cottage near the lava hot springs in Idaho. It would have been very romantic had I not started feeling dreadfully miserable near the end of last week. He decided to ditch the Idaho idea and just do a little camping trip here. He researched places to go and decided we would camp out somewhere in Payson canyon. He packed the car full of our camping supplies, food and lots of blankets and we were set to go. After we discovered the Payson canyon roads were still covered in ice and completely unmanageable and dangerous, we opted to spend the night at our go-to campground, Burraston Ponds. We were a little disappointed, but decided we could still have a really good experience together. Not to our surprise, we were lone souls on the property. Who wants to wake up in a tent in the snow on Valentine's Day, right?

We do! It was peaceful, wonderful, and beautiful.

We actually prefer to camp with snow on the ground because everything stays cleaner.
JD cooked some yummy food while we were there. . .

and kept me happy with a warm fire.

We loved being completely alone in the outdoors, whispering sweet nothings, cuddling up in the blankets, and holding hands by the fire.

Even though it wasn't exactly what we planned, it really was lovely.

Happy Valentine's!

I can do anything.

Remember how I'm interning at a therapeutic boarding school for girls? Yesterday, for a long day activity, we went cross-country skiing. JD joined us for a day on the mountain.

I woke up today aching all over. Cross-country ain't no down hill skiing. There are not any chair lifts to get you up the mountain. . . you hike that thing on your own two legs. And it's a work out.

Even though we look cute and happy,

it took all my effort to stay positive and be a good example of not complaining for the girls.

I fell a lot. But I can do anything I set my mind to.

Happy memory :)

I found this little gem as I was browsing through all the pictures on my hard drive for a little project I'm working on. Made me smile. I miss these girls!

Snowboarder.

I married a snowboarder. He loves to play in the snow. Sometimes he doesn't wear sunscreen and has a goggle burnline... and he looks kindof funny for about a week. But he definitely has some mad skills.

(And I still think he's dang cute.)

ouch!

So last night I was totally dreading have to get up this morning. Every night before I go to bed... I think about how soon 4:30 is going to come and how I should probably start getting to sleep a little sooner than I do. When I woke up this morning, I was hurting... just like I knew I would be. I went snowboarding on Saturday for the first time and it was quite an experience. Stef, Cory and I headed down to Brighton with J.D. and Jeff Weeks and his cute girlfriend Erin and her roommate Ashley (i think?) and the boys' friend, Jeff Pratt, from high school. It started snowing on the drive up and we were getting really pumped!

(I looooove this picture! I have such a cute boyfriend! )

When we got up to the resort, we got on all of our gear and headed for the mountain. The first run was absolutely terrible- I kept falling and hurting myself, and I was getting so discouraged, and I was cold, and I couldn't find a balance and I was so irritated. I wanted to just quit because everywhere was hurting and I had ice frozen to my stomach from falling so much. I was so annoyed! But I decided to just try again and the runs after that weren't so bad. I was pretty impressed by how good J.D. was at snowboarding. He goes all the time and I knew that he really enjoyed it... but he was super talented and I didn't even realize it. We were so cold and hungry by the end of the day... we got some Little Caesars and headed home. It was a good day though!

However, I have been hurting ever since. This morning at work it was hard for me to bend over and plug in the vacuum because my back hurts and my legs hurt and everything hurts. Even as I study, it hurts to lean over and grab a book. Ouch!