Sledding at Deer Creek

One of the other reasons we went up to Heber was we thought we would take the boys sledding. There hasn't been snow in the valley for about 3 weeks now... I had no idea Heber was so flat!! There were no sledding hills that we could find, I am sure they are out there but you have to have the "in" to find them. So Darren pulled into Deer Creek and there was a small hill heading down to the iced over lake. We didn't take the time to change the boys into their snow cloths, we just let them go and have a good time. I think we could have stayed there for hours, it was a warmer beautiful day.


Bryson sledding... he was on his tummy most of the time

Preston sledding, he loves the round sleds

This picture is Preston spot on! His tongue is out so much

Bryson and Weston going down the hill

About to fall, Weston didn't want to go down again

Bryson about to fall off Dad sledding

Darren and Bryson sledding down together

If you look close, you'll see Darren's pant legs are slightly darker on the bottom. Yah see, after sledding with Bryson he went to get up and was right on the edge of the lake and plunged in. Good thing we had the snow pants for him to change into. It was really cold water.

The holes Darren's feet plunged into. About 5 minutes later Preston walked right into them and that ended the sledding fun. He was super cold, up to his knees too (not as heavy as Daddy) and we are again glad we didn't put him in his snow pant either... they came in handy.

Weston just stood and threw snow up in the air, generally landing on him. But he had a fun time so I didn't stop him

End result of him throwing snow, he thought it was so funny

Weston hanging out on the ice

Lunch at the Train Station

We cannot go to Heber around lunch time without going to the Train Station (what we call it) for some good food. The boys love this place and the train the goes around and through the seating area's ceiling. Weston loves trains right now, it is all he talks about. So this was super fun for him, I don't think he ate a single thing.

The Train going around

Bryson and Preston eating lunch!

Weston watching the train go through the tunnel

This picture is a bit dark but it is Weston talking all about the train and point up at it. He seriously had such a good time here.

Zermontt Ice Castles

My mother had seen this on the news one night and told me to take the boys up to it, they are up at the Zermontt Resort. It does cost 2 bucks per person to enter and walk through, however well worth it. This guy has created these amazing ice castles, I could try to explain them, but you just have to go up to see them in person.

Darren, Bryson and Preston

One of the smaller castles

Bryson and Preston - excited to be outside

Daddy and Westie - he wanted down!

This includes about 5 separate castles, with the largest of them all towering in the background

Looking up, the depth of the icicles was so cool

I just loved the top of this one

Bryson, Preston and myself at the base of the largest castle

Daddy and the boys inside the largest castle

Looking up, inside the castle

Bryson and Preston with the spikie castle in the background

Another castle

Westie and me at the final castle

The backside of the largest castle

Weston's Birthday Present to Mommy

As I was sitting relaxing on my Birthday, Preston came to me and said "Mommy why does Weston have black all over his face?" Immediately thinking he had gotten a hold of a marker again, I went running. I then started laughing, he finally got to my mascara. He trys to get it every morning. He do his upper lashes pretty well, He is too cute to get mad at for this one.

Happy Birthday to Me

For those of that don't know me well, I have two birthday's... allow me to explain. I celebrated my birthday on the 29th of January for 16 years. When we got out my birth certificate for me to get my drivers license, we notice that it stated the 27th. Immediately my mother knew it had to be wrong, she knew I was born on a Saturday, so after some research we found out that I was in fact born on the 27th. Come to find out...when my mother called to tell her parents I was born, they were on vacation in Australia, the date in Australia was the 29th. My grandfathers dad (so my great-grandfather) was born Jan 29th, 1879, so my grandfather was so excited that I had been born 100 years later. And so it stuck, for the next 16 years we celebrated it on the 29th. I laugh about it now, at the time to a 16 year old it wasn't that funny. But even back then I found humor. Ever since then I have been celebrating my birthday both days, kinda fun for me... but I think it drives Darren crazy.

Birthday 1 - The 27th (my official day)

Darren left early this morning to work, I knew that he had something planned for the weekend so I started my birthday out like any other day. Which - to tell the truth - kind frustrated me that no one was making a fuss. I got to work and my office was decorated, a dozen red roses were waiting for me with candy hearts on my desk. The office had brought me goodies and a card, the two girls who I work directly with got me a gift card... AND Darren got a cute card. He has this nack of walking to the card isle, picking up 2 or 3 cards and finding the perfect one. Here it is...

The woman in the background says "I wanna Dance!! And sing drunken karaoke!! And get some tattoos!! And do belly shots off a stranger!! And rob a Bank!! And..." The guy in the front says "Whats up with her" to which the other woman responds "She's got three kids... Doesn't get out much..." Oh so very true!!

He had also got me a t-shirt that he made stating, "It's my birthday and all I got was this t-shirt". On the back he put in small text - "And one hell of a good night" He requested that I wear it all day. I did... Darren took me to lunch to Cafe Rio, my favorite place for lunch. I went back to work and then took off early and got a pedicure, which I realized half way through that I still had my t-shirt on and I can't understand if they are talking about me or not. Oh well.

Darren had Young Mens that night that he was in charge of so after dinner which Darren made he headed out. I had to get to the grocery store super bad so I did that instead of staying home and relaxing. Have to get thing done as a mom you know... It ended up being a nice day and I would have been content with that.

Birthday 2 - The 29th (my unofficial day)

Darren had been thinking all month what to do for my birthday. What to get me, where to go, what to do... he had come up with nothing that I knew of. He told me to plan on taking Friday off so I did. As he came home that Thursday evening he had planned to take me and the boys to San Francisco for the weekend. We got online to my Dad's employee site to check seat availability and the flights were wide open. As we were about to say okay, let's go, Darren noticed a note stating that buddy passes (what Darren and the boys fly using) were on hold from Saturday to Wednesday. So we could get to San Francisco but could not get home till Thursday. So strike out. Back to plan B, a day with the boys in the snow...

Friday morning we got up and geared up with the 4-wheeler to go play in the snow and sled and have a good day. On a second thought we drove to Butterfield canyon thinking if it was still snow packed that it would be a lot closer, and yep it was snow packed! So gear up, dress up 3 kids, get everything on the 4-wheeler and we go up the canyon. I start taking pictures and my camera dies, no battery. I forgot the one I had plugged to charge overnight. Ok, camera away, enjoy the ride. Suddenly ... asphalt!!! Kennecott had plowed the snow down the canyon to their turn off... no snow, no sledding, turn around go back to the truck. .

The boys sledding behind the 4-wheeler

We went over to Darren's parents to invite them to lunch and he Dad was working in the Temple that day and his Mom was working. So we drove back home, changed cloths and went to lunch with the boys and Chick-Fil-A, the boys had a great time in the play place. We then went back home and relaxed the afternoon away. We went to the store, picked up stuff for Navajo Taco's... got some movies and came back home. I know Darren was disappointed, but it ended up fine and I was happy to have spent the day with my boys.

Darren took me out on a date Saturday evening with our good friends, Rich and Trina. We went to Ruby River for yummy steak and cinnamon yam and everything else that makes you so full and sick and happy :) We then went and watch Sherlock Holmes, this was an amazing movie, I really liked it. Thank you honey for making my birhtday's a great time.

Our Invitation to the Doctors!

Darren came home on Friday and mentioned this thought he has been having about putting a slide down the stairs. I said yah that would be fun and brushed it off thinking it was a passing thought and not anything that he was really wanting to pursue.
As I came home at 10:00pm from Bunko that evening, all the lights were on and I knew the kids could not be asleep. Darren had this deer in the headlights look on his face and the boys told me to stop and shut my eye, they then lead me over the stair and revealed the beginnings of a slide. I starting laughing, you were serious I said. Yep - just need to finish it up tomorrow.
Growing up there was a family in our neighborhood who I took piano lessons from, they had a 3 story home and through the center they had put a fire pole that went from the top to the bottom of the home and allowed you to get off at each level. I thought that was so cool... well this is out fire pole, we have a rambler so we cannot justify a fire pole. But this slide has been the biggest hit and talk about in our home for awhile. The boys absolutely love it. Any yes I have tried it, it is amazingly fun. It will be a sad day when I start taking the slide to get downstairs instead of walking, but then again, it will be a fun day too. Thanks for making this slide Darren, it will go down in out Steck history book and talked about for years to come.

The rough draft that I came home to on Friday night

Another view of the rough draft

The finished product, shinny and new and fast!

Bryson going down the slide - hasn't talked about the Wii for 20 minutes now, a new record.

Preston going down the slide, this has been a great energy release for him during this cold weather.

Weston still won't go down willingly, he is still pretty scare of it.

Daddy going down his masterpiece

My going down the slide, I tried to make a scare face but it came out more constipated then scared. Oh well, it was super fun!

Here is a video I caught of the slide in action and how fast they go up and down.

Grandparents Day

Bryson held his 2nd grade Grandparents day program today, I wasn't planning on attending feeling a bit out of place, but then flet guitly that I wasn't going to see his program. So I went anyway and tagged along. I had the two other boys with me as well so it was quite an experience. The program was super cute, they sang some songs for us and did poems for the first 30 minutes. Then we split into the class rooms where we had cookies and milk and then the kids asked their grandparents a bunch of questions about their history. It was a fun day with him and his classmates.

Bryson is in the red/blue ruby shirt holding the 's' - this was like a poem using the letters of "Grandparents" which said things like they spoil us, take us to McDonalds, let us stay up late. It was really cute.

End of one of the songs, you can barely see his face

This is them doing a funky chicken dance, Bryson never really dot down into the full stance.

Grandma trying to learn the dance from Bryson - I think he thought she was crazy

Grandma and Bryson getting hugs

Bryson asking Grandma her questions

Grandma and the boys, Bryson was a sport to share this day with all his brothers.