Skiing Day 2

Here are some more pictures of our time up in Flag!

Skiing Day 1

For Christmas, Tyler Mckaley and I gave Abbey a weekend of skiing up in Flagstaff. We all headed up to the slopes early Saturday morning. The plan was to drop Tyler and Abbey off while Mckaley and I checked into the hotel, relaxed, and basically just killed time until it was time to pick them back up. Little did I know that Mckaley had a plan of her own.

It started with, "Mom, I want to watch daddy and Abbey ski". So, I said okay and we watched them do a run from the lodge balcony. Then it was, "Mom, I want to ski all by myself". I tried to talk her out of it at first, but then chants of "Ski, ski, ski, ski, ski" started. She never whined or cried about it, she just really wanted to try. I'm a big believer in letting her try everything, so off I went downstairs begging the kiddie ski group to let a 3 year old on the slopes. They only offered lessons for 4 years and up, so I literally begged an instructor to take her on a private lesson. I thought about just renting skis for her and pulling her around, but what a sight that would have been. A 35 week prego lady dragging her 3 year old daughter down the slopes! Probably not that safe either.

Anyhow, the instructor was happy to do it and so off we went! He was probably thinking, "Sweet, I will get this kid out there, she will cry, and mom will whisk her away all within 10 minutes. Plus, I'll still get paid for my time. So, all in all, not a bad gig. Hell ya I'll do it!" Little did he know, Mckaley was up for the challenge and SO excited to ski. Plus, she did a pretty good job! She didn't ski for more than 30 minutes, but she did ski! She learned how to go and stop and she even went by herself for a bit. After about 30 minutes her feet were hurting her and she got a little cold and scared of going fast so she pretty much said, I'm done with this. To which I replied, "okay lets go". I tipped the instructor, we got her uggs back, and we have a ton of memories for her first ski trip. Here are some pictures of a great outing. . .

Carrying her skis all by herself

Putting her skis on for the first time

Learning about her Edgie-Wedgie. This really cool bungee thing that kept her skis from slipping apart.

And she is off

She is no Picabo Street, but at least she is still smiling!

Learning to stop by making a blueberry pie slice

M with Coach Richard. If you can't tell from her face this was the "Um, enough already. I'm ready to get my pink boots on now!"

Skiing Day 2 (with many more pictures) coming soon :-D

3 Day Weekends!!!

It's been SO nice to have these three day weekends where Tyler, Mckaley and I are all together for the weekend. The weather has also been fantastic (around 70-74 degrees) so this past weekend we decided to take advantage of it and head to the zoo. We have a membership there, which is by far the best purchase I have made since arriving to AZ! We expected the zoo to be super crowded, but much to our surprise, it wasn't at all!

To add a little fun to the trip we decided to rent this tandem bike thing that we could ride around the park. We thought it would take us on a leisurely ride through the park, but little did we know it was a TON of work. Well, for Tyler that is. I was not much help as being 7 months pregnant and riding a bike up hill do not go hand in hand :-/ We were quite the sight, especially when a 6'5 guy would have to jump out and push us up the hills. haha. Needless to say Mckaley and I had a ton of laughs while Tyler, I'm sure, was cursing us silently. I have to say though he was a real trooper throughout the experience and we all had a fantastic time at the zoo because of it.

Thanks for pushing us Ty!!! WE LOVE YOU :-)

New Year's Eve

For the conclusion on 2009, a bunch of us got together to have some teppanyaki at Benihana's. Dave, Tyler's dad, watched Mckaley while we were out to dinner and it sure was great to get out for a while. Thanks Dave! I didn't get a ton of pics, especially incriminating ones as I was home by about 9:30, but here are a few from the night. I hope you all had a safe and fun New Years Eve!

Going to bed December 27th

Mckaley: Mom, is Santa going to come tonight?

Me: No bug, Santa only comes once a year

Mckaley: Well, when is he going to come back?

Me: Not for about 363 more days

Mckaley: Okay, when I wake up I'll start a countdown because I really like getting all those presents.

Me: I bet you did

Merry Christmas

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Christmas Morning

Waking up Christmas morning. . .

Well, we have certainly had a long day celebrating Christmas, but I really wouldn't change a thing. We woke up Christmas morning at our house and had the entire Cook and Herr clan over to watch M open up her presents from Santa.

Note to Santa: its very nice of you to spoil our 3 year old, but next time you don't need to bring so many presents!

She was exhausted opening up everything and at one point stopped to take a break relax in her new sleeping bag.

Some of her favorite presents were: Doll House, Dance Cam, Tag Junior and her sleeping bag. All time favorites included: Sippy cups, underwear, and ring pops. haha

Note to self: Yes, this years gifts could have cost us about $10 and we would have had an extremely happy child.

There were so many presents to open, so we took a short break to have some yummy coffee cake that the Herr's brought over. After all the presents had been opened we took round 2 to the Herr's. There we had even more presents to open up. Mckaley loved every second of it!

She especially liked getting to follow the red ribbon that led her to her very own pink motorized ATV!

She was a little squirrely on it, but I have to say a pretty good driver for a three year old. She will be ready to head up to the dunes with the Watson's in no time!

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the Herr's, playing cards, and having another great meal.

All in all, we had a wonderful time Christmas Day just being with all our family. Thanks to everyone who made it such a special day!