the ice castles.

i was soooo excited to check these out- i kept hearing people talk about the ice castles,  and was thrilled when we finally carved (zing!) out time to head to sunny, snowy, midway. 

oh, and let's be honest, the owners are probably loving life right now thanks to "frozen." i mean, it's about as picture perfect as one can get! and having an olaf to boot ( ^^ )? ... genius.

oh, and i kicked myself all day for forgetting my camera. shoot! (ha! zing again! ok, i'll stop.)

^^ we were there at noon when they opened, and the place was packed with "models" who were in the midst of photo shoots... it was pretty busy. either way, it was fun. elle loved it. 

and... jude loves anything as long as we include food...

...including cocoa and donuts because, well, we never made "healthy eating" resolutions this year:)

right next to the castles was an ice rink. we intended to just look, but mike thought it would be fun to take a little spin. i about fell on my face. elle screamed when she was with me, and hated every moment, so mike grabbed my skates and as always, was her hero. jude? he just wanted to crawl around any un-snowy surface.

^^ if you saw her face it would look angry, terrified, and all-around hating life. 

now? she begs to go back. she insisted she loved it. today i tried to clarify and she told me, "well, it was the coolest thing ever... just not with you. i'll go with daddy next time." burn.

by this time it was way past lunch and jude was still going strong, so we stopped at cafe galleria. this poor little restaurant seemed totally unprepared to handle the crowds of the day, but their "famous pizza and bagels" were lovely. (is it me or is that the strangest combo? oh well- they had me at bagel!)

midway is a really fun little town- nothing like i pictured after seeing this movie. (should i admit i watched that movie?)  i loved the swiss-ness. so wintery. and cheesy. and delightful, really. 

(wait, can we pause for a moment to chuckle at the slogan at the top of the midway home page? "a community that proudly enhances our small town swiss character and natural environment, as well as remaining fiscally responsible." :) 

lights on temple square.

this year mike's family came down from up north to see the lights & have dinner- it was a great night-o-family-fun! elle was crazypants excited to see her "tusins," and she behaved like a slaphappy lunatic for the majority of the evening:) 

to keep with tradition, she's a jumpy, blurry blob in every picture... but i think i like it that way! 

see our other years here & here & here.

merry, merry christmas!

it's fair time!

hang on, my kid is so cute.

and my husband is, too.

thanks to my mom & dad for the inspiration to go, and the great company!

now, scroll down, and look for the goat that wanted to kill me (no, for real. wait for his creepy killer eyes- 6 pictures of my cute kid, then 1 picture of a terrifying goat). also further down, note another belligerent goat ramming mike because mike ran out of carrot slices! good times! (wait, those are goats, right? i never get my farm animals right.)

davis county fair pros:

• it didn't smell like a fair! seriously. there was no hint of rabbits, poo, horses, puke...
• free entry!
• free pony rides!
• free petting zoo! 
• it was so quiet- decibel and people-wise!
• did i mention no poo? the only poo i saw the whole night was on the seat of porta-potty when elle entered due to the fact that she was doing her "i'm going to pee my pants dance" (i SO wish i could have skipped that experience. on that major pro turned con, let's roll right into the cons...).

davis county fair cons:

• you have to pay for parking. 
• smallest fair ever. 
• food was a total downer. (although the funnel cake was pretty good...)
• mike saying every 2 seconds, "this is no box elder county fair, amanda... at box elder they have [insert any and every comment possible here]..."
• there was a total of like 6 rides, only 1 that elle could ride on.
• there were no carnies!! this is a con. what's a fair without carnies?!

last year's trip to the utah county fair here.

saturday...

we love ourselves some weekends. it was drizzly and humid, so we stayed "in-" hit up boondocks, then got a burger & shake. saturday night we went back out so for a puzzle (yes. puzzle.), and may have gotten frozen yogurt. is it ok to eat dessert out twice in one day? i think so. we always share. so technically, that means whenever we get dessert, we only get half our outing of dessert. also, good news! they may have opened a yogurtland 2 miles from our house (fell in love in maui last year- forgot it was called yogurtland, but connected the dots when they handed us the same pink & green spoons- HAAAA-AAALELUJAH!), and now i'm fairly sure we'll go weekly. or more than weekly.

more good news! elle has been sleeping until 6am- yahoo!
bad news! elle has been falling out of bed multiple times a night. (yes, multiple. don't call cps on us.)
(what the?? why did this start a month into the big bed thing?...?)
today, we stopped at the store and currently the little lass is napping in her bed w/ this strategy (thanks pinterest!). fingers crossed. fingers crossed! 


*see our last visit to boondocks here. oh! so tiny!

dear deer...

this weekend we had one of our little sunday drives. we even saw a deer eating grass by the side of the road. the rest of the drive elle called for it, "deeeeeeeer!??! come back! where are  you? i missss you!" not sure why i didn't take a picture of it since it was right out my window and we just watched it for a few minutes. alas, no pictures of the deer. just my dears instead.

(oh, right, the title- have you seen this video? every time we see a deer, i think of this song mike used to watch, all the while laughing his heiney off. poor bambi's.)

oh, and i'd also like to point out that my sweet daughter seems to have inherited my clumsiness grace. 

either that, or she's just a normal, awkward toddler, and i never grew out of being awkward even though i'm fully grown? 

that could be it as well... right. 

anyway, the other day she tripped on, well, her own foot, and launched forward, landing with her tooth in the wall. repeatedly. check it out! 3 holes in the wall. all from the same tooth. bless her heart. and bless her strong teeth for not breaking off. sorry to her lips for being pierced though. owww.

memorial day weekend.

memorial day weekend brought lots of time outside (rain & shine- the cold would not put a damper on the splash pad! brrrr...). lots of shopping. lots of cleaning & lots of selling stuff (we are kind of obsessed with selling things on ksl... i guess it comes along with living in tiny quarters? or just being compulsive. that, too.). lots of food. lots of fun. & lots of great family time... lots of awesome memories!