January 2019

I keep telling myself I'm going to get around to posting on here, and then I keep not doing anything about it.  I'm not about to try to play catch up over the past year (at least not today), but thought I would do a quick update on this past January 2019.  Maybe some of this stuff will get a post of it's own, but most likely not.  

Utah Trip

I took the girls to Utah to visit cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.  We flew out on New Year's Eve actually, and rang in the new year by going to bed early.  Poor Paul stayed home to work.  

Jennie and her girls joined us for most of the week that we were at my parent's house and the girls were absolutely in heaven playing together in grandpa and grandma's basement.  They did dress-ups, put on shows, sang and danced and pretended their hearts out, and generally got along incredibly well.

It was nice to see my grandma, who is still hanging in there.  She has Alzheimers and doesn't communicate much, but you can see that she watches the people around her and every now and then she tries to speak up and comment on something she thinks the girls are doing that pleases her.

We did four days of skiing, which was amazing and so much fun.  The first two we spent at Brighton with the girls in ski school.  Clara and Rose did a full day the first day, then just the morning class their second day.  The rest of the time we all skiied together.

That first day, Rose was not at all happy about going to ski school and cried copious tears and threw a tantrum.  I was worried that she wouldn't be willing to go back in after lunch (we check the girls out and eat lunch together outside on the patio with a picnic that Jennie and I packed that morning).  She was definitely upset about going back and I know her legs were tired (oh how I remember that feeling from when I was a kid!), but I talked with the staff at Brighton about how she needed a firm but kind teacher who would just deal with the complaining until they got going.  Once Rose gets past that initial bout of woe-is-me she does great and actually has tons of fun. 

I stayed to watch to be sure Rose was going to make it and sure enough, she came stomping out of the ski school room with a tear on her cheek and a grimace, but once they had skis on and were moving, her smiles came back.  She did great the rest of the days and we never had the same complaints again except for when we told her it was time to go home and we were done skiing for the day.  Then she wasn't happy again because she wanted to continue skiing.

The third day we went to Solitude, which I loved since that's where I learned to ski.  The girls kept wanting to go through the trees, which was hilarious and frustrating because someone kept crashing and getting stuck.  But it's also what I remember loving when I was a kid.  

Solitude isn't as good for the girls just yet because it has fewer easy runs and more difficult blue runs, but they handled it all pretty well.  

But easily, hands-down my favorite place we skied was Snow Basin.  My dad has a season pass and he took just me, Clara, and Rose on Monday when Jennie's girls had to go back to school.

It was super windy and snowy and cold - definitely the worst conditions of the whole trip since the other days were beautiful, sunny, and bright - but it was so worth it.  I love the resort, I love the runs, I even loved the crazy conditions.  

The girls also seemed to have the most fun this day, with 3 other days of skiing already under their belts.  Their confidence was high and they laughed and giggled all the way down the mountain, intentionally falling into the soft powder until I told them to knock it off because I was getting tired of pulling them back out!  

   

 

My best run of the trip was at Brighton one morning when I was skiing with Jennie and my dad.  My dad told me about this ap, which calculates speed and distance as you ski.  We got competitive and were racing to see who was going the fastest.  43.9 MPH is pretty darn fast, I think.

We also met up with some pretty special people while we were in Utah.  Randomnly, we ran into my friend Rachel's son's birthfather at the ski rental store.  Rachel and Ryan were adopting around the same time that Paul and I were going through the process for the first time and we've stayed in touch ever since.  So when I saw their son's birthfather, I immediately recognized him from pictures on their blog and social media.  I was super awkward about it, but he was really nice (just like Rachel had always described him).  Now if Rachel and I could just meet in person...

We also got to meet up with Kayli and baby Felicity!!  We had just seen her the previous month in Southern California when we were down at Joshua Tree and Disneyland, but this time we also got to visit with Connor (Kayli's husband) and her Grandpa Lamoreaux, who is seriously the nicest, sweetest person in the world.  Felicity is just the cutest baby and Clara loved holding her.  We all sat around and watched her almost attempt to crawl and it was the best.

Jessica wasn't ever able to ski with us this season because she had to work, but she came over in the evenings a couple of times and the girls enjoyed playing Spot It, Jr. and Cat's Cradle with her.

Meanwhile, back at home, Paul actually did another guided fly-fishing trip, this time with his dad, in the Sierras and caught some massive fish.  So it's not like he didn't have any fun while we were off skiing.

Yard Work

We spent a Saturday morning back at home cleaning up weeds and leaves together as a family and I thought to grab my camera and take some pictures.  It's been a few weeks since we did this and we need to get out and weed again thanks to all the rain we have been having.

I think after all the fun, we were all ready for school to start back up again though.  We had quite a few rainy days in January and the kids loved going for walks in the rain with their umbrellas.

Family Pictures 2017

This year instead of setting up the tripod and a self-timer in an attempt to get a semi-decent family photo for our Christmas cards, we decided to splurge and actually pay somebody to take pictures for us.  And I'm so glad that we did!  We went to Castle Rock Regional Recreation Area to take these pictures.

Taking our own pictures is always a stressful and frustrating experience for me because I can't be behind the camera.  But our photographer was so, so nice and great with the girls (who talked about Denise for weeks and played "family photographer" to reenact the fun they had at the photo session).  She actually just moved here this past year and although she doesn't practice any more either, she went to BYU Law School just like me.  And her husband is also a lawyer and works in the same building as Paul in SF!  And she took wedding photos for my cousin in Virginia!  So many weird coincidences.

Anyway, I used the picture above for our Christmas cards.  I just cropped it in quite a bit, but I liked the pose for card purposes.  But here is my actual favorite picture from the entire photo shoot.  

I would have used that one for our family Christmas cards (and was super close to doing so) except I really, really, really strongly prefer Christmas cards with the adults in the picture and not just the kids.  So I went with the one of the four of us even though as a parent, I loved the picture of the two girls the best.  It at least got used on the back of the card next to our short blurb about our family happenings in 2017.

I love the connection with Clara's hands around Rose's neck and elbow and Rose kissing Clara's cheek and holding on to her arm.  The colors, the natural smiles and posture, basically all of it.  But most especially, I just love that it shows one of my favorite moments with our girls when they are getting along and having fun and being goofy and sweet towards each other.  

Rose is our big ham and loves to give big smooches, and Clara is so goofy and fun and usually a good big sister, despite the inevitable arguments that happen between siblings.  But their relationship has grown a lot stronger in 2017, I think, due to both of them maturing and most of the time now they get along really well.  And when they don't, it's usually because one or both of them is tired or hungry and not thinking straight.

Here are some more of my favorites though of the entire family.  

Paul is reacting a little too big in this next one, which is kind of a bummer because I love it otherwise. 

I totally adored the individual portraits that Denise took of each of us.  She managed to get some really great, natural expressions out of Rose, which is definitely no easy feat.  And this is such a little, silly thing, but I'm glad to have these images captured of their smiles while Rose still has her straight baby teeth and Clara has her classic 6 1/2 year old smile with teeth in various stages of growing back in (she's lost 6 already).

Clara was VERY helpful in coming up with plenty of "1st Grade Poses" (her words, lol) and then politely instructing our photographer to "take one like this because it will turn out very good".  

 

 

Here are my top tips for getting your family photos taken (that I need to remind myself and Paul of next year since we plan on making this a yearly thing now):

• Trust your photographer.  Let her do her job.  Especially when it comes to directing the kids.  Having done quite a lot of family photography myself by now, I've learned that the parents who are constantly micromanaging the session and bribing/threatening/coaxing/cajoling the kids make it SOOOO much harder to get a good picture!  It stresses the kids out and undercuts the easy fun play approach and feel that you really want in a photo shoot to draw out those natural expressions and family dynamics.  Denise did a GREAT job at this and I was definitely learning from her while also being one of the subjects.  Also, when it's time for individual portraits, parents should literally step back - walk away even.  I almost invariably find that if I can get the adults out of the area where I'm photographing a child, then it goes so much better for everybody.  The same thing happened with Rose, who just needed some one on one moments with Denise without us hovering too close.  I'll admit that it's fun to watch, but it's so much better to step out of the picture for that part of the session.  
• Don't try to coordinate outfits too much.  I think most people know this by now, but it's way better to not try to put everybody in jeans and white shirts because it just comes off so cheesy.  I think it looks much better to pick classic, timeless attire that everybody feels comfortable in.  I like to go for at least three to four colors that complement without being too matchy-matchy. 
• Along the wardrobe lines, I also like accessories in photos.  Hats (I still haven't been brave enough to do family photos wearing a hat myself, but I love them for other people - even if they aren't wearing the hat, but holding it, I think that goes over well sometimes too), scarves, jackets (for layering like I did with my jacket in these photos), and tasteful jewelry can really add a lot to photos, in my opinion.  
• Connection is key.  At least in the photos that always end up being my favorite.  I still really struggle with this in having our own photos taken and taking them of others, but I love physical connection - arms around each other, holding hands, etc. and visual connection where family members are looking at each other and not just cheesing at the camera.    

I think those are my main things although maybe I will add to the list next year.