Snow Day!

Yesterday was our last day in Michigan before heading back home. The temperatures were warming up a bit (and by ‘a bit’ I mean it was about 34* out), which meant the snow was turning into great packing snow. You know what that means... Oh wait, some of you from Southern California don’t! IT MEANS SNOWMAN & SNOWBALL WEATHER! We took the nephews out in the front yard for a snow-filled afternoon. 

The snowman turned out to be pretty tall and slender :) 

The boys

Aaron and Eric

I didn't have much to do with the building - I was the photographer ;)

The snowman even got a snow ‘friend’ {Eric thought it looked like a cow, I thought it was a bunny, and when Ryan built it he was going for a dog}.

We added a hat ;)

And like I mentioned, the packing snow is GREAT for snowball fights! 

Eric threw a BIG ONE at Aaron and I caught it a moment before it hit :)

Looks like Ryan hit Matthew IN THE FACE, but I assure you it didn't happen like that ;)

Ryan being "LeBron"

Eric was showing us how he used to throw shot-put and discus

Reindeer Ryan and Elk Eric took turns pulling the boys around the yard. {We figured with the warming temps it would probably slow down sleds on the hills though, so we didn’t venture out to the big sledding hills.}

MUSH! MUSH! FASTER! FASTER!

Then we tried to get Matthew to do some work... It didn't last very long!

Eric tried to make a snow angel, but had a little monkey that ended up jumping on him in the process.

Uncle Ryan helped the boys out by building a hill for them to jump (and push one another) off of.

Love the hat in this shot!

Joey looks like he enjoyed being thrown down the hill...

Boys will be boys!

Uncle Ryan was playing NON-STOP!

We even shot off the stomp rockets that we got the boys for Christmas. The rockets were sort of hard to find in the snow {they are white because they glow in the dark, but tend to camouflage in the snow}, so it didn’t last long.

Ryan thought it looked like we both had red beards... 

The tiger was in the forest?

And before going in we needed to cool off from all of the activities.

Snow is fun (EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE)! 

Red Wings Pictures

I know I posted about our trip to the Red Wings game earlier this week, but as Ryan and I were packing our bags to go back to California we saw the little cards that we got from the 'professional Joe' photographers. I just checked them out and we had a couple winners (and a couple photo-bombers!).

Kyle, Angie, Ryan and I

Another one (looks the same, but maybe you can spot the differences)

MOM - WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! 

Aaron must have just heard something funny ;)

What do you think of them?! [PS Yes, Ryan was trying to be 'funny' when the camera man told him to smile and he gave him a blue steel stare]

Maybe if they weren't like $45 a PICTURE we might think about buying one of them...

Skiing Pine Nob

This morning Ryan and I went SKIING with his family (our brother-in-law's aunt works at Pine Nob [it will ALWAYS be known as Pine Nob, huh?!], so we were able to go and get all of our rentals FOR FREE)!

BIG PROPS TO AUNT JEANNIE FOR THE SKIING!

This was the FIRST TIME I had EVER gone! I went snowboarding with Ry probably 7 years ago and was TERRIBLE so gave up. I have to say, skiing went A LOT better! We were out there for a good 2.5-3 hours and I DIDN'T GET HURT, so I would say it was a HUGE SUCCESS (I really only tipped over once, but it was getting off the magic carpet, the first go-around, since I wasn't really sure how it worked and Ryan just jumped off without giving me any guidance)! I may have missed my calling.... maybe I should have been a professional skier ;).

Pine Nob runs

I did a bit of french fries, lots of pizza pies, and even ended up going down a couple BLUE hills!

Ryan and I at the top of the bunny hill

Charlene, Joey, and Jamie

Aaron and Matthew with their hula hoop

Ryan hadn't been skiing in about 23 years (he is a snowboarder), so he decided to take one for the team and try it out with me. Obviously he picked it up very quickly, and was an AMAZING (and very patient) teacher!

On a chair lift (I got off the magic carpet, how AWESOME)

At the top of one of the BLUE hills (intermediate)

Jamie (my father-in-law) is actually a ski instructor up in Cheboygan, so tried to give me a few pointers [he tried to get me going a little too fast though ;) - I like my pizza pies!].

Jamie coaching me along

Using our poles as a steering wheel

It was PRETTY CHILLY out there! It was about 30* when we got to Pine Knob but was 22* by the time we left. Although the sun started coming out by the end of it, the wind was really picking up. And once noon time came around the hills were starting to get busy so we headed home by around 1:30pm or so.

Frozen Detroit

Ryan even took a little video of me skiing down one of the hills :)



All-in-all I would say it was a WONDERFUL time! And Ryan may even be able to get me out on the slopes again, so I would say he would consider this a HUGE improvement from our previous snowboarding adventure.

Oh yeah, and I couldn't forget to post a picture of my attire... Remember, I have lived in Southern California for the last 7+ years, so winter garb I NO LONGER OWN! Some of my layers included boys long-johns, brightly colored running capris, two pairs of my hubby's socks, and layers and layers of tshirts ;)

A BIG thanks to my sister-in-law who let me borrow some of her top layers to keep me warm and dry!