Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Time to dust off the snowblower and the skis!

I can't tell you how excited I am to be living back in snow country.  And while Heber isn't known for getting tons of snow we were told we could count on a few days of some decent accumulation which proved to be true this year. I don't know who enjoyed using the snowblower more, Jack or myself but I think it's a good thing that we both got excited to use it...well, until we come across Nova poop in the middle of the driveway...that's not so good but the poor thing  isn't sure where he is supposed to go the bathroom (and we're not sure either). 

Jack keeping an eye out on my work!
Nova keeping an eye out on Jack!


I thought this was a great shot of the sun through the clouds as I was coming up the driveway.  

Of course with snow comes ski season and how much I looked forward to these snow days with the boys!  Ty and I had quite a few ski days together which I treasure. How sweet it was that even if he was meeting friends he would want me to stick with them. We had such a great time exploring the mountain and different lifts since this was my first year having a season pass. While I feel like I'm an eternal beginner as this was the first season in my life that I skied more than three or four days in a season I've got my fingers crossed I will see some big improvement over time. Here are a few shots from some of our days together! Whether they were beautiful bluebird days or days we skied through the clouds, it was a blast.



Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Another candle for mom!

Mom is 81! How is this possible?!? And would anyone be surprised to learn that we celebrated at the Cheesecake Factory? :) We may have been small in numbers but we were large in birthday spirit!  Happy birthday mom!  We sure love you. 


Friday, January 24, 2025

Melissa's big day!

How happy we are for Melissa to have found "the one".   I continue to be amazed at how many people meet online but what a blessing it is to have that avenue to meet people you otherwise may not cross paths with.  We met Michael for the first time back in November when they were in Utah together and stopped by the house for dinner. They seemed to compliment each other so well and it was clear they were looking forward to spending the rest of their lives together!  

What a treat it was to fly to Phoenix a couple months later to be a part of their special day where they were married in the Gilbert Temple.  We couldn't be more happy for the two of them.




Friday, January 10, 2025

Ringing in 2025 Florida style...

If there was one thing Sage kept asking for for Christmas it was a trip to Florida to see her friends!  It had been a little over six months since she made the flight out to Utah for the big move and boy did I hear all the time how much she missed her friends, followed up with when would she be able to go back to visit.  Well, new years seemed like the perfect time to go. The boys could watch Nova since they would be on the holiday break and Jack and I could enjoy Florida's version of winter.  So away we went.  While Sage was out ringing in the new year with friends Jack and I enjoyed a quiet night in the backyard watching drunk Anderson Cooper on CNN and fireworks across the lake. It was perfect.


Our happy camper with some of her besties!

Monday, December 30, 2024

Our first Utah hockey game!

So Utah finally has their own hockey team! And this was the inaugural season! How fun it was that Purple decided this year's venue for their holiday event would be at a game, club level. And how much more fun it was that Sage was able to join us! 




Sunday, December 29, 2024

Countdown to Christmas!

Oh how I love decorating for Christmas.  I don't know if it's a good thing or bad thing that most our Christmas decor is twenty years old but until someone tells me it's really outdated I figure I'll keep using it! This was really our first year enjoying the full holiday season in this home which I was looking forward to! While there is no guarantee of a white Christmas there most certainly is a guarantee of a cold one which will be a new experience for us after living in Florida.


Sage snapping a photo of some of the Christmas lights in the neighborhood as the sun sets.

Some traditions never die whether you want them to or not.  I was certain this would be the year we would get a professional photo taken to use on our Christmas card.  Everyone was living in Utah, photographers are plentiful out here, and we are surrounded by beautiful locations to take them.  But sadly Thanksgiving had just passed and the opportunity to find someone with availability had expired so again I found myself asking someone...enter Ashley... to take a photo of us.  




Clearly taking Christmas photos is exhausting for Ty...


Once in a while the stars align and unexpected good things happen for me. This was one of those times! While I wasn't planning on getting a Santa photo this year as I had promised the kids last year when Sage was a senior that that would be the last year, how happy I was when getting a photo just kind of fell into my lap when we were out doing Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve and decided to stop in Cabella's. Like Bass Pro, they offer photos with Santa but you need to make a reservation in advance. Of course I hadn't done that but when I asked one of the young men if they had a standby line he hesitated and said I could wait but there was no guarantee.  Well within about ten minutes we were getting our photo taken! The family knows how much I appreciate getting this every year so I was happy they entertained me by not complaining!  

The night before Christmas...

Christmas morning with my faves! Favorite gift had to be the canvas Jack had made in the shape of a cassette with lines from favorite songs that reminded him of me.  It was so sweet! 


Later the Knudsen gang made their way up for dinner and games! It was so nice to have everyone minus Teagen who is on his mission. The lesson we learned this year from our white elephant gift exchange?  Don't do it next year! LOL. It's trickier than you think with our current demographic. :)



Another Christmas in the books! And so happy to have spent it with these people. 

Saturday, November 30, 2024

Thanksgiving 2024

Now that we live in Utah it's so nice not having to worry about flying kids home or working around school schedules during the holidays. With the kids just being a 40 minute drive away, they can just drive up and spend as much or as little time with us as they would like! It's also so nice knowing my family, aside from Steve who lives in San Jose is all in Utah, making it much easier to get together with them more often.  This Thanksgiving we were able to host my parents, Paul and Camilla, Steve, and Ty's cute girlfriend, Ashley!  Good food and great company!