What's wrong with this Picture(s)??

Yesterday it was BEAUTIFUL here. Sunny and 70 degrees and just perfect. So what would be the problem?? Well it just happened to be the day that Sam had picked to take a trip up to Mary's peak to check and see if they had any snow and try out our sled that the girls got for Christmas. (that we haven't been able to use once yet)

I did not want to go -- I didn't want to leave my beautiful sunshine to try to go find snow!! But I took the kids to the park in the morning so we got to enjoy it for about half the day -- so I figured I would have a good attitude and be a good sport. (Although the whole drive up I told Sam he was crazy and there was no way there was gonna be snow up there)

Anyways - we took the drive up and got out of the car -- so excited to be able to look out at the view - if nothing else (and glad to be out of the car, driving up the windy roads). As we parked we could see the valley below and it looked so cool. But I kid you not -- as SOON as we stepped out of the car -- the fog rolled in - and we could see NOTHING!!

And it was FREEZING! FREEZING COLD! We decided to hike up to the top to see if we were able to see anything. The kids were complaining the whole time because it was pretty steep and did I mention it was freezing?!? Jackson kept saying "mommys car!! mommys car!" (because he wanted to go back to the car where it was warm)

But we made it to the top and got our picture (with no view -- just fog).

You would think my mood might have changed from positive to negative -- but no. I actually was loving it. It was a fun little adventure. It made me laugh that everything went wrong. I love it that Sam wants to go out and find fun with us. He is a great daddy and a wonderful husband and I always have fun when he's around (well almost always) ;)

As for the snow -- there really wasn't much -- but there WAS SOME!! So we made the best of it and busted out our sled and sledded down the 6-7 foot strip over and over. We actually decided this was probably perfect because the kids would probably get tired fast if we had to hike back up the whole mountain to take each ride down.

top of the mountain with a great view of the fog (notice how happy Jackson is)................

Me and Addie taking a CrAzY ride down "the patch" :)
Sam getting a little daring (now you see how little snow there actually was)..............................

washing away

I have been washing everything in my house -- sheets, blankets, towels, clothes, pillow cases, couch pillows. Sprayed everything down with Lysol disinfectant spray.

And now I cross my fingers that no one else in this house gets hit with the stomach bug that poor Gwenny got this last week. My poor baby started throwing up last Sunday and wasn't able to keep anything down (not even liquids) for 3 days. Once the third day hit and nothing was staying down, plus I noticed that she had only peed once in the last 24 hours -- I called the doc because I was starting to worry about dehydration. He prescribed her an anti-nausea prescription and it made a huge difference. She is now keeping both her liquids and solids down. Still weak and a little achey today - 5 days later -- but a huge improvement.

I hate seeing my children in so much pain.

charts

I love charts and so do my kids -- which works out great for everyone. If there is a behavior that needs to be worked on -- I make a chart and the girls start working to earn stickers/stars to fill the chart. I have used many over the years. It worked great for keeping beds dry at night, having them stay in their own beds (not trying to sneak into ours), etc. Once they master a behavior and don't need a chart anymore they try to think of something else they can work on to earn more prizes. Our current chart is for them picking up after themselves. This means that their room needs to be clean every night before they go to sleep AND my living room needs to be clear of all toys or clothes of theirs. For this chart I have it split into rows inside of a big "jar" and at the end of each row they get to earn a smaller prize like making cookies, picking a candy, trip to the dollar store -- things like that. But once they have filled the entire jar -- they get to cash it in for a big prize. I am hoping the timing will work out perfect for the SECRET trip to Disneyland that we are planning in May. (Do not tell my kids or I will hunt you down)

Anyways....... they have been working on this cart for the last couple of weeks and they have been doing fantastic!! They have only missed 2 stars -- but that is okay with me because that just stretches the length of time to fill the chart to get it closer to May. :) Their room looks awesome and so does the rest of my house. I love charts!! :)