Michelle Enebo Photography

Guest Photographer

When I showed these pictures to the girls they loved them.  "Mom, you took some awesome pictures."  So much for their observations skills.  I was IN the pictures, not TAKING them!  Allen opted for the sidelines when the ice skates came out so he was on photographer duty.  (I was too lazy to change the watermark, though, so I'm taking credit for these hon!)  He did a great job.  Just ask the girls!

On New Year's Day we gave in to all the begging and headed off to the skating rink.  Kate was the first one to ask about ice skating.  She knew SHE wouldn't be able to skate but she really wanted us to be able to 'borrow' some skates for Jill and Ellie so she could see them fall all over the skating rink.  Ahh, sisterly love!

Unfortunately she didn't realize how hard it would be to sit on the sidelines.  Poor Kate spent a sad hour on the sidelines watching Jill and Ellie cruise around the rink.  My Dad, the former hockey player, was a steady Eddy on the ice so he was a great partner for the ever cautious Jill.  Ellie wanted nothing to do with help from me.  She wanted to figure out this ice skating thing all by herself.  By her second turn around the rink she was cruising along on her own.

Even Kate got in on the action.  Every few turns Dad would swoop over to the side and take Kate for a spin in his arms.  This totally made her night!

Ski Pass

On our first day in Sun Valley, Allen and I took Jill and Ellie over to Dollar Mountain where the beginners hone their skills.  Kate could not ski with her broken arm so she had a special day with Nana.  (That included lunch and a fun trip to the grocery store.  Woohoo!)

Unfortunately the weather was NOT cooperating at all.  It had snowed 3-4 inches the night before but it warmed up to above freezing so the snow was like peanut butter.  To that add wind and sleet and you have a disaster waiting to happen.  Ellie cried up and down the first two runs and Jill was a total trooper.  The girls and I regrouped with some warm hot chocolate while Allen tried out the longest run to see if it would be good for Jill.  Before he came back I had already convinced the girls to try one last run.  When we saw Allen, though, we almost changed our minds.  It looked like he'd skied through a fire hose.  He was completely soaked!

We waited 10 more minutes and then tried our last run.  Surprise surprise!  The snow conditions had improved greatly.  So much so that we didn't have to twist a single arm to get them to do one extra run on top the of the one extra run. 

The next time the girls went skiing was with my Dad and Allen and they had a glorious sunny afternoon.  They totally rocked the hill.  Jill worked on a ton of turns on every run (ever the cautious one) and Ellie, who found her confidence, had to be convinced to do a few MORE turns.

The lessons we did in November and December really paid off and we can hardly wait for Kate's cast to come off so we can ski as a family later in January.

The Cave

We were so worried about the lack of snow in Sun Valley.  All month we  checked the ski reports and all it kept saying was that only half the runs were open and they were continually making snow.  Ugh!  We were getting tons of snow at our HOUSE and they weren't getting any in the mountains. 

All that changed on Christmas even when they got 2 and a half feet in 24 hours.  We didn't arrive until a few days after that but, as you can see above, that snow wasn't going anywhere!

On our first day in Sun Valley Allen decided to compete for the Father of the Year award by spending most of the day outside building a snow cave.  This thing was at least six feet long and 3 feet high.  Allen got help from Tim (my brother) and on and off from the girls.  Actually, the girls preferred to do the interior decorating so they built the snow furniture inside the cave.

Christmas with The In Laws

Was that some sort of National Lampoon movie?  Whatever the case, we celebrated Christmas with Allen's parents, Dean and Wanda (above) and his sister Deana.  I know a fair number of people that groan when they find out they have to spend the holidays with their in-laws.  Not me!  We all get along so well.  You have to understand that Allen married his Mom and I  married my Dad.  That is so Freudian it isn't even funny but it does make for family bliss!

Wanda had a great time setting up a scavenger hunt for the girl on the 23rd and 24th.  She decided to spread out the opening of her presents for the girls by having them follow clues at designated times.  On the 23rd the girls got to find yarn and knitting needles that she had wrapped and hidden for them.  The funny thing was that she picked the exact same yarn for Ellie and Kate that I did when I knit them their scarves.  For that reason I pulled out the scarves I had wrapped up for the girls and Deana and Wanda and they all got to open an extra present that day.  (I also made scarves for my mom, sister and myself.  I was a knitting fool this year!)  The picture below shows Dean and Allen trying to teach Kate how to knit.  THAT will never work! (Which is, of course, what Kate told them.)

On the 24th each girl got to search for their own present two hours apart.  The gifts were all games so everybody got to play the games while they were waiting for the next sister to open her clue.  Jill got Monopoly (with a new fangled credit card machine instead of cash), Kate got Pictureka (an picture search game) and Ellie got Mario Cart for the Wii.  Very fun!

Before bedtime the girls left treats for our late night visitors and headed to bed.  It was very lame that I didn't take any pictures of the beautiful dolls the girls got from Santa.  Suffice it to say that he exceeded expectations!

I'll end with a few shots that I took of the girls (Doesn't Jill look like a teenager.  Gulp!) and a few shots Ellie took of me and Kate.  It's nice to appear on the old blog every so often!

Holiday Fun

We had a fabulous Christmas holiday.  We spent a few days (including Christmas) with Allen's parents and then we drove to Sun Valley for a week after. 

We were gone for 10 fun days but we are so happy to be home in our own beds and we are ready to go back to work and school.

For the rest of the week I'll post pictures to show you all the fun we had.  For now you will just have to enjoy the Sun Valley sights.  Enjoy!

3 Little Girls

Earlier this year Joelle sent me this Eric Clapton song.  I just love the lyrics so I thought it would be the perfect song to accompany my favorite family photos for the year.

Happy New Year all!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Merry Christmas

The secret is out

Over Thanksgiving I took some family pictures of Joelle and Stephen and Little Man Jack.  I'd never really gotten a great family picture of those guys and since it was Christmas card season we decided to try again.

I got some very cute pictures of those guys (if I do say so myself!) but the man in the red suit won out and they used a cute picture of Jack looking up at Santa in wonder.  That means I can share them with you now!

The other fun thing that happened over Thanksgiving is that Jack got a brand new t-shirt.  He came in wearing a 'Big Brother' t-shirt to announce the impending arrival of a new bundle of joy for the Harrisons.  What a great surprise!

I can hardly wait to get my hands on he/she to take some squishy newborn pictures.  Jack was so huge (10 pounds at birth) that there was nothing squishy or bendy about him.  Hopefully I can get my paws on this new little munchkin before it gets a chance to unfurl!

Africa Hot

We got up early last Sunday (even for us) to talk with our good friends from Africa.  We've talked to them on the phone before, but this was the first time we've ever 'Skyped' with them.  For those unhip folks (like me) who don't know what Skype is let me explain.  It's a simple way to talk with friends over the internet using a webcam.  You can talk with virtually anybody in the world and we did! 

Our friends, the Leists, have been living in Africa since August and they will be there at least through next September so it was just a treat to be able to see them.  Well kind of.  The hotel they were staying in over the holidays was quite dim so it was a bit like watching spooky Santa talk to us over the computer. 

Guess what we have in common with those guys?  The temperature outside.  Ours was 26 degrees and so was theirs in Mombasa (off the African coast on the Indian Coast for those who are geographically challenged).  Too bad ours was Farenheit and theirs was Celcius!

Snow Daze

Last week we ended the school year with a bang.  On Wednesday school was cancelled because of the THREAT of snow.  We had barely a dusting and many bitter parents.  On Thursday it snowed all day and Friday was sunny and snowy.  So no school on any of those days.

We baked cookies, watched plenty of holiday movies and hung out with our friends.  Forget the last minute errands.  If we don't have it I guess we don't need it.  That's one way to keep my budget in check!