Utah: A Pretty Great State If You Like That Kind of Thing and We Do!

We've been in Utah for a week now and it is going to be hard to go back to Virginia.  When all is said and done this really is the place.  It has been rejuvenating to see mountains (thank you co-operative weather and no inversion), hike in the mountains, enjoy snow, take long walks, and enjoy beautiful sunsets/sunrises.  We've seen so many good friends, eaten at our favorite restaurants (Bombay House, Yamato's, P712, Communal...mmmm).  We've been able to play and hang out with family and it has been the best.  There will be plenty to blog about but for now here is some footage of one of Rob and kids ski days at Brighton.  And man isn't Utah beautiful?

Fock-yer County

We live in Fauquier County.  If I were more mature I wouldn't giggle at this name all the time, but I'm not, and I do.  Because it is said fock-yer  (like Meet the Fockers).  This has led to no end of opportunities to use immature humor at the county's expense.  But it isn't just us.  For example the hospital and health system has this name:

So how are we supposed to not say stuff like "Fock your health?  No fock your health!"  We are in good company.  Jimmy Kimmel see's the humor in it too:

Well of course, with our mature and refined humor intact, when they call a snow day and we think it is ridiculous we can say things like "Fauquier school district," and all the tension melts away.  And when Rob has to work really late we can say "Fauquier Hospital."
So now that we are settled into a new life, in a new place, with new expenses Rob needed to revamp the old budget.  He kept track of what we were spending for a month or so and then we were supposed to sit down together and review the budget to see where we could be doing better.  As this was going on he kept saying things like, "you are going to be so surprised at where the money is going...." or "I just don't think you are going to believe how much we are spending on certain things."  And I couldn't imagine what he was referring to.  We'd been to NYC which was expensive and food here is much more expensive and the kids needed new clothes, but I couldn't imagine any big shockers.  So finally one night at dinner, as Rob was hinting at these shocking expenses, I asked what on earth he was talking about.  He told me that at the library we had accruedfines of about $60.00 every couple of weeks or so.  FOCK-YER LIBRARY!  We were spending like $200.00 on library fines a month.  I freaked.  There is no way on earth!  Not possible.  So I got all enraged.  Surely the library was stealing from us.  It was unthinkable.  We immediately got in the car, bank statement in hand, and raced to the library in search of justice and answers.  We barged in and indignantly pointed out this great evil to the librarian, who kindly and patiently pointed out that the charges were to Fauquier Liberty not Library.  That happens to be the gas station where I buy gas every week or so!  We felt massively sheepish, but that is a good tale, is it not?  Fauquier County, indeed.

Post Christmas Festivities

The Monday after Christmas the kids and I drove up to Wilmington to spend time with the Fennimores and to eat Peppermint Joe-Joe's and homemade Meyer Lemon ice cream. This was the day after the giant crazy snow storm.  I was nervous about driving, but it turns out the first snow we saw was when we hit Delaware and the roads were fine.  And there was just enough snow for a little bit of backyard sledding.  Perfect. 

 The kids took in a few movies.  I admire the way Saul has followed in the footsteps of the older kids and is enjoying some veg time too.  Hilarious. Jennette and I left the kids in front of the telley and dashed across the way to visit the model home of the DeLuxe housing development going in.  I am pleased to say that Jennette and I had a good laugh at many of the lovely features of the great and spacious home.  Good fun.

 They took us out for some amazingly delicious Mexican food and then it was off to Longwood garden, which was beautiful and festive.  This picture is in one of the treehouses.  I look forward to more trips to Longwood Gardens.  It was pretty amazing.

 Inside the ginormous conservatory was a ballroom with a ginormous pipe organ.  We sat down for some carol singing.  Clara loved it and told me she wanted to start going to this church instead.  I can't blame her, the organist was in a very kaleidescopish mood and the music was very cheery.

Thanks for having us!  It was great to hang out, and spend time with people we love!

Here is some footage of the sledding taken with the Flip that Whit and Jim gave us.  HD!  Max and Tucker had quite the time of it, trying to coordinate there ride down the hill.  It took many attempts and had me giggling:

And here are Lucy and Clara, who seemed to have an easier time than Max and Tucker:

Why Didn't I think of This?

Ever sick of those catalogs that make you feel like you live in a dump?  Or that make you wonder of Christopher Lowell is in charge of all design?  This lady was and made up a little family to go with Pottery Barn-esque catalogs.  Hilarious.  It began when she saw a photo of a large tray of figs on an ottoman.  Note the post a couple back where the Pottery Barn pays homage to her.   Check it out.

Christmas Festivities

It's hard to believe that another Christmas has come and gone.  Why is it that time seems to go by so much quicker now than it ever has?  It went so fast that I'm not ready for it all to be over!  

Anyway, here is our Christmas play by play.  We spent Christmas eve at our friends, the Vellinga's where we had dinner, and did the kids acted out the Christmas story.  Then it was home to skype with the fam who was gathered in Provo for the Christmas Eve festivities.  It was nice to feel like we got to drop by that party.  I heart skype.  Then they got got to open up the Christmas jammies:

 Then Tucker and Anders got to work setting out food for Santa and some goodies for the reindeer as well.  Pretty thoughtful, right?

 At 7:30 the kids were ready to go get their loot.  

 Clara got an "American Girl Fancy Nancy" doll which was a hit:

 My parents gave us an ebelskiever pan, which was very fun.  We used to have these Danish treats for breakfast at the cabin, so again they came up with a pretty awesome meaningful gift!  They are good gift givers (did you hear that mom???) and the ebelskievers were delish:

 Everyone enjoyed Anders' rc helicopter:

 I was crazy enough to spend my day preparing a turkey dinner.  Rob got to carve the beast:

We had a great Christmas, but really missed having family to share it with.  (In part because the leftovers threatened to last for decades)

Snow Day: A First for Us

We have now been introduced to the East Coast "snow day".  This is an event where school is cancelled for 2 days because of a dusting of snow.  And everything else is cancelled too.  So, though it seems utterly ridiculous, we got 2 bonus vacation days.  It is truly a kid's dream come true, but one can't help but think, dang these guys are wimps!  It's the Westerner in me.  Apparently when snow is predicted the grocery stores are swamped with people stocking up on milk, bread, and eggs.  And apparently when it snows in New York (which it does every year) the headlines across the nation say things like "East Coast Slammed by Blizzard," which is fairly misleading.  Anyway, back to snow days.  The kids played in the snow (what little of it there was), we did puzzles and played games, drank hot cocoa, popped popcorn, watched movies.  It's too bad we don't get more snow to go with our snow days!

Christmas Program for Clara

SJES Christmas pageant from Jen Wargo on Vimeo.
Rob's collegue has a son in Clara's preschool class.  Their video turned out much better than ours!