Mental Snapshots

I haven't exactly been a blogger extraordinaire so far this year, but I do need to document some things.  My kids have nearly driven me crazy with their arguing lately...with each other...in response to my requests for them to do their chores, homework, etc. but on the other hand there have been a lot of good moments too, and I need to remember those.  In fact, after a particularly trying evening with Luke several days ago I told Jer I needed to go in and lay with him for a minute...just observe him in his sweet, sleepy state and remind myself about all of his wonderful qualities.  I did and it helped my state of mind a lot.  Sometimes I have to remind myself that my kids are just that...kids!  They are not going to be sweet, compliant angels all of the time.  They have minds and wills of their own, and it's not my job to bend or even break them down to what I see fit but instead to recognize and emphasize their God given good qualities and strengths and implement fair consequences for bad behavior.  I am so a work in progress.  With all that said there isn't anything that crazy going on around here.  It's just family life.  Parenting is hard and sometimes I feel like a slow learner!

Before I went on that big tangent I actually meant to blog about a fun night our family spent at The Beav.  We headed up a few weeks ago for an evening of night skiing with our ward.  I hadn't really intended to get Ian on skis but once we got there it was either chase the wild man around the lodge all night or get him out.  We decided to let him ski, and it ended up being a really fun night for the whole family.

I had a kid by the ticket office take a really cute picture of our whole family (rarity) including Ian on the tiniest skis, but before I could load it onto the computer one of my children, who shall remain nameless, was messing around with the camera and deleted it.  I was sad and then I got over it.

So here are a few mental pictures of a fun family night:
**Jer and I setting a new record for time spent getting kids into ski gear.
**Ian telling me and anyone else who would listen how it was "so fun to skateboard" all night.
**Ian wearing skis that were about 12 inches long.  The smallest ones I've ever seen.
**Luke stopping to wait and helping Seth up crash after crash.
**Seth getting off track and piling it up before we even made it from the patrol building over to the lift due to his missing edgy wedgy.  This was followed by Luke attempting to pull Seth (who now weighs more than him) back onto his feet and get him back into his skis.  This was then followed by me carrying/skate skiing with Seth until we were back on track and finding myself out of breath before we even got started.
**Riding the "big chair" up the hill with my boys on a freezing cold night.
**Watching Luke go off the jumps on the side of Little Beav, followed by Seth's version, followed by Ian's request to go off some "yittle jumps too."
**The healthy quad workout I got out snowplowing with Ian "skiing" between my legs.

We all made some good memories of Ian's first time on the slopes, and I'm going to recall these mental images next time I'm about to blow!