Welcome 2014!

Welcoming 2014 in the cold of Sunriver, Oregon . . .
(Warning - quite a few pictures ahead. I want to document the fun things we did for our family history)

We decided to spend a few days away from home during the Christmas break, savoring the chance to have Brandon here with us. We chose to book a house in Sunriver in the High Desert of Oregon, which is known for nice snowy winters. We wanted to play in the snow and hang out.

It was pretty cold, but there was very little snow. We found a little bit between some trees near the house.  Shortly after we arrived, Bailey and Joseph danced in the snow.

It was great to be stuck together in one house with no other distractions. We spent many hours playing games and watching movies. We swam, sat in the hot tubs, ice skated, went tubing, and explored the outdoors.

The house we rented had plenty of room (the only annoyance was an extremely plugged kitchen sink which remained plugged despite our best plunging and which was fixed the day before we left. I may or may not have thrown things across the room in frustration as I was trying to cook and clean up meals).

We had brought lots of food and we feasted every day. We had Martinellis sparkling cider with every meal.

One of the days we used the Christmas money from Grandma and Grandpa Springer to go to a family fun center, ice skating, and a pizza dinner. We were planning to use the money to go on a sleigh ride, but. . . . no snow. We had a great time anyway.

Tubing at the dedicated Sunriver tubing hill. Luckily, it does not require snow!

Outdoor fun.

Indoor fun - checking out the Sunriver Lodge.

There was a big display of gingerbread houses.

Dan taught Joseph how to start a cozy wood fire. It was delightful!  I propped my feet up and read a book while the fire blazed.

Lots of laughing.  Okay, maybe there was a little bit of whining here and there, but we are going to choose to forget that, okay?

Dan and I had no idea that our kids were such naturally good ice skaters.  They picked it up almost immediately and were much better at it than their parents!

The house had bikes in the garage for us to borrow. We rode around on some of the paths in Sunriver. We would love to go back to the community in the summer, when there is lots to do outside (bike riding, parks, golfing, tennis, swimming).

It's hard to believe that this kid was a tentative bike rider just a few months ago. Now he is confident and a pro!

Ping pong in the garage

On New Years Eve we went outside to the wraparound deck and banged on pots and pans until the cold drove us inside.

At the end of our time (4 nights away) we headed back to reality and spent a few days getting Brandon ready to head back to BYU. I'm glad we took time to focus on each other during the break!