#lovewhereyoulive

I got to hang out with the boys on Saturday. Not my boys, they were hanging out with each other. I got to go with Trace and Brian and their newest hobby. Touring. I never get invited with the boys, ever. I'm guessing it's a combination of my children tying me down and if we are being really honest here, I'm not that cool. I was on a probationary invitation to start with, because I left my goggles at home and didn't realize it until we were a few miles down the road. Fail. Luckily my forgetfulness was overshadowed by a broken snowmobile and then a purchase of a new snowmobile. Great for me, not so great for the new owners of the sled, or their wives. But after all the debacles and a few hours later we were finally ready.
I was so nervous.
They assured me it was just like walking, and that I would be fine.  Guys. I'm not very good at walking. I fall down daily. Seriously. And I forget that I can be athletic. I'm so used to being the non-athletic Tolbert that I forget I can do that stuff. So I stripped off my snowmobile layers and strapped on touring skis and just like that we walked right up the ridge line. It was so unbelievable. I have been skiing my entire life, and there isn't much I love more than an early morning tram and upper silver fox. Touring up the ridge line amongst the greatest views might beat a Deer Valley cookie and upper silver fox.
I was completely taken by the views, by where we live. I've always wanted to live out of the country, away from it all, for an experience an such. But as I stood at the top of the peak looking around, I realized I don't want to be anywhere else. I want to stay right here.
Then we added a few more layers of clothing on and we were skiing untouched fresh powder all the way down. I giggled the entire way. It was well worth the 3,000 feet of vertical we had just climbed.


Thanks boys for a great Saturday ski day! I include Kevin and Henry in that, because I pretty much left them home alone to entertain themselves all day. They are real good to me!

love love

Thanksgiving Pt 2

As we scheduled and planned all the happenings of Thanksgiving, (Oh you guys don't spend the entire weekend with each other? Even if you only live 3 miles apart? Weird.) We debated going here or there. I was even bribed with buck rail fences, and boy do I love them. Even Sundance brunch was suggested so no cooking was to be stressed over. From there the conversation only got louder and more chaotic. Can you imagine the noise with all those former Debate Captains arguing the location of turkey? Luckily Deb piped in with her "Tracy" voice and trumped all arguments and dinner was resolved to be had at home. In a kitchen we have never fixed Thanksgiving dinner in. For the first time I was able to cook the most traditional of meals along side my mother. We prepped items and baked the pie the day before the chaos unfolded and it was amazing. We traded tricks and shared aprons, drank each others Diet Coke and listened to music real loud. Something that hasn't happened since she taught me how to crimp a crust over a decade ago. It was one of those sentimental days, the kind that makes me want to allow my girls to roll out the dough instead of just watching. 

We scheduled out the main dinner and prepped all sorts of fantastic items until our feet were sore and we ordered pizza. 

As the grandkids ran around the house and the boys shot things, us women cooked in the kitchen. We added marshmallows to the yams, peeled potatoes, kneaded rolls and consumed Diet Coke. It was pretty much perfect. 

 We even had really great snacks through out the day, and that might be my favorite part. Maybe.

 Celery and Cheese? Does not get more traditional than that.

Marshmallows!!! 

 Deb is real good at presentation...

It wasn't even sad that we cooked and planned for two days for one meal that was consumed in under 30 minutes. It was perfect.

And the best part of Thanksgiving dinner?

The after dinner snooze...

And for good measure. The pie.

I'm really grateful I have such an amazing family. We are so loud, so obnoxious, so humble and so completely overwhelming. And not only do we love each other, but we really like each other. I couldn't be more grateful for them. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

love love

Traveling Help Wanted.

Kevin made me go to the carnival. Yes. He made me do it. I did not want to go, not one single bit. Then he told me that I could have some candy afterwards and I decided that I should go, nobody wants to miss out on candy. I'm not sure why Kevin likes to do things like go to the small town carnival where the rides are about to fall apart and the carny's are all staring at you. Then again, I don't really want to go to Disneyland and he is dreaming of the day that he will take the girls. So maybe it's just me but my sanity is worth way more than the children's happiness.
But for one afternoon Kevin won, tickets were bought, rides were ridden, carny's were stared it; was everything they all hoped it would be.
The only saving grace was that I did get to document the afternoon.

Classy right?

 I'm trying to teach them to wave with their hands not directly in front of their faces... It's not working out so well.
And yes, we have clearly converted Kevin to riding bicycles.

I'm pretty sure there were pieces of the ride falling down on Kevin's head...

love love

Friday Night Lights

It's officially High School football season and the Hunt is playing under the lights on Friday nights. It's fantastic! Stella might be the most excited...

Go Wasatch! Go #8! Go Hunter!!!!

love love

Holiday Lanes

For all the smack talk that was going on back and forth via Facebook and texts you would have thought that the bowlers joining me on Friday night would have been much better. Don't you worry, I beat them all. Every time.
Oh how I do love Friday nights at the bowling alley with argyle socks and smack talk!

love love

Sneak Peek

Our new house is really becoming a home these days, even Stella is starting to call it home instead of our new house. In all of the chaos of the last few months I am constantly reminded of how lucky I am. I'm not the first person to be in my situation, in fact there are so many people who leave a spouse with their kids that don't have anywhere to go or any way to start over. We have been so blessed to be able to start over. I left Sugarhouse with the only thing that mattered, the girls. So our new home started off from scratch and it's slowly filling up. It's nothing spectacular, but for us it is so perfect. There is space and windows and well, I really love it. I am starting to feel like our new place is ready for people to come by and eat all the baked goods I've been healing my soul with. Here is a little debut of where we spend all of our time, although it's still a work in progress. I have some art to complete for the girls rooms and some photos to finish up in the dining area. But none the less you can still come by for cookies, in fact please do. The jar is overflowing.

We sleep here:


I am really excited that I don't have to share these places with little girls:

I work here, and well so does Stella:
Maybe one day I will tell you about these bookshelves. I built them from wood, with saws and nails guns and such.

We hang out here, even if I'm working I still hang out here, since this is the view from my desk:

Stella escapes to the backyard through this door:
And all the pies, bread, cookies and healing happens here:
There is also a basement that I am using to create the girls playroom. It currently contains all of Stella's toys and the laundry that needs to be folded. Like I said, it's a work in progress, which is nice, it keeps me entertained.

The cookie jar is always full and our door is always open, so come on over!

Love Love