Mother’s Day at The Ballpark

If you follow me on the Twitters or have read this blog for a while, you might have noticed over the last couple of years that we’re pretty big Texas Rangers fans around here.  So it should be no big surprise that we chose to spend Mother’s Day out at The Rangers’ Ballpark in Arlington (my favorite sports venue other than those located in College Station) watching our Texas Rangers take on the Angels of Anaheim.

Now, as much as we’re Rangers fans, we also have a bit of a soft spot for a particular Angels left fielder who is a Texan, Vernon Wells.  So this is how we looked on Sunday evening…

Apparently, we like #10… regardless of the team. :)

What a fun evening it was watching a resounding Rangers win with Nelson Cruz hitting a Grand Slam and even getting to see Vernon Wells hit one out as well.  I’d like to think that we were his lucky charm. 

I hope you had a nice Mothers’ Day as well.

Bluebonnets 2012

HOLY WOW!

The bluebonnets here in Texas are in full bloom and boy is this a banner year. 

 

Showing my Texas Rangers Spirit

Let’s go Rangers! Clap  –  Clap  –  Clap-Clap-Clap!

Ringling Bros. Giveaway

It’s that time of year in the Dallas/Fort Worth area:  The circus is coming to town!

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey^® presents BARNUM 200^® is coming to American Airlines Center, July 27-August 7, and Fort Worth Convention Center, August 10-14. This monumental, once-in-a- lifetime event celebrates The Biggest Birthday Bash in Circus History in honor of P.T. Barnum’s 200th birthday. For more information, visit www.Ringling.com.  

We love ourselves some circus and I know many of you do also.  So I took up the opportunity to give away a 4-pack of circus tickets for Wednesday, July 27th at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

To enter, just leave a comment on this blog post, including your email address, and tell me what 4 lucky people will use the tickets.

For additional entries:

• You may leave an additional comment on this blog post for another chance to win if you tweet about this giveaway.  Please include a link to your specific tweet in the additional comment.
• You may leave an additional comment on this blog post for another chance to win if you post about this giveaway on Facebook.  Please tag WayMoreHomemade in your post so that I can see it.

I will draw a winner on Friday morning, July 15th.

The fine print: This giveaway is only for 4 tickets to the July 27th show.  No additional tickets are available.  Nor are they available for any other date.  Please make sure that you can attend the show on that date before entering the giveaway.

And even if you do not win the giveaway, I hope you will try to go to the circus with your family.  It has always been such a good memory for our family and a nice break from these dog days of summer.  If you are going to purchase tickets, you should make note of the following:

• The show will be at the American Airlines Center, July 27-August 7, and Fort Worth Convention Center, August 10-14
• There is a military discount available to our service members.  More information can be found at this link.
• Reading with Ringling Bros. is back again!  Kids from ages 2-12 can visit participating libraries and earn a free ticket to the circus by simply doing their summer reading.  Here’s a link to the Dallas/Fort Worth pages…http://www.readingwithringling.com/CityHome.aspx?id=19178
• Ringling Bros. is offering a free ticket to newborns!  Check out this link for information.

Note:  My family and I were compensated with tickets to the circus for the publicity that my blog posts and this give away affords.

Disney on Ice – Toy Story 3

Comments are now closed.

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Out of all the Disney/Pixar films, Toy Story is, by far, my favorite. I can still get sucked into watching any of the three movies at any time. The characters are so wonderfully written and the story so engaging.

And what mother couldn’t relate to the third of the movies on some level? I heard of so many mothers of college or near college age that were so touched by the ending and the whole premise of Andy going away to college. Personally, my favorite and most touching scene was when Andy was talking about each toy to the little girl that would be their new owner and telling what he loved about each of them. It reminds me so much of how personally God loves each of us.

But now I’m straying from the topic at hand.

The point of all this is that Disney on Ice is bringing Toy Story 3 to the American Airlines Center in Dallas, March 30th through April 3rd.

It includes memorable moments from Toy Story and Toy Story 2 to create the ultimate Toy Story experience. It is a high-energy, jam-packed adventure that will take audiences to the edge of their seats and beyond.

I have been given a family pack of 4 tickets to give away for the March 30th performance. So if you’d like a chance to win these tickets, here are the rules:

• Leave a comment on this blog post telling me your favorite scene or character from any of the 3 Toy Story movies. (Please include an email address so that I may communicate with you if you are the winner.)
• For an extra chance to win, leave another comment on this blog post and include a link to a Facebook or Twitter post about this giveaway.

The giveaway will end on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at midnight. I will select the winner at random and will announce the winner on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 via an email to the winner.

Never fear, if you don’t win the family four pack of tickets, tickets are available for purchase. I should be receiving information about any discounts on tickets soon and will share those details on my Facebook page and on Twitter.

*Thanks to Feld Entertainment for my family’s tickets and the tickets to giveaway for this event. We are super excited about it!

Monster Jam? Yes!

There are some places that I would have never seen myself going or even wanting to go about 6 years ago.  And in case you don’t understand the significance of 6 years ago, that may have something to do with when my son was born.

Yes, there are many things I never expected to want to do before that little man came into my life.  One of those things is a monster truck rally.

And yet, I am finding myself a little excited about the prospect of taking this little man who loves to run his monster trucks into one another to the Cowboys’ Stadium this Saturday for Monster Jam.

 

Here is some information that I did not know and thought you might find interesting:

Approximately 12 feet tall and about 12 feet wide, monster trucks are custom-designed machines that sit atop 66-inch-tall tires and weigh a minimum of 10,000 pounds. Built for short, high-powered bursts of speed, monster trucks generate 1,500 to 2,000 horsepower and are capable of speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. Monster trucks can fly up to125 to 130 feet (a distance greater than 14 cars side by side) and up to 35 feet in the air.

Monster Jam, sanctioned by the United States Hot Rod Association®, is the most popular monster truck tour, performing to over 4 million fans annually at the most prestigious arenas and stadiums throughout the world. Monster Jam® shows consist of three main fan-favorite elements – the pit party, racing and freestyle. The pit party gives all fans a chance to meet the stars of Monster Jam up-close while taking pictures and getting autographs.

The MetroPCS Party in the Pits on Saturday, February 26 from 2:30PM to 5:30PM give fans the opportunity to get a view of the trucks up close and meet the drivers of the massive monster trucks.

Here are some details about Monster Jam tickets.

• Kids' SEATS are half-price.  Did you get that? HALF PRICE!
• There are several discount offers. Visit  http://www.monsterjam.com/Tickets/2011/02/26/Arlington,_TX/ for more information.
• The Pit Party is free when patrons pick up a Pit Pass from Metro PCS locations....participating locations can be found at the weblink above (where the discounts are).  Patrons can only get into the Pit Party with a valid event ticket and a Pit Pass....the Pit Party is inside the stadium on the track.

I have also been informed that monster truck superstar Tom Meents and his  truck Maximum Destruction will be at Metro PCS (at Wal-Mart shopping center), 1714 Precinct Line, Suite 500, Hurst, TX 76054.  He will be there Friday, February 25 from 2-6PM. It’s a great opportunity for families to be able to meet the drivers, get autographs and get photos.  The event is free and open to the public! Tom will be competing in the Monster Jam on Saturday, February 26, 7PM.  This is the first time he has competed in Dallas/Fort Worth.

Now I get to give away a couple of goodies.  I hate that I don’t have tickets to give away this time, but I do have some fun things for that monster truck fan in your life.

I have one adult Monster Jam ball cap and one Monster Mutt puffy monster truck plush toy to give away this week.

So here are the details on the giveaway.  Leave a comment on this blog post and tell me if you have ever been to a Monster Jam before and if so, one thing I need to be prepared for.

For an additional chance to win, come and find me at the event on Friday at the Hurst Metro PCS store.  Hand me a piece of paper with your name and email address on it and I can add it to the drawing.  I will be at the event at the Metro PCS between 4:30 – 5:30 pm. 

I will close the comments and choose a winner on Friday night the 25th after 6 pm.

Good luck and I hope to meet some of you on Friday.  And I hope you can come to Monster Jam on Saturday.  I can’t wait to see my little man’s face when we tell him where we are going.

 

Technorati Tags: Monster Jam,giveaway,Cowboys Stadium,DFW,Dallas,Fort Worth

We interrupt this kitchen remodel with… ICE and SNOW

Last week was fairly unprecedented weather-wise. 

Tuesday morning I was awakened at about 4 am.  Not by a geriatric dog that needed to go do business outside or get a drink.  Not by a kid with a sore throat.  No.  But I was awakened by the wind howling and causing a crepe myrtle to slam against the house and sleet popping against my bedroom window. 

It had rained most of the night and then the temperature dropped leaving us with a layer of ice across every street making them impassable. 

And when I say the temperature dropped, it wasn’t to a normal 30 degrees F.  No.  Our high was about 30 degrees  early Tuesday morning (it was already less than 30 when I woke up at 4 am) and it just went down from there.  WAY down.  We had a low temperature Tuesday night/Wednesday morning of around 12 degrees and the wind chill was –4.  NEGATIVE FOUR, y’all.  And the temperature didn’t really get above 20 until Friday.  When it snowed about 3-4 inches on us.

So we had a layer of ice on Tuesday morning that never did have a chance to thaw and then several inches of snow on Friday.  That means four things:

1.  The kids had no school Tuesday – Friday.  It was an odd and unexpected winter break.  It was nice, but if we had known ahead of time, we’d have packed up and gone to Colorado to go skiing.

2.  It was a regular sled-a-palooza around our house and we had a ball.  We went sledding on sleet and ice on Tuesday and Wednesday which as I’ve said in several settings was wicked-fast and pretty wicked-awesome, too.

And we went sledding on powdery snow.  It was much slower, but a lot prettier for sure.  Later that day, the hill was packed powder like a ski run would be.  It was the best sledding I’ve ever experienced. 

3.  Work on my kitchen came to a screeching halt.  That’s about all I can say about that.

4. The next project on this house HAS GOT to be replacing the windows because, oh my stars how the cold poured in around our poorly sealed windows.

And you know…. while we’re at it….

King Arthur Baking Demonstrations and a Giveaway

**Congrats Rachelizabeth!!**

A couple of weeks ago, in his sermon, our pastor told a little story of a man who was asked if he knew what his wife’s favorite flower was. “Of course,” he said, “Pillsbury.”

Amidst the chuckles from the congregation, I looked over at Mike who had that “what an idiot” look on his face. He then motioned with his hand toward me and said with a knowing laugh, “King Arthur, right?”

Yes, baby. You know me too well.

King Arthur is my favorite flour. I can’t always purchase it because of the price. But if I had my preference, I would probably use it all the time. It is such good quality without all the additional processing that many of the less expensive brands use.

So to tell you that I was excited to find out earlier this year that their travelling baking demonstrations would be coming to North Texas would be a huge understatement.

I attended both their Pies and Tarts and Sweet Yeast Breads demonstrations in Grapevine yesterday. Part of me said, “Why are you bothering? These are not topics that you have great anxiety over anymore.” But then I decided that you just never know what little tip you might pick up.

So I went to both sessions and they were pretty good. I did, in fact, pick up a few little hints and tips that I hadn’t thought of before. The kids even went with me to the evening session about bread and both enjoyed watching her make cinnamon rolls (and I don’t think there is any way I’ll get through this weekend without making a batch, just so you know).

And I even won some door prizes of 5 pound bags of flour. I won one of them when I went to the class at noon and then each of my kids and I won one at the evening bread demo. It was awesome.

So, in case you either live in the area and were not able to make it, or you live in an area that they are not coming to this year, I would like to pass on to one of you some of the swag we got.

I am going to give away: 1 recipe booklet (includes a King Arthur Flour coupon on the back), 1 bowl scraper and 1 $10 gift card toward a $20 purchase (to be used in the next 90 days at the King Arthur Flour online store).

How to enter this giveaway:

• Leave a comment on this blog post (including an email address where you can be reached) telling me what you might buy with the gift card.

That’s it. I’m not doing extra entries with this one.

The giveaway will end on Tuesday (12/7/10) at 10 pm at which time comments will close.

I will announce a winner on Wednesday morning (12/8/10) after my kids are able to use the “oh-so-scientific-method” of drawing a name from a hat.

Good luck and happy baking!

P.S. If you live in the Fort Worth area, there is one more day of baking demonstrations today (12/2/10) at noon and 6 pm :
Radisson Hotel Fort Worth Fossil Creek
2540 Meacham Blvd.
Fort Worth, TX 76106

Baseball is in the house

We've been watching a lot of baseball lately.

"Why?" you ask?

Well, if you haven't heard, the Texas Rangers are in the World Series, which started last night.

If you're not from around here, that's a pretty big deal. It's their first WS appearance. EVER.

Now, we are not a huge sports family. We like our Aggie football and such, but overall, pro sports have not been a big deal to us. But the Rangers are a little different for me.

This is a team I really did grow up with. Since they were rarely winning, tickets were always cheap and we went to games pretty often. I remember getting Steve Buchele's autograph. My mom has always been a huge Ranger fan and I think she has that baseball card, now.

This is also a team that is really just a lot of fun to watch right now.

And then there is a certain player who is a sold-out Christian and shares his daily battle against addiction with the world. I loved being able to wake up the next morning after they won the American League Championship and Josh Hamilton was awarded the AL MVP and show my kids this video of his acceptance and explain that this was part of why them winning was such a big deal. That a memeber of our community had and, better yet, took the opportunity to give the glory to God and proclaim His name before 50,000 people and millions on television. The amount of press that he has received these last few days has been immense. And just about every time you see him, he is proclaiming God's goodness. Now, that is something I can get with.

And all the baseball we've been watching has renewed an interest in it for my little man. In fact, we took baseball gear with us to his sister's soccer practice last night so he could practice.

It is so... dang... CUTE!!!

Fast forward to Game 1 last night. *sigh*

All I can say is that while I have been super impressed with him as a pitcher, Cliff Lee had better watch out. There might be a 5 year old who wants his job.



We have not given up hope, though. We have faith in you, Texas Rangers! We know you can do it! Because you have already brought baseball back into our house.

Stop. Remember. Pray.

 

 Taken at the DFW National Cemetery on Memorial Day 2010.

The fact that 9/11 was today had been on my mind all week, but when it came down to it, I got up and started some baking for a family gathering later on in the day.  The significance of the actual day escaped me. 

I felt bad.

I realized this morning that I was just going about my business as usual.  It dawned on me that while the events that day rocked all of our worlds and changed a lot in our country and world forever, many of us simply go about our lives and business much as we did prior to 9/11/01.  Things are different, but not such that they change our normal daily lives.  Here we are, 9 years later, and I would guess that for most of us in the country, things are back to normal. 

However, it dawns on me that there are many for whom this day simply stops.  While we all pause to remember on 9/11 each year, those people stop dead in their tracks on this day.  Those who survived.  Those who had loved ones, innocent lives just going about their daily business that day, who perished.  The wife and child of the first responder who gave his life trying to save as many caught in the buildings as possible. 

My heart aches for those people.  And if you happen to be one of them reading this, I am praying peace and comfort over you today. 

While we all need to stop, remember and honor those who died 9 years ago, we also need to pray for those who are just trying to go on in life.  While the world is different, their very lives can never go back to what they were.

Stop. Remember. Pray.

Zing Zang Zoom!

What a fun show. 

If you have the opportunity to see the Ringling Bros. Zing Zang Zoom show for this year, I highly recommend it.  We went on the opening night here in Dallas this past Wednesday.

There was plenty of clowning around…

 

And speaking of clowns, I felt like the clowns had a more prominent presence in the show this year over last year.  Somehow I just felt like I didn’t get to see enough of the clowns last year.  But I LOVED their acts this year. 

There were, as there always are, elephants …

And these elephants are just amazing.  Several of them balanced up on their trunk at one point.

A nice addition to this year’s show was the illusions performed by the main host guy (the guy you would consider the “ringmaster” but since there weren’t technically rings this year, I can’t remember what they called him).  Several animals disappeared, and as you can see below, a tiger appeared in this box at the beginning of the tiger portion of the show.

The incorporation of the illusions inspired a lot of wonder and amazement from kids and adults alike.  At one point he had three kids and their parents come out of the crowd.  Everyone in the audience helped out with their arms stretched forward and using their “mysterious fingers” causing the parents to levitate.  It was precious to see my own kids getting in on the act.

There were some amazing acrobats…

After this trick I said to Nathan, “That was awesome!”  He paused and said, “No. That was dangerous.”  No kidding.  My husband and I have decided that we’ve got nothing on these adrenaline junkies. 

I have no pictures of what we felt like was one of the best acts… the dogs.  There were some seriously awesome canines, including some insane Jack Russell Terriers, performing.

And, well, being the softies that we are, there were wicked awesome swords and toys to be had.

I’ll be honest, we were pretty disappointed that there were no motorcycles this year.  We’ve been to the circus a lot of times and I can’t remember ever going to a show that didn’t involve motorcycles.  And I assumed with the word “Zoom” in the title of the show this year that motorcycles or some kind of vehicle would be there. 

But thankfully, I think the boy was distracted enough with his wicked awesome sword that he didn’t really notice too much.

If you’re interested in some discount tickets, go to this previous blog post to get a code to use when ordering tickets. 

But hurry.  Zing Zang Zoom is only in Dallas until August 8th and then will be in Fort Worth for the week following that.  And speaking of Fort Worth, there will be a Parade of Pachyderms in downtown Fort Worth in the evening on August 10th as they gear up for opening night.  Don’t miss it.

Note: Please forgive the poor picture quality.  My real camera was rendered useless when my batteries died before we ever got into the show.  All these pictures were taken with my phone.

Disclaimer:  I received tickets from Ringling Bros. for my family and myself for opening night.

Ringling Bros. Ticket Giveaway Winner

I have chosen a winner using random.org. My random number was 6. So that means.....

Our winner is Cheryl Banks!!

*cue confetti and noisemakers*

Congratulations!

Your tickets will be at will-call on Wednesday!


Thanks to all of y'all that entered.

If you want to go ahead and purchase tickets, don't forget that you can get 4 weekday tickets for $44 or $4 off weekend tickets through www. ticketmaster.com by using the code MOM. See details in my previous post.


FYI - I hid your comments to try to protect you from any spam with your email addresses.

Ringling Bros. Ticket Giveaway

*********** Giveaway is now closed **************

You may have noticed that I don’t do a lot of giveaways on this blog. I’m very selective of companies that I will partner with and do publicity for. I will say, however, that I have been pleased both last year and this year to have the privilege of giving away tickets to the Ringling Bros. circus that comes to the D/FW area about this time every year.

Because really, life just sometimes needs the silliness of the circus.

As you can see, last year’s show was an absolute blast and this year’s show, “Zing Zang Zoom,” promises to be just as exciting.

So, here is what I am giving away:

Four tickets to the opening night performance on Wednesday, July 28th at 7:30 pm at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The value of these tickets is $120.

To enter: Please post a single comment on this blog post that includes your name and an email address where you can be reached. ONLY comments on this blog post will be considered as entries (i.e. I won’t consider you as entered if you just leave a comment on my Facebook page).

Comments will be closed and no entries will be accepted after noon on Friday, July 23rd. I will select a winner using random.org (or a really scientific method like pulling a name out of a hat) and will notify you promptly. Tickets for the lucky winner will be waiting for you at will-call on the night of the performance.

Extra entries: You may leave an additional comment for extra chances at winning the tickets for each of the following…

• “Like” WayMoreHomemade on Facebook.
• “Like” Ringling Brothers DFW on Facebook.
• Follow Ringling Brothers on Twitter.
• Tweet this giveaway (please post the URL of the specific tweet when you leave your comment).
• Post this giveaway on your Facebook page (please “Like” WayMoreHomemade on FB and use the @ symbol to tag WayMoreHomemade in your FB post so I can see it.)

Now, since I only have 1 four pack of tickets to give away, I know that there will be at least one other disappointed person. So, I have also been given the opportunity to offer you a coupon code for you to purchase tickets for either the Dallas show at the American Airlines Center (July 28-August 8) or the Fort Worth show at the Fort Worth Convention Center (August 11-15). Here are the details:

Get a four-pack of weekday tickets for $44 or save $4 on weekend tickets. Purchase tickets online at http://www.ticketmaster.com/ and use code MOM under “Advance or Promotion Ticket Selection or mention the code when ordering by phone at 1-800-745-3000

Feel free to email me (see the contact tab above) if you have any questions.

Good luck y’all. And have a circus kind of a day.

(In a good way, of course. Not in the “this place is like a circus today” kind of way.)

Please note: The comments on this post are for the giveaway only. This is not the forum to bag on the circus. I normally don’t delete comments that disagree with me, but I will this time for the sake of the contest.

15 Things to do when you go camping at Turner Falls, OK

Instead of taking a big huge vacation this year, we opted to instead stay closer to home and save some money. We didn’t want to do a “stay-cation” because we really felt like we needed to get out of town. So when we thought of where we could easily go from the DFW area to get away from it all, we thought of Turner Falls (near Davis, OK).

We took the kids to Lake Murray a couple of years ago because of a gift certificate that my parents gave us. We went in the fall and had a wonderful time that included a day trip to both Arbuckle Wilderness and Turner Falls. So as we discussed going camping with some friends for our vacation this year, Turner Falls immediately came to mind.

So, if you’re looking for a close to home (for DFW) getaway that is full of family fun and pretty inexpensive, look toward Turner Falls and look for these fun things to do.

1. Swim in the river. Just be sure to wear water shoes.

2. Visit The Toy and Action Figure Museum in Paul’s Valley. This place was a hoot. It was totally nostalgic for us adults and the kids had a great time

I guess I’ve seen Toy Story and Night at the Museum a few too many times because we walked in and I immediately wondered what went on in there after closing and who was “in charge.” I finally decided that it had to be this life sized Yoda.

3. Climb up a hill away from some of the lights, lie down and just take in the view of all the stars. You’ll be glad you did.

(There is no picture that I could take that would possibly do the night sky justice.)

4. Make s’mores and Jiffy Pop over a campfire. (Disclaimer: the Jiffy Pop container said to NOT do it over an uneven heat source like a campfire… but we tried it anyways.)

5. FRIED PIES. ‘Nuff said.

Find these delicious fried pies at the corner of 77 and I-35 (north of Turner Falls).

6. Swim in the pool close to the falls and get close enough to feel the spray of the water from the falls hitting the water below.

7. Go crawdad fishin’.

Just bring some extra bacon for this endeavor.

8. Explore the Castle.

9. Eat at The Cliff. We knew we wanted to go out to eat one evening but had no idea of where we would go. We happened to see a billboard for this place and passed by it on our way to Paul’s Valley. We stopped in to just check it out and I have to say, we were pleasantly surprised by what we found. It’s a little bit of refined civilization in a very unrefined place. We ate at a folding table on the terrace but had beautiful and delicious food.

10. Enjoy some shaved ice. This is some of the best shaved ice I have ever had and the Arbuckle Rock flavor really does rock.

11. Hike around and explore the rocks and caves.

12. Go down the slide and dive off the board at the Blue Hole Pool.

13. Enjoy a Turner Falls “spa” treatment like a mud bath.

14. Visit Arbuckle Wilderness. We didn’t do it this trip, but we have been before and Arbuckle Wilderness is definitely worth a visit if you have time.

15. And please, for the love of all that is good, please rent a cabin if you’re going in July. Seriously. “Camping” as in sleeping outside in 90 degree heat (at11 pm) and 200% humidity with not a breeze to be had in the entire state of Oklahoma… well, it’s for the birds… and the raccoons.

Have you been to the Arbuckle Mountain/Turner Falls area of Oklahoma? What are your favorite things?

snOMG

Yes, that's what they called it around here last week. The Mid-Atlantic and Northeast portion of the country seem to have claimed "Snowpocalypse" and "Snowmageddon" so we are stuck with "SNO-M-G".

*Sigh*

But it really was amazing. We received a record breaking foot of snow between the early morning hours of Thursday and about 2 am or so on Friday. It is difficult to take pictures to really show how much we got, but here are a few.

While it was still snowing on Thursday afternoon. We already had about 6 inches at this point by my untrained measurement.

A snowman as tall as Nathan in Texas?!?! That NEVER happens. Especially for there to still be plenty of snow leftover.


It continued to snow throughout the afternoon and into the early hours of Friday morning. It weighed down the tree branches and brought many down... along with the electricity.


That is supposed to be a step down for Frankie to go and do her business. Pardon our redneck dog... we're not used to all this white stuff coming up past our step down.


See how far up the kids' legs it comes? And that's after melting a bit in the above freezing temperatures.




In spite of losing power Thursday night, we had a good time with the snow. We had friends over on Thursday to sled with us. Then, on Friday my sister-in-law, who happened to be in town, came over along with my father-in-law.

We had an awesome plan to build snow forts and attack them with snowballs when they drove up.


And we had a ready arsenal of snowballs made.



Then something went wrong. They drove up from the opposite direction than we were expecting and we were caught off guard. After we began throwing snowballs, they drove off and went around the corner.

We waited.

And wondered what they were doing.

But we knew.

They were getting ready for us.

They came back around the corner with Mike's sister in the bed of the truck stocked up with snowballs.

It was war.

And we laughed like little kids the entire time.

I really had wanted to get the whole thing on video, but like I said, the sneak-attack at first threw me off.

We took my in-laws to our wicked-awesome sledding hill and somehow the barrage of snowballs did not cease the entire time. You got snowballs thrown at you while you were getting on the sled, sledding down the hill, falling off the sled and hiking back up the hill. Especially while hiking back up the hill.

But after a while, everyone was cold and wet and we went back to our house with no power to this....



... and this ...



... and this ...



... and snOMG it smelled and tasted like we were on the slopes in Colorado.

I hope you had some fun in the snow, too.