happy new year 2011!! *edited since blogger didn't save my entire post

Decided to ring in the new year at one of our favorite places, Big Bear!! A recent storm left Big Bear with a fresh blanket of snow so we were really excited. I'm not a big fan of freezing my rear off but I still love it up there. NYE was pretty low key since we had the kids. We made tacos and headed to the ski lodge to watch the torch light parade down the mountain. Guess they have skiers and snowboarders carry lit torches down the hill. It was kinda anticlimactic after waiting in the frigid weather. I think it would have been better if we had been watching from the street and not so close. We hung out in the cabin for the rest of the night and watched the countdown to the new year on tv. We toasted the new year with our free bottle of sparkling cider that is left in every cabin. Saturday started with a french toast breakfast and a walk to the village to see a movie. We took pizza home for dinner and then it was night tubing time!! It is so much fun!

Big Bear in the distance!! We had to take another route up there since the main road is closed. It took almost 2 hours and KK got car sick. Blech!

We must have a billion of these shots.

Keeping themselves entertained on the drive up. Drew didn't go with us, of course. He had a NYE party to go to but unfortunately it got cancelled. Instead, he played 3rd wheel to his friend and his girlfriend at our house. They played Scrabble and watched tv. At least that was the version I got. The hubs made sure to count his beers before we left. LOL

Snow!! Kaelyn needed some alone time so she stayed back at the cabin while we took a walk around the property. It's beautiful out there.

Cool icicles. We saw some killer ones on our walk to the village.

The hubby's lame joke-"look, it's a snow cone!!" Groan.

The creek between the cabins and the motel was completely frozen.

Here we are all bundled up to go tubing. I was afraid I wouldn't make it since I froze watching the parade but with tubing you are walking around a lot and it's quite a workout so we were never cold. I kinda felt like little Randy from A Christmas Story.

These next photos are from my new point and shoot. Love this one.

So glad the hubs made me buy this warm hat. There's no way I would have bought myself a $30 beanie.

Trying not to freeze to death waiting for the torch light parade to start.

Texting with bare fingers....no wonder he complained he was cold!!

At this point, I needed a ski mask. But we had a great time!

Once again, we were sad to leave the cabin. We had breakfast at Boo Bear's Den before we made the almost 2 hour trip home. Until next time Big Bear....

**edited** a purging of sorts

Finally got around to editing this post. It was a total pain not having a computer to upload photos and blog but we're back in business baby!! I'm sure I'll still be a bad blogger but I promise to do my best.


Drew turned 18 this year and we celebrated with the family at home. I think I made lasagna for him at his request. I'd have to check my FB to be sure what we really did. Ok, I checked and I did make lasagna. FB really comes in handy for jogging the ol' memory. He had his buddies over the next night to celebrate. No pics of that though, teenagers melt when the flash goes off.

Grandma Betty with Brandon & Hayley

Gawa! Or Dawa! Or Drandma!

mmmmmm cake...this cake has made several appearances to our birthdays over the last few years. One slice and you get diabetes from all the sugar.

Opening his presents!! He got gift cards/cash. Didn't have quite enough to get the fancy schmancy computer he wanted. Guess he'll have to do what the rest of us do...SAVE UP FOR IT!!

he's old enough now to operate the lighter

Yay!! Make a wish!! Happy birthday kid!! You were just a squirming, crying, poopy-diapered baby and now here you are-18, college bound and can officially vote. Where does the time go???

Didn't take a ton of football pictures this year as they all turn out about the same. Buncha kids running around the field, yada, yada, yada. The T-Birds started off great but then quickly fell into their old habits of running the ball every time and losing. They won enough games to make it to the playoffs but lost after 1 playoff game. It was a fun season although I think I only saw 1 winning game. Makes it hard to sit and watch when they lose.

Hayley has lost interest in cheering and you can totally tell! She doesn't really get into it like she probably should but at least she's still going. I think this will be her last year cheering. Karate might be the next activity for her.

Took a trip up to our favorite place, Big Bear to celebrate Kaelyn's 12th birthday. Invited the mothers to come with us but they declined. Probably best since there wouldn't have been enough beds and the stairs were super steep going up to the 2nd floor. We grilled some yummy food the first night.

our little 2 bedroom cabin

living room

another view of the living room

gathering around the fire to make s'mores...I didn't have any since I was doing another crazy diet.

mmmmmmmmm

It was a crazy weekend...Fri to Big Bear, Sat back down to Yucaipa for football/cheer, back up to Big Bear, Sun back to Yucaipa for football/cheer pictures then home after dinner. Phewwww!! Too many trips up and down the mountain for me.

Grilling KK's yummy birthday dinner. We went up to the mountains to celebrate KK's birthday. I guess we didn't bring the camera to Brandon's birthday celebration at Acapulco. Whoopsie!! We had Mexican food and did cake and presents at the restaurant.

doing our pre-teen/teen myspace/FB pose

isn't this a great photo?? Drew has yet to come up to Big Bear with us. Guess he's too cool for school.

Yummy steak dinner with all the fixins!!

Ok kid really?? What's with the frowny face?? You gonna act like this every year??

There, that's better!

Make a wish!! Happy birthday little mama! How did you get to be 12 already??

Kaelyn and her cash

Eating red velvet birthday cake. It was kinda meh.

Somewhere between the 2 September birthdays and Halloween we had an anniversary. We went to Big Bear ALONE!! It was so relaxing! We had dinner at the fanciest place in town, Peppercorn Grille. I had the steak and the hubs had some pasta dish. It was really good. I don't think we did any cooking at all up there. Wish every weekend could be that relaxing! I had to work the weekend of Halloween so the hubs was on his own with the kids doing the pumpkins.

yuck!!

Spooky!!

The kids all dressed up. Originally Brandon was going to dress as a nerd and Hayley was going to go as a dead cheerleader. Sweet, cheap costumes!! Guess their mom changed her mind and got them costumes so now Brandon is a crazy prisoner (??) and Hayley is a dead pirate. Kaelyn is supposed to be a cross between a vampire and a ballerina, so Vampirina. ??

Not sure what's up with Hayley's awkward turtle pose.

The kids had fun with their friends on Halloween. The hubby and I both worked so his kids when home a bit early to go to a party and Kaelyn went with her friends after her party she was invited to got "canceled" when she was on her way over to the girl's house. I'm calling foul on that one but she ended up having fun. Kaelyn's girl scout troop was in the Founder's Day Parade again this year. The theme was fairytales so they dressed as the Seven Dwarfs. She was voted as Dopey by the other girls. Is this a problem?? She looks like a boy. LOL

I took lots of pictures of the parade but won't bore you with all of them. This trash truck was amusing.

Here come the Dwarfs!! It's funny, Kaelyn likes going to the meetings but she is embarrassed to tell anyone she's a girl scout.

This was another busy, busy weekend. Parade, football/cheer, etc. The hubs, Bran and Hay only saw a few min of the parade then had to get over to Corona for the game. I came later after the parade was over and after a quick bite at Farmer Boys. Sadly, they ended up losing their playoff game to the best team in the league. Guess it was a real nail biter. They were winning until the last few seconds of the game when the other team scored. Poor boys were trying so hard and almost made it!!

This sunset was just thrown in because it was pretty.

I'll have my next post out soon about Turkey Day!