Winter Wonderland

We made the cold, snowy trip northward to Grandpa Jay's beautiful Aspen Hollow. On the agenda... HAVE FUN!!! and have fun we did. We love going to the farm in the winter time. It has the best sledding and snowmobiling around. Everyone also loves to target shoot at our own private shooting range. Grandpa Jay's has passed his down his hobby and love of fire arms to all the grandchildren. Janice and all the girls love to shoot the 22. That is a fun gun to learn about shooting.

Steve at age 10 is already an expert marksman. He hit the target 13 of 15 shots two times in a row.

Daniel came with us. He is lots of fun to be around. He was our resident fire man and kept us warm the whole time. He knows the farm inside and out and took good care of us. He coached TJ's friend Bronte to a win in the Farming Game. He may have a future in farm advisory. It was all of the girls greatest desire to get our hands on his luscious curls. A little hair product, a pick and a diffuser... oh the things we could do with those locks. But of course, he denied us that pleasure.

THE SMOKING GUN

TJ loves shooting all of Grandpa's guns. He didn't even need hearing protection with the Russian hat that Grandpa Ike brought back so many years ago.

Uncle Greg... the professional soldier taking a little target practice. I think he is used to a little bigger guns and ammo.

The highlight of target practice is always blowing up things. This time, with the help of an explosive called tannerite, mom's old laptop got it's just reward! (I only wish, I could have been the one to pull the trigger on that one, that laptop cause me so much grief!!!) It was an awesome explosion. There must be a little bit of pyromania in all of us.

Madi took a little tumble on the sledding hill and she wasn't in any mood to smile for the camera.

TJ and Bronte had a great time sledding and tubing. They made a great 4 person train with Tyler and Liz ( a few wipe outs made it really fun to watch.)

Steve and Janice were fearless on the tubing hill.

Grandpa Jay's Polaris Ranger is a beast in the snow. It has lots of power and is a great snow taxi. Sledding at the farm is so fun because there are lots of snow vehicles that can shuttle the kids and their rides to the very top of the hills. Soo0000 Spoiled! When I was young we had to walk up hill in the snow...

Brooke loves the farm so much. She always tells me that all of the effort to get up there is soooo worth it. She is right!! Eli didn't really love his time in the snow. Although, he was toasty warm, he was very nervous when someone would get on something that would slip and slide in the snow. After a while (and when with his binky) he was content to be a spectator to all of the fun.

You would think that at 14 months old, this was Eli's first snowmobile ride. But it wasn't. He actually had his first experience playing in the snow when he was just 2 months old. We knew he was going to be a spoiled baby.....

Well, as always we had such a fun time. We played lots of games, watched movies, (of course yummy food is always involved) blew things up, SNOW boarded, SNOW mobiled, SNOW sledded and SNOW tubed. We love Aspen Hollow in the winter. Thanks Grandpa Jay for sharing your little piece of Paradise.