Ice Ice Baby!

Gosh, what a fantastic weekend.  All in all, it was pretty relaxing and tons of fun.  We just did whatever it was we felt like doing--no particular schedule to follow, and that was just fine with us.

We went to a basketball game on Kelly Barracks.  Malu trains a junior high schooler and he wanted to support him at his game this weekend.  Sina and I tagged along.  Sina was entranced.  I keep saying this, but I definitely think we have a future super star athlete on our hands!

We went shopping at the mall.  There were some really great sales out there.  We bought the heck out of the kids' clothes department at H&M!

We went out to dinner on Saturday night.  German food...I can't get enough of it.

We watched movies--finally watched the last Harry Potter movie last night and just got done watching Conviction, starring Hillary Swank.  Both very good movies!

Did a good amount of cooking too; including brioche french toast with fresh strawberries this morning, chicken pot pie for dinner tonight, along with bacon-wrapped dates (first time making this--delicious!).

By far, the best thing we did this weekend was take advantage of the free ice skating event offered to military families.  The local American ice hockey league as well as the Stuttgart Community Spouses Club sponsored the event and paid for us to skate for almost two hours at a rink about twenty minutes from post.  Ahhh, the advantages of being in the military!

It was Sina's first time and she had a blast.  It was also Malu's first time in years and I was surprised at how great a skater he is!  I'd done a few minutes of skating with Madisen (our friends' daughter) at the Stuttgart Christmas Market last month, but I was excited to get back on the ice again.  The skating rink had these neat chairs to take the little kiddos out on the ice.  It was so much fun to see Sina with her hands up in the air, as if she was on a rollercoaster.  She'd also clap every couple of minutes and since I was pushing her, she'd always try to keep her daddy in her sights.

The last photo is my favorite.  My two loves.  At the time, Sina was watching the Zamboni "clean" the ice.  Yet another experience to go down in the "book of firsts"!

This week, Sina moves to the Toddler Room at school (ages 18 months-3 years).  An opening arose and she's been ready to go for a few months now.  I have to admit that it was a bittersweet moment packing her bag for the week.  She has to bring all kinds of new stuff with her...like a toothbrush, two extra sets of clothing, a blanket for nap time, and a stuffed animal.  Our baby girl's movin' up in the world and it's killing me :(

Anyway, hate to see the weekend go.  Hello new work week!  Ugh.

Happy Sunday to All...and a shout out to my family back in Colorado, as they are celebrating my Grandma Ines' 83rd birthday (which was yesterday) today.  Love you all!



Utah! (Part One)

 I feel bad because it's almost been a week since we left Utah and only now am I making this post (my apologies to Grandma and Grandpa Doyle in Utah!). 

First of all, I had completely stressed out before leaving El Paso, what, with it being Baby V's first time on an airplane and all; not to mention I wasn't sure how easy it would be to get her and all of her stuff through security.  To our delight, the process was so simple.  As soon as the TSA guys spotted us and our stroller, they flagged us down and pulled us forward--all the way past the long lines and helped us break everything down into those plastic bins and quickly inspected Baby V's bottles, her car seat and stroller.  We made it all the way through security and all the way to Salt Lake City intact and with one happy baby.  As a matter of fact, she slept all the way there.

We also got our first glimpse of snow from above.  These are actually the Rocky Mountains on our way to the Denver International Airport where we had our layover.  In the time that we waited in Denver, we could have made it all the way to the Springs to visit!  But coming from El Paso where it was still in the mid-60's, it was so nice to actually feel like Christmas was approaching!

Anyway, we had a marvelous time visiting with our family (from Malu's side) in Utah.  It was the first time that Baby V got to meet her great-grandparents, Grandma Lema and Grandpa Jim.  She was also able to meet Uncle Mike and Auntie Jewel (Malu's dad's siblings) as well as her cousins, Sala and Daniel (Auntie Jewel's kids).

 

Weeks before our trip, I'd been nervous about how Baby V would react to meeting new family members as she'd become increasingly picky about who she kept company with.  Well, she was in love with Grandma and Grandpa at first sight, giving them big smiles and all throughout our stay.  Not only that, Baby V was spoiled from the start.  Within minutes of our arrival, Grandma Lema brought out a box full of new clothes for her.  It was unbelievable.  Throughout our stay, she'd bring in more and more stuff and I'd secretly wonder how we were going to fit all of that stuff into our luggage.  I mean, we already had five big pieces of luggage and let's not even go into how many carry-ons we have.  Grandma Lema hardly let Baby V out of her sight.  She held and carried her everywhere, bathed and fed her, and even had her sleep in her room.  I enjoyed seeing them interact that way.  Malu and I hardly saw her while we were there and although we missed her, it gave us time to spend with other members of the family.

One day, Grandpa took Malu and I to Park City.  I'd always wanted to go there and they had an outlet mall that I wanted to visit just to get some Christmas shopping done.  Park City is your typical ski resort/town and reminiscent of those that I'd visited in Colorado.  We took a stroll down Main Street,

hit up some cool shops (where we saw and took pictures of some funny stuff),

  

and ate at the Main Street Pizza & Noodle. 

And when we went to the outlet mall not too long after that, I scored big time on a Columbia jacket (not this one, I was wearing Malu's jacket at the time), some clothes for Baby V (as if she needed some more) and some gifts for family.

Since it's almost 1:00 a.m. and because it's taking forever to download some of these pictures AND because I'm exhausted, I'm going to tell you guys more about Utah in another post...hopefully tomorrow!  I'll tell you about our trip to Temple Square and about our stops at two of the sweetest places I've ever been to in my life!

I can't believe it's Christmas Eve!  Santa's coming soon!  Enjoy everybody!