24 Hour Refresh

Alright alright, so I am a little behind on blogging.  The merger mommy lifestyle is not really working to my advantage these days. After a busy week at work, we snuck up to McCall for a 24 hour refresh.  Chris skied and I stayed behind with G buddy, did some work, and caught up on some much needed mommy time.  24 hours later we came back home, having refreshed ourselves by soaking in the crisp mountain air and sunshine.

Grady enjoyed another "ride" in the sled.  He seems to really enjoy being pulled around by Grandpa and watching the dogs frolic around him.  He even managed to stay awake this time! 

After a freezing and pretty cloud-covered January, we enjoyed a little time outside soaking up the rays.  It was soooooo nice.

Grady also enjoyed some indoor sledding as well, laundry basket style.

These pictures are my absolute favorite of our growing boy lately.  My dad and Robin have a wall in the laundry room of their cabin where they keep track of the growth of the kids and grandkids (and granddogs apparently!).  The wall is messy with marks made in pen, pencil, marker, or whatever else was laying around at the time someone needed to be measured.  Robin absolutely refuses to allow my dad to paint over this wall and for good reason - I LOVE it too. It is always fun when a kid surpasses the height marks of an aunt (not hard to do), grandma (really not hard to do), grandpa, another cousin, etc.  I know it is not a novel idea, but I do love having one place where everyone is marked.  Here is the wall in all of its messy glory: 

It was a big and adorable moment to put the first mark up for Grady.  I love our serious guy's little face while getting measured and his hilarious look after getting his first mark on the wall (this is the face that he makes when making his favorite, "bfffffff" sound).
 

I thought that Grady might get the lowest mark on the wall, but cousin Tyler (TJE) still gets to claim that as his own, his mark was made when he was just about Grady's age.  It made me a little sad seeing these two marks next to each other knowing that these boys haven't met yet, but that is what makes this wall all the more special to me.  This wall is a place where all the cousins are together, even though we are coasts apart.  I understand more than ever why Robin refuses to paint over this messy wall.  Now I want to start a wall of our own!

 

Notice the next mark above Grady is that of his puppy sister, Bella.   Of course after seeing Bella's mark from 2010, it was decided that Shada needed to be documented as well.

 

I love our little family! 

As always, thanks for hosting us. Chris, Grady, Bella and I are so lucky to be able to get away for a bit and escape what seems to be like the increasing chaos of normal life.

It was also winter carnival in McCall, which is awesome.  If we had more time, I would have loved to participate in some of the fun activities, but instead we settled for driving past some of the ice sculptures with me sticking my head and camera out of the car on the way out of town.  Whatever works, right??