Colorado Ski Trip

In February I took a trip out to Colorado to see good friends and hit the slopes!  I fell in love with skiing last winter when I went with Zach and Kim and now I'm hooked!  A bunch of us went up Friday to Sunday.  We had a house rented in Breckenridge for both nights and skied Vail on Saturday and Breckenridge on Sunday.

Liz Deets and I on the Vail slopes.

So, after all the kids were in bed we ALL went out to test our ice luge we made.  Well, the last person out closed the door and when we were ready to go back in 15 minutes later we realized that the door was locked!  And the kids were all sleeping!  This non-parent wasn't really concerned because I knew we would find a way in.  Corey offered to tromp around to the front in the deep snow and checked the front door.  Luckily it was unlocked!  It was only a 3 minute scare!  

Liz and Amanda at Breckenridge getting ready to go down

Breckenridge on Sunday

My last run of the weekend.  10-11 months til I can go again :(

My lil buddy Jackson Campbell

Work/Things we do in Georgia

Just thought I'd share some photos from my work life

We love to go to the park by the water and then take a walk down to the pier and walk out and see if any of the fishermen have caught any fish to show us.  This is Will, Jackson and Caroline by the pelican we saw on the pier.  We hang out a lot with the Byrd kids.

My good friend, Sybi Kuchar's dad is a great tennis player and coach, so he offered to have Will and Jackson join Cameron, his grandson, for a tennis lesson.  It was pretty funny to watch them, but they did pretty good.

My lil buddy, Wyatt sporting my sunglasses.

We also got in a baseball practice that week too.  Jonathan Byrd and I took 4 of the boys to the baseball field to teach them some things.  I don't think we ended up teaching them much, but they had a fun time!

Can you tell the 3 in the infield are really into it?!  haha

Iowa trip in February

After Pebble Beach Kim, the boys and I flew home to Iowa for a few days.  They stayed til Wednesday and I extended my stay through Saturday.  It was a great week home!!

Nate built a pond in the Sundblad's backyard last summer, so this was the first winter they could use it to ice skate.  Unfortunately, Iowa had such a warm winter they didn't really get to use it a lot.  Of course my first night in town we had to go right out there when we got back to the house.  Nate set up a light out there so you can skate at night.  It's pretty cool!  Good job brother!

Shay doing whatever Shay was doing

I had to work a few days up in Cedar Rapids watching the boys.  Wyatt had never been in snow, so he was loving being outside.  Luckily it was warm enough that these southern boys could stand the cold!

Wyatt didn't know what to make of my little snowman.  Only had about 5 minutes to make it, so this was as big as it was gonna get!

I flew in on a Sunday night and Monday I went to buy hockey sticks and pucks for the pond.  Of course it warmed up the very next day so there was no testing the ice for this group, even if Nate said it was still thick enough!  So, we resorted to indoor hockey!!

Good thing they are getting new hardwood floors whenever it is they remodel!

I got to be home for Shay's 4th birthday!!!  One of her lovely smiles…ha

My favorite guy!!

Pebble Beach

Our last tournament with Zach on the west coast was the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.  It is a beautiful place out there!  Mom, Dad, Jamie and Stu all came out for a long weekend.  It was fun hanging with them.  I also got to see my aunt Doris and cousin Stephanie.  Wish I could have seen everyone else out there, but guess I'll just have to come out another time!

I took this picture one night when Zach, the boys and I were out taking a walk on the beach at sunset.

The house we rented was a block from the beach, so going to the beach was an everyday activity.

Wyatt LOVES dogs, being outside, going on walks and loves the beach!  He and I walked down to the beach at least once a day.  It was a little too cold to get in the water, but there were tons of people out walking their dogs, so we went and played with all the dogs.

Wyatt and I on one of our walks along the water

Jamie getting ready to putt for a prize at the golf tournament.

She made it!!  Congratulations, you just won a cookbook!  ha

Jamie and Stu on #6 at Pebble Beach

Stu and I tried this wedge game in one of the tents.  Stu knocked it to 7 inches, but unfortunately someone else was closer.

Friday night, I got to take Jamie and Stu to this party thrown by Clint Eastwood at the Player/Family Hospitality tent at the golf course.  It was a great time!  Free wine samples and drinks and Darius Rucker got up on the stage and played for about 30 minutes.  It was a small party, so really cool to be in that kind of a setting with lots of celebrities.  There were golfers and wives there as well as the celebrities that were playing in the Pro-Am.  Darius Rucker, Clint Eastwood, Bill Murray, Anthony Anderson, Andy Garcia, Josh Duhamel, Oliver Hudson, Chris O'Donnell, Ray Romano, George Lopez, Michael Bolton, Kenny G and Huey Lewis were some of the celebrities there that I can remember.  After Darius Rucker sang, Bill Murray and Clint Eastwood got up and sang the song Brandy (You're a Fine Girl).  I wish I would have videoed it on my phone cause it was hilarious!  Definitely one of the perks of the job!!!  :)

Darius Rucker up singing some of his country songs as well as some Hootie and the Blowfish songs.

Of course Jamie and I had to get our picture take with Oliver Hudson and Josh Duhamel!  They are gorgeous!!!!

Bill Murray wore a full hunting suit on Sunday while he played.  He is funny to watch cause he loves to play with the crowd

Stu, Mom, Jamie, Dad and I out on the course.  What a fun weekend!!  Thanks for coming guys!!

Vegas Trip

Dad has been going every year for the past 3-4 years to Palm Springs with Mac.  Mac rents a condo and Dad drives a car down with him and then hangs out for a week or so.  It worked out this year that they were there the same time I was!  My last weekend off while we were in Palm Springs, Dad, Mac and I decided to take a quick trip to Vegas!  You will laugh when I tell you we didn't really party, nor did we really gamble and one day we went to a movie, so most ask why go to Vegas??  We enjoyed going to a comedy show one night, walked around a lot looking at stuff and just hung out.  haha

Dad and Mac at the comedy show we went to.  I love hanging with these guys!!

I drove on the way home and we decided to go a different way back to Palm Springs…yikes!  The road was really bad and there were small towns like this one few and far between.  One "town" didn't even have any houses and this one had 12!  Good thing our gas tank was full!

My co-pilot!  We even decided to drive through Joshua National Forest which was pretty, but was a 35 mile an hour speed limit for probably 45 minutes to an hour!  Maybe not such a good idea, but now we can all check that off our list of things to see in the world!  haha

Scottsdale Trip

During our stay in La Quinta, I rented a car during my days off and drove over to Scottsdale to visit two very good friends of mine.  I met Jack and Shirlee through Barry Frantz and they became my "Florida parents" until they recently moved to Scottsdale, so they are now my "Arizona parents" and are GREAT people and have a fun and wonderful family!!!!

Jack, Flat Stanley and I played golf with his brother and sister-in-law the first day I was there.

The second day I was there Jack, Shirlee and I went up to Sedona for the day.  Jack and I played this golf course in the morning that had beautiful views!

After golf, we went on a short hike and may or may not have been temporarily on the wrong path :)  but luckily the one we somehow ended up on still went back to our parking lot!

The red rocks were awesome!

The Chapel built into the redrock

Inside the chapel

The redrock behind the chapel

It was pretty neat how it was done and had a beautiful view

Of course we had to stop and get a piece of pie at this famous cafe and of course Flat Stanley was with us!

Last 3 weeks in Palm Springs

Our last 3 weeks in Palm Springs we did all sorts of stuff.  We went on a few hikes, went to nearby parks, went up this tram on the side of one of the mountains, swam and just had a lot of fun.

Watching golf on Sunday at the tournament held in La Quinta.  Zach was in the final group on Sunday, but our good friend, Mark Wilson ended up winning.  

On a hike with our friend Cameron

The boys showing off their muscles

My good friend, Sybi, and her two boys with Will and I

The boys found a stream to climb around

Me being me, a little too uptight sometimes, was nervous about the boys falling in and getting wet while playing on the rocks in the stream.  But once they did fall in they were having SO much fun, so I let loose & let them enjoy playing in the stream in their clothes.  Who cares if they are wet and dirty on the way home!  haha

Boys being boys.  At the park watching the skate boarders and of course the shirts came off.  ha

One day we headed up this tram to the top of this mountain.  It was awesome!  The tram went up a cable that had 5 towers it passed on the way up and the middle section of the tram where we stood slowly rotated so you could get a 360 view of everything on the way up and way down.

It was a good 40 degrees cooler at the top of this mountain.  75 down in Palm Springs and 35 and snow up on the top of this mountain!

Getting on the tram to go back down

Headed back down to the bottom

A look back up at the top

The boys and I out on a golf cart ride.  We had a golf cart in our garage during our stay at the Hideaway in La Quinta, so Wyatt and I went on many rides around the neighborhood.