I Couldn't Resist!

What is it about a baby in a tub that draws the camera out?!

Tara turns 31!

I am officially in my thirties! My birthday was on Thursday, January 22. I went to lunch with a few friends and family and did a little shopping with my mom and my sister. Jason came home with flowers and a sweet card and took me over to Sierra Running store to figure out what kind of shoes were best for my feet. I just started running again and signed up for a half marathon in March with my sister. We bought some shoes and a cute running outfit! Then, we went out to dinner. When we came home, the kids (with Riley's help) had decorated the house and made a cake. My mom and Jen and her family came over for cake and ice cream.Friday night, we went out to celebrate with friends! We had dinner at Chevy's...

Then off to play laser tag...And back to Jen's house for cake and games!

I feel so lucky to have friends and family that love me and are so good to me! Thanks for making me feel loved on my birthday!

Colton's First Birthday!

Happy Birthday Colton! On January 16th, my nephew Colton turned 1! Isn't he a cutie?!

We went up to Sacramento last weekend for his first birthday party! I didn't get any pictures of him covered in cake, but here here is with his mom, Danale, after getting all cleaned up.

The kids had so much fun playing in the bounce house! Austin was adorable with Ashlyn as usual. He pulled out his cell phone and started taking pictures of her and then asked me to get my camera. It is so sweet to see how much he loves her!

I'm not sure if I had more fun watching the kids in the bounce house or watching the adults watch the kids!

The proud papa and Grandpa and Grandma Rickards

Ashlyn, Jason and Danny Rickards

Me and Ashlyn

Ashlyn, Austin and Colton

Austin, Colton, Ashlyn and Lauren

Ashlyn and Austin ( I love his grin in this picture!)

Lauren

It is always worth the drive to spend time with our family! We always leave wishing we had more time!

Danale, Justin and Colton

Sierra Summit/ Part 2

We finally made it up to Sierra Summit! Jason always takes such good care of me! I like to think of myself as a totally capable girl, but I always feel soft on Jason when he offers to help me get my boots on, carries my skis, or adjust my goggles for me. What a guy!

Since I had only been skiing once before, Jason took me over to the bunny hill before we went up the lift. He reminded me what I am supposed to do and then waited at the bottom. I'm not sure if is purpose was to be there in case I ended up in a pile at the bottom of the little hill or to embarrass me with a bunch of pictures where I look like a total goober! Here is one of them...
Can you see the "I have no idea what I am doing" look on my face? Haha! Patience has never been one of my strong characteristics, so after one time down the bunny hill, I was ready to go!

We were so glad we went up. It was so peaceful riding the chair lift up and was a beautiful day! We had fun skiing and seeing our friends!



We were pretty tired from the night before, so when we got a call from Riley saying she wasn't feeling well, we were okay cutting our short day even shorter. My mom took my kids so Riley could go.

We had spent the car ride up talking about what had happened the night before. I talked to Emily's mom who said she was doing much better and had been all stitched up. Emily called to say she was sorry again and thank us for helping her. The boys had come by the hospital with their parents to see how Emily was and to apologize to her mom.

When we got home, I sent Riley a text to see how she was doing. She said she was okay, but she hadn't been able to eat or sleep and she kept thinking about the accident. I figured that meant she hadn't told her parents. I asked her if she wanted to come over and talk about it and she said she didn't think she could.

Jason and I were finally taking down our Christmas tree, but I couldn't get Riley off my mind. All of the sudden I had this feeling that there was something that I didn't know about the night before. I sent her another text asking her if something else happened.

No response. I went back to the tree for a few minutes, but couldn't shake it. I sent another text. "You can trust me." (Yes, I asked her permission before I wrote this post.)

A minute later she text back. "Ya. I'm coming over. Is that ok?"

I was so glad she was coming, but I was really worried something bad had happened.

I'm sure most of you think I am crazy for not thinking that sneaking out and getting in a car accident is that bad. I am more about a persons intentions. If they were sneaking out to hook up with a boyfriend, or do something illegal, that is one thing, but that wasn't the case. They shouldn't have done it, but I wasn't worried about their salvation. Getting in a car accident for driving on campus is just plain stupid. I mean really. It is teenagers thinking they are invincible and funny. They thought it would be fun and daring. They weren't driving around on the grass or trying to be destructive. They just thought it would be fun to drive on the pathways...fast. Not so smart.

But now, I was worried. She came in and gave both of us a hug. She had tears in her eyes. We sat down to talk and she burst into tears. "I was driving the car!"

I was relieved that was all it was! I knew her parents needed to know. The best way to get a teenager to do something is not to tell them to do it, but to help them see that they want to. We talked for a long time about trust responsibility, honesty, how she felt then vs how she would feel when she told the truth, how she would feel letting the boys take the blame, getting in trouble now or carrying her guilt for the rest of her life.

We talked a little bit more about the seriousness of what they did. They are really lucky that nobody died! Every year, you read those stories in the newspaper about the good kids who had everything going for them, made a stupid mistake and one of them died. We had reminded the kids of this the night before, but we talked about it again. She finally decided to tell her parents. We talked a little bit more just to make sure she wasn't going to change her mind. She said she knew she would get in a lot of trouble, but it was the right thing to do.


When she left, Jason and hugged each other and felt a huge relief. We were proud of our little Riley. Okay, she is almost 17, but we were still proud of her. It is hard to own up to something, especially if you think you already got away with it. We could tell she felt so much better as she was leaving. She was going to do the right thing.

I couldn't believe that her friend was going to take the blame for it! He had a crush on one of the other girls, but I can't believe he was going to stick to his story so she wouldn't get in trouble. He didn't tell his mom until Riley called him when she was on her way to tell her parents!


So, the parents know, the kids all got in trouble and life goes on.

Wake Up Call

If you follow this blog, you know that we have tried to go skiing a few times and haven't been able to make it work. I got a message from Haley, last Friday that went something like this, "Hey, Tara! It's Haley. Aaron and I are taking the kids up to go skiing tomorrow and wanted to know if you guys wanted to try and come. Give me a call. Bye!" I hung up the phone and started laughing. TRY was the key word there. Haley is always so sweet! I just love her!

I had been sick all week, but was starting to feel better. I called Jason and he had a good laugh about it too. The guys have had a good time teasing him about our little fight and not making it skiing the next day! Maybe third time's the charm! :-)

I called Riley, who was already planning to babysit for us while we went out that night. We were planning on leaving first thing in the morning before the kids woke up and thought it might be easier for her to just spend the night. Riley has been babysitting for us for about three years. She knows the routine and always picks up after the kids while I am gone. It is not unusual for her to send me a text while I am out to ask if the dishes in my dishwasher are clean or dirty! Love her! The kids like her and she is really sweet with the baby, which is the most important thing to us.

Riley and Ashlyn

Sometimes when she comes, she asks if she can bring a friend. I don't mind as long as the kids are taken care of. Since Riley has gotten her drivers license, I see a lot more of her and her friends. There are three of them that are almost always together and recently one more was added to the group.

Emily, Riley and Melissa (missing Sami)

They are good girls with funny personalities. Sometimes, they stop by at lunch time to hang out and eat their food and a few times have stopped by randomly when they are out. This last year, I have gotten to know them pretty well. Sometimes, when Riley is out of town or has something else going, I'll call one of her friends to come babysit.

So, back to my story. Riley was babysitting Friday night with one her friends. Ashlyn went to bed at 8pm, the girls were spending the night at my mom's and Austin and his friend were playing video games. Riley asked if I cared if the other two girls came over and spent the night with her. I didn't care. I just told them not to stay up too late because they had to be ready to babysit in the morning.

We got home around 11:30pm on Friday night. We chatted with them for a little bit and went to bed. We woke up at 4:30am to two sobbing teenager! "Tara! Jason! Tara! Tara!" We sat up, a little confused, and saw them standing at the foot of our bed. There voices were high and scared as they cried, "There was an accident!"

I wasn't sure if I heard them right. "What? What happened? Are you okay?"

Their sobs were more intense as they repeated, "There was an accident! We were in a car accident!"

Downstairs and in the light, we saw Emily sitting on the couch covered in blood. She just kept asking what happened and saying she couldn't remember anything. Riley had blood on her face and arm, but I couldn't really tell where it was coming from.

A million things went through my mind at the same time. A car accident? What time is it again? What happened? Where were you? Really? This has to be a bad dream! Emily looked pretty bad. We needed to get her cleaned up and see how bad it was before we called her mom, which was followed by a chorus of tearful, "please don't call out parents!!!"

As I turned to get a wash cloth for Emily, I suddenly felt dizzy and recognized the familiar feeling of passing out. "Oh this is ridiculous!" I thought. "Seriously? I'm going to pass out?! Nice timing! UG!" I layed down on the floor to try to keep it from happening. Jason asked me where the first aid kit was. I started to sit up and felt the room getting dark around me. I quickly laid back down and thought I was going to throw up. "ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!?!" I screamed in my head. This is awful timing!! These girls need me and I am stuck on the floor! I remembered that when this happened to me when Austin was getting his stitches, they gave me some orange juice and I felt better right away. I asked someone to grab me a drink and within a minute, I could get up. That was so lame!

Later that day, I was trying to figure out why that happened. I had been sick and I woke up quickly, but I don't think that was it. I don't think it was the blood. Blood has never bothered me. It finally dawned on me a few days ago why it may have happened. My body has always reacted really strongly to stress. When Austin split his chin open when he was 6, it was a bloody mess! I went into calm action mode, trying to keep him calm and stop the bleeding. I took him to the hospital to get him stitched up. After he had the shots to numb the area, I told him the stitches wouldn't hurt. He was really nervous and didn't want to have it done, but he trusted me and said he was ready. The needle went in from the bottom and it didn't hurt, but when it came out the top, he screamed. The doctor said for some reason the top didn't get numb and Austin was crying and I almost passed out. It wasn't the blood, it was the stress. He trusted me and I was wrong. I suppose that is good to know about myself, but what terrible timing!! Anybody know what I can do about that? It is really inconvenient!

Back to the crazy wake up call. The next several minutes were filled with several different stories, lots of "I'm so sorry"s, crying, stopping Emily's bleeding and cleaning her up enough to see that she had a two inch gash on her head that was definitely going to need stitches, figuring out that Riley's blood came from small cuts from the glass that had shattered and the discovery of boys! Yes, boys. As I was walking into my kitchen to get a clean rag for Emily's head, I noticed my front door was cracked open. I looked outside and saw one of the girls standing on the side walk talking to two boys! Uh-hu. "Hi... Why don't you guys come inside." Was this seriously happening?One of the girls took this picture on her cell phone after Emily was cleaned up a little bit and we were getting clean rags and looking for the first aid kit. (Which I left in the RV after our last trip. Nice huh?)

So, back in my living room at 5 something AM with 6 solemn faced teenagers and the "real" story about what happened (we were still not sure if we had the whole truth), we got the phone to call Emily's mom. I thought it would be best if she called. As a parent, I think it would be scary to hear that your child was in an accident from someone else. I knew she didn't know what happened, but she called just to tell her she was in an accident and she is okay, but needs to go to the hospital. I talked to her mom for a minute and made sure she knew where we lived. She said she would be right over. Everyone else seemed to be okay and the whole parent thing could wait at least until the until the sun came up.

I wanted to see the car to see how bad the accident was. The car belonged to one of the boys. He said he was driving and felt really bad. They were goofing off and lost control of the car and hit a tree. They didn't want to leave until they knew the girls were okay. As disappointed as I was in the situation, I was impressed with the boys taking so much responsibility and being willing to sit out in the cold for so long just to make sure the girls were okay. They were very apologetic to us and very respectful. It was clear to me that these were good kids and just made a stupid teenage mistake.

We walked out to the car and there was a police car with lights on behind it and an officer looking inside the car with a flashlight. As we approached him and the car, he looked up and became very aggressive! "Who's car is this?" he barked at us. He shined the light up and down the boys and me and realized we didn't look injured. "What happened!? Who is injured?! There is blood in the car! Who else was in the car? I need to see the person who is injured!" He was seriously freaking out!

I told the officer that the person that was injured was in my house and her mom was on her way to get her. Just then, Emily's mom came around the corner. The boys were answering questions and I went in to talk to Emily's mom. As Emily and her mom were getting in the car to go to the hospital, the police officer came running across the street! "You can't leave!! I need to talk to her!" Emily's mom said she just needed to get her daughter to the hospital. Emily didn't remember what happened and she wasn't driving, so they really needed to go.

The officer started to short circuit! He started shouting out numbers into his walkie that is attached to his shoulder and yelling at Emily's mom that he needs her drivers license and wanted to know what hospital they were going to and on and on! I think he had one too many cups of coffee or something.

Another police car came around the corner. I walked over and in my pajamas and awesome bedhead that sort hair does, introduced myself to the new police officer. I told him what had happened and added, "Look, these are good kids. They made a really stupid mistake and they are pretty shook up right now. They are not criminals and they are not trying to get away with anything. The other police officer is being really aggressive. Can you have him just tone it down a notch?" He was really nice and began questioning the boys about what happened.

One of the boys turned to me and said, "Um, I have a confession to make. You know how we told you we hit a tree? Well we did, but it was on the Buchanan campus. I'm sorry we didn't tell you before. Everyone was just really scared that you would guys would be really mad. We should have told you. I'm sorry."

Humm. Okay. How come these boys are more honest with me than my girls? My girls. I think of them as my girls. I feel protective of them and worry about them when they get in little spats with each other or aren't doing well in school. These are my girls that I trust. Who cares if they were on the Buchanan campus? Does that make it really any worse? I suppose it just makes things make a little more sense because something didn't feel right about the whole story. Maybe that was the missing piece. They had this wise idea to drive on the high school campus and got in an accident. Nobody was drinking or doing drugs or anything like that. Okay.

Two more police cars pulled up! Jason had come outside now that Emily was with her mom. "Clovis PD," I said to him with a smile. We love the town we live in and how safe it is. If any little thing happens, the police are all over it. I'm sure this was the most exciting thing that had happened in days.

The car was totalled and not drivable. I'm not sure how they got it back to my house. They boys said Emily just kept saying she wanted them to take her to Tara's house, so they came. I asked the boys if they wanted a ride home when they were done with the police. "It's okay, we can walk. We are really sorry again," they said. It was freezing outside and I wanted to make sure they made it home. I told them it was okay and we would take them home. The officer said they are 18, so when he was done they were free to go with me. I told them to come over when they were done and went back in to talk to the girls.

They were really shook up and looked really worried about Emily. It was after 6AM by now and the girls looked exhausted. Things had calmed down and it suddenly struck me as kind of funny that we weren't going skiing again. We had planned to go so many different times! Riley said she would be totally fine to babysit and I almost laughed. "I don't think so..." Oh well. I was exhausted and I knew that Ashlyn would be waking up in about an hour. "Why don't you guys get some sleep and we can talk about this more later."

Just then, the nice police offer knocked on the door. He said the boys called their parents and a tow truck was on the way. He just wanted to give us an update and let us know that they boys wouldn't need a ride home. We thanked him and he left. One of the boys came over and said he just wanted to apologize for everything and to say thank you for how we handled everything. I asked him how much trouble he thought he would be in. He said a ton, but he was just glad that nobody was hurt worse.

Jason and I went upstairs and got in bed. We laid there talking for a while. I was glad everyone was okay, but I was disappointed in the girls and I still felt like something was off with their story. They didn't want us to tell their parents. Where did we stand with that? Do I think their parents should know? If I was a parent, I would want to know, but what is more important? These girls trust us. I have told Riley before that if she ever finds herself in a situation she shouldn't be in, to call me and I will come and get her. I would rather that she knew she could trust me, so that I can help her, than have things be worse because she didn't know what to do and didn't feel like she could tell her parents. Where does this fall though? It was a car accident when she was supposed to be sleeping at my house! She betrayed our trust. What good would it do her to tell her parents? Jason made a good point that if we told her parents, we would be taking away from her the opportunity to do the right thing. She needs to be the one to tell them.

We stewed on this for a while and finally decided that it was better for Riley to know that she can trust us and give her the chance to make the right choice. If she didn't tell them, would it be the end of the world? Are there things that we have done that our parents never knew about? Of course. Would it have changed anything if they knew? No. I'm sure we would have gotten in trouble, but it wouldn't have changed anything. Change has to come from within. Do I think she would ever do this again? No, but will I check on her if she ever spends the night again? Absolutely, but I'm sure I will find her sound asleep. Will she make other mistakes? Probably, she is a teenager... and I would like it if she had someone to point her in the right direction. For some reason, it is always easier to listen someone who isn't your parent. Will her parents be mad at us for not telling them? Probably, but hopefully they will understand why. I was disappointed that they put me in this position, but it didn't change the way I feel about them. I still love them and they are my girls.

We fell asleep for a little bit before Ashlyn woke up. Jason knew I had been sick and offered to get up with her. What a sweetheart. I got up a little bit later and we had a missed call from our friends who we were supposed to go skiing with. Luckily we decided the night before to drive our own car. They were going up with their kids anyway, so we figured the alone time in the car would be nice. Their message said they were running a little late and had just left. I thought about calling my mom to see if she could watch Ashlyn, but the girls had just spent the night and I know how busy she is. I called Haley and told her I didn't think we were going to make it, but we would try to find a babysitter and would give her a call if it worked out.

We heard the girls up downstairs and went down to talk to them. Sami and Melissa had just left. Their parents had said they needed to be home by 10am. Riley said she was feeling fine, but she still looked worried. She said she was okay and wanted to babysit. Jason and I protested, but she insisted that she was okay and she really wanted to babysit. She felt bad for what happened and didn't want to ruin our day on top of what had already happened. We thought about it for a bit and decided that Ashlyn would go back down for a nap in about an hour and she could go back to sleep then. At that point, we weren't super excited about going skiing, but it was getting silly that we just couldn't make it up the mountain! I think Riley wasn't ready to see her parents anyway, so we figured if we went, it would give her a little more time to think about it.

We packed up our stuff and headed out, double checking that she was really okay. This is a crazy long post, so I will stop here. Part 2 coming soon!

Austin

I can't believe this is my kid! Austin is growing up way too fast for me! It seems like just yesterday he was my baby! Now he is a little guy! Each time I go out to the ranch and watch him ride, I am blown away! This is my cautious Austin! I can't believe he rides so fast and jumps as well as he does!!! It seems like every week he gets better and more confident on his bike.

I want to go out this Saturday with the video camera! I think it would be fun to make a motorcycle movie for him. How cool would you feel being a 10 year old with your own motorcycle and ranch as your playground?! That has to be good for a kids self esteem!

Out of Sync

Do you ever have times where you are just off? Maybe I am looking at it wrong, but I feel sort of out of sync or one beat off.

I think it started last week. The kids went to visit their Grandpa in Modesto to spend some time with Travis' family. (He is still in Iraq.) Jason and I try to take advantage of our time without the kids to just be a couple. My mom agreed to watch Ashlyn for the weekend so we could spend some time together and go skiing. I'm not a great skier but we had so much fun when we went last year, that we were looking forward to going again.

I talked to my mom after the big kids left and she sounded sick. She said she wasn't feeling great but she could still watch the baby. I know my mom well enough to know that she would do anything for her kids. So, I told her I wasn't sure if we were still planning on going and I would let her know. We decided to just hang out and see how she was feeling later on in the evening. She still sounded pretty worn out. We talked about getting a babysitter and still heading up the mountain in the morning, but our regular babysitter was out of town for Christmas. We decided to call one of our other babysitters for the night and just go out around here. It was nice to go out with just the two of us, but we were a little bummed we weren't going out of town for the weekend.

On Saturday, we put Ashlyn down for a nap at my mom's and went out to lunch and did a little shopping. Our friends called and invited us to come up to their cabin in Shaver for the night and hang out with them and another family. We were enjoying just spending time with each other and decided to hang out a little longer and then go home and pack up. When we started packing, we realized that it was a lot of stuff to pack up for one night. We decided to just go up and hang out for the night and come home when everyone was going to sleep and let Ashlyn sleep in her own bed.

We got to the cabin just as Matt and Margaret were already heading out! The roads were icy and she didn't want to be driving late at night. We were bummed that they were leaving, but we were happy to be up there and hang out with Aaron and Haley.

Jason at the cabin

The kids came home Sunday. The next few days are sort of a blur. Jason took the kids to the ranch, but the house was demanding my attention so I stayed home. I thought I would put away Christmas before New Year's Eve, but laundry seemed to be never ending and I am still trying to find homes for the wonderful toys we all got for Christmas. The kids had fun with friends and LOTS of sleepovers.

On one of my trips up the stairs, I noticed spots on the carpet on almost every step. At first, I thought it was chocolate that someone must have stepped in, but then it looked more like jelly and when I last checked, the kitchen was clean. I started to call up to the kids to check their feet, but when I reached the top of the stairs I saw this laying in the carpet.

Ashlyn loves to get into my makeup! I found her covered in lipstick! She had tried to put it on and then stuck her fingers in it! The spots on the stairs were from her coming down to tell me! Once again, the cleaning solution that Jason teased me for buying from a door to door salesman came to the rescue! It got the crayon out of my laundry and now lipstick out of carpet! Totally worth every penny. I just looked at the name and it is called Clean & Simple, for any of you that wanted to know!

I was too afraid of the mess spreading to take any pictures, but here is the little stinker all cleaned up after the lipstick mess. Good thing she is cute huh?

Thanks Aunt Danale for the cute outfit!

One of those nights, like I said- it's all kind of a blur, we were in a small car accident. Jason and I were on our way home from dropping Lauren off at a friends house. We only had Ashlyn with us and we were hit by another car when we were stopped at a stop sign! I was twisted around, trying to hand something to the baby when we were hit. I was pretty sore for a few days, but Jason and Ashlyn seemed to be fine. Our car wasn't hurt , but our trailer hitch went right through the other car's front bumper! Their car was pretty beat up. The guy felt really bad. He was probably 20 and driving his parents BMW! It was pretty foggy and he said he had been driving all day. Poor guy. He was pretty shook up.

Then it was New Year's Eve. We didn't really have plans this year. Riley, our babysitter, was coming over early so Jason and I could go out, but she was going to the New Year's Eve Dance at the church later that night. As we were leaving to meet up with my parents and my brother, Sterling, and his wife, Katie, who were in town, we got a call from our friends who were getting together that night, staying at the cabin and going skiing the next day. Fun!

My mom offered to take the kids over night after we were done eating and I lined up a babysitter for the next day. After dinner, went home and packed up and met up with our friends. They were all talking about the "Fear Factor" challenge they had just done. Lynette put together a bunch of crazy looking stuff to eat for a prize. It sounded really disgusting! It was fun to hang out and bring in the New Year with friends that we love.

We got back to the cabin and ended up staying up until around 4AM! We love to sit around and talk, but we couldn't believe it got so late! I think we would have stayed up all night if Margaret hadn't reminded us that someone had to get up with the kids. Ours weren't there, but we knew the morning would come early!

We were pretty tired the next day and went in circles in the morning about going skiing or not. We finally decided that we were all too tired and our friends would probably miss the cut off time to put their kids in ski school anyway. We decided to hang out around the cabin and go to a near by snow park with the kids and go skiing the next day. Bummer. We didn't bring the kids up the night before because the girls haven't shown any interest in skiing and I wasn't sure I was ready to shell out the money if they didn't care. Austin learned how to snow board, but we thought it would be fun this time to just be us and not be parents for a minute. BUT, I would feel awful playing in the snow without the kids because I know they would love that! I love to watch them when they are excited and happy! Those are the best moments of being a mom.

SO, we decided to head back down the mountain and get the kids. When we got there, we had to pack a million things! Sleeping bags, clothes, snow clothes, diapers and everything that has to come with a babies, get a babysitter for the next day, food for the kids while we were skiing, etc. It was a little crazy and we hadn't had much sleep. We made it back up the mountain just as everyone was getting back to the cabin from playing at the snow park. Our timing had been awesome the last few days! Yes, that was sarcastic. See what I mean? Just one beat off...

The kids still played in the snow around the cabin and couldn't stop saying how beautiful the snow was. It was fun to watch them play, but I felt bad it was already so late and they wouldn't be able to go sledding with their friends.

Jessica

Lauren

Jessica and Lauren

Little Lauren Lou

Austin

I promised them I would bring them back another day. We hung out and looked at pictures from their day at the snow park and watched old episodes old The Office! Jason took some fun pictures of everyone hanging out, but Aaron said he didn't want to be on any one's blog and he is in most of them! :-)Angie, Mike and Matt

The kids had fun playing around the cabin with their friends, but I'm not sure if I was just tired or if the kids were all really crazy! I think some combinations of kids play off of each other. The kids were too rowdy for me to let Ashlyn run around. She was frustrated because she wanted to get down and play, but when I would put her down, another toddler who is going through a phase, would run up and hit her in the face. I was starting to feel a little stuck and I was worried about leaving them with a babysitter so we could go skiing the next day. By bedtime, I was really tired and starting to feel sick. (It had been running through my family all week.) Ashlyn was having a hard time falling asleep with us in the same room and before we knew it, I was arguing with Jason!

Jason teases that we only fight after midnight. He's pretty accurate. Although it wasn't quite midnight this time, but if you figure we only had about 3 hours of sleep the night before... We don't fight very often, but when we do, we are usually both pretty tired and I am usually the grumpy one who starts it. Sorry Honey! Good thing he loves me! Anyway, we decided we really needed to sleep and skiing just wasn't really going to work out-again! So, we packed up and went home. We stayed up way too late making up, but luckily Ashlyn let us sleep in a little the next day.

So how is that for ringing in the New Year!?