Once There Was A Snowman

After the Isoms left and Bowman time was drawn to a close, we decided to make the most of the 2 remaining days of Ryan's time off work. Disneyland was out of the questions (that was a joke... every time Ethan gets in a 'no' mood, we ask him if he wants to go to Disneyland... it works most of the time).

On Friday we drove toward Payson looking for snow. We headed out around 11:30, stopped for gas (under $20... wahoo!), and enjoyed the drive to Payson with a sleeping child. All of the excitement finally caught up to him. As we neared Payson, Ethan woke up and we stopped at McDonald's for a bite to eat and some time at the Play Place. Addy and Ethan didn't have any gloves, so we stopped at the local Walmart to outfit ourselves in some protective gear.

We knew that there was snow near Show Low, so we headed East and found snow up on the rim before Heber. There were several cars pulled off to the side of the road in various areas, but we continued on to a turn off that went back a ways. There were lots of people parked along the road, despite the signs that said not to. We followed along and found a choice spot.

We bundled up Ethan and ourselves and headed on into the snow. It wasn't fresh, so it was a little icy. However, there was a lot of it. The first few steps we took, we found ourselves sinking into the snow to our knees (except for Ethan who was being carried by Ryan). We were laughing hysterically... ha... a bunch of Arizona city kids in snow! We found a nice area and started building our snowman. We quickly learned that a shovel would come in handy and Ethan just stood around watching his parents attempt to build something that he had seen in pictures. We tried to get Ethan to gather some sticks for arms, but he didn't want to move. Addy saw some candidates about 100 ft away and headed toward them. As she approached she sunk into the snow down to her crotch... brrr!

Eventually, we made a base and decided to shape our frozen creation. We brought some things to decorate the man with; carrot, hat, make shift scarf, and buttons. Ethan especially enjoyed this part... almost like a Mr. Potato Head, but colder. We took some pictures and Ryan wanted to get a family shot. By the time he collected bark to set the camera on, Ethan was finished. We traumatized him further by taking the accessories off of our snow man. We had to find replacement parts to calm down the frozen toddler before we could say our goodbyes.


We drove back to the Valley, stopped to get some dry socks for Addy, and headed to Red Lobster for dinner. Stay-cations mean that we get to pass on making dinner when we want to... it worked. After getting a tired tot in bed, Ryan and Addy watched The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian on Blu-Ray. We were relieved that we didn't let Ethan watch it... it was much more violent than the first.

On Saturday we thought that it might be fun to go see a movie - something we enjoy doing. We went to San Tan Village and grabbed lunch at Panda Express in the Food Court. Ethan likes the Chow Mein and calls it Shifu Noodles (from Kung Fu Panda). After lunch, we walked down to the Disney Store and Play Place hoping to get some energy out of Ethan before the show.

We decided to go see Bedtime Stories and thought that Ethan might sit through this live action movie that seemed to be constantly changing from the previews. Not so. It didn't keep his attention and he had to leave a few times. The movie was so, so... but, we may think differently after seeing the whole thing uninterrupted.

Ethan had a hard time making it back to the car and insisted that he didn't want to go home. He even scratched and dented the truck next to our car... lovely. We left our contact info and went home to put a little boy down for a much needed nap. After a good sleep, we packed up again and headed all the way to Scottsdale for some good, authentic Mexican food at El Torito. Since Ethan had a nap and was in good spirits, we decided to go to Deseret Book to look at some board books for Ethan. He got some cash for Christmas and found a A to Z Noah's Ark book and a magnetic Toy Story kit.

It was a short time, but we had a lot of fun. Were adjusting to having a quieter house and are working on getting better. Ryan is finally feeling better, Ethan is still coughing but sounds more like himself, and Addy's nose has started running... just in time for Ryan to go back to work.