In February I flew to Arizona to visit my good friend, Adrianne. She and her family bought a house on our cul de sac the same time we did and we hit it off right from the start. In many ways she is the friend that keeps me sane. They moved to AZ two years ago so we decided it was time for a visit. It was so awesome to talk and talk and talk and to see the sun and palm trees in the middle of winter. I used to make fun of the people who went to Hawaii in the middle of January for a pick me up, but now I get it! It truly was a pick me up.

Adrianne took me to all kinds of cool places and we barely scratched the surface. I never thought I would find Phoenix beautiful, but I did! I would love to go back. We finished off my fun trip at my favorite restaurant-only found in big cities-Maggiano’s! Sorry, Meldrum boys, you’ll have to share Adrianne with me now on a yearly basis! 😉

In March Rock and I traveled up to McCall for a ski weekend getaway in the mountains. I was finally good enough at skiing to tackle Brundage Ski Resort. We stayed at the legendary Shore Lodge which I have wanted to do forever! It was beautiful and romantic and Brundage was awesome!

I worked hard to be able to take this picture. I skied every week all winter to be able to be good enough to get up here. It was scary a lot of the time, but I am proud of the progress I made this year. I actually cried tears of joy my first time down a blue run I was so elated! I bought myself skiis and boots to celebrate! I can’t wait for next year!

Some people go to warm places for Spring break, but when your spring break is the middle of March, you go skiing! We took the three kids who like to ski up to Brundage for a day of skiing. It was really fun to be able to go on so many of the runs with the kids. They are usually bored with my level but right now Libby and I are at about the same level. She is a little braver and goes down faster than I do, though. It was a great day and an awesome way to end the season.

Some wanderings closer to home this winter were Libby’s first time at the temple,

And her Half Birthday date at Joe’s Crab Shack.

Cade went to the Sweethearts dance

Liberty had her winter ballet recital. She has graduated to 2 days a week and two dances at the recitals.

Before I wrap up this post, I have one more story to tell. Liberty might prefer I leave this out, but it is a story she will remember for the rest of her life, so I have to immortalize it on the blog. You might have noticed that Liberty’s hair is rather short in many of the pictures in this post. Well, when I was just getting back in the car after eating dinner at Maggiano’s in Phoenix I got a phone call. All I could hear were sniffles and tears on the other end of the phone. Liberty was calling to tell me that her attempt at a shorter haircut had failed-miserably. She was hysterical. She had wanted to cut her hair a little shorter than normal, and her barber, Rock, obliged. He tried to dissuade her from going too far, but she was excited to try something new and so they kept cutting. I felt so bad. There was nothing I could do from AZ. I wouldn’t be home before church the next day to help her do it so she wouldn’t be mortified. Sigh. She survived, of course, but alas, it is something all women have to experience at least once in their life. She hated it so much, she refused to wear anything but pigtails for 2 months straight. Once it got long enough she was able to get it all curly for the first time ever and was much happier. It’s been a long winter, though.