in the white & drifted snow

we love the snow. especially in short bursts in the backyard.

ellery could not grasp the difference between the action of snowing versus snow being on the ground. so 50,000 times a day she would look out the window & dreamily announce that it was snowing. it usually wasn't. by the end of the trip we got her to at least differentiate that it was snowing on the ground or snowing in the sky. she also asked if we could go where it would snow at our house. austin said absolutely yes, we'll move right away! :)

austin james is a big bully in the snow. he gets all giddy & acts like a school boy pulling on some pigtails.
         
he buried cocobean alive & while i told him enough was enough, she grinned from ear to ear & laughed her head off. he chased jellybean & chucked snowballs at her & while i told him enough was enough, she grinned from ear to ear & laughed her head off.

this sequence is of him pounding her with an entire snow shovel full of snow, she runs back to toss the tiniest little snow pebble his way & he sprints off & tackles her. they were in heaven.

this was my favorite shot i got with us playing in the snow. look at that little face!! & those dark brown eyes! love it. cousin jack is talked about often with our girlies. we looove him!

skiing

i haven't been skiing since i was 11 or 12 maybe? college in utah lends itself to some excellent chance to go boarding & since that's what austin mainly does, i'd just go with him. grandma néenée watched our babies while the chief & i got to go up on the mountain with the boys.

brian was exceptionally patient when i tagged along on a few runs with everybody else but mainly i had a wonderful time going it solo. never felt like i was holding anybody up & really really enjoyed myself. even made a few 9 year old skiing buddies. haha

the views overlooking the tetons were indescribable.

*for these all being iphone photos i was pretty impressed :)

december days

december before cmas was a blast in it's own right.

busy but fun busy. well that's not entirely true. austin did a lot of homework. so not so fun busy for him. :)

holidays in hawaii

happy thanksgiving & happy birthday to austin from maui!

hodgman hawaii fam pics

dad's remote on his camera wasn't working so we literally asked some early morning joggers to take the picture. she stood as far from the tripod'ed camera as possible & held down the button. i thought it was a pretty great success. haha

i love my family. mostly my dad is the photographer but now that we all have awesome cameras, we are trying to learn from the master. which means he actually makes it into a shot or 2. :)

classic kathryn & stephanie being ridiculous. & luke tearing after us is pretty priceless.

grandkid pics: 5 kids barely 6 years old & under is a hard audience. they would NOT stand in the order we wanted them. haha

 but if they're not the cutest kids ever, i don't know what's what! :)

ka'anapali

the sunrises

not as many shots of the sunrises, not all were up that early. :)

the ocean

most  days the ocean was warmer than the pools so we preferred it.

the beans could have floated in that water all day if we'd let them.

do you see the gigantic turtle head?

the pools

the pools were epic. just completely incredible! 

a tad cold for us to stay in forever so there were continuous trips to one of the many hot tubs. :)

the hotel (marriott ocean club)

the town (lahaina) 

the sunsets

thank you SO much gramvi & g'pa hodgman for our family trip to paradise. :)

¡5 years today!

i do not like to gush too much. we are the best of friends & both glad it's our 5 year anniversary & that should be enough. but really if it's only every 5 years i can surely say...
how he is exceptional in the ways i need.

he makes my sides hurt from laughing almost every single day.
(maybe that's more a testament to me needing to do more sit ups than austin's hilarity...)

he works harder than you can possibly imagine.

he can drive me insane but another woman would lynch him so we're a pretty great fit.

he thinks i'm more awesome than i am & loves me

& oh how i love him.

i used hawaii pics so you can have a glimpse. still getting the blogger picture thing sorted...

blogger

so i can't blog. like i cannot blog. apparently i have reached my image quota for blogger?? first time i've heard there was such a thing. am i alone here?

therefore i am at a crossroads. i am disinterested in paying for more picture storage.
do i make these ramblings into a little blurb book & then wipe out the last few years of posts to make room? i've thought about making my blog private to literally everyone & just using it as my own reference but i'm outta room either way. feeling kind of cornered. haha such concerns i have...

what to do?