Hello 2022 / Nelson Notes

Hello 2022

1.07.2022

We welcomed the New Year with so much snow, ice, and wind, that the boys had two extra days off from school to play! They went to school Monday (the roads were terrible) but then school was canceled Tuesday and Wednesday. They played hard outside both days doing what boys do best: making precarious sledding choices (i.e. running into a pile of logs or sage brush) and getting soaking wet. But I prefer that over dealing with their pent up obnoxious energy inside the house. There was also a lot of Nintendo those two days too.

While they played at the neighbor's house one afternoon, I strapped Ezra into the hiking backpack and we went snowshoeing down in Little Cottonwood Creek. I was the first to make tracks and thoroughly enjoyed watching the dogs bound through the snow ahead me. It was so quiet! Everything was blanketed in a soft thick layer of snow as snowflakes drifted down from the sky. A true winter wonderland! I often stopped to just listen to the birds and Ezra's soft breathing behind my ear; he was mesmerized too.

As a family, we made up our list of goals for the year: some spiritual, physical, intellectual, and social. Jed decided he wanted to read 100 books this year! That's two books a week, but he devours books, so I think it's a possible goal. I printed out some sheets for everyone to fill out and they're now hanging in the kitchen for everyone to see. But just a few days in, I'm thinking I might need to revise or add on to a few of mine!

So that's where we're at. Yesterday we jumped back into the full swing of things. Dinner before 5pm. Levi and Conrad went to wrestling practice and Jed had swim team at the same time. I took down all the Christmas decorations earlier this week and have been busting out my to-do list of laundry, cleaning, and organization. Here we go, 2022!

But before I sign off I want to remember two things that we did over Christmas break:

First, we took the kids bowling. It took us three tries to get there because of the snow storm, but the third time was a charm. It was so much fun watching Jed and Levi learn a new skill! The boys are at these great ages (All except Ezra, of course. He's a tornado of a toddler.) where they're enthusiastic about learning new things and want to hang out as a family. We definitely need to go again this winter.

Second, we took an afternoon to drive out to Banbury Hot Springs. It was a stressful drive for Bron, but we arrived without incident, and it was worth it! The hot pool is outdoors and was steaming so much that we couldn't see more than a third of the way across the pool. It was snowing too! Absolutely magical. Conrad practiced jumping in and swimming back to the side. Ezra happily clung to me and whatever toys he could get his hands on. We even had a few family dares to roll in the snow and hop back in! Levi gladly accepted that challenge at least four times. The best memories and I didn't bring a camera.