The Garzquists: December 2012

Warning: Lots of photos with small, intermittent paragraphs of text.

During December we got another really great snowstorm, so we definitely had to go play in it with Sophie. Despite the fact that her little feet get snowballs all over them (she Houdinis her way out of her booties, so those are useless), she LOVES playing in the snow. We also snuggled on the couch with the kitties a lot. They are destroying their new-ish scratching post, but it seems to keep Cosmo from destroying my Ikea chairs as much as he used to. Sophie got a new collar for Christmas (as she does every year). This time I got her a pretty purple/pink/green one in the hopes that people at the dog park will stop calling her "buddy".

We are loving this fluffy stuff, can't you tell?

So is Sophie

Dustin slipped and fell in the snow, but he saved his coffee!

Sophie bit at snowballs that Dustin threw at her for a bit.

She explored a lot.

And then she played with her daddy some more...

Sophie's pretty new collar

Those poor, snowball-ridden feet

I worked Christmas day, but we drove up to Idaho the following Thursday night. We spent Friday in Pocatello with Randy & Teresa and decided to make use of their fresh snow by going sledding. I think that Sophie and Sampson had just as much fun as we did; they kept chasing us up and down the hills.

On Saturday we headed up to Ashton for festivities with my family. Britni and Jeremy had Tate and Camille for the holiday, and it was really fun to have all the cousins together. We had an Italian feast at my parents' house. We had most of the family together (we were only lacking Sean, Macy & Markus in New Orleans and Krysta & Jake) and it was fun to have a VERY full house. Of course I left my phone in the other room, so I have one photo from our trip to Ashton.

Juniper, Camille, Charles and Anthony playing with their technology, but still bonding.

We headed back to Pocatello on Sunday and hung out their until early Monday afternoon. We went sledding again and got to hang out with Taylor and Athena. We also got to meet their new fur-baby Reginald. He was so adorable and energetic! Sophie, of course, did NOT like him at all because he took everyone's attention away from her! He did coax Kieko into playing with him a bit. All the dogs had great fun outside in the snow, because they discovered that they could chase little Reggie all around. Fortunately for Reggie, he is a smart little boy and could get away!

We dropped Britni off at the SLC airport Monday afternoon and then made preparations for a New Year's Eve party at our house. We had Kyle, Cody, Beth, Josh, Natalie & Oliver, and Trevor, Jessie & Audrey over for some food and general chatting since we don't get together nearly enough. Despite Oliver and Jade having a bloody confrontation (note to self: next time, trim kitties' claws before curious toddlers arrive), the night was a success and we had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone. On New Year's Day, we went snowshoeing with Cody and Beth in Summit Park, which was also a lot of fun. I was excited to break out the snowshoes for the season.

Getting Cody's ski skins undone for the first time of the year took a bit of time

What a gorgeous view!

We had another wonderful snow in the beginning of January that we took advantage of, but in general, January had been full of work and yucky inversions. Sophie is going a bit stir-crazy during the week since we've been staying indoors due to the pollution. Therefore, we've been doing a lot of watching t.v. (mostly football and rediscovering Stargate) snuggling to start off our new year. I'm waiting for another good snowstorm before I break out my skis.