Cookie Time

Tis the season! 

Girls Scout cookie season is one of the most exciting and dreaded times of the year.  Exciting because the cookies are delicious and Ellison loves selling them.  Dreaded because Ellison only loves to sell them for the first hour...

 then she enlists her brother...

 and her friends...

 and then after the second hour of cookie selling, it is left to her mom.  By the way, the Mom (that's me) ends up eating her weight in cookies, selling them to anyone that will take them, and then eating more cookies while consoling herself with wine.

Winter Park Ice Rink - Almost Made It

 Well I almost escaped the Winter Park Ice Rink this year.  It was not until the last skate session of the season that the Clark Family made it to the rink.  I was so, so close... which would have been amazing.

The kids had a blast, but there is something about the process of putting on the skates, holding your kids up, as you slowly crawl around the rink that makes me hope next year will be the year.  The year that we miss this experience all together.  I am ok with that.

Future Attorney

We start them early at my office.  Mr. Reid joined me for a brief day at the office.  He comes from lawyer genes, so this could be his future.

Starting off the New Year right... SNOW

 Luckily we didn't pull out these fabulous snow suits for no reason!  I mean notice the snow suit Ellison is wearing... pure 1980s.  I happen to know this for a fact because it was mine!

The minute we found a large patch of ice on the ski slopes, we pulled over.  We were then followed by every Tahoe that passed by the same patch of ice.  It was rather funny... line of Tahoes filled with snow deprived Floridians.

We then decided to sled down a patch of grass... basically. Can you see the amount of snow?  The kids ended up covered in mud. However, the three of us laughed and had a blast. 

Luckily that night they blew snow, so we were able to enjoy a snow covered sled run.  Woot woot!

They had so much fun. The Clark cheered and laughed.  The Beaman, Laydens, and Rios clans looked the other way and wished for the best.  

Olivia preferred to watch, but she did try it.

These two... I love them.  They have so much fun together and know how to laugh.

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Ice skating! 

A Snowless NC

So what happens when you arrive to North Carolina on December 26th and its HOT!  Well as you will see, we still had a blast.

December 26th - Beech Mountain
Can you tell its unusually warm?

Dylan and I went on an antler hunt. We had so much fun avoiding deer, bunny, and bear skat.

After an unsuccessful antler hunt, Grandpa met us down the mountain to show us the property lines.  The boys enjoyed throwing sticks over the cliff... oh boys!

Can you see the deer?

Photobombing the deer.

We love our cozy little cabin. Lots of cuddle time.

The good news!  Successful worm hunts :)

Hey Dylan, you are looking a little heavy!  To many holiday sweets? Nope, just rocks... lots of rocks. 

Strike a pose.

Did we mention Reid was in NC?  So much fun!

Happy Birthday to Grandma. A one of a kind dessert made by yours truly and decorated by Ellison and Dylan. 

Happy New Year! Konked out... to bad it was only 6 pm!

Hot Christmas and the Big Guy

Don't you love Christmas - family, presents, 90 degree weather.  Oops, that last part is not supposed to be part of Christmas!  Despite hot temperatures, lack of fires, and the absence of cider and hot chocolate, we had a fabulous holiday with family.

We even had a bit of excitement on Christmas Eve with Santa.  As always, we spent a wonderful Christmas Eve at my parents house and left in time to make it home and in bed before Santa's arrival.

The only problem was that Graham and I had a bed covered in laundry.  As we were folding clothes around midnight, we heard a commotion.  Ellison had woken up! She had heard noises! We peaked down the hallway and could see a few presents under the tree.  Alarms went off in our heads as we realized that we may all get caught... we were awake while Santa was at our house.  We threw the laundry off the bed, jumped into it, and turned off the lights.  We could hear Santa talking to Ali and heavy feet on the roof.  Luckily we were not caught by the big guy... it was very exciting!

Ellison and Dylan had a wonderful Christmas.  As always our family spoiled them and Santa surprised them with a few things from their wish list and a few items that were not.

It's an Ackley Christmas

I am a tad bit late in posting about our Ackley Christmas.  However, I can't bear to skip it. Especially when we captured the whole crew together and it did not involve awkwardly attempting to get all of us on a spiral staircase while a few of us (not me) freak out about it potentially falling to our demise. 

Ackley Christmas was great! We all had a wonderful time visiting with each other.