Four snowboarders and a cute little skier

For Christmas this year Joel and Holly gave our family tickets to go snowboarding up at Lost Trails in Montana, about 45 minutes away from Salmon. Mace and Taylor have been snowboarding for a few years now and Lance is awesome, so Alyssa and I decided it was our turn to learn.


Paige, Taylor, Mason, Sedonna, Leah, and Lysa. Ty was sick, so he spent the whole day in the lodge.


The last time I actually snowboarded was about 13 years ago when Lance and I first got married, and I went a couple of times and that was about it. I went skiing when I first had Taylor and tore my ACL and after that winter sports just didn't appeal to me anymore!! I decided that since Alyssa was old enough to go now that I needed to buck up and go again.

We headed over to the bunny hill to practice for a little bit and Lance strapped Alyssa into the snowboard and she started bombing it down the hill and she got to the end and crashed. She said she was hungry and wanted to go back to the lodge. Not a good first time experience for her. She told me that she didn't want to snowboard anymore so we put her in her cousins skis and Holly taught her how to ski and she did WONDERFUL! By the end of the day she was going down the hill by herself.

I didn't mind the bunny hill, except for that dang tow rope!! The first time I held on and went up with no problem but the second time it got the better of me!! Seriously that was harder than learning to snowboard. After practicing for a while I told Lance I was ready to hit the hill, but when we got on the lift we kept going and going and I kept seeing harder runs and moguls and I was just praying I wouldn't fall of the lift (I don't think screaming while getting on the lift was very helpful either!) Joel told the lift operator I was coming so they slowed it down a little for me so I wouldn't hurt small children or Lance while getting off. I don't think I did too bad, but the boys had to wait a little for me. I was just so amazed how awesome all of my boys were on the hill! I was even getting a little teary eyed of how proud of them I was!


This kid is AMAZING!! I was sitting in the lodge watching the boys come down the hill and I was feeling a little bad that Mason was always behind Taylor, and then all of the sudden Mason comes bombing it out of the trees doing these two huge jumps and landing them! Here I was thinking that he was a little behind in skill level, but nope he just wanted to take a different way to catch some air!



Taylor is an all-around athlete, good at everything he does, and snowboarding is no exception! Mace and Tay were so cute when we went on a run, they kept giving me pointers and telling me I was doing a good job, even when they had to wait for me. I told them they were better teachers than their dad.


Hanging at the bunny hill. My favorite story of the day is when we first got up to the snow hill. We were all getting our stuff ready to go when Mason realized that he left his coat back in Salmon. We all laughed, really you forgot your coat??? He ended up wearing mine and Lance had an extra jacket that I wore. Mason will never live that one down!


Lance and Joel, Lance snowboards and Joel skis, they went on a lift that took 18 minutes just to get to the top! The mountain had seven inches of powder from the night before so these two had a blast!!

Finally Done!

This post is just for me...

I am finally a college graduate with my BS (Bachelors of Science) degree in Psychology. It has taken me such a long time to do this, but it has been something that I have REALLY wanted to do for myself. My next goal is to get my Masters and possibly PhD, which might be another 5 years to accomplish. I am so grateful for a helpful husband and children so I could be away from home some nights, study instead of play (which Lysa would actually help me with my flashcards), and not be a very good housekeeper or cook.

I started a new job doing PSR (psychosocial rehabilitation) work which I must say my very first day I wanted to quit and didn't think I could handle or stand the smells or mess that I saw. After processing the first day and having a heart-to-heart with my supervisor, who knows I was having a tough time, I came to realize that it might be hard and some days flat out suck, but we are all people and some of us might need more help than others. I just need to treat them how I would want to be treated or how I would want someone to treat my kids.

This is my second week now and I am liking my job more than the previous week and I love working with the kids, which I actually thought I would like the adults better, so I guess it is a good thing I am going into School Psychology. Kids give me hope, hope that I might be able to do something tiny to help them. I know they will teach me patience and give me insight to help me later on with my School Psychology career.

Enough of my ramblings, but I do feel lucky to be able to find this job while Lance is looking for another one. I am still doing transcription for MountainStar as well as transcribing for a couple of other doctors that I picked up on the side. I am very busy lately and feeling guilty that I am away from home a lot! This puts a damper on my running and working out schedule, but I would rather spend time with my family and time is a precious thing to me right now.

Christmas 2010

This year for Christmas we headed to Lance's parents house in Buhl. We got there Christmas Eve and played the present game where we each pick a number and then take turns picking a present and if you like someone else's present you can take it. I was at the end so I traded presents with Alyssa (who got a 12 pack of chili) so she could pick again. The boys ended up with some model airplanes, Lysa ended up taking the scrapbook paper, Lance got a fly fishing pole and case, and I got the chili. Karen said that she had an extra surprise and that she put some extra money in someones present. Everyone was really excited and started opening their presents looking for the money, we found it in the box with the chili! Karen said whoever picked the chili was very practical and thus they got the money.

We finally got the kids to bed and then set everything out for the next morning. We got to bed around 12:30, and around 3:00 I could hear the boys upstairs sneaking around. I went up around 6:00 and found Taylor looking through all the presents under the tree. We eventually all got up around 7:00 and started opening presents.

Mason got a Stereo with CD player and play for his iPod, a Snap Rover robot, plants versus Zombies, some games, and grandma and grandpa got him a big lego crane set. It took him about 5 hours to put this together on Christmas day.






Taylor got an iPod touch, some apps downloaded on it, case, screen cover, a watch, some games, and the crane lego set from grandma and grandpa Cannon. Taylor was my favorite on Christmas, he has wanted the iPod touch forever and even saved up money to get it, but I had already bought it this summer, so I had to convince him for five months to try to wait and maybe Santa would bring it to him. Needless to say, he was so excited Christmas morning!




Lysa got an American Girl doll with reddish curly hair, earrings, some outfits, a barbie scooter, and a ton of craft supplies and projects from Grandma and Grandpa Cannon. We had to bring home all of her craft stuff in a Tupperware container. She gets very spoiled by Grandma.





Lance got the best present of all, the kids wrote him cards and said, "Mom said it was okay for you to hang up your mountain goat (that is at the taxidermist right now) INSIDE the house(and not in the garage) when it gets done! He also got some stuff from his dad like the fly fishing pole and accessories and some money to get some new waders and boots. He gets spoiled by his dad too, which I am grateful for.

I got a Camp Chef, from Lance and the kids, which I have been wanting for camping. I also got some gift cards from Karen, some kids books which I can use for work, and a tied dyed sweatshirt that Karen said she saw and knew I would love.



Our favorite Christmas present that we received this year was from my parents, they gave us a pool table. We actually got it the week before Christmas and we have been having so much fun with it. Thanks Mom and Dad!


We had a great Christmas and are looking forward to doing some snowboarding soon with the passes that Joel and Holly got our family for Christmas (they said it was the only way they could bribe me to come to Salmon).

Christmas Tree

This is our biggest Christmas Tree yet! They never look that big when you are cutting them down. Lance and I had an adventure just trying to get the Christmas tree back to the cabin. We cut it down and then McGuyver (Lance) whipped off his snow pants belt (he was even willing to use his shoelaces)and tied the tree to the snowmobile and we started back. On the way back, we we got stuck on a hill (which we both fell off the snowmobile), the snow pants belt broke and we lost the tree. The tree was dragging so much snow with it that it kept slowing us down and if we stopped we would get stuck (which we did!!) I told Lance that I would turn around backwards and hold onto the tree, but that wasn't going to work either. We finally went back to the car got rope and tried it again. We just had fun the two of us looking for the tree. The kids were back at the cabin just playing in the snow.


We were happy that we could actually hang ornaments on the tree this year. Last year they would just fall off. They usually fight on who gets to put the star on the top, but this year it was so tall that Lance ended up doing it.


After we decorated and got all cleaned up we played some Uno to end the night. We are all so excited that it is Christmas time!!

Happy Halloween!

Mason told me he wanted to be a clown so I found a cute clown outfit, but he wanted to be a scary clown (I think clowns are scary enough as is) with scary make-up, but I am not a make-up artist and had no idea how to do that so he got happish clown. Lysa was happy being Hannah Montana and she kept begging to wear bright red lipstick (she also begged to wear it everyday to Kindergarten too). She eventually settled for lip gloss and some blush. Taylor (disco man) cracked me up the whole time we were out trick or treating. He kept saying, "Mom everybody is laughing at me." I tried to explain that it was a good thing and that they thought his outfit was funny and cool. Right as soon as we got home he went in and took it off and that was that! He told me that next year he wanted to be something scary. I didn't get a picture of Lance, but he was dressed up as Bret Michaels from Poison, mullet and bandanna, he had a good time rockin' that outfit! We had a great Halloween with way too much candy!


Seriously, how is this not the cutest 70's outfit ever! I tried to make him take off the shirt underneath, but he didn't like chest bearing look! I also tried to show him some disco moves, he was just too cute and laughed at me and said no way!


Cute Hannah Montana. We think she looks like our neighbor's little girl with this wig on.


Mason the clown, he can also make some balloon animals and swords. I think Mace liked this costume, especially the nose!

Conversation with Taylor

We have been talking a lot about teeth lately in our family with Mason having to get two teeth pulled, Lance breaking his front middle tooth, and Taylor getting his braces off. This is a conversation that I had with Taylor today.

Taylor: "Mom, when do I get my spirit teeth?"
Mom: "What are spirit teeth?"
Taylor: "You know, the ones that grow in the middle of your mouth."
Mom: (Me laughing!) "You mean wisdom teeth?" "They grow in the middle of your mouth?"
Taylor: "Oh, ya wisdom teeth. You said once that they grow in the middle of your mouth."
Mom: (at this time I am really laughing hard trying to answer him) "Tay, I said that once when I was little I had a tooth that was growing in the middle of my mouth and they pulled it forward..."

I guess he has a memory like I do. I still think to this day that my grandpa got the Silver Purple Heart (which apparently was really a silver beaver of some sort) and that my dad ran marathons all the time (he ran all the time just not marathons). My mom laughs at my childhood memories and what I came up with. Hey, apparently I had a happy childhood full of false but happy memories that I created.

We no longer have wisdom teeth in the Cannon household, we now have Spirit Teeth!!

First day of school

What little cheese balls! What a cold rainy morning to start the first day of school. We are starting earlier this year and so they catch the bus around 7:40 a.m.


Mason is in 6th grade and his teacher is Ms. Moore. He said he is excited to do some math and hang out with his friends. I am in denial that he is in 6th grade and next year he will start middle school.


Taylor is in the joined 4th and 5th grade (really 4th grade for him). His teacher is Mrs. Jenkins, which I love and I know he will do a fantastic job like always. His teachers always tell me that Taylor is perfect, I couldn't agree more! Mason and Taylor are also excited to be in the robotics club again and do a competition in November.


Alyssa is in 1st grade and her teacher is Mrs. Walker. I am going to miss Lysa this year as I am used to her always being with me. I already did it, I was driving and I turned to talk to her and she wasn't there, my heart sank a little as I know she is growing up.