Family Ski Trip

The Gorge on the drive to St. George

The beautiful views of St. George, UT

We arrived in Las Vegas on Saturday and made the short drive to St. George, Utah where my brother and his family recently moved.  It was an amazingly beautiful drive!

After meeting up with my brother we headed to Brian Head for a few days of skiing.  It was my first time to ski so I spent the first day in a lesson.  For a holiday weekend, there were surprisingly few people so we got some great runs in over three days.

Derek and I on the lift.  It was incredibly cold
with bitter winds.  With our warm Texas
blood, we couldn't stand to have a single inch
of exposed skin.

Lauren and William love their
Uncle Derek!

Lauren roasted marshmallows for
all of us

Lauren was quite the little skier!  She took
Kid's Ski Camp for two days and did an
awesome job.  I don't know if I've ever seen
her have more fun.

William's best buddy is
his Uncle Chris

William got upset when someone
took candy from his tractor

Lauren Sledding

Derek Sledding

Chris looks like he enjoyed sledding the most

Hanging out with Lauren

Sharing a hot chocolate with William

Derek tried Polygamy, I mean we were in Utah

Derek and I at the Bellagio

  It was a fantastic trip that we are planning to continue for many years to come!  We hope that next year the one missing sibling, John, will be able to make it.

A Barbecue Night Farewell

Barbecue night is a tradition that was started while I was on assignment in Baton Rouge.  Greg and Andrea hosted all of us project folks at their house every Wednesday to grill out, have a drink, and decompress from the stressful times at work.  At the end of the project, I moved back to Houston and Greg and Andrea moved just a few miles away.  We decided that the Barbecue Night tradition had to continue and we found some new friends to join us.

Dave, Abby, and their daughter Catherine hardly missed a single Barbecue Night since we started.  Dave actually missed quite a few while on business trips but we could always count on Abby and Catherine to come.   Dave recently got sent to Joliet, IL on an assignment so we had to have one last celebration before they left. We are really going to miss them!

Abby, Dave, Catherine, Greg, Andrea, Chantal, Mark, Holly, Derek

Dave is known for wearing sarcastic T-shirts, smoking lots of meat, DIY projects, moving heavy objects, and knowing 10x more than all of us about how to fix a car

 We can't forget our two youngest Barbecue Night members!

Emily

Ellie

 We hope Barbecue Night is a tradition we can continue for many years to come!  Maybe we will still be doing Barbecue Night when Dave and Abby return in two years.  We already miss you!