Family winter weekend getaway

The Mama misses winter something fierce, so with Brad having a few weeks off in between jobs, we decided to take a winter weekend getaway. I had found a charming cottage in Prescott through Groupon Getaways, and so last Friday, we loaded up and headed out. HOWEVER, when we arrived, charming went out the window and was quickly replaced with DISGUSTING. It was a "renovated" roadside motel (at best) and after about 15 minutes in our "cottage" we decided we had to bail, even if we weren't going to get our money back. (To be clear, I found ants crawling on Ellie after she'd been on the floor for a few minutes, the appliances were circa 1967, and there were some shady people hanging on their back "porches". Yikes.)
Because we had Penny with us, our options were fairly limited. We considered finding a pet-friendly hotel in the heart of Prescott, but it felt dumb to spend upwards of $130 a night when we were only an hour from home. Then Brad remembered that his friend, Patrick Paul, had mentioned that if we were ever interested, we could use his "cabin" in Flagstaff. Since we were already halfway to Flagstaff, Brad decided to text him and see if it was available. Thanks be to the Pauls - he simply wrote back "YES!" and the address. Saved.
When we arrived in Flagstaff, we were a little shocked to find not a "cabin", but rather a 2500 square foot, finished and perfected to the gills, snow-covered trees view for days, HOUSE. It was all we could have asked for and more. We spent the remainder of the weekend with a roaring fire, watching elk walk by out back, enjoying downtown Flagstaff, and just loving our getaway time together. What a perfect weekend.

SNOW!!!

Dada's a sucker. Saw this monkey in a store, handed it to E, and then asked her if she liked it. She nodded, and he said, Okay, let's get it! Hilarious.