Happy birthday to our little Paigie.  She turned eleven last week but she and I have been under the weather so I am just getting around to posting.  The day before her big day she had two friends stay the night and then we took our kids and Paige’s friends to Denver to the indoor water park.  Unfortunately, Paige was starting to not feel well and she mostly stayed in the hot tub. Thank goodness she took two friends, as they had to keep each other company.  By her actual birthday, she was horizontal on the couch with a fever and cough.  She wanted rainbow pancakes for breakfast and a chocolate cake for dessert but didn’t really feel well enough to enjoy them.

 

She finally went back to school on Thursday and I am now working on peeling myself off the couch.  Ugh, being sick stinks.  Here’s to a better next week!

Jennifer

 

Tomorrow we have to get back to business.  Kids back to school and mom back to work.  It was a fun week just hanging out at home.  Many of our friends headed to warmer places but we decided to hang out here and really enjoy the time off.  We nordic skied, down hill skied with grandpa, went to the movies, ate lunch out, spent time in Colorado Springs, stayed in our jammies all day and relaxed! Looking forward to spring break!  Ha!

I said….Go outside and get some fresh air!  They ran around for a few minutes and then ran back inside to warm up.  We were looking forward to warmer weather in the Springs but it was about the same as home…cold. Obviously, COS didn’t get the memo that we wanted warm weather!

Alice helping grandma make soup for dinner.

Now we are not only back to school but play practice and voice lessons for Alice, karate for Mason (working really hard on his next belt), bike and run training for Sam, Alice and Paige and drum lessons for Paige (she is turning into a little rocker!).

Wow! It is going to be a great spring!

 

Alice and I celebrating after her very first musical audition.  She rocked it and got a part in the Little Mermaid Jr. It was wayyyyy out of her comfort zone and I am so proud of her for working really hard and doing her best!

Alice also worked really hard last semester and made the top honor roll at school.  She was rewarded with double piercings in her ears!

Now that I am old and have to wear glasses, Paige and I are twinsies.  She is most definitely the cuter, younger version:)

We are loving these blue bird ski days for sure!  Family nordic day.

Lunch break after a fun morning of skiing with grandpa at A-Basin.  Another beautiful ski day!

We are so blessed to live in such a wonderful place where we can work hard and play even harder!  Love where you live!

Happy Sunday!

Jennifer

 

Happy 7th Gotcha Day to our Masonator!  Hard to believe that he has been home for 7 years!  We are so blessed by our little bundle of energy:)

This year, I was hoping to do a 40 days of Lent photography challenge.  The kids and I decided a few years ago that it didn’t really work for us to give something up for Lent and instead we try and take something on.  Last year, we tried to do a couple random acts of kindness every Sunday in Lent (and hopefully continue on).  Well, we all know my track record with blog posting so I am going to do my best and hit as many as I can.  The first photo was of ASHES. 

Ashes are ceremonially placed on the heads of Christians on Ash Wednesday, either by being sprinkled over their heads or, in English-speaking countries, more often by being marked on their foreheads as a visible cross. The words (based on Genesis 3:19) used traditionally to accompany this gesture are:

Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Since the only place I might find ashes is in our fireplace and our fireplace almost always has a FIRE in it, my pic of ashes are still a bit hot:)

Happy Season of Lent!

(I promise the next pictures will have grandchildren in them!!)

Jennifer

Today has been a pretty quiet day. We got up and headed to church this morning and the kids have been watching movies for most of the day. Yesterday Sam has his last Nordic race over in Leadville and Alice had her first ever audition for a local musical. She was super nervous but she sang beautifully and got a callback slip after only one song ( she had to prepare for three). I will keep you posted as tomorrow are the callback auditions.

Scott and I got out for a Valentine’s Day bike ride this afternoon. It was so gorgeous with the snow falling.    

 

Happy Sunday!

Jennifer 

---

I love that all my kids adore reading.  What I really love it that Mason is now reading good books.  No more Flat Stanley and Magic Tree House….now we are on to The Twits and The BFG.  So refreshing!

I also love the way Mason holds his book.  With his feet:)

 

Sam and Alice had another nordic ski race this weekend in Steamboat Springs.  We headed up very early on Saturday morning so that we could see them both race.  It was a classic race with an individually seeded start, which basically means they didn’t mass start and we could see each of our kids start and finish.  They both skied well and continue to improve and even more importantly, they both LOVE it!

Alice getting ready to start and (below) pushing out of the start gate.

Sam skiing into the finish.

Mason created this awesome snowman while he was waiting for the kids to finish their races.  There was sooo much snow in Steamboat and it was perfect for packing snowballs and making snowpeople:)

After the races, we took advantage of being in Steamboat SPRINGS and headed out to the Strawberry Hot Springs.  It was a gorgeous drive up to the springs and the amount of snow was so amazing.

I am sure the hot springs felt awesome on those sore muscles!  It actually felt good to all of us!  After we had all officially turned into prunes, we headed into town for a quick lunch before heading home.  It was another great day spent with family and friends.   Back to school and work tomorrow.  We are getting hit with a pretty big storm right now so hopefully we will wake up to a foot or so of snow.  Fingers crossed!!!!!

Jennifer

Mason’s class finished up their science unit today with experiments that they have been researching. Every child researched, planned, wrote about and followed through with a different experiment. One teacher, 15 scientists, 15 different experiments, all working at the same time…wow!

This past weekend the kiddos didn’t have a ski meet so we were freeeeeeeee!  Sam had an awesome day at Keystone with four of his friends.  I love that he is now old enough to ski alone with his buds.  He has fantastic friends and I am very comfortable with leaving them to ski for the day.  Of course, they are fourteen…..so I am sure they are not totally innocent:)   While Scott got some work done, Alice and I went to the middle school to watch Ellie’s basketball game.

In the afternoon, the Young’s dropped their kids at our house and the adults headed to the Frisco Nordic Center for the First Annual Frisco Brewski.  It could not have been a more perfect day! We skied around the nordic center, sampling beer and laughing til we fell down (mostly me).  Scott, of course, crushed us all on skis!  It was a fun day.  Everybody at the brewski dressed in costumes, ranging from Big Bird to Stormtroopers.  Here are a few of the pics taken.

I was slightly outnumbered by these Spartans, but believe it or not, I got more Chippewa call outs!

I think it was the cape:)

Happy Tuesday!  Looking forward to another beautiful day!

To all the moms out there…can I get an AMEN?  Not only does every activity overlap in January but we also have to contend with snow and cold (Brandie, you are one of the lucky ones, my little Cali friend).  Actually, we love the snow but it does add a degree of difficulty when you are jetting from one place to another!  And it has been COLD here.  Last week I was so tired of working out inside that I braved the weather and Rosie and I went for a short nordic ski.  It wasn’t too bad as long as you kept moving!  Thank goodness I started out uphill.

This past week all four kiddos had nordic skiing after school.  Mason had karate and percussion club and Paige had her first basketball game.  I was a driving fool.  Or a fool driving?  Whatever.

Sorry about the awful basketball pictures.  I took them with my phone and those girls won’t stop for a picture.  I can’t imagine why?!?? Paige is #1 in red.

Mason lost his battle with sleep and was out the entire drive to the middle school nordic ski race on Saturday morning. It’s okay because he was just recharging his batteries for the day.  I do have a few pictures of the classic ski races but they are on Scott’s phone and he is currently skiing uphill with Sam and Alice (by headlamp).  Sam really enjoyed his first classic race and skied so well! Alice has improved so much and she had a great race too.

This morning Scott and I got out for a beautiful ski tour on Vail Pass.  It has been snowing here for about three days and the snow if fantastic.  As we skinned up, the snow was up to our knees and coming down was so much fun because it was just so deep!  It was a fun ski date for sure!  We are surely counting our blessing and being able to live in the mountains is definitely at the top of that list!!

Happy Sunday!

Jennifer