There isn’t much to say except that I do take some pictures with my phone.  The kids take about a 1000 times more but those are usually weird selfies with funny graphics.  Here are a few pics I snapped from the good ole’ I Phone.

Sam wasn’t excited to see Star Wars….at all.

It’s been a little bit chilly around here.  We’re hoping it warms up.  Soon.

The selfie stick is pretty fun.  Rosie even got in on the excitement.

Scott and Sam in their first uphill Skimo race.  Go up, ski down, go up again, ski down.  Go up….well, you get the point. And they do this at 7 am on a Tuesday morning!

Mason and mama waiting on the others after a long day of skiing at A-Basin.  He is still smiling and that is so good!

 

We had our first middle school nordic ski race yesterday.  It was ridiculously cold (like 18 degrees cold) and blowing.  Sam has decided to race nordic this year instead of racing alpine, which has made our life soooo much easier.  Because most of the alpine/downhill races are on Fridays, Sam was missing a lot of school and schoolwork. He made the choice to focus on his academics.  He is still learning to skate ski so he didn’t finish as well as he would have hoped.  Alice had an okay race but her fingers and toes were frozen by the time she finished and let’s just say that she wasn’t a happy camper.  Overall, it was a fine first start to the season.  I am praying for a warmer next race!

Alice’s final push into the finish.

The middle school boys start.  Sam is in that group of boys.  Spandex and below freezing temps don’t mix well!

We came home and warmed up by the fireplace.  After dinner, we headed back out into the frozen tundra for (my favorite day of the year) the Spontaneous Combustion.  The day each year that the town of Frisco burns everybody’s Christmas trees in an enormous bonfire.  The town ends the night with fireworks.  Love it!!!

Happy Sunday!

Jennifer

 

 

Hey Everybody!

It has definitely been awhile since I have been here writing.  I apologize to my family and friends who like to follow along with our life and happenings.  I decided to take a break before the holidays for a few reasons but mainly because I was just getting tired.  This was the first holiday season in 14 years that I was working out of the house during the day, five days a week.  It was most definitely an adjustment for me.  I didn’t feel like I had the time to get anything done well.  With that thought in mind I made the decision to give up a few things that traditionally I had done in the past (i.e. Christmas cards) and make time for some things that I could get done and do them without resentment or stress. So, this blog got dropped for a couple months and that is okay.  I have been writing on and off here since 2008.  Recently, Alice and I went back and read all the post from the very first until now.  We laughed and I cried too.  Of course, I mainly have focused on all the fun and adventurous things we have accomplished over the years but there were some hard moments in there too.  Overall, we realized that we are so blessed to be living this full and awesome life!  We have seen and done amazing things, even if you count numerous trips to the zoo, hikes and school events.  Thanks for reading and waiting on me.  I think I am back:)  Maybe not quite as often, but back nonetheless.  Happy reading.

Pretend this was our Christmas card…Sam (14), Alice (12), Paige (10) and Mason (8)

 

We had a wonderful December.  It started out a bit stressful but ended with a lot of relaxation and much needed time off.  Thank you to my parents, who could see that Scott and I (but mostly me) needed a break and time to finish some last minute shopping, took the kids to their house for a few days.  They had so much fun.  They ate out, went to the zoo, watched Christmas movies and ate more meat and dairy than I care to know about:)   I am going to give you the December highlights in pictures.  Enjoy!

So, the selfie stick might have been the gift of the year at our house.  Instead of giving presents, we decided to have a cousins tubing afternoon and it was such a good decision!  Mason (of course) was the ham star of the winter program at school.  This year, we bought our tree but hopefully next year we can continue the annual Christmas Tree hunt.  The Werschkys braved the tourists and came to Frisco. We had a wonderful day celebrating…including ice-cream and Elf.  Mostly, we stayed in our jammies, read lots of books, threw 100’s of snowballs, skied and spent wonderful time together.

Tonight we will celebrate the end of the season at the Spontaneous Combustion.  Everybody throws their trees into a big pile and the town lights them on fire.  We end the night with fireworks.  It is one of my favorite days of the year!

Good night!

Jennifer

---

---

 

---

 

If you have been reading my blog for more than a second, you know that we love to be outside.  We probably spend just as much time outdoors in the winter as we do in the summer.  My biggest tip (which I learned when we moved to the snowy mountains) was to always wear good warm gear.  Even if I didn’t own a gear store, I would still tell you to wear good stuff.  I am always cold and as anyone who knows me will tell you, I wear my down coat outside AND inside!

I love this time of year.  Snow is covering the mountain tops, the air is crisp and winter is definitely taking residence.  This year we are looking forward to getting outside more on our nordic skis and exploring the backcountry for some great kid friendly trails.  Scott is enjoying riding his fat bike and we both love to get up early and go for a snowy run!

I hope you are embracing the new snow and all that winter has in store!

On this adventure, we headed up the path and then up the mountain to check on the ice flows.  No ice yet but we did find lots of snowy rocks and had some good practice with “three points of contact” hiking!  It was a great afternoon to be outside.

Jennifer

Happy day to our oldest kiddo.  I cannot believe that we have a 14-year-old.  Seriously crazy.  Sam is an awesome kid.  He is sweet, kind, smart, empathetic, responsible, loves school (most of the time) and adores skiing and riding his mountain bike.  He can run like the wind and I no longer can even keep him in sight .  He still loves to build with his Legos.  Now that he has read everything on our bookshelf,  he is starting to read the classics and just finished Lord of the Flies. I am blessed to call him my son and I couldn’t be prouder of him!  Happy birthday Sam Man!

This year, Sam’s birthday was a little quieter.  Usually we make the trip to Denver to the Museum of Nature and History but an accident on the snowy highway turned us around halfway so instead we enjoyed a sushi lunch and watched a movie at home.

Love you!

Mom, Dad, Alice, Paige and Mason

Took the kids on an adventure on Sunday afternoon.  It felt good to stretch our legs and get outside.

More posts to follow…I promise!

Jennifer

This morning Scott and I got out for a few miles of trail running. We tried out a new to us trail and we will definitely be going back.  As we climbed (and climbed) and the sun was coming up, the views just kept getting better.  Scott was pretty sure we climbed about 2000 feet in 3 miles or so.  Beautiful!

   

  

  

 

Happy Sunday to you all! 

Getting our pumpkins today…fall is here and winter not too far behind! 

Jennifer 

Just about once a year we get together with our China travel companions. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends living so close.  Jay and Kristen and their two kiddos live down in Denver and always make it a point to give us a call when they are in our area.  Mason and Kyra were adopted from the same region in China and we were so lucky to be able to spend that time in China with such awesome people.  Because we went through the adoption journey together, we are surely bonded as family:)

Here is one of the first pics taken after our precious babies came home…Hard to believe it’s been 6 1/2 years!

Here is our latest round of pictures. It sure is hard to get a good pictures of two busy third graders!

They are still precious:)

Happy Monday.

Jennifer

 

 

Last weekend, Sam and Alice had a cross-country meet at Snow Mountain Ranch in Granby so we decided to make a weekend out of it and camp.  Both of the kids finished so well. Sam finished 8th overall and Alice finished 2nd.  Alice led the entire race and was beat at the finish line. She was pretty upset (and so was I) but she definitely learned that she has to sprint through the finish:) We enjoyed the weekend away.  The leaves were turning and so beautiful.  Scott and the kids got out for a nice bike ride, we spent one whole afternoon taking turns on the SUP and I got to sit in my chair by the fire and finish a book.  Perfect.

Everybody had fun in the lake, especially Rosie:)

I see that my last post was on….ahem…..August 6th.  Since I didn’t give any updates on the end of our summer, I guess I should do that now.  Once that is done, I can give updates on September:)

We had an awesome end to summer. The kids and Scott finished up mountain bike racing and by the end of summer, everybody (but the photographer) was racing. It was so much fun to watch my family doing what they love!  Sorry, only girl pics this time:)

We always love it when the USA Pro Challenge comes to the county.  Scott and the girls were asked to award a jersey to one of the female riders.  This was super special because it was the inaugural year for the female riders in the Pro Challenge.  I love that my girls could watch not only the men but some seriously strong female riders. Sam donned a tutu and fuzzy hat for the Funkadelic Pond Skimming Challenge.  He made it all the way across on his first try and took an epic swim on his second.  Great fun for riders and spectators:)

We even took some time out to get our arts and culture on.  We spent an afternoon in Breckenridge checking out the blue trees (Deforestation awareness) and the flying dancers (probably not their real names) from Australia.

We got in a few concerts around the county and tried to spend as much time together as possible before the first day of school.

Happy September to you all!

Jennifer