Well, life is still happening over here, I just haven’t had a minute to blog about it.  Sooo, instead, I’ll just skip right to my yearly 2016 review in pictures. We are all doing great, just busy, busy, busy!

January

After a nordic ski race in Steamboat Springs, we headed to the Strawberry Hot Springs.  It was a great way to heal those sore muscles!

February

We spent our February break at Grandma and Grandpa’s condo in Colorado Springs.  We thought it would be warmer.  We thought wrong.

March

Paige celebrated her 11th birthday….sick.  She did get to celebrate by taking two friends on a  Denver day but wasn’t feeling her best.  Hopefully we have better luck this year!

April 

Spring Break!!! We drove ourselves to Mexico and had a wonderful week combing the beach for shells, swimming with sea lions and enjoying some seriously needed down time.

May

The month (besides December) that makes all mothers go a little bit loopy.  It makes my head hurt just thinking about it!  Alice performed in her very first musical, The Little Mermaid Jr. She starred as one of Ursula’s evil tentacles and rocked it!  Paige happily graduated from 5th grade and never looked back!  I am happy to report that she is loving middle school and has made some fabulous new friends.  Phew.  Sam finished his first season with Summit Youth Orchestra.  He really enjoyed it and his tromboning skills have improved greatly.

June

And so begins mountain bike season…..All four kiddos raced this season which meant a lot of opportunity for cheering and pictures.  It also meant a lot of gear wrestling and bigger biceps from hoisting all those bikes onto the rack each week.  There has to be some pluses for this mama, right!?!?  Not only did we mountain bike ride a lot but we also had a ton of company.  Scott’s aunt, uncle and cousins came for a quick visit on their way to Vail and Scott’s parents also came for a visit to celebrate Alice and Mason’s birthdays.

July

Alice and I competed in the Frisco SUP Triathlon.  We had so much fun (she beat me) and we are already planning our training schedule for the next one now. We had a great 4th holiday with the Werschkys.  Scott’s brother and nephew came for a visit.  I went to Michigan to visit my parents and help my mom after heart surgery.

August

Back to school we all go!   Sam started high school *shiver*, Alice, 8th and Paige, 6th, Mason, 4th. I have spent this year in kindergarten as a special education paraprofessional.  I love my school and my job.

September

Sam, Alice and Paige started running cross-country and we saw our first snow. Alice and Paige auditioned for The Lion King, Jr. and both got a part.  Mason continues to work at karate and his next belt test.

October

Sam turned 15.  He attended his first homecoming dance with his guy friends and worked toward his driver’s permit.  We had a gorgeous extension of fall and the kids enjoyed running in the extended warm weather. Grandma and Papa Wescott came for a visit and spent Halloween with us.

November….well, that was the last time I posted in 2016.

Sam started Speech and Debate tournaments and dry land nordic ski training. Scott and I lost control of our weekends. We had a crazy warm November with no snow.  We celebrated Thanksgiving with friends. Sam earned his first varsity letter for cross-country (as a freshman).

December

The other month that makes parents go crazy puffs.  Alice won the SMS geography bee and will go to the state competition in May (of course).  Everyone started nordic skiing.  It started snowing (and hasn’t stopped!) and the kids had a snow day.  Snow days don’t come around very often here so we were stoked.  We had a wonderful Christmas together.  This year we started a new tradition…gingerbread house making competition between cousins.  Amazingly enough, the boys won and the girl house….fell.  They are calling for a rematch next year.  We skied, ice-skated, went sledding, played outside and had tons of fun on our break.

Well, that was the year 2016.  I am sure I have left out plenty of fun stuff.  It was a good year filled with love and happiness.  Of course, we do have teenagers so there was also door slamming, attitudes, crying and lots of drama….we aren’t perfect but we are us; that’s enough for me.

 

 

 

 

 

Last Tuesday, Scott and I attended Sam’s xc banquet.  Sam received his first varsity letter and also got the most improved award.  We were so proud of him!  At the beginning of the season he made a very lofty goal to run at least one race on the varsity team.  He ran all but two varsity races and landed in 3rd place on his team (time-wise).  He could not contain his excitement:)  Way to go, Sam!

This year, Mason was the only Wescott kid who got the mom-made costume.  He was the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.  Scott and I got in on the fun as Alice and the White Rabbit.  As middle-schoolers, Alice and Paige had to come up with their own costumes and they both decided to order onesies online with their own money.  Sam wasn’t into Halloween this year and just hung out at home. It was a fun night with Grandma and Papa.  The weather was beautiful and we had a blast following behind Mason, snatching some chocolate here and there! Unfortunately I didn’t get great pictures this year.

While Grandma and Papa were here visiting, we checked off one of our summer bucket list items.  We went for a ride on the Georgetown Railroad.  Just about 30 minutes from us, this narrow gauge railroad was the original mode of transportation for miners during the Gold Rush and beyond.  Afterwards we went back into Georgetown and had some ice-cream.  It was a great day!

Three posts in one day!  Hey, I only have one day a week when I can really sit at the computer and get some stuff done so I am going for it:)

A couple of weekends ago, we had our very long overdue family pictures taken.  Because we are all so busy, our dear friend, Andrea, met us at 7:45 AM, before church and we got those things taken care of!  It was a bit chilly and windy but I am super happy with how they turned out.  Truly, she is a magician with the camera!  So looking forward to getting a new pic over the fireplace!

Happy Fall!

They middle/high school kids have finally finished up their cross-country seasons.  The girls ran their last race last weekend in Salida and Sam finished his season at Regionals in Grand Junction on Thursday.

Alice and Paige had a great last run with Alice finishing 2nd on her team and 22nd overall.  Paige was a little bit farther back in the pack but she had a great, strong season and the most important part is that she had so much fun!  Sam finished well.  He ran all but one varsity race this year, as a freshman, conquering his goal for cross-country.  We are super proud of him.  He is not only juggling xc practice everyday but also advanced classes and the speech and debate team.

Alice getting ready for her last middle school race.

And they are off!  Alice is in the middle with yellow jersey.  Paige is to the right, green jersey, teal shorts.

Sorry, no pics of Sam’s last race.  He was three hours away and we just couldn’t make it this time.

 

Jennifer

 

Samuel went to his first homecoming dance at the beginning of the month.  He was pretty sure that he would not go but when his good friends decided to go together, he got on board.  Here they are having a blast with pictures.  This is such an awesome group of kids.  We are blessed that Sam’s friends are so nice (and their parents too!)

No, we didn’t let them take the giraffe to Homecoming (although, they wanted to take him along). As parents, we were pretty sure that might stick with them for all four years of high school.

 

Our fall weekends have been really busy with cross-country meets.  Unfortunately, the middle school and high school only have two overlapping meets but Scott and I are making it work.

So we are mostly doing this…..

And some of this….

and lots of this…..(below…Alice coming in fast for a second place finish).

No complaints here…is has been a gorgeous fall for running and we couldn’t be prouder of our all our kids.

Just 5 weeks late….but who’s counting!

Samuel 9th grade, Alice 8th grade, Paige 6th grade and Mason 4th.  Mom (not pictured)….back to school full-time as a special needs paraprofessional.  Whew!

(taken with my cell phone….don’t judge….4th child!)

Sam is loving high school, running varsity cross-country, just finished his last MTB race of the season, plays his trombone with the Summit Youth Orchestra, learning to play the tuba, just joined Speech and Debate and won’t miss church youth group for anything.

Alice had a fun summer with her friends. She is running middle school cross-country, loves playing the flute, is excited to start Geography Bee, and is preparing to audition for the Lion King Jr.

Paige is loving middle school.  She has made a ton of new friends.  She is running on the heels of her sister in cross-country and is also getting ready for an audition, learning to play piano and percussion and getting used to switching classes!

Mason is taking 4th grade by storm.  He is always helpful at school and home.  He is working on the next belt in karate and learning how to take down an opponent (Sam), just started an all boys hip hop class and can’t wait for chess club to start.

Mom is driving.  A lot.

Dad’s head is spinning.

Again. Whew.  And it has only been five weeks.

 

 

 

Scott’s brother, Matt, and our nephew, Jacob, are here visiting from Michigan for a long weekend.  Scott has definitely kept them busy with all sorts of Colorado activities.  Their first night here we took them to a gorgeous spot overlooking Lake Dillon and did some rock climbing.  On Friday we took them to the peninsula for a mountain bike ride and this morning Scott, Paige, Matt and Jacob made it to the summit of Mt. Sniktau (elevation 13, 234 ft).

While they were climbing a mountain (actually coming down in this pic)….

 

Alice, Mason and I went across the road and hiked to three small lakes.  It was such a gorgeous day and we had so much fun exploring.  The wildflowers were beautiful and the views amazing.

Now the bigger boys (Scott, Matt, Jacob and Sam) are backpacking for the night.  No rest for the weary.

I think that I may have drawn the short straw because I am taking Alice, Paige and Mason to a midnight release party for the new Harry Potter book.  This party is wayyyy past my bedtime!  Right at this moment they are making t-shirts that say….On a scale from 1-10, we love Harry Potter….9 3/4.  They are so creative:)

Jennifer