Highlights of 2012!

Sledding in Ohio

We made a trip to Ohio the day after Christmas for a week to visit friends and family...it snowed when we were there - A LOT!  Lucky for us there is a big sledding hill on the golf course close to my sister's house so we made several trips there with the kids and they had a blast!  First things first...close ups of all the boys in their cute hats (notice the Angry Birds theme with a majority of the boys!).

 

 

 

 

 

The adults got in on the action too!

 

Riley and Jace were hard core sledders!

 

 

 

 

Much to his mom's dismay, Sawyer was fearless!

 

 

Sully and Declan were not messing around either and wanted to be like the big boys!

 

And this is our best attempt at a group picture with all the boys the morning before we left :)

 

We had so much fun hanging out with everyone and can't wait for our family trip to St Augustine in July!

Merry Christmas!

Santa made a stop at our house and left some gifts for a couple of really "nice" boys.

A big hit was the dune buggy with dinosaur helmets!

 

After checking out the big gift, it was on to the stockings for some candy, books, band aids, chapstick, and modeling clay.

The dogs enjoyed the treats they got in their stockings too!

 

The big gift Riley asked for this year - the Lego Death Star.  This thing is ridiculous but after listening to Riley talk about it for two years straight, we finally gave in!

 

Sully's big gift was a Thomas bridge and track set.

 

A bunch of the smaller gifts were Angry Birds themed.

 

I got Sully a kid camera so he'd quit stealing mine when I wasn't looking!

And who doesn't love a good book!!!

And....the aftermath!

 

After lounging around and watching movies all morning, it was time to get dressed and try out the dune buggy in the snow.

 

After playing in the snow for a while, we were all a little cold and decided it was time to play with some inside toys.  Riley loves his Angry Birds AT-AT Walker.

Sully with his brother's Power Ranger bad guy and making airplane noises.

And Cody...I mean, Riley, couldn't wait to get started on the Lego Death Star.  Not only does the thing have 3,803 pieces but the instruction booklet is like a text book!!!

 

By the end of the day it was half built -- very impressive!

 

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Snowboarding

We took Riley to Copper Mountain to try snowboarding for the very first time today.  I thought five was a little young to start snowboarding but after doing a little research, most people said 5-6 is a good age if the kid seems interested.  We asked Riley if he wanted to start out on skis but he said no way...he wanted to board like mommy and daddy.  He was super excited to go...especially after I gave him an early Christmas present -- a fire helmet, matching gloves and his own goggles!

 

He started out walking half way up the bunny hill and Cody would help strap him in and hold his hand down.  We taught him the basics of how to "skate" on his board with one foot out of the bindings, how to stop on his heel side and how to stop on his toe side. 

 

He was scared to go on the lift the first half of the day so this was his lift to get half way up the bunny hill...Cody got his workout for the day, that's for sure! 

 

After teaching him the basics, it's all about muscle memory and practice.  So that's what we did, let him practice as much as he wanted.

 

 Around lunch time we stopped and ate and got some yummy hot chocolate.  After that, we let Riley watch Cody ride the lift up and board down.  After watching Cody, Riley was ready to try the lift!

 

So up he went to the top of the bunny hill, and down he went with Cody holding his hand a few times.

 

Once he felt more confident, he let go of Cody and started doing it himself!

 

And by the end of the day he was riding down with Cody and I close by to help if he needed it.

 

It was awesome to watch him catch on throughout the day...and he did so much better than Cody and I did our very first day.  I didn't know what to expect...I kind of thought he might be too young and not interested enough.  But we stayed until the lifts closed at 4PM and he wanted to keep going!  It was a great day on the slopes and many more to come in the future, I'm sure!



Pikes Peak

Final pictures to catch up on...we took the kids on the cog railway up to the top of Pikes Peak in September.  They loved the whole experience!  The funniest part...Riley wanted to bundle up (much like Mommy) when we got to the top and we couldn't get Sully to keep his sweatshirt on (much like his Daddy)!  The kids happy at 14,110 feet...

Looking east across the "fruited plains".

 

We picked a perfect day to go...not too cold and not a cloud in the sky!

 

A picture of the cog train waiting to take us back down to the bottom.

 

A fun trip and it's amazing to think we've been to the top as we see Pikes Peak towering over us every single day!