lazy day & bean boozled ...

Going back to Aunt Cyndi's visit in February... yep, I really am going to try to catch this up... for you but really for myself because one day, I will want to remember these moments in more detail than I will remember in a few years! 

So back to that cousin visit... oh wait, Dennis' launch finally happened very early this morning too and what a relief for him but a truly awesome launch. I didn't wake the kids partially because I had to text Jaiden and Wesley from my room to the basement at about 1 am telling them if they weren't quiet, I'd be separating them! Which they both thought was hilarious and ironically, decided to listen to the underlying tone in that text! Anyway, I didn't wake the kids and ended up watching it by myself. Dennis and I were texting and after the launch, he texted me saying keep watching the best is yet to come. I did and he was right. At first, all I saw was white smoke or clouds and then something separated and I still couldn't tell what I was watching but before I knew it, the landing pad was directly below and that Space X landed exactly where it took off, while the rest of it continued to the International Space Station - so awesome!

After the excitement of Space X, it was back to the reality of kids getting hungry so we dived into breakfast. We had planned a low key day so the kids could hang out but what we didn't expect was for the girls to ask... no, beg us to take them shopping. They wanted matching outfits, and being the total sucker I am I couldn't resist.

Our first stop was to Justice and then to Claire's.

 I snapped this next photo because they were so cute walking and chatting.

 Then I took this one and texted my Dad "oh, oh please send some money asap!" Cyndi and I laughed so hard about that but better was his reply "Take those girls home! Where's the boys?" Hmmm.... good question! Hopefully at home and staying out of trouble...

 ... and when we got home, they were exactly where we left them. Playing Steep on the xbox! Not even sure if they knew we left... lol!

 My favorite part of the day was in the evening and this isn't the best photo but it reminds me of Wesley's belly laughs. Just listening to him made me laugh! The kids played a vicious game of Bean Boozled which is a Jelly Belly game that has one good flavor and one bad flavor, and you never know which one you are going to get!

Alyssa happened to just eat the barf instead of the peach!

Ah, couldn't be better without cousins around!

a long time in waiting...

Wow, it's been a long time since I updated this blog and I am finding it so hard to keep up with the kids and their activities, Dennis' work demands have been through the roof (which by the way we are getting a new roof soon!) and just feeling exhausted at the end of the day has made this poor blog suffer! I am going to really regret not capturing more stories, I know it! 

This afternoon I thought, I have a few minutes before I am off to the next appointment and maybe I could post something really quick... and then I found the start of this post... from February?! Well, at least it is February of the same year - 2017! (That was my attempt in making myself feel better about not trying to find time to get to this blog... sigh!)

In February, my sister and her kids came to visit for an extended weekend. Pure craziness and loads of fun cousin and sister time. At the same time, Dennis was out of town for the launch of his SAGE-III (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment) that was put on Space X. It's really impressive how much happens in this family and the unique experiences we have. The amazing knowledge Dennis has and shares with them is quite awesome!

After a late night of likely minimal sleep with the excitement of cousins and chatting and giggling into the wee morning hours, I dragged my own kids downstairs to check out the launch...

... which to our disappointment was postponed! It is also so cool that we could stream through NOAAs web site and text Dennis at the same time... but alas, it was cancelled for the day due to the cloud coverage and postponed until tomorrow.

We prepared for our next adventure... sledding! We drove quite a distance to visit this place just North of us called Beaver Meadows Resort Ranch. It's a ranch by summer and a snow filled paradise in winter... or that's what we thought...

Yes, not a lot of snow but there were still several runs open and we were able to have a crazy fun time. On some of the runs, the small sledding path sent us far enough along straight to the frozen cow pies. Hilarious but still totally worth it. Jaiden and Dennis come to this place every year after snow fishing on Red Feather Lakes with the Boy Scout Troop except this year because an accident blocked the road. I think the snow was probably better in January but for some reason February warmed up. The photo above is Courtney and Aunt Cyndi on the first run...

... they were laughing so hard. I'd try to zoom in for you but these were taken with my phone and the quality is just not the same! but hopefully you can see their laughing faces. It makes me still smile remembering how much fun this was!

The boys, of course, took off and we had no idea which hill they were on but the girls kept going and eventually got quite daring...

 In this photo, maybe you can see the shadow below the tube... but these two caught A LOT of air on just about every run. Still no sign of the boys...

 and even when I did find mine, he was acting goofy as usual and trying to throw snowballs which were really more like ice balls! Typical 12 year old boy (insert eye rolling)!

One last photo... the best part was we didn't have to drag those tubes up the hill. We got in line, sat on the tube and grabbed the carrot that was attached to the tow line and up we went - that was worth it!

It was a long day but a lot of fun! And just seeing these photos reminds me how much I wish we closer to have more crazy fun days like these!

the same kid?

Last night, I received this email from Jaiden's social studies teacher...

Hi Kim,

I just wanted to share a celebration about Jaiden's achievements in Social Studies class.  In class today, we had a Socratic Seminar, which is basically a graded discussion. Students were asked to prepare evidence, analysis, and questions about the topic ahead of time.  Jaiden was such a leader in our discussions! He prepared thoughtful, creative, high-level questions that demonstrated an in-depth understanding and analysis of the material.  He guided the conversation and raised the level of thinking in the entire group, and he did so while still listening to others and not dominating the conversation. I am so proud of him and wanted you to know that he is a total rockstar (although I'm sure you knew that already!) 

I seriously wondered are we talking about the same kid? 

She confirmed this morning with ...

No really, I mean him! He did great :)

I am still not convinced!

chocolate chip pancake and money

This girl...

says the darnedest things. 

This weekend she had a lot of Daddy time. Jaiden was at a sleepover and then home briefly before he headed out to an Odyssey of the Minds afternoon work session. I was at my usual annual volunteer Girl Scout Cookie delivery day - which besides being a lot of work, standing all day in the cold, is actually quite fun to hang with a few of the regular volunteers and see all the troop leaders come in for their cookies.

But back to that girl... she coerced Daddy into taking her out for chocolate chip pancakes, leftover pizza for lunch and likely some other yummy sweet treats!

What stuck in my mind was a conversation Dennis told me about. The two of them were talking about what electives she will choose in middle school next year and the technology course came up along with a special outside technology club called Cyber Patriots. Dennis said he explained to her what the club did - basically learn how to hack computers to build effective security for web sites and other information stored on servers or computers. She thought that sounded cool. 

In fact, she said she wanted to do that when she grew up - be a hacker that knew how to design very secure digital information.

At some point, Dennis asked her "would you work for the good guys or the bad guys?"

And without a second thought, she replied "whoever pays the most!"

And there you have it, yet another darnedest thing she will say. The scary part? She is 100% completely honest about it!

medina, madonna, same thing

 Every year for the past 5 years, our kids have participated in the amazing 3rd-5th grade music concert. It is hard to believe that this was our last year having a child in this performance. Mrs. Ordway always outdoes herself and this year the theme was the "decades". Translation: it dated many of us parents! 

3rd grade took on the 60s

4th grade had the 70s

and 5th grade? the 80s!

Mrs. Ordway encourages the kids to dress in theme and with it being Alyssa's last year, I did it up and ordered this ridiculously cute kit in shocking yellow/green. I picked up a $5 sweatshirt and cut the neckline out and even found some brightly colored jelly bracelets! 

A day before the concert, Ashlee came over and was worried she had nothing to wear. Her mom was out of town and she was quite upset. Alyssa and Ashlee googled 80s attire and found some awesome ways to use what Ashlee had at home and I went and bought another sweatshirt for her. Her outfit was so cute on her too! 

I filmed the concert but since videos never seem to work properly here, these are a few still photos. We were up on the balcony so it was hard to see. Alyssa is on the far upper right hand side of the stage. I should have brought my better lens and am kind of bummed about that but I was focused on the filming part and that would have never worked on the other lens.

 And there it was our last music concert, although I decided to befriend younger kids so I could keep going - my kids think I am nuts, always good to keep them guessing!

until next year...

It's a wonder I ever finish anything! I posted that monkey bread photo and remembered I had not finished our last day at Crested Butte.

It's funny what the kids decide needs to be a tradition and somehow it involves a sweet treat at the same time! We went back to the Waffle Cabin after we loaded the cars and were ready to drive home. The Waffle Cabin sits at the base and the smell is really something else. I am not a fan of waffles and still won't buy one, but I do love smelling them.

This photo series made me laugh...

 I have no idea what Alyssa is doing but she sure is cute...

 ... and this trip will go down with the dabs! Silly 12 year old boys!

This is the ice sculpture setting that started the whole calendar theme for this year so we took another photo just for fun... it wasn't the same sculpture and the kids weren't interested in crazy poses but this is where your January 2017 photo is from!

 Instead of individual chairs, this year was an entire bench...

 ... and then it was back to car...

... with these two boys in shorts and ridiculously long socks!

Until next year...

experts only... dab!

Day 3 at the Butte... and just as phenomenal! The clouds actually lifted so we had some beautiful, endless snowy mountain views that were simply breathtaking - these photos don't capture the true beauty but they certainly make me remember it as if I was standing right there on the mountain.

Today was my turn to ski with the boys. Ken started the first part of the morning with the girls while Dennis and I explored with the boys another side of the mountain that none of us had skied yet.

Jaiden loved this sign...

 ... mostly because it had an explanation of the types of explosives they shoot to start avalanches... which I actually forgot to mention about yesterday when I was skiing with the girls. Luckily, I knew the sound because both Alyssa and Katie were very scared and uncertain what to do. They still questioned me whether we were safe to continue skiing despite me explaining that ski patrol and resort staff wouldn't start an avalanche where skiers were. They were both so concerned and sweet, but I realized that while we have skied some remarkable snow, we have never skied anything like this weekend when the snow falls so hard and fast that the threat of avalanches are a very real concern especially in the higher bowls. I also think ski patrol was trying to open more of the North Face side because the snow was so phenomenal! 

But back to today, it was amazing! 

 We got a little lost on this particular run. We only lost Dennis, but found him quickly at the bottom. The snow was sensational such fun, easy powder that we had to bring Ken up after lunch.

Ken took this photo of me and when I look at it, I realize just how steep that run was...

 but it was an amazing run with spectacular views!

Meanwhile, Dennis and the girls found an icicle tree...

 ... and stopped for hot cocoa!

 The girls love Paradise Bowl but I think this photo of them dabbing was near International which is on the other side and Black Diamond runs too...

 The boys did a dab...

 so Ken and I did a selfie at the top of Headwall...

and then we headed down into Headwall's bowl... the bright yellow coats are Jordan and Jaiden

 it's awesome they are in those bright colors - so easy to spot!

I didn't realize Ken took this photo of me and again, when I look at how steep it was, I am a little shocked I can ski this and still have so much fun!! 

Dennis treated the girls to a sweet treat as a way to bribe them into another run or two...

they were clearly happy!

... and sadly our final ski day ended. 

Another year of memories with our good friends at Crested Butte... until next year!