'Tis the Season!

Luke's first Christmas!! Yay!! And how perfect is his stocking? It is he and Sadie sledding!!




What a lovely time of year! The tree and fireplace look so great -- we're definitely in the spirit at house!


Henry takes on the "lights manager" job -- getting them all straight and making sure the whole strand works.


Emily gets the honors of putting up the "Jesse Angel" -- Don't worry, Lance is spotting her on the ladder!

Even though Luke was initially very afraid of the tree, he has come to accept it.

What a wonderful time of year!

Emily starting piano....

Check this out... With a total of two 1/2 hour lessons last year.... this is Emily on piano at a friend's house. I'm going to have to give in and get her some lessons!!

Keystone

We went to Keystone Resort yesterday for some great late-November Rocky Mountain skiing. It was a picture perfect day. It's so hard for me not to crash because I can't stop enjoying the amazing scenery!
It was the kids' first time spending the day with Lance and I. The two other times we skiied last year, they were in ski school the whole day. It was amazing to see how well they learned last year and how comfortable they were on skiis. It was a really fabulous day of family fun! We definitely like being so close to some world class runs!! The best part of the day was that we went down a Blue (Intermediate) run at the end of the day. Emily took it like a pro and Henry was all speed going down. The run was pretty steep at parts and a little icy because it's so early in the season but we all fared really well.

Henry looks pretty at ease on the skiis!


That's Emily in the white and pink by the yellow gate. Look how steep that run is!!

The kids had their first gondola ride too...

So here's some videos. They are about a minute each and you hear a lot of wind noise (and mommy cheering noise)... but hope you enjoy!

Aspen... anniversary weekend trip!

Lance and I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Aspen last weekend. We ate, drank and relaxed! It was idyllic! The town is not very busy this time of year which was nice because it was not crowded.

This is the town of Aspen... the slopes were not open yet and I believe most of that snow you see is natural. Aspen Mountain opens on Thanksgiving Day.


We did go up to the

Maroon Bells Wilderness Area on Saturday. It was literally like a post card. For my birthday Lance gave me a remote control for our camera. This way you can set the camera up on the tripod, set the self timer but then use the remote control to fire the picture. This is perfect so you don't have to press the button, then run and place yourself in the photo with hair, shirt, etc normal looking. It was really fun! The best $40 we've spent in a while! So all the pictures of us were taken by us!! You can even see the gadget in his hands in a couple of the photos.

First Day of School

Well, 12 weeks after the last day of school.... today we celebrated the first day of school.

Emily is a 3rd grader and Henry is the 'big man on campus' as a 5th grader. It's amazing to think that this time next year, he'll be going to middle school. Yikes!
The kids both had a terrific day. They seem to really like their teachers and are super happy with the other kids in their class.

We did a little back to school shopping this past weekend thus the spiffy outfits and new shoes!

We were all laughing that last year's photo was taken in front of the Residence Inn which is where we were staying on their first week of school!

The walk up to the school is so close. The kids loved getting up and out this morning!!

7:55 does come pretty early!!

Of course, we needed a photo in front of the Superior Stallion!

It was a great day and the kids are all ready for tomorrow...

wonder when the "oh... do we have to go to school??? is going to start!"

My new sous chef...

I was making dinner the other night and Lance caught these great images of my furry little sous chef.

Our Last Flyers Swim Meet

Our last flyers swim meet was last Saturday at our pool. It was a picture perfect Colorado day. The kids both swam great and really loved being in the pool as a Rock Creek Flyer!

Henry -- on the blocks for his 50 breaststroke.


His dive is getting better and better! No more belly flops!


Almost there!!

Emily swims a 50 Freestyle too... She's still not comfortable on the blocks so she goes off the side.

Awesome swimmers!!

Summertime....

Luke is doing great -- all 33 lbs of him. He's 15 weeks today and full of energy and fun. Still working hard on all the puppy issues (especially the biting) but he's been a joy to have around.

Here's our chocolately girl -- yep, she's dark and white chocolate now with all the grey. It's not all from Luke... she sure is happy having someone to run around and rough-house with!

This is their typical playtime..

Here's Luke trying to get a taste of Lance's pomegranate margarita...

Nice try...

Lance actually started calling him "weasley" because he is a little weasel and swipes things all the time.

And since he's a red-head, like the Weasleys of Harry Potter fame, I've been calling him Luke Weasley, Ron's little brother!

Luke's first bath....

Enjoy!

New Luke Video...

Here's a cute update of our little friend... he's been with us for four weeks now!

Enjoy!

Day Five -- More Deadwood and then heading home to Colorado.

We spent the morning in Deadwood when it was not raining and hailing!




This is the famous saloon where Wild Bill Hickok was shot!



They do some fun reinactments explaining the history of Deadwood.

Our little guy was too tired to walk the whole way back to the RV.

So we were happy to be heading home and we look forward to heading back to the Black Hills of South Dakota soon! (With guests?????!!!!???)

There is something about me and the "Welcome to Colorado" sign.... On our first time crossing the border from Kansas last September, it was too dark at night to get a photo of the sign. This time, the new camera got some crazy error and I only got a corner of the sign. We're going to have to leave Colorado again soon.... Maybe Utah this time!

PS -- The sign says "Welcome to Colorful Colorado"

Day Four -- More Badlands and our evening in Deadwood.

We stayed at the Badlands/White River KOA. They call it the White River because all the sediment from the rocks washes down into it and it has a very cloudy color. The campground was another good one but much different because of the different climate. It was much warmer and buggier but still very nice.



We drove the Badlands loop to see more of this amazing area.


If you look closely, you can see the driver of our RV...
It's Sadie. Everytime we'd get out to check out the scenery, Sadie would climb into the front seat to have a good view of where we went!

We went to a section of the park that is known to have bison/buffalo. We saw them but from very far away. Apparently, they are not nice creatures.

We made the two hour drive back up to Deadwood, SD. Deadwood is site of an old west town from the gold rush. It has been mostly restored and is now a tourist attraction. There are a ton of casinos there. We went into town for dinner but ended up stuck in a casino during a hail storm. We had to wait for the shuttle bus to take us back to the campground and we had no option but....

I made $25... and I know, I'm not a good role model. Henry was so excited to get to stay and watch. The rules state that kids have to be three feet from the gambling and are not allowed to touch any of the machines. He kept pressing me to bet more... Yikes!

PS... Proof of the rainstorm... :)