Late February Happenings . . .

I can't believe February is almost over and it will be March at the end of the week.  Crazy.  But here are a few pictures of a few of the activities we've been up to:

I had decided to take the boys skiing on last Thursday.  It was a half-day of school and so I thought it would be a good day to go.  The girls would just walk home by themselves and then a little bit later they would be picked up for their book-club.  Perfect.  However . . . it was a cold week and the high for Powederhorn was to be 18.  Apparently, I'm a fair-weather skier - I just get so cold easily and sitting on the lifts just about do me in. (I'm not a fair-weather runner, however - I love it when it's cold.  When I'm moving and exerting myself, cold is good!)  So, amazingly, there were no surgeries happening on that Thursday and so Ben took the day off and ended up taking our two boys (they each got 2 lift tickets for Christmas, that's why the girls weren't included . . .) and Csilla's two boys, Kyle and Levi.  Ben was excited about the cold and the snow, so it was perfect.

 Levi, Jonas, Kyle, and Miles.  Miles will not zip up his coat.  He's a goof.

 The mountain got some fresh snow overnight and it was lightly snowing all day.  Ben said it was the best snow he's skied (well, snowboarded) in in 20 years.  He loved it!  The boys had a fantastic time and weren't too cold.  We bought everyone those hand-warmer things and they were handy.  Haha.

 Levi!

 Jonas!

 Kyle!

Miles!

My girls had been sick that week - Emmy missed two days of school because not only was she coughing a whole bunch, she had a fever that got as high as 102.9.  Lucy started coughing by Thursday and not feeling super great and had a low-grade fever.  Luckily it was low-enough that I could still send her to school because she really wanted to go to the book-club later that afternoon (no school = no extracurricular activities).  So it was good I was home - I don't think I would have left my girls all day long if I had planned on skiing.  I went in to Lucy's classroom and read "The Five Chinese Brothers" because it was a read-a-thon day (and, remember, just a half-day).  I got the girls home, gave Lucy a little bit of medicine (ibuprofen makes my kids forget they are sick), and then took them to book-club.

The girls had been so excited for book-club - it was on the book Holes. They ate donut-holes, drank some peach "slush" (it's a book thing), had pizza, and watched the movie.  So fun.  They had a blast.

The kids were out of school on Friday and so we went to the Rec. and I did my laps while the kids played.  We met up with friends there and so that was fun.  Miles had to stay home and catch up on some school since he'd missed Thursday.  We went to the movie How to Train Your Dragon that afternoon as there was a special showing and price for the homeschool kids.  I'm part of the facebook group and so I saw the message.  A couple of Csilla's kids came with us, so I felt a bit more legit.  :)

We woke up Saturday morning to a real snowfall - we got anywhere from 5-7 inches.  Whoop, whoop.  So Ben and I got out in the late afternoon to enjoy it.  It was so beautiful and snowy!

Gorgeous! Oh, and some handsomeness, too!

That evening I took five boys from the ward up to Delta for a Stake Dance.  It was Jonas' first dance - bummer I didn't get a picture!  The boys were all excited.  I think once Jonas got there, he was a bit more shy than he had thought.  :)  He was hanging out on the wall a bit too much with Malachi in the beginning - so I went over and told Jonas that he either get off the wall and dance, or that I would pull him off and make him dance with me.  He quickly left the wall.  :)  The boys had fun and did most of the dances - including the slow ones.  I'm pretty sure Jonas was one of the youngest ones there - my guess is he was the youngest.  It was a bit long for me, but I survived.  :)

On Sunday morning the girls got Bella ready for church, too:

Hahaha.

 Back to normal, well almost - she was sporting a lovely bead-necklace.  :)

He always looks so funny in pictures, but man he is handsome.  :)  I literally have people tell me on my runs quite a bit - they'll yell it out from their cars.

In sacrament meeting, Emmy gave her first talk.  It was on preparing for the temple.  She and I had worked on it on one of the days she stayed home sick from school.  She did a great job - she didn't really look up from her paper at all, but her voice was confident and clear.  She had expressed to me earlier how she didn't want the stool.  I told her she wouldn't need it.  I had mentioned it to one of the counselors . . . but the bishop didn't get the memo.  :)  So he put out the stool for her.  Emmy still resisted in using it and just put one leg on it and leaned in to the mic.  But the bishop came over, adjusted the mic, and Emmy stepped up on the stool.  :)  The bishop remarked, before Emmy going up, how Emmy was the youngest member to give a talk in sacrament meeting in our ward.  Cool!  (Of course in the primary programs, kids have been younger.  But for a regular meeting, this was true.)

Okay, that turned out way longer than I meant.  :)

February Happenings Thus Far. . . (**Updated**)

To celebrate the 100th day of the school year, the students were asked to dress-up like 100-year olds.  Super adorable and fun!

 Lucy's faces are so hilarious.  The girls had a fun day - I think it included playing "Grandma" at recess.  :)

What cute girls!  When I drop Lucy off for piano, I always just stay in that neighborhood and take Bella for a walk.  Emmy wants to start training for the GOTR 5K (she's not doing the program this year, but wants to run the race) and so I told her to come with me.  We walked for 4 minutes, then ran for 2-3 minutes, repeat.  It was awesome.  Bella kept pulling the whole time - even while running.  :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Not the best picture . . . but both girls made these for their class valentines.   A picture of Bella.  "Pugs and Kisses."

We printed up pug stickers and stuck them on the back of the kisses.  Cute!

Gym has been fun lately:

Three of the kids (minus Miles who needed to work on school work) and myself went and visited our "older" friend Cynthia this past Monday.  She used to be our neighbor, but she now lives in a care facility.  I don't visit her as often as I should.  But we came by and gave her a stuffed cat (cats are definitely her thing) and gave her door a "heart attack."  

                                                    

Emmy took two pictures with her polaroid camera - one for Cynthia and one for us.  It doesn't scan super great, but it's still a good picture.

And this just happened today . . . I picked up  the girls from school and Lucy had flowers.  From a boy.  What?!  Oh, and some chocolates.  Lucy didn't understand why I thought it was funny.  Cute, but funny.  :)

Emmy had asked Spencer, a boy in her class, if he would be her valentine (she asked him last week).  He said yes, and I guess that meant that Emmy was his.  When I asked Emmy what that meant, she told me, "I don't know!"  But apparently it meant you bought them some extra.  So Emmy used her money and bought a small box of chocolates and Takis (think really gross spicy Cheetos).  I guess Spencer ordered Emmy something from Amazon and it's not coming until Monday . . . we'll see about that.  But Spencer did feel badly and gave Emmy a few of his classroom valentines to make up for it.  Ha.

For our family I bought Gertrude Hawks chocolate.  When Ben and I were in New York, we'd go to the mall and the only thing we'd buy there was chocolate from the Gertrude Hawks store.  It's yummy.  When we were there a couple of years ago, we took our kids there and everyone picked out a bar.  The kids loved it, too.  So I always order us a bunch of chocolate bars to all taste and eat - after dinner, of course.  :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ski 'n Soak

Our annual 2-day ski trip was to Sunlight Mountain in Glenwood Springs.  I had bought passes on Cyber Monday and got excellent deals!  I was able to buy "ski and soak" passes for $50 - which was awesome as regular lift tickets are $65 and the hot springs is almost $20.  I mean, it still adds up of course - but we are thankful for deals because otherwise we wouldn't be able to do this!  Emmy was free with the 5th grade passport and so that was helpful, too.

So we left bright and early - okay, it wasn't bright yet - on Friday morning.  The girls' bookclub is reading Holes this month and I was able to download it to my phone and so we listened to it on the trip.  It's sooooo good!  Miles has already read it like a dozen times and now I know why.  It's awesome; we all loved it.

Anyways, we had two great days of skiing.  Sunlight really is a great mountain for us - fun runs, challenging runs, etc.  One of our family's favorite run is "Ute."  It's a 2 1/2 mile green-run - but oh so fun!  Fast, rolling hills.  It's a blast.  After skiing each day we went and soaked at the Glenwood Hot Springs.  It was perfect and totally warmed up our bones after a day of skiing in the snow.  We stayed at a place in New Castle (10 miles west of Glenwood) and it was a decent place.  :)

It was a fabulous trip and I think it might be our new tradition - skiing and soaking at Glenwood.  That's pretty hard to beat!

 Atop Sunlight!

 Flashback to Atari - our place on Friday night had atari.  Pretty fun!

 Our Saturday morning breakfast - we went all out and had bacon (fake-n, as Ben called my Turkey Bacon), eggs, and banana-walnut pancakes.  It was delicious and filled us up for quite some time!

 Saturday skiing.

 The kids all love jumps!

 Cool!

 This is some "chapel" in the woods.  We were all supposed to ski through it . . . there goes Emmy.

 Jonas. . .

 Miles . . .

 Me . . .

 Whoops, Lucy went first and didn't know what we were doing.  She was pretty bummed about it.  I love this picture.  :)

Jumps!

Skiing down Ute.  The kids do know how to turn - you just don't have to do to much of that on Ute.  Especially if you want to cruise . . . :)

 Here we are after getting all warmed up in the hot springs.  Loved it.

 We walked to our restaurant in downtown Glenwood - Lucy wanted to keep the towel on her head while we walked.  :)

 The Hotel Colorado was awesomely lit!

 Due to popular recommendation from my facebook question of where to eat in Glenwood, we went to Slope and Hatch.  It was good, but interesting.  Miles and I shared two different types of fish "tacos."  Jonas ordered a lamb taco, but didn't really like it.  He and Ben shared and so luckily he liked whatever it was that Ben had ordered.  The girls had hot dogs - but didn't really like them!  (Actually, they were kind of weird . . . ).

Well at least all the kids enjoyed their special cream sodas!  :)

We got home by about 10:30 that night . . . and finished listening to Holes. Well, the girls and Ben fell asleep and so they didn't finish it - so we'll have to read the rest.

What a great time with our family - as Emmy said, "We (meaning the siblings . . .) don't fight much when we are skiing!"  Don't worry, they made up for it on Sunday.

Random Pics from our January Happenings

 Crazy hair day at school was fun!  We made Lucy's hair in to a bow and sprayed it red.  :)  We made Emmy's hair in to a cupcake - complete with real sprinkles and a candle.  The girls thought it was fun!

 Cute, cute.

 The calendar.

 This picture was taken in February . . .but I got the apron in January!  This is what happens when you can't find any worthy aprons in shops - you ask your awesome sister to make you one and 2 weeks later, this adorable apron arrives at your home!

Oh how I love them.