Burn Hut - our Home away from Home

(from left to right: Lara, Andy, Shanna, Paul, me, Ben, and Christian in front)
So Ben and I had quite the adventure this past Friday and Saturday. Ben's friend, Paul, had organized a cross-country ski trip near the town of Ridgway - which is just about 20 miles from our home. I was dreading this trip - as well as looking forward to it. I was dreading it because Ben and I had never left our kids for more than 4 or so hours - and this was going to be a 24-hour ordeal. So I kind of hoped that a snow storm would force my parents to stay in Utah and thus we wouldn't be able to go - but it didn't happen. Thank goodness. Ben and I had an awesome time - and so did our boys and Grandma and Grandpa (in fact, the only one who showed signs of missing us was Wilson - I guess he would stand up at the window and whine a few times each day).

Ben and I headed out at about noon on Friday - about a couple hours after the rest of the gang since Ben had to work. We skied about 6 miles to the hut - it was all uphill except for maybe 10 minutes of the 3 1/2 hours of skiing. But it was beautiful and fun to be out together in the wonderful snowy mountains. We got to the hut a little before 5 and hung out for a while. Then we ate dinner and then at about 9pm that nite we all went out frolicking in the snow again. Ben and Christian skied while the rest of us walked in our boots and sled down hills on a shovel - which I was pretty pathetic at doing.

The 10 minutes of down-hill on the way up translated into about 30-40 mintues of uphill for our trip back down. Thus it took us 1/2 the time to get down - a little under 2 hours. It was challenging in a different way - going down hill on cross-country skis is quite difficult since there is not much control and we also had pretty big and heavy packs on us! So we had some fun falls - luckily nobody got hurt. It was a fun ride down!

We met my parents and the 2 kiddos in Ouray for lunch. Miles and Jonas seemed excited to see us - but not overly so. And I guess that's a good thing. They really had a great time and even went to bed well - and Jonas wasn't even cranky for them. And Miles only had to go to time-out once.

In a couple of weeks Ben and I are going down-hill skiing at Mary Jane Ski Resort, outside of Denver. And this time the kiddos get to stay with Grandma Diana and Grandpa Max. They are excited out it - and so are we! This whole idea of leaving our kids for a day or so with the grandparents just might become addicting. . .

Here are the pics of our trip:


Here I am on the way up. We got soooo hot amazingly enough!














This is to show the inside of our hut. It had 2 bunks on each side, a wood-burning stove in the middle and a little "kitchen" area in the back. Here is the gang washing the dishes in the snow-melted water. Fun times!


Ben and Christian getting some nite-time skiing in. More fun times!















Here is Ben on Saturday morning getting the fire started to warm up our hut. The hut actually stayed fairly warm all nite - I never got cold.


These are taken on our way down. I love these pictures! It shows the beautiful snowy trees and the amazing moutains - and one handsome man. Once again - very fun times were had on this trip!

Our Merry Christmas is Over

Well we did have a really great Christmas - it was just like we thought it would be. Lots of fun and lots of squeals. The 2 boys had a lot of fun - Miles especially. He would play with one toy until it was time for him to open another present and then he would play with that toy until it was time to open another present, and on and on. Jonas mainly watched as Miles "helped" him with opening his toys! And of course Jonas watched Miles playing with all the new toys and wanted to join in, too. But he truly was just as happy playing with the new toys as he was with the wrapping paper and boxes. :)










After a few hours of opening and playing with toys, Ben and I were ready to do something "for us." So we got the kiddos ready and went for a Christmas Day Jog. It was great. But apparently all that hard playing got to the boys since they BOTH fell asleep in the stroller (this is Jonas' second time, but Miles' first time doing that!). So it was a quiet run, but the short nap of Miles' was enough to make him not want to take his real afternoon nap. :( That was a slight bummer.

We got the kids some outdoor playset thing. Miles screamed with delight when he first saw it, then got busy with his trucks and started snow-plowing our deck. Jonas was absolutely thrilled to play in it - and by himself, I'm sure! Jonas would go down the big slide (on his tummy for some reason) over and over and over - he loves it! Once Miles came over to play on it we had to do a lot of coaxing to get Miles to go down the big slide - he finally did and did it maybe once or twice more. Miles is our cautious little boy and Jonas is our little dare-baby. Interesting.

Sadly the day is already passed and we're already back to the same old routines. Only now we've got a lot more toys to play with. Like bulldozers, backhoes, drills, crane trucks, cars, trains, slides, etc., etc. . . .

And A Merry Christmas. . . Almost

Just a little note on the Eve of Christmas Day. We are all excited - Ben is busy finishing up some last-minute wrapping and I'm doing some cooking.

We did some fun things today - we made some homemade lumanarias and put them on our sidewalk. We delivered some gifts to friends. We also opened up our Christmas Eve Pajamas. I've decided that that will be a new Maxwell tradition - pjs each Christmas. And all from Old Navy, too! Man I love that place. Anyways, I am following after my mother's steps, and, yes, dressing my kids alike - at least for bedtime. But sometimes it's just too cute to resist. (Just wait, Erin, it will happen to you, too!).

We also had some not-so-fun times today. After we put the kids to bed Ben aptly summed up the day by saying, "I think that was the crankiest day for both our kids." And he's right. Hopefully a little of the Santa Magic will cure them - at least for a few hours.

Well, Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Nite. . .

Happy Birthday Ben

So yesterday was Ben's birthday and it was a very fun day - at least I thought so. We had decided to go skiing last week and was lucky enough to 1. get about 7 inches of new snow the day before, and 2. find a babysitter available in the morning. So Ben and I skied for about 1 1/2 hours just outside of town and had fun in the snow and together. We probably spent about 3/4 of the time skiing up-hill, 1/8 of the time skiing down-hill, and the last 1/8 was spent falling as we attempted to do tele-turns. Ben was way more successful than I was - but he still fell way more than I did, too! Anyways, that was awesome.

Then we came home and after the kids' naps we made gingerbread houses - or, rather, graham cracker houses. It was awesome. Poor Miles was sick all yesterday and had a fever of 103. But an hour after a dose of Ibuprofen and he was doing much better. He didn't really eat anything yesterday - except the candy from making our houses. It was pretty bad timing I guess since an hour after giving him the Ibuprofen we started the gingerbread houses - whatever. We all had fun doing this and I want to make it a yearly tradition of making gingerbread houses on Ben's b-day. Ben and I copied ideas from Martha Stewart for our houses and Miles did his own beautiful thing. :) (you can probably guess who the houses belong to!)





A while later we had dinner - a meal that Ben only gets on his birthday and/or Fathers' Day. Impossibly Easy Cheeseburger Pie from Bisquick. Ben enjoyed it, Jonas ate it, I tolerated it, and Miles didn't touch it (but nor did he touch the chocolate cake). It was quite difficult getting THIRTY-ONE candles on one cake, but I did it. I had to mix-n-match candles and some were these crazy sparklers or something - wild!

It was an awesome day to celebrate an awesome guy's birthday!

Just for Fun

i just thought i would write a little on what's happening here with the kiddos. not much is going on with ben and me - although we both have gotten new callings. ben is the busy stake executive secretary - he's excited about it. and i just got called yesterday as the compassionate service leader - i'm excited about it, too. that's enough about us boring folk.

miles is getting more and more, ummmm (trying to think of a "nice" term) WILD. i've heard it usually is not the terrible 2s to be worried about, but rather the terrible 3s. only time will tell. but if the last week is telling me anything, it ain't so good. just kidding - kind of. miles is tons of fun and tons of work. i need to figure out how to better discipline him. but he is full of energy and is so fun to watch at play. he's really into making up words, such as: "i need to find my bonkaburlact." he says stuff like that all the time. he's not having any trouble in nursery anymore. i was so elated 2 weeks ago when the nursery leaders told me how sweet miles is and that he listens really well to them. that was deflated this week as i was told he was trying to push over cooper the entire time - too bad for miles that cooper is like a year older and way bigger! this morning was cute as he decided he wanted to carry his bunny in his "packpack." so i got one out for him, strapped it on, placed bunny in the back, and off miles went "hiking in the 'no." ('no - for snow). miles likes to not say the first letter of a lot of words - is that bad rachelle?????? such as: "reat" for "treat." i try to politely correct him and so sometimes he will OVER-correct and say something like "tAAAreat."

jonas is jonas. a little cranky and a lot of fun. he's so great to have around. he can say a few words - "bub" for bubble, "bal" for balloon, "boo" for peek-a-boo, etc. i love it! he really likes bubbles and balloons. santa terrifies him - well only if i make him sit on santa's lap i guess. he learn to love the jolly old gift-giving man someday!

the most exciting thing happening with the kids (in ben's and my opinion) is that they are now sharing a room! WAHHOOOOO. it's been about 10 or so days and it has gone soooooo well. the first nite we did it i had to go to YW, but ben heard miles say after a few minutes: "Jonas peeking!" (we put a sheet over the crib area so jonas can have some "privacy." or whatever you want to call it. bascially so the kids don't get too distracted by each other. when they are older i'll remove the sheet!). so ben went in the jonas was peeking out of the sheet - and absolutey LOVING it! he is so funny. jonas peeks like every nite - as soon as we put him in the crib and tuck miles in bed, jonas is already peeking out. so then we'll go over to him and jonas will turn around, start "running away" and flop down in his crib,and, yes, laugh - like he knows he shouldn't be doing what he's doing. it cracks me up every time - i love it! another nite miles was singing "jingle bells" in his bed - to the delight of his one-baby audience. hilarious! one morning as jonas had been crying for about 15-20 minutes (i am now refusing to get him up if it's before 6am and it was 5:30-5:50), we heard miles plead, "take the baby out." haha!

so anyways it has been delightful for us, for many reasons i suppose - 1. to have our bedroom baby-free (we haven't had that in a year), 2. to hear all the funny things the kiddos say and do, and 3. to have the boys start bonding and becoming more a part of each other's life.

Happy Birthday Jonas

6:58 EST. One year ago this mommy and boy finally got to meet each other face to face - after hanging out "in the dark" for 9 months. It was a joyous encounter - one of them was happy to have Jonas in the world, the other wasn't quite so sure he wanted to leave his waterworld. But a year later we are all glad to have Jonas in our world. So we had to celebrate this one-year mark.


We started the celebrations with some yummy cupcakes. Unlike his big brother at his first birthday, Jonas was not too shy about getting his hands in it and eating it - good for him!










Then we started opening the presents. Luckily Big Brother Miles was there to help Jonas out. I definitely know who was more excited about the gifts: hands down Miles. It was cute. But Jonas enjoyed the new gifts - Miles just enjoyed them more.
















This was one of my favorite gifts (I loved them all, though) - a new outfit for Jonas. I thought he looked soooo adorable in it. And it was just real fun to see Jonas in his own clothes - not hand-me-downs. Now do not get me wrong - I absolutely LOVE hand-me-downs and it is super fun to see Jonas is Miles' clothes and it has saved me a ton of money. None the less, it is one of only a handful of actual Jonas-clothes and it was just cute. He's just cute, what can I say????

Finally we ended the day in our birthday suits - luckily that only applied to Miles and Jonas. And it wasn't truly a full birthday suit, but to Miles he considered himself and Jonas as "NAAAAKEDDDDDDD" (they did have pants on). (I actually just took their shirts off since we were eating BBQ pizza.)















Anyways, it was a great day one year ago and a great day today. The most amazing thing that happened in the past year: a mama's heart that was completely full to the brim with love for Miles became overflowing with Jonas.

Built Ford Tough

so the weather here has been delightful - we got a huge snowstorm (huge for montrose) about 2 weeks ago. we maybe had about 10-12 inches in our front yard. we were all in snow-heaven. usually in colorado, though, the snow goes away pretty fast because it is so sunny here. however it's been record-breaking cold here the past 2 weeks and so the snow has stuck around. in fact, we're even getting more of it today. but the weather has gotten quite warmer - no more waking up to 0 degrees outside.

anyways, i really like running and really like it when i can get out every day. ben leaves for work between 6:30-6:45 and it's still pretty dark then - thus i don't like running by myself in the dark mornings. so miles and jonas get to come with me just about every day.

well i was real worried when it was cold outside because i wasn't sure i'd be able to take the kiddos. i knew i would be fine because, hey, i ran for months and months in NY - and that is what you call COLD WINTERS. but one day i decided i would try to take the kiddos in the stroller. so after about 30 minutes, literally, of getting everybody bundled up we headed out. i kept asking miles is he was cold and he kept replying, "no." i believed him - partly because i just believed him and partly because i wanted to believe him. but when we got home and i took their mittens off, their hands were totally warm (probably even warmer then they are when we are in our cool home!). so i was happy. luckily the double stroller has a "shield" thing i can put down and i think that is key - it really blocks the cool air from hitting them.

last week i dropped miles off at playgroup and really wanted to take jonas running - one less body to lug around. :) it was a beautiful, sunny day and slightly warmer. since the double jogger had several flat tires i decided i would go in the single jogger. the only prob with this one is that there is no shield thing. so i was a little worried about jonas getting cold - but apparently not worried enough to not go!

so we headed out and the poor little tyke. . . fell asleep. that's right. he fell completely, totally asleep. so i laughed to myself for worrying about him getting cold - these kids are much tougher than we think. and, true enough, they are also very fragile in some ways. but dang they can handle a lot more than we sometimes expect. and jonas was out - we were running over loud chunks of snow/ice, etc. and he slept the entire time. it was my first peaceful run in quite a while. i missed my "mommy can we go home" boy, though; and my "bubbbubbbub" boy, too. :) but i did relish in my quiet time.

so the next time some old lady that does not know me comes up to me and tells me my little Jonas needs a hat on, or a scarf, or socks, or shoes, or mittens - i'll simply tell them: His name is Jonas Ford Maxwell and he is Built Ford Tough.

Our Charlie Brown Adventure

so every year (this is our 3rd) that we have lived near the Grand Mesa, we go up and hunt down a christmas tree. and evey year the tree looks more and more like a charlie brown christmas tree - we love it! as we were driving home - with our homemade sled and our tree on top of the car - we got a lot of looks, smiles, and laughs. i kept wondering why people were laughing - until we got home and i saw what they saw. it does look pretty funny. most people were probably thinking that we forgot our tree and just took a branch instead.

but we love it.

the adventure to catch the tree was quite, ummmm, an adventure. it was a cold day - probably somewhere around 15. now getting 2 kids ready usually takes a while, but getting 2 kids ready for the cold takes foorrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrr. seriously. but we got them all bundled up and cozy-warm.

ben built the "avalanche" sled over the thanksgiving break and man does that thing fly! we took it out while in utah and that thing just cruises. it could probably get up to 100mph or something. ben rigged up something to tow it behind him while he skied. it worked pretty well, but miles wasn't a big fan of being in it that day. i think all he wanted to do was play in the snow - but the snow was so deep that he literally would have sunk up to his eyeballs. so miles whined the entire time. but jonas did awesome and didn't scream until the last 5 mintues. ben and i had a great time on our "new" (new to us, but used) cross-country skis. awesome!

so we found a tree that we liked, skied back to the car, and unloaded the kids. then i got to stay in the car and feed the boys some lunch while ben skied back to the tree, chopped it down (we bought a permit to do this, mind you), and carried it back on our trusty "avalanche."

and, as i have already mentioned, we tied it up to our car and drove home - apparently to the delight of many others passing by us.

when we got home we realized it was really too scanty to put the lights on the branches, so we just strung the lights up the trunk. i think it looks really great! :) FHE tonite was putting up our ornaments - hopefully they won't topple over our tree.

we did apologize for miles and told him we thought he'd enjoy the day - being up in the snow. etc. then on our drive home he said, "miles DID have fun today." well he really didn't (as plainly manifested by a chronic whine the entire time), but at least he THINKS he did. :)

The Polar Express

Thanksgiving was great - it always is, right? Especially when I didn't have to cook a single thing - thanks to a great Mom and great Aunts. YUM. The "big event" for the holiday weekend was our trek on the Polar Express (offered by the Heber Creeper).




We've been listening to the soundtrack of the movie version of the Polar Express for the past couple of weeks and on our drive out Miles got to watch it. He liked it for the most part, but didn't like "the funny man." Tom Hanks. He talks weird in it.

Anyways, we all had a great time - my mom was able to come with us and so that was fun. We enjoyed the elves, Hot Cocoa, cookies, and for Miles - a bright blue candy cane. We made it to the "north pole" and Santa came in our train car and gave each kid a jingle bell. It twas loads of fun.

out of the mouth of babes

so last nite we were getting ready to pray with miles and tuck him in for bed. i was talking to ben about how i didn't really feel that good - driving 6 hours can make me feel blah. anyways, i guess miles was listening and so he started telling me: "mom, go out of the room" several times. i finally asked him why he wanted me to leave and he said it was because i was sick. so, again, he told me: "mom, go out and cook." WHAT???? i was DYING when he said this to me! it was like the funniest thing i've heard since. . . forever.

now i know I didn't teach miles to think this up. BEN must have a lot of explaining to do. . .