Big sassy eater

Natalie tells this piece of toast what she thinks...

Adult-only snowbeercation - 2014

With  help watching the kids from Grandpa Husker and Grandma Becky, we were able to take a grown-up snowbeercation to Colorado this year.  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

It started with a trip to Vail to see Scott's younger brother and his wife from Texas who were there for some sort of work conference.  I mean really, who has a "work conference" in Vail in February?  Must be awful.  None-the-less, on my 2nd run of the day, I had a pretty spectacular yard sale (where basically you fall and lose all of your belongings - skis, poles, etc. - in the process) and was left all alone on the side of a very steep hill with no one around to deal with my misfortune.  Thankfully I was not injured but WOW -- after this fall -- it was like I forgot everything I knew from the past 12 years about how to ski.  The rest of the day was painfully slow and frustrating for me and likely for everyone around me.  Thanks for being patient!

Riding the lift with my sister-in-law, Meridith.

After a day on the mountain at Vail and a nice dinner out with Mark and Meridith, it was off to Winter Park all by ourselves.  We ended up meeting up with a good friend from Denver and Scott spent one day on the mountain with him (I spent the day as a lodge bunny drinking beer while I nursed my neck from my yard sale in Vail and went to get a massage) and the next day on the mountain with me.

Our cheap little motel in Winter Park.  Seems like a not-so-steep fine, but hey - what do I know?

We woke up the next morning to find our Hyundai So-not-a [car] covered in plenty of fresh powder.  Perfect for Scott and I to spend the day on the mountain together.

What started off as a fresh powder morning turned out to be a beautiful day.

 

 

That afternoon Adrienne came to meet us in Winter Park and we went out to dinner with some friends of my parents who happen to live just outside Winter Park.  It was great to see them, and, of course, to hear them tell stories about my parents when they were younger.  The next morning Scott, Adrienne and I drove up to Steamboat for our annual girls trip.  Scott ended up meeting up with the husband of one of the other girls attending girls trip.  The first day we were in Steamboat we learned that the gondola was closed due to high winds ... so we decided it would be a great excuse to scour the town in search of the BEST Bloody Mary.

 

 

 

 

That night the other ladies arrived and we ditched Scott.  Apparently I also stopped taking pictures at this point.  Probably because I was still very busy skiing like a 5 year old.

All in all, a super fun trip.

Although, as it turns out... I was pregnant.  Oops.  Sorry future kid -- mommy loves you lots!!

Sunday morning family hike

Sunday morning hike at South Mountain... Katie and Gus led the way up to the top.  Well mostly Gus was in front, but Katie was in charge of keeping track of Gus - the very well-mannered trail dog.

Someone tripped and fell as we were nearly 500 feet from the car ready to go home.  So she now has a her previously broken finger in a splint AND a busted lip.  Oh, and Grandma and Grandpa are supposed to arrive in a few hours.  Ugh.  Naturally, we stopped and got an ice cream cone to help her lip feel better.  Turns out she was so exhausted this is what happened...

And in case you're wondering, she woke up as soon as I tried to grab it.

Mommy's home improvement

Our house has always had this very stupid nook right at the far end of the hallway with the bedrooms.  If you don't have kids, I suppose it could be a wet-bar ... but even then, the location of it is pretty stupid for that.  We've always had either crap piled up or most recently, framed photos and other odd trinkets sitting on it (which no one ever looked at because it was at the end of the hallway).  Inside the cabinets?  Yup, all the half-used paint cans for the various colors of our walls.  All-in-all, it is a pretty worthless design and waste of space.

So after 7 years (and probably too much HGTV), I decided that I had had enough of the stupid nook and I went to work carefully disassembling it and removing it...

And so with a little help with Scott (I don't use power tools with rotating blades because they scare me), the kids now have a little research nook and their own place (that is not my desk) to use a computer for homework... all for under $100. 

Driveway Happy Hour

After a few hours of driveway Happy Hour with our neighbors watching the kids play, this evolved. 

Katie is riding a little scooter-type thing in front of our house and Gus is pulling her down the street.

24-Hours in the Old Pueblo

Scott decided to try the 24-Hour mountain bike race just outside Tucson again.  Same goal as before: complete as many laps around the 17-mile mountain bike loop as you can in 24-hours.  But this year he grabbed a partner and they became "The Bonk-O-Matics."

Early on in the race...

Happy when riding or preparing to ride...

 
And now at night, he is slightly delirious, exhausted or possibly crazy...

None of the next few pictures are mine, nor are they of Scott, but I thought they were pretty awesome and helped describe the race.

Start of the race: race on foot for your bike and then start to ride.

 

The look of "24-Hour Town" at night.

The Bonk-O-Matics completed 10 laps and finished in 41st place (in their group).  Well done boys!

Our neighbor, Mr. Cool

Our neighbor offered to take Katie for a spin around the block.  She agreed and hopped right on.

Playground physics lesson

Picture a harmless 2x6 with a wedge under one end and a beanbag.  Yeah, pretty much like this...

Now, take that clever toy (designed to teach physics) thing out onto a playground full of 2-year old kids.   Let's say you get distracted for a minute.  What happens next?

Natalie can tell you what happens next.  You go to pick it up right as another kid jumps on it and your ring finger is squished between the board and the concrete sidewalk.  The result looks like this...

Daddy rushed to school to pick her up and took her to the emergency room.  After a few x-rays by Juan (Natalie still remembers him by name months later), we learned that Natalie fractured the tip of her right hand ring finger.

Next question is the viability of her fingernail.  The ER doctors tried to push the bed of the nail back under her skin but had no luck.  They referred us to a hand-specialist (also plastic surgeon) but let us know that they were doubtful she would ever get her fingernail to grow back.

Thankful for purple popsicles and Sponge Bob (we don't normally watch this, but after 4 hours in the ER and at 6pm you only have so many choices for entertainment).

Home from the hospital with a finger splint.

At the hand-specialist (again, also a plastic surgeon), reading about breast augmentation.  I had run out of things to distract her so I was letting her read whatever she could find.  But when I saw her reading THIS one, it made me laugh and I just had to snap a picture.

Natalie with her brand new purple splint.  She was a truly amazing patient -- she didn't cry once while they were examining her and fitting her for this strange splint thing.  She was very curious about what they were doing and watched their every step even once saying to the lady custom fitting and cutting the Velcro strips "be careful - don't cut my finger."

Mommy and Natalie go to Paris!

For the past few months, we've watched the construction of the new Mormon Temple from the freeway.  Once the actual building was complete and illuminated at night, Natalie began calling it "Paris."  So mommy and Natalie took a field trip one day to "Paris" and had a great day.

The Gusbuster

"New circus tent?  Fantastic.  I think I'll nap in it."

"Hey guys, can I play too?  Please??"

Napping with daddy.

"Reindeer.  You want me to pretend to be a reindeer?  This is totally humiliating."

Someone was full of Christmas spirit this year.

 

 Natalie told Gus to sit still because it was time for his checkup.  He obeyed.

Bike riding with her BFF.