Breckenridge 2017

We didn't get much hiking in, but the girls had a good time none the less.  Kara spotted a fox on the lodge play structure and captured it on camera.  The girls thought that was awesome! 



Link to pictures

Disney Cruise!

Early this summer, we headed down to Florida with Grandma and Grandpa to catch our first Disney Cruise out of Port Canaveral.  We hit some turbulence on our descent, which Emily thought was just the greatest thing ever. Grandma and Mom were gripping their seats while Emily was giggling and cackling every time the plane shook or dropped.   After landing in Orlando, we caught a shuttle to a hotel in Cocoa Beach.  We got there just in time to grab some dinner and then head to bed.

We woke up the next morning (June 10th) and took a quick stroll on the beach.  Mimi and Uncle Trey coincidentally were in Orlando meeting up with Trey's girlfriend, Ashley, so they came out to say hi.  We grabbed some breakfast with them and then headed out to the port to catch the ship.  We cruised on the Disney Fantasy ship, which was pretty awesome.  They had a theater for live shows (and also movies), a full-sized movie theater, two pools (that kids could use) on deck complete with an awesome water slide, three dining rooms, and a huge kids area (called the Oceaneer Club) with interactive games like Star Wars and Dr. Strange.  We spent the first day exploring the ship.  Kara and Dad stumbled upon the Midship Detective Agency activity, which was actually Dad's favorite part of the entire cruise!  Basically, you get a case assigned to you at a kiosk in the middle of the ship.  They have a couple Mickey Mouse mysteries, but they also have a Muppet one, which was the one Kara chose to start.  From there, you go to certain framed pictures on the ship.  When you hold your picture up, the pictures will come to life and give you clues or otherwise help you with the mystery.  The cards can be used to complete actions (eg turning a wrench or popping balloons).  They had several variations, so you could do it more than once (which we did).  We had dinner the first night in the Royal Court dining room.  Both girls tried escargot (Emily actually ate a couple snails!) and we finished off the meal with Mickey Ice Cream Bars (except for Mom and Grandma, who opted for more grown-up desserts).

Day 2 was a day At Sea.  We started off the day by hitting the pools.  Kara also hit the big water slide, called the AquaDuck.  Emily was a little too small for that slide, so she did the smaller slide over and over again.  After swimming for a couple of hours, we headed back to our room to get ready for our character greeting with Elsa and Anna from Frozen.  After that we grabbed some lunch and headed back to the room for an afternoon nap (both girls were pretty good about taking naps on the cruise). We took it pretty easy the rest of the afternoon, checking out the ship some more and getting some pictures with characters.  We had dinner that night at the Animator's Palate, which has TV screens all around the dining room.  They had an interactive show with Crush from Finding Nemo.  He would talk to the kids and make jokes with them.  Unfortunately our table wasn't situated right next to the screen, so the girls didn't get to talk with Crush.  They enjoyed watching him, though.  After dinner we hit the Aladdin musical show, which was basically a condensed version of the movie (still entertaining).  It was almost 9:30 at night when the show got over (which is late for Kara and super-late for Emily.  We got both girls back to the room and to bed, so we could get rest for our next adventure.

On Day 3 we stopped in at Cozumel, Mexico.  Both girls were up and at 'em by 7 am (of course).  Cozumel was where we did our big excursion for the cruise at this port.  We did the Dolphin Experience.  It was pretty awesome.  All of us got into an enclosure with a dolphin.  The trainer then took turns with us giving the dolphin kisses and letting her kiss us!  We all had fun (even Grandma).  After playing with the dolphins, we spent some time at the pool before heading back to the ship.  We took the rest of the afternoon pretty easy, just walking around the ship.  We finished up the evening with dinner at the Enchanted Garden dining room, which was decorated as an arboretum.

Day 4 took us to Grand Cayman.  We decided to just hang out on the ship for the morning (the girls were a little beat from the previous days' activities). After a short nap, we took the the tender into Georgetown to see what they had.  We happened to run into Grandma and Grandpa (who had headed over earlier in the morning) on the street and checked out Del Sol with them.  Mom and Dad had dinner at Palo, which was a fancy restaurant onboard to celebrate their 14th anniversary while the girls had dinner at Royal Court with Grandma and Grandpa.  After dinner, Mom and Dad rejoined everyone else to check out that night's show, Wishes.  The show got over around 9:30, so we herded the girls back to the room to get some rest.

We docked in Falmouth, Jamaica on Day 5.  We didn't have any specific plans in Jamaica (but we did have big plans for later in the evening), so we just hung out around the ship for the morning.  After breakfast, Emily and Kara spent some time in the kids club.  While they were in there, Mom and Dad caught Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 2 in the movie theater.  After the movie, we boosted the girls out of the kids club and grabbed some lunch.  By that time, Grandma and Grandpa had come back onto the ship from their morning adventure in Jamaica (mostly just wandering around shops).  Dad headed back to the room in the hopes to get a really good nap while Mom and Grandma ran into town to check out another Del Sol.  Unfortunately, the girls just couldn't get settled down for a nap.  They whispered to each other and kept each other up for more than an hour.  Eventually, the girls did settle down for a short nap (maybe an hour).  It was extra unfortunate they didn't get in a good nap because that night was Pirate night on the cruise!  Around 4:00 we headed to Bibbity Boppity Botique (which was renamed to the Pirate's League for that night) to get the girls made over in pirate make-up (check out the video below)!  Once the girls were all made over, we headed down to the atrium where there were several characters for meet and greets.  After meeting Stitch and Goofy (and also getting some group pictures) we headed to dinner at Animator's Palate.  Once we were done with dinner, Dad headed back to the room with Emily (in hopes that she would settle down and maybe get to sleep) while Mom and Kara headed to watch the newest Pirates of the Caribbean movie.  Emily had a complete break down in the room and wouldn't stop crying until Mom came back.  So, Mom came back to hang out with Emily while Dad went to go watch the movie (Kara stayed there with Grandma and Grandpa).  After the movie, there was fireworks show at 11, which is ridiculously late for Kara.  Dad and Kara headed up there with Grandma and Grandpa and were surprised when Mom and Emily met us up there.   After Emily's little breakdown, she was fine.  After the show, we herded the girls back to the room to get some sleep.

Day 6 was a Day at Sea.  We spent much of the morning recovering from the excitement of Pirate Night and took it easy most of the day.  The girls spent some time in the kids club in the morning.  In the afternoon, we did a few cases with the Midship Detective Agency.  We had dinner that night at Animator's Palate.  They put on a pretty good show.  Each person draws a character, which was then animated.  After dinner we hit the show - Believe, which is about believing in magic.  Good entertainment for kids.

For Day 7 we stopped at Disney's private island in the Bahamas called Castaway Cay.  It's a pretty small island with a protected beach that can be found here.  We started off by just wandering the beach.  They have a few water attractions (a slide and a climbing structures out in the water).  While Kara and Grandpa were waiting for their turn on the waterslide, the lifeguards closed down the slide and sent everyone because they saw a storm approaching.  They weren't kidding!  As soon as everyone got back to shore, it started to rain.  Dad and Grandpa, who had wandered pretty far down the beach with the girls, quickly found some shelter thinking it would just blow over.  About 20 minutes later, it was still pouring!  The storm did eventually dissipate, and we wandered back to find Grandma and Mom.  We stayed out on the beach until early in the afternoon before heading back to the ship and getting in a little quiet time.  Late in the afternoon we headed to the movie theater to check out Cars 3, which had just been released in theaters.  The girls thought the movie was pretty good.  On the downside, we didn't get out of the movie until after our dining time, so we grabbed dinner at Cabana's (quick service buffet).  Since we'd hit the movie in the afternoon, we decided to skip the last show of the cruise.

We disembarked and headed home the next morning.  The trip home was uneventful, which is just the way Mom and Dad like travel to be.  The girls are already planning our next cruise!

Link to pictures

Emily's 4th Birthday!

Emily is now a 4-year old, which is kind of hard to believe.  Where have the last 4 years gone?

Emily's birthday fell on a school day, so she took tiny cupcakes to share with her class.

Emily decided she didn't really want to invite people over for her birthday, but she did want to do something fun.  Of course that meant going to Chuck E. Cheese's.  As soon as Dad got home from work, we headed out to have some fun with Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Amy.  Emily had a blast!  Fortunately, she decided that she'd rather have pizza from a restaurant than eat Chuck's pizza, so we stopped at MOD Pizza (the girls' new favorite restuarant) on the way home.

No 4-year old's birthday would be complete without cake.  Emily insisted Rainbow Cake (which is a white cake with rainbow sprinkles inside).  Happy 4th birthday, Emily!

Link to pictures

Kara's First Ski Trip

Dad finally got his act together enough to get Kara up on the mountain to try out skiing.  We've been meaning to get her up there every winter since we moved back to Colorado.  We got Kara signed up for lessons a day that she was off school - Friday, February 10th.  Grandpa was interested in skiing with us, so he came along.  When we got there, it was really windy (and warm, it was in the 40's).  Several trees had fallen down on the ski runs, so they eventually canceled lessons for that day.  We rescheduled the lessons for a couple of weeks later on Saturday, February 25, and Grandpa and Dad drove Kara back up again that day.  The weather was a little miserable (it was really cold and very windy), so Dad and Grandpa decided it wasn't worth the money to get out there in that weather.  Kara, on the other hand, jumped right in and never complained about the cold or wind.

Kara had never been skiing before, so she started with the basics and scooting around on her skis and then moved over to the kid hill with the magic carpet (it's a people mover that takes the kids back up the hill).  By the end of the day, Kara was getting pretty good.  She could turn, stop, and had pretty decent control.  The ski instructor recommended she sign up for the next level when she goes back up!

Kara had a great time, though the highlight for her was all the junk food she ate for lunch.  She had pizza, chicken fingers, macaroni and cheese, and fruit punch!  She was still on a sugar buzz at the end of lessons!

Watch for Kara in the pink coat and the red helmet in the videos below.

Link to pictures

Christmas 2016

Christmas was great this year.  The girls are in the prime time of enjoying Christmas.  They definitely understand what's going on, but no one is too cool for all the fun yet.  The beginning of December started off a little rough with the second round of sickness working its way through the family (even Mom and Dad got pretty sick).  Very fortunately, everyone started to feel better right before Mimi and Papa came out to visit.  They flew out here the week before Christmas and Uncle Trey also flew out a couple days later.  It's been a couple of years since Trey's been out here, so the girls had a great time showing him all their toys and just hanging out with him in general.  We also got out a bit to check out the local attractions.

One day, we headed down to Denver to check out the Denver Museum.  Trey hadn't been there since he was just a little kid, so he had a great time checking it out.  We didn't get to see much since we got out a little late, and Emily ran out of steam shortly after noon.

The city sets up an ice skating rink every year around Christmas.  Papa, Uncle Trey, Dad, and the girls headed there the morning of Christmas Eve while Mom and Mimi did some prep work for Christmas.  Kara had taken ice skating lessons a couple of years ago.  She was a little rusty at first but was skating all around by the end.  Emily tried to skate a bit at first but ended up just letting Dad pull her around in a sled.  We were the first ones there, but within 30 minutes the rink was packed with people enjoying the nice day and the skating.

Emily learned the words to several Christmas carols - Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer were her favorites - and would sing them over and over again for everyone.  Kara enjoyed teaching Emily alternative versions of Christmas carols ("Jingle Bells, Batman smells...").  We bought a little bear that plays a version of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" that Emily loved to dance to.  Unfortunately, we never could get a good video of her dancing.  Maybe next year.

Christmas day was a blast.  Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Amy came over early in the morning to get the day started.  The girls got some amazing gifts this year from Santa.  Emily was still a little slower with opening presents.  She always wants to play with her new toy, while Kara is definitely at the age where she just rips into all her presents.

The girls are already planning for next year!

Kid quotes:
"We need to keep up appearances... for Emily." - Kara, as we were putting out cookies and milk for Santa.  I think she's on to us...

"Drat." - Emily's favorite new phrase

Link to December pictures

Link to Christmas Day pictures

November 2016

November was a bit of a rough month. Kara came down with croup the second week of November and missed the whole week of school. Fortunately, she started feeling better just in time for her birthday party. Unfortunately, Emily started feeling sick just as soon as Kara started feeling better. We were supposed to travel to Mimi and Papa's house to visit for Thanksgiving, but Emily was a miserable mess. She had croup, a stuffed nose, and just generally felt terrible. The worst part was the lack of sleep (for everyone). She would wake up crying at least 2-3 times a night, and nothing Mom and Dad could do could really help her. She consoled herself by going through about a box of tissues every couple of days (we went through a lot of tissues). It would have been miserable trying to travel with such a sick little girl, so we we decided to cancel our travel plans at the last minute and reschedule for Spring Break. We took advantage of being home the long Thanksgiving weekend and got the house all decked out for Christmas. Dad even got out and hung up lights outside!

Link to pictures

Cousin Travis' Wedding

The first weekend in October, we headed out to California for Cousin Travis' wedding to Dani. It was the girls' first trip to the west coast, and they were very excited to check out the beach.

The wedding was on the beach near Watsonville.  We were able to rent a place right on the beach not far away.

We flew into San Jose with Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Amy.  While Grandma and Grandpa went with Uncle Arch, Aunt Amy came with us to check out Henry Cowell Redwoods California State Park, which was awesome.  The redwoods really are amazing.  It was the first time any of us had seen them, and the girls had a blast walking the trail and checking out the trees.  While at the visitor's center, Kara learned about the animals that live there and about seed size of different California conifers.  Afterwards, we drove to our condo, unloaded, and met up with everyone for dinner at a nearby seafood restaurant.  There was a group of sea loins loittering around the fishing boats.  That would be our closest look at them this trip, so thanks for pointing them out Uncle Arch!

Sleeping has always been an issue on these trips, and we were pretty concerned since the girls were going to share a room at the condo.  The first night Emily popped out about 10 times to talk with Mom and Dad, but eventually calmed down and went to sleep (Kara was very quick to settle down), though the girls did wake Dad up at 5 am because, as they said, they just couldn't sleep any more!  The second night was better, and the third night was no problem at all.  Hopefully, sleeping on vacation will get progressively better...

On Sunday we drove to Monterrey for the morning.  We walked along the oceanfront and through downtown.  We didn't go inside the Aquarium, but we did check out the observation deck.  For lunch, we ate at a place that hung over the bay with great views.  A big sea otter was kind enough to entertain us too!  He was very close and fun to watch.  We also saw seals a bit further out.  Emily was pretty worn out after lunch, so we headed back to Watsonville.

That evening, there was a wedding rehearsal at the campsite followed by a cookout.  Travis and Arch grilled out and had a great spread.  The girls had a blast playing with Langdon, Dani's nephew.  They also had games set up, which were a hit.  The bonfire was also fascinating to the girls, along with being able to stay up a bit after the sun went down!

For Monday morning, we took it pretty easy and just headed down to the beach.  The water was quite cold, but that didn't stop the girls from running right in (though Dad wasn't too happy about hanging out in the water).  Kara spent most of the beach time just running around in the waves.  Emily ran in the waves but also played in the sand for awhile.  We were able to see a few dolphins in the distance from the condo too!

The wedding was beautiful.  The ceremony was on the beach with the reception up the hill at the campsite.  Travis had asked if the girls could be a part of the wedding.  The girls were supposed to walk down the aisle in front of the bride with a sign that said "Here Comes the Bride".  Emily was pretty excited about it up until the time it came to actually walk down the aisle with the sign.  She ended up just walking behind Kara while Kara held the sign.

The reception was awesome.  It was catered from a a food truck.  They had also set up games for the guests and had a S'mores cookout for dessert.  The girls had a good time playing with their new friend Landon.  And wouldn't you know it, Kara caught the bouquet.  Oh, boy!

Welcome to the family, Dani!

Link to pictures

Breckenridge 2016

Breckenridge was a bit of a blur this year.  We went up the first part of the week this year, instead of the last half of the week like we usually do.  Our plan was to head up Sunday after Emily's nap.  Unfortunately, Emily decided that she wasn't going to take a nap, so at 3, we just packed everyone in the car and headed up.  We hoped that maybe she would sleep in the car (she didn't) or at least that she'd be tired and sleep when we got there (that didn't happen either).  After we got there and got unpacked, we grabbed dinner at the hotel restaurant and then tried to get the girls to wind down for bed.  After a quick bath, we tried to put the girls down together in the same room (gotta give it a try).  Kara was actually pretty good and tried to go to sleep.  Emily, however, kept popping out of bed to check on Kara and everyone else in the other room.  Around 9, we gave up on the experiment and moved Emily to the other room.  Emily just didn't sleep well at all that night, tossing and turning, and waking up hysterical in the middle of the night.  So, our trip didn't get off to the best start...

Sleeping, in general, was a bit of a struggle the whole time we were up there.  Mom swears that the people in the unit above us were doing construction with power tools and work boots every night until 11 pm.  Luckily, Kara and Emily generally slept pretty well after the first night.  Mom and Dad, however, had trouble sleeping every night.

We didn't get a lot of hiking in this year.  We went on a short hike near the lodge the first morning, but that was about it.  Kara was really enthusiastic about hiking, and Emily was a trooper.  We hiked until Emily said she wanted us to carry her, and then we just headed back.  We did get a lot of pool time in.  We went just about every morning.  Kara had a great time practicing her swimming skills.  Emily mostly enjoyed just being in the water and occasionally jumping in to Dad.

We also made our annual trip up to the top of Peak 8 to check out the Breckenridge Summer Fun Park, which was a bit of a bust.  We bought the pass for Kara this year, so she could do just about anything.  She did the bungee bounce and the alpine slide (with Dad).  We also bought a limited pass for Emily.  She got up on the trampoline for the bungee bounce, but decided she just wasn't into it and backed out once they tried to put on the harness.  Unfortunately, the roller coaster they have up there and the zipline were both down, so all the kids funneled into the kids ropes course.  After waiting in line for over an hour, Kara got to go down the kids zipline (which was about a 15 second ride).  By that time, it was almost noon, and Emily was done.  We just headed back to the hotel and took it easy for the afternoon.

We ended up cutting the trip a little short.  We had planned on staying Wednesday night and heading back Thursday morning, but since Mom and Dad were sleeping so poorly, we just headed back home Wednesday afternoon.  The drive back was uneventful.

Link to pictures

Rough Start to Summer

We've had a pretty rough start to summer.  Kara had a make up T-ball game the first week of June.  About halfway through the game, she started complaining to Dad that she was feeling hot.  He thought she was just a little warm because it was hot outside and told her to drink more water.  When we got home, she still said she was hot.  Come to find out, she had a fever of 103°F!  She was supposed to have another game that Saturday, but her fever was just not going down and she developed a pretty rough cough.  We took her to the doctor's office after about 5 days of 100+°F fever where she was finally diagnosed with pneumonia.  Once we got Kara on some medication, her fever went down after a couple of days, and she started feeling much better.  She was supposed to go to music camp the second week of June.  Camp Oonie Koonie Cha is a music-centric camp for kids.  The theme this year was the Old West, and Kara really didn't want to miss it!  Fortunately, they had some openings the next week, and Kara was able to change weeks when she felt better.  Kara had a great time at the camp and intends to do it again next year (the camp next year will be jungle-themed).  She also attended a rock-themed birthday later in the month where the kids could get on stage and sing Karaoke.  Kara had a blast getting up and singing songs (there were a lot of Taylor Swift songs and other singers Dad has never heard of).

Emily's also had a rough start to summer.  Early in June, Dad took Mom out for a nice dinner for her birthday and left the girls with Grandma and Grandpa S for the evening.  Soon after Grandma had put her down, Emily got her foot stuck in one of the slats on her toddler bed.  Apparently, she got it really stuck, and it took quite the effort for Grandpa to get her foot out.  After that, she refused to get back into her toddler bed, so Dad had to take the bed apart that evening, and Emily just slept on the mattress.  Compounding Emily's issues with her bed, she simply hasn't been sleeping very well recently (even before the bed incident).  At least twice a week, she'll wake up crying hysterically in the middle of the night, and no matter what Mom and Dad do, she won't calm down.  We're thinking this is just a phase, but we'll see...

The weather, in general, was quite warm for the month of June, but not too hot.  We got out the sprinklers a couple of times.  By the end of the month, things were looking up, so let's hope we continue to have a fun summer into July!

Link to pictures

Disney World Hangover

Emily picked up a little bug our last day in Disney, which made the travel day home quite unpleasant.  Unfortunately, she continued to have a snotty nose and a cough after we got home.  Dad came down with the flu a few days later, Mom came down with a cold a few days after that, and Kara finally developed a barking cough a few days after that.
Emily seems to be fine now, but the rest of us are still fighting the cold.  Good fun!

Emily's birthday was the weekend after we got back from Disney.  It was a little subdued since we were all a little sick, but we still got a cake, of course!  It's kind of hard to believe Emily is 3 years old already!

We got 2 separate heavy snow storms later in the month.  We got about a foot on March 18th, which happened to coincide with Kara coming down with the cold.  She wasn't too sick to go out and play, though.  The weather warmed up right after that and all the snow had melted by the time the second storm came in on March 23rd.  The second storm came in fast and furious, and we had 21" of snow on the ground by that afternoon.  It was Kara's spring break, so she didn't get a snow day, but that would have been her third one this year.  Crazy!

Unfortunately, the second snow didn't melt quite as quickly as the first snow, so we had to do our Easter egg dyeing and Easter egg hunt inside.  It's not quite as fun as outside, but the girls still enjoyed it!  Emily knew what was going on and jumped right in searching for the eggs (stopping to open up each one as soon as she found it).  Later in the day, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Easter dinner.

Emily is starting to develop into an annoying younger sibling (Tyler's words).  She routinely does things these days purely to bother Kara.  She's also developing a bit of a rebellious steak.  She enjoys running away and slamming doors when Mom and Dad are trying to get her to do something (like get dressed).  She's landed herself in time out a few times.  Fortunately, she continues to loves hugs and cuddles and is still very empathetic and sweet.....80% of the time!

Kara is loving school and all the learning and friendships that go along with it.  In fact, when we got back from WDW, Kara said she enjoyed the trip but wished she hadn't missed a week of school! :O  Her written stories are getting more nuanced these days, and she's started story-boarding a motion picture involving unicorn superheros.  There are also 3-D paper mock-ups involved.  She has requested a videocamera, so stay tuned.  She's a hoot!

Link to pictures

January 2016

We made our first visit to the National Western Stock Show this year.  We always say we're going to check it out, but we never seem to make it.  It was a lot more commercial than Dad remembered from when he was a kid.  It seemed more like it was just people trying to sell stuff rather than an opportunity to see animals.  They did have one little area with a petting zoo and a place to do pony rides.  Emily was really excited about the pony rides, so we decided to check that out.  Unfortunately, there was a really long line and then really unfortunately, Emily decided she didn't actually want to ride the pony when it got to be her turn.  Oh well.  By that time, we had to move on, so we didn't get to check out the petting zoo.  We also got tickets for the rodeo, which was pretty cool.  Kara enjoyed watching the cowboys try to lasso the cows, but Emily lost interest quickly and mostly wandered around with an adult in tow.  Maybe we'll go check it out again in a couple of years.

Right around the beginning of the year, Kara got her first loose tooth, one of her bottom front teeth.  Dad and Mom both offered to pull the tooth as it kept getting looser and looser, but Kara was concerned about it hurting.  One night (1/22), Kara decided it was loose enough and pulled it by herself.  She was so proud of herself.  Watch the video below.

Other than that, it was a fairly quiet month.

Emily quote:
1/7: "You look like fantastic, Daddy."  Emily to Dad when he put on a nice shirt and tie for a job interview.

Link to pictures

Christmas 2015

Christmas was a lot of fun this year.  We got the season kicked off right by attending the Christmas party that was put on by Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood.  They had cookies, dancing, horse-drawn sleigh rides, and even Santa and Mrs. Claus.  Kara definitely was playing along with the Santa thing this year.  She sat on Santa's lap at the party (Emily watched from a safe distance), but she made sure Mom and Dad were aware of the gifts she was asking for from Santa.

 Kara has learned most of the Christmas carols and had a great time this year belting them out.  Dad earned himself some serious cool points when he helped Kara finish the Batman parody version of Jingle Bells that Kara learned at school ("Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg...").  What do they teach kids at school these days?

Mimi and Papa were not able to travel out here this year, so we Skyped with them on Christmas Eve and opened their presents then.  Kara exploded with happiness when she opened her Lego Scooby-Doo Mansion, and Emily spent most of the day playing with her new doll furniture.  We also Skyped with them again and Uncle Trey on Christmas day.

It was a pretty small crowd at the house for Christmas day.  Grandma and Grandpa S. and Aunt Amy showed up early in the day.  We were able to get the girls corralled to eat some breakfast before they (mostly Kara) just had to open some presents or they would burst!  Kara ran through her gifts, but Emily still wanted to play with each gift after opening it.  It took her quite a while to get all her gifts open.  Later in the day, Laura and Jared, friends from Dad's work, stopped by for dinner.

Kara's favorite gifts this year were probably a tie between a remote controlled car and her Scooby Doo Spooky Castle (860 pieces) Lego set.  Kara had fun for days after Christmas putting together her Lego's and racing her car around the house.

Emily really enjoyed her baby cradle and changing table.  She thought it was really fun to rock her baby and put her down to sleep (Emily is a nurturer).  She also got a cool Mickey Mouse train lego set that she enjoyed.  Some fairy wings and a glow stick wand from Aunt Amy were super big hits too!

Link to pictures

September 2015

Kara quickly adjusted to her morning routine and getting ready for school each day. Surprisingly, Kara wasn't late to school once and didn't give Mom too much of a hard time.. Kara has school every morning, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays she stays for a full day and has Kindergarten Enrichment in the afternoon. So far, Kara is really enjoying school. Kara is doing very well with her reading (she recently tested at a 2nd grade reading level) and with her math.  She's also having a lot of fun learning new science information.  She comes home everyday with some new little tidbit that she learned in school.

For Labor Day, Aunt Amy had a little party at her house.  The girls had a great time chasing Briley and Ruby and playing with all the adults.  The girls had a little extra fun once they got a hold of Aunt Amy's phone.  Check out the pictures.

We decided to plant a couple of trees in our backyard.  We planted an Autumn Blaze Maple and a Honeycrisp Apple.  Maybe we'll be getting some tasty apples in a couple of years!

The last weekend in the month, we headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park outside of Estes Park to check out the elk.  It was fun, but we probably won't attempt it again for a couple of years.  We had planned on having a picnic dinner and then hanging out for a couple of hours and watching the elk.  However, the girls were ready to leave right after we got there (long care ride). Fortunately, there was a bull elk waiting to surprise us in the tall grass!  We got our dinner out, sat down, and there he was!  The girls loved it.  We also saw several other elk and heard a little bugling in the distance before we left.

Kid quotes:
Emily: "This is my only choice" after she sat down on the sidewalk when Dad gave her the choice of either riding her scooter or walking home from the playground (see the picture).

Link to pictures from Labor Day

Link to other pictures from September

Another Summer Comes to an End

We crammed some end-of-summer fun in with Grandma and Grandpa - one morning we met them at the Boulder County Fair and another we met up at the Broomfield Bay water park.

The Fair day was quite hot (you can tell by Emily's picture...), but both girls enjoyed seeing the farm animals, and even saw their first clown show!  Emily was a little apprehensive, but quickly started to enjoy herself.  And Kara was cracking up!  Kara also got to enjoy some carnival rides with Grandma and Grandpa while Emily went home for a nap.

We only got to Broomfield Bay (small local pool/water park) one day this summer (same as last summer) and both girls had a blast!  It was a bit chilly for the adults, but we powered through.  Kara couldn't get enough of the big water slides, and Emily made Dad go down the medium slide over and over and over....

August also brought lots of bounty from our little garden.  We got several rounds of beans, lots and lots....and lots of zucchini, and yummy tomatoes!  Our carrots were very sad and the watermelons were a complete no-show (maybe we should have weeded?!), but we plan to garden again next year.  The girls really enjoyed watching everything grow.

Emily went with Mom and Kara to the hair salon one day and got her first salon experience.  Ms. Rose was very nice and shampooed Emily's hair and gave her a good blow dry.  Emily just thought it was the coolest thing.

Emily is going through an independent phase.  She wants to do everything herself (including getting dressed, getting into the bath, reading books) and gets very irritated if someone tried to do something for her or makes her do something before she's ready. It has been a little tricky to get her to do things sometimes...

Kid quotes:
Emily: "No thank you, I'm playing toys" when we asked her to come to dinner one night.

Link to pictures

Summer Fun 2015

This summer has just flown by.  Between birthday parties, visitors, Grandma and Grandpa moving, classes, and camps, there was barely any time to relax!

Kara didn't have two consecutive weeks this summer without some sort of class or camp.  She did sports camp, swim lessons, Vacation Bible School, and Space Pirate Camp.  There was always something going on!

Early in June, we had a little party for Grandpa and Mommy's birthdays.  Nothing too big, but Grandpa let Emily blow out the candles on the cake, which Emily really enjoyed, especially after her candle experience for her own birthday cake...

Later in the month, we had Mimi and Papa come out to visit.  For the most part, we kept things pretty low key (except for our visit to the North Pole).

We put the girls in swim lessons during July.  Emily had been doing so well during her last swim lesson in May, so we signed her up for the next level up (without a parent in the water).  That lasted about 10 minutes or so until Emily figured out that Mommy wasn't going to get in the water with her.  She wouldn't get back in for the rest of the session.  Oh well.  Kara, on the other hand, got lucky and had a session with only one other girl (so she got a lot of personal attention).  By the end, Kara was able to jump in and swim the entire length of the pool all by herself!  Check out the video!

Early in July, Grandma and Grandpa finally closed on their new house.  They had us over one night to check out the new place.  The girls had a great time playing with bubbles in the backyard with Grandpa and Mom.

Whew, what an action-packed summer!

Pictures from Grandpa's birthday party:



Pictures from the rest of Mimi and Papa's visit:



Pictures from June:



Pictures from July



Emily playing some T-ball!

From 2015-07_1

Breckenridge 2015

At the end of July, we spent a long weekend with Grandma and Grandpa S. in Breckenridge.  For the most part, we kept it pretty low key. The girls played at the pool almost every afternoon and we did outdoor activities every morning (hiking or going to the adventure park).

The sleeping arrangements were a little interesting.  We had hoped that Emily and Kara could share a room, but it didn't quite work out.  All day, Mom and Dad kept telling Kara that she was going to share a room with Emily, but she was going to have to be quiet and let Emily sleep.  Well, Kara started off all excited and we could hear her whispering things to Emily through the baby monitor.  After about an hour, however, Kara was done and just wanted to go to sleep.  Emily, on the other hand, was just getting going.  She kept asking Kara, "What's that?" To which Kara would reply, "Emily, go to sleep."  That went on for about 30 minutes before Mom and Dad saved Kara and moved Emily's crib to another room.  After the move, everyone slept very well.  Oh well, we'll try again next year. :-)

Kara has started showing quite an interest in hiking.  There's a decent hike path that runs right next to the hotel.  Thursday afternoon Kara just started walking (with Grandpa in tow) and ended up going probably a mile up the trail before getting tired (and then hiked all the way back).  The next day, Dad packed Emily in the backpack and went with Grandpa and Kara on the same hike.  Kara, of course, led the way, and hiked right up the mountain.  Emily, on the other hand, got tired of hiking and was ready to turn back after about 30 minutes of hiking.  Kara and Grandpa were going to keep going up the hill, but Kara decided she was a little tired too and headed back.  A storm moved in Friday afternoon and rained the rest of the day.

On Saturday morning, we got up early and rode the gondola up to Peak 8 to check out the Breck Summer Fun Park.  Emily is still a little too young to do most of the activities, but Kara is getting into the target audience range.  Kara started off by trying out the bouncing trampoline while Emily checked out Ripperoo's Bounce Corral.  Kara had a great time bouncing, but she didn't get to bounce for as long as she did last year (there was quite a long line this year).  After that, Kara headed over to the rock climbing wall, but she was just a little too short to really reach most of the hand-holds, so she didn't get to climb too high.  On the way out, we did a little panning for gemstones, which both girls really enjoyed.

Another successful Breckenridge visit.  Can't wait until next year!

Link to pictures

Cancún 2015!

Every May, Grandma and Grandpa S. head down to Cancún for a nice relaxing beach vacation.  Well, this yearthe timing worked out so we could go down with them.  The girls had an absolute blast playing in the pool and playing on the beach.  The ocean was really calm, so the girls could walk around quite a ways off shore (though Emily didn't really want anything to do with the ocean after touching some seaweed).

Emily did a great job adapting to her new surrounding, which we were really worried about (especially after our Colorado Springs trip last year).  Other than a couple of meltdowns, which were caused by sunscreen in the eyes or just getting a little tired in the morning before nap, Emily was very well behaved. She also played up the cuteness for Grandma and Grandpa.  One day, she decided to tell off a bird that was chirping on the balcony.  She told the bird "no, no, no, bird" while waving her finger. "Go away."  We got a video of her reliving the experience below.  She also was quick to tell Grandma not to touch her water (in a very cute way), "don't touch Emily water, OK?" Check out the video on on that one as well.

Kara really enjoyed swimming in the pool and making new friends.  She also enjoyed making sand castles and exploring the ocean with Grandpa.

Link to pictures



Don't touch Emily's water, okay?

No, no, no, bird. Go Away!

Swimming in the pool

Easter 2015

Easter in Colorado is usually a toss up as to whether you'll be celebrating in snow or in the sun.  Fortunately, the weather was great this year, so we got to do a lot of egg searching (perhaps a little too much egg hunting?), even though Easter fell a little early in the spring this year.

We got the day of Easter started off right by doing an egg hunt in the backyard.  Kara immediately went running off to look for eggs, but Emily took a more leisurely approach to egg hunting.  She opened her first egg and was pretty good with that.  We had to prompt her a bit to keep searching for eggs before Kara got them all!  Later in the morning, while Mommy, Kara, and Emily talked to Mimi and Uncle Trey on a Skype call, Dad went down the street to help hide eggs for a neighborhood egg hunt.  The girls had a great time with that one, running around with the kids and sneaking candy.  They were both crashing a bit from the sugar rush once we came home for lunch.

After lunch and quiet time, we headed down to Aunt Amy's house to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa S. for another egg hunt and Easter dinner.  After our third Easter egg hunt of the day, the girls had enough candy to last them for years!

Link to pictures

Emily is 2!

It's hard to believe that Emily's been with us for two years already.  It's been a blast, and we've had a lot of fun getting to know our little girl.  Emily has grown into an energetic, intelligent, sweet little girl.  Happy birthday, Emily!

Emily talks quite a bit these days, but we suspect she'd talk more if Kara didn't talk so much.  She's also proven to be a very active girl, always trying to keep up with big sister Kara.  She's become quite a good jumper, leaping off things with both feet.  Emily measured in at 34.25" in height (61st percentile) and 25 lb, 6 oz in weight (33rd percentile).

We did a family birthday for Emily this year.  We Skyped with Mimi, Papa, GiGi, and Uncle Trey in the morning.  In the afternoon, Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Amy came over for some cake and ice cream.  Emily enjoyed having everyone sing her happy birthday, even though Kara blew out the candles on her cake (see the video below).  Special thanks to Aunt Amy for some great pictures!

Link to pictures

Christmas 2014

We got the Christmas season kicked off the day after Thanksgiving by putting up the tree and the decorations.  Emily had a good time looking at the decorations and enjoyed putting the star on top of the tree.  Kara particularly enjoyed putting decorations on the tree.  She even made quite a few decorations to add to the tree (see the pictures)!

A couple of weeks before Christmas, the city puts on a Dessert with Santa event for all the little kids.  Both girls enjoyed snacking on cookies and sipping on hot chocolate.  Eventually, we made our way up to talk with Santa himself.  Kara asked Santa for an electric toothbrush with Ariel on it that played music.  She was very specific. :-)  Emily didn't know quite what to think of Santa, but she knew she didn't want to sit on his lap and wouldn't let go of Dad when he tried to put her down.  Maybe next year.

On December 23rd, Mimi and Papa flew in from Alabama.  They spent Christmas Eve making gingerbread cookies and generally preparing for the Christmas festivities.

Christmas day started early this year.  Daddy suspects Kara was listening by her door for any little noise because she popped out as soon as Dad stepped out of bed.  She did go back to her room but kept popping out.  Eventually, Dad went and sat with Kara in her room (we didn't want her to wake up Emily since it was going to be such a busy day) until about 7.  Once we let her out, she quickly ran downstairs to check out what Santa brought her.  She was excited that she got an electric toothbrush, but she was a little disappointed it didn't play any music.  We made Kara wait on the rest of the presents, though.

Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Amy, and Cousin Jennifer showed up around 8:15 and brought another carload of gifts.  Kara was really into opening presents this year.  She had a great time sorting the presents into piles and would have torn them all open if we hadn't made her wait.  Emily, on the other hand, understood what was going on, but she wasn't too interested.  Mom and Dad started to feel bad after a while since she just wanted to play with her new presents, and we were just handing her presents to open. In the end, Emily just decided she was done and walked away, which was okay. Emily's favorite new gift was a Curious George stuffed animal, which she carried around with her the rest of the day.

In the afternoon, the snow started to fall, so we did have a white Christmas in Colorado. The snow came down pretty quick, so Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Amy, and Cousin Jennifer had to leave right after dinner (without eating any dessert).  Of course, they did take plenty of dessert with them.

A very merry Christmas was had by all.  Until next year!

Link to pictures