End of Season and Spring Break

Last day with our skiing buddies Annica and Rider. We went up to High Camp for one last apple and yogurt for the season and skied down several favorite runs. It is hard to believe how much these two improved through the year. We started on the Magic Carpet and Meadows and ended up cruising down blue runs, laughing and singing. I had so much fun this winter playing on the mountain with my boys. I cherish this time with them and will be both proud and sad when they leave me in the dust! I am making a winter video now and will post it when I am done. Dylan and I ended up with about 30 days on the mountain this year and Colter was in that range as well, some of his days were with Ski PE or Dad.

We spent my birthday weekend in Grand Junction doing dinosaur stuff. We went to the museum in Fruita, which is always a favorite, and on a hike in Rabbit Valley. It was windy and a bit cold, but still a good hike. Colter found a Camarasaur (sp?) fossil in the rock and several other fossils. This is a great hike for all ages with interesting stuff all over the place. We will have to go back when the weather is nicer and explore some more.

Woohoo, Spring Break! Daddy came with us this year and we had a GREAT trip. This is the Four Corners Monument. We have driven by so many times and finally stopped for the classic picture.

Our first few days were spent in Oak Creek Canyon south of Flagstaff, AZ. Our basic goal was to chase warm weather and explore. This was a great campsite near the creek and we spent hours throwing rocks, fishing, finding bugs, laying on rocks in the sun, gathering large pine needles for campfires and pine cones. We borrowed my parents cab over camper and Rob's truck for the trip. We were living large! It is our first trip with anything more than a tent and it was fun. Not to mention Rob's diesel truck got great gas mileage.....I'm afraid we will be buying a new truck and camper sooner than we previously thought! I enjoy watching my boys explore and enjoy nature. They are so happy to play outside and just hang out all day long with their feet or hands in the water.

Next up was fun rock climbing in Las Vegas. We met our friends Julie, Keith and Baby Ali and they brought all the climbing stuff and expertise with them.  We went to Red Rocks and had fun learning something new. The boys tried really hard and did a good job listening and pushing themselves. Climbing is as mentally challenging as physically and that is tough for little guys.

Colter loved all of the equipment and spent most of his time learning how to use all of the different gadgets. He climbed up to the second ledge, which was way above my head, and came down with a smile on his face.

These two went to homecoming together back in the day. I'm sure they weren't thinking of still being friends and meeting up 20yrs down the road for camping and climbing! It is so fun to have good friends that even distance and time can't take away.Trevor got the challenging job of holding the sweet sleeping baby while the rest of us scaled rock walls. Little Ali is so cute!

Oh Dylan! He was so excited to have his turn. He went up and down the same part over and over again and got braver each time. It was fun to watch him figure it out and then in typical 3yr old style, just be done with it.

He even figured out how to stick his bottom out and hop back down the rock when he was done.

It was crazy windy our second day in Vegas, so we ran around the rocks and caves as much as possible and then decided to kill some time on the strip and see if the weather would get better.

The best part for the kids was the giant pirate ships at Treasure Island and for us was watching and listening to all of the people as the boys carried this huge palm branch for almost a mile back to the truck. It blew off in the wind storm and they thought it would make fun projects back at camp. Good teamwork boys! We also got to have dinner with long lost friends from Telluride, Kurt and Sharon.

I love Colter's sand angel with the flip flops! He is a funny guy.Well, the weather did not get better in Vegas so we drove out to LA to see my cousins Clay, Sue and Tanner and play at the beach. They live very close to Venice Beach and the pier. This was Dylan's first trip to the beach that he will actually remember and he was outrageously funny. He would growl at the waves, taunt them with "nana nana boo boo, you can't catch me", scream, squeal, run into them and then away and then do it all over again. He now calls this beach "Tanner's beach" and asks to go back every day.

Cousin Tanner was a great host and all the boys had a fun time together. I wish we could see them more often.

We went to a birthday party with Clay, Sue and Tanner that had Disney princesses running around. Not just the kids in costume, but real Disney type people who never said a word that was out of character. It was crazy, but the kids loved it!

Watching Dylan learn to run in the waves was definitely a highlight of the trip. He was learning from a beach veteran, Colter, and they were so carefree and excited for each wave. He had no fear of the water, nor did he notice how cold it was.

They could hardly focus for a family pic, but that was part of the fun.

On to Laguna Beach to stay at the beautiful beach house and to see friends Mark, Marci and their 3 boys. We had a fun picnic on the beach and watched great sunsets each night. The house overlooked the beach so the boys could go play while we sat on the patio and relaxed. Nice....   I think I need to make a book with all of the pictures of the boys jumping off of things. They seem to do it a lot. We also were able to have lunch with Grandma's cousin Rick "Pathfinder" at a great little kid friendly cafe. That was a nice bonus, we enjoy his company and it was good to see him.

Views from the house. Oh how I love sunsets!

More fun wave pictures. And catching sand crabs, sea shells, building sand castles for the waves to take back and all things beachy.

He actually yelled "Jackpot, Jackpot, Jackpot!!!!" when we got to these tide pools at the end of the beach. For those of you that weren't there, "jackpot" was a famous saying from our trip to Bonaire when Colter found creatures he thought were interesting. We haven't heard it very often since then, so it was extra funny that he busted that one out again. This was Colter's happy place and he could have stayed here the entire trip. We found mussells, barnacles, sea stars, sea anemones, snails, crabs.....more living creatures than I can remember.

For some reason Trevor and I both think it is funny to wait and take the picture when the surprise wave hits the subjects in the picture(note the left pic above). It is more fun than being polite and warning them of their impending splash. Ha Ha. Colter could not focus on anything but the sea creatures surrounding him, he was a good sport though.

Colter took this picture.

He thought it was funny to have snail races. Also we had a pet crab "Crabby" for our stay and he pet the sea stars, but decided to leave them on the rock because he couldn't find a home big enough to keep them as pets.

Yes that is me boogie boarding. Yes it was cold and no I didn't wear my wetsuit until I went stand up paddle boarding a few days later. I love playing in the waves!

Trevor also went boogie boarding and so did the boys, I will post videos eventually. These were decent sized waves and somewhat easy to catch a ride on.

Colter asked if the Hollywood sign was real after he saw it in the movie Bolt. So we drove our camper and huge diesel truck all over Beverly Hills and found this great hiking trail in the Hollywood Hills. Colter was reasonably impressed with the sign and we built a bit of credit up.

We went to Thousand Oaks to have dinner with Clay and Sue, her sister Kelly and family, then stayed at their friends apartment right on Venice Beach. We woke up the next morning, snuggled on the couch and then rolled out the door for a stroll down the Venice Boardwalk.

And then it was down to Dana Point to meet up with some Telluride friends. We camped, SUPed, boogie boarded, surfed, rode bikes, ate yummy sushi, flew kites, climbed trees and enjoyed more uninterrupted beach time. Dylan and Magnus are so cute together. Dylan says "he is my best fwiend" and they are inseparable these days. Our group was six grown up and six boys, three boys were 6 and three were 3. It worked out great.

Colter laid down in the sand and flew this kite for the longest time, the kite was so far up that I couldn't get it and Colter in the same shot. I remember how peaceful and relaxed he was, but he wants me to tell what happened next. When he was winding up the kite it got away from him. He and Daddy went on an epic kite chasing adventure that involved bikes and a lot of determination, and they got the kite back. They did a great job of not giving up.

Uh oh, I see a stand up paddleboard in our future!!! I have been eyeing these for a while now.

Legoland was a great plan. Thanks to all those that told us about this place and advised us that the boys would prefer this to Disney. It was the perfect last day in California for  3 and 6 yr old boys. They drove go carts, flew helicopters, airplanes, firetrucks, rode roller coasters, logrides, thoroughly enjoyed all the lego decorations, attractions and different themed areas. This place had millions of legos in every shape, size and color. Dylan was so happy to see Bob the Builder, he ran up to take his picture and gave him a big hug. Colter loved the mariachi band and is talking about going to Mexico again.

The lego sleeping tourist on the bench was classic!

The pirate area was a big hit. It had a couple of huge buckets that would fill up and then dump over everyone playing on the giant pirate ship.

Another part was called Miniland USA and it was amazing. They did a bunch of cities like New Orleans, Chicago, San Francisco, etc out of legos, with lots of detail. Colter was excited to see Las Vegas since we had just been there.

We could have stayed at he build and test area for the entire day. Daddy liked it as much as the boys. They built, tweaked and perfected their race cars along with other dads and racers. This was serious business.

The SeaLife Aquarium was a nice way to end the day. Colter get to pet some more sea creatures and we all enjoyed the variety of sharks, including the boys favorite hammerhead, fish, and other sea creatures swimming around the lego submarines and lego scuba divers.

We decided to drive back on a southerly route and check out Joshua Tree and the Phoenix area. We wanted to show Daddy a bit of what we had seen last year. Leaving San Diego county, it was hard to go east instead of south.......we could have easily headed down Baja for a few months or years. Joshua Tree was nice, even though we were just on the south end of it, and will require a trip or two of its own for full exploration. We did find a great mile long interpretive hike and got to know most of the plants and history of the area.

We called our friends from Telluride that have a house in Scottsdale to see if they wanted to meet up for lunch or dinner and instead ended up at their pool party for the night! Yeah! That was the perfect way to finish our trip. We got there about 1:30 and all the boys swam until about 9. They crashed hard and woke up the next morning and swam for another couple of hours before we drove home. Again with the jumping pictures. The boys made a new friend, Jackson, and got to play with Ryan, a friend from home.

The final morning and time to head home. "NO WAY!!" from Dylan and Colter decided to take the teenage approach and pretend to sleep so that Mom would leave him alone.

One of Colter's favorite stops from our trip last year was Meteor Crater. He was looking forward to doing this again the entire trip. The boys took Daddy around the entire place and showed him everything. It was a great "last" stop for our trip and they brought home an arrow for Dylan and more special rocks and minerals for Colter's collection.

I love travelling and hanging out with my family. We have so much fun exploring together. I hope we can continue to do stuff like this and that the boys grow up to be good world travellers. We had decent luck with the weather, great places to stay and campsites, and fun people to share our time with.

The other night as we entertained ourselves to sleep, Colter told me "Mom, the way I figure it I have two choices for jobs when I grow up" And I'm thinking, this will be good. "Well, I can be a ski tour guide, but I guess that's only part time, or I can be a guide at the aquarium so that we can get in free whenever we want. Hmm...I guess I could do both and then we can live in the mountains and at the beach!" I love that he still plans on all of us living together. He actually has very detailed and elaborate plans for our future home and RV that will take us all over the place.  I am so impressed, as always, with all of the things that Colter is learning. His memory for detail is amazing and he does not hesitate to answer questions if he knows what is going on or ask questions if he wants to know. He makes friends everywhere we go and continues to explore everything around him.  He is starting to read, write words, count by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's, add, subtract and so many other things that I can hardly keep track.  We have moved on from Harry Potter and are now reading the How to Train Your Dragon series as well as Mrs. Piggly Wiggly. Colter can speak Dragonese and does a great impression of Toothless from the books on Ipod that we listened to on our drive.

Dylan is such a happy little man these days. He is so full of songs, dance parties, snuggles, bike rides and stories that we can barely keep up. Although I think I say this about every age the boys are at, I love the 3-4yr old time.  The imagination and completely uninhibited flow of this stage is so fun to be a part of. Bath time has become Dylan's funniest time, he gets hold of few toys and acts out whatever adventure comes to mind. We sit there, listen and laugh every night. He is doing preschool on Fridays and loves it. The teachers say he is doing great and is very polite and considerate. He loves to come home and do his homework, just like his big brother. He continues to be very independent and he will walk over to his friend Magnus' house alone, unless he wants someone to talk to because "if I go by my own self, no one will hear me". He has been lining things up and counting them for a couple of months and can now count to 30, he still loves to read and he has memorized a few of his favorites that he will sit and recite to himself.

Again this year Daddy and Colter spent a weekend at the Riebels cabin snowmobiling and playing everyway possible in the snow. Rocky's birthday weekend is becoming a favorite tradition. They come home wiped out with smiles on their faces!

We had a really nice, fun and special winter together and I am looking forward to more fun times this spring and summer. It was so nice to have Daddy along for our trip this time. It makes the trip so much smoother, more fun and relaxing to share it with our whole family. Yeah Daddy for taking two weeks off and yeah us for having the camper and truck for this journey.
Even with all the challenges we all are facing these days, I wouldn't trade the time I have had with my boys while they were young for anything! I appreciate all the hard work Trevor puts in so that I can stay home and raise the boys, the years are passing so quickly. Life is good.

Little Shredders, snowball fights and Polar Bear Club

This is where Dylan sits in the morning when Colter catches a ride to school with Loudon. He says it is his horsey. He can't wait to go to school with his big brother. I, on the other hand, can. I have had so much fun with him this winter and am very thankful for the special time to spend with him. Both boys are growing, learning and expanding their experiences to levels that continually amaze, it is hard to believe how quickly the time is passing.

 It was maybe 50 degrees outside, and yes that is snow right next to them, when they decided it was time to go swimming in the snow melt. Yikes, they are mountain boys! Colter actually laid down in "Lake LaBorde". I think they are ready for spring.

 Just like his Daddy....he can fall asleep really instantly these days. He will still take naps sometimes, especially after a big day of skiing.

  

 This was a fun day of skiing and snowboarding. Dylan has been wanting to go out with Daddy all winter. He could stand up and go straight and actually made it down Lift 1 with Daddy assist. He was happy about it and wants to go again. He was so proud that he could carry the snowboard around, he carried it everywhere we went. A little Poacher's  and then Colter and I ran home down the Meadows after skiing was done. It is a fun way to get home and we will miss it when we move away some day.

King of the Snow fort! The neighborhood kids built lots of tunnels and forts, but they are melting fast this year.

Not my best shot with the helmet and all, but this is my ski/snowboard team this year and we had a great season! This is at Gorrono Ranch and that is a big milestone. Colter snowboarded down Lift 4 and Dylan skied there. We started the season with Dylan on the magic carpet and Colter barely able to stand on his board. Huge progress was made and everyone is still smiling!!!!!

 
Colter was riding along and an adult flew past him yelling "GO LITTLE RIPPER" Colter was so proud of himself. It was a breakthrough day and he went from frustrated-wanting to give up and throw his snowboard away to laughing, linking turns and going faster. It was so fun to watch him overcome his anger and frustration, put out the extra effort and accomplish his goals for the season.


Right now the boys are hauling kids around in their wagon pulled by the battery operated 4-wheeler and calling it the neighborhood bus. Colter wants to charge a quarter per ride. He is always full of money making ideas.....

Quidditch anyone?

We have been loving the Harry Potter series of books and Colter is thouroghly enchanted! He asked me the other day if he was a wizard and I said "I don't think so honey." Which he understood to mean "maybe" He is now fairly convinced that we are keeping secrets from he and Dylan and that they will be receiving letters from owls with their invitation to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for their 11th birthdays. When Colter asked Dylan if he(Dylan) was a wizard Dylan said "No, I'm not. I only have magic eyes, not a magic wand" So...of course we had to ask what he meant by "magic eyes" and he explained that his eyes were magic because "when I close them four-ev-ah(forever) at night I see movies behind them!" That is the best definition of dreaming I have ever heard.

Our friend Penelope found this great costume for our Young Potter and he has been wearing it day and night since. He will take it off for school, but not for sleeping. Hedwig the owl and a Firebolt complete the game. We are now searching for the rest of Dylan's so that the Quidditch tournament can be complete.
The fort building has gotten a bit out of hand. Entire rooms are now involved with hidden passageways and several entrances, slides etc. Building provides hours of entertainment, cleaning up....well, we're still working on that.

Testing out our new cross country gear. The boys had a great time and picked it up very quickly. Dylan was flying around chasing Colter, he did mention that he likes his other skiis better because they do all the work for him. Funny guy. We have been doing lots of sledding, cross country, skating and tunnel digging lately. This is taken behind our neighborhood on the golf course, which doubles as a sledding and groomed cross country area. Never played golf here, but spend lots of time on it in the winter!

Yup, the Blakney's moved to Ridgway and brought some redneck skills with them. This is a pic of my Mom towing the boys up to the top of the sledding hill by their house with her Tahoe!

Awwwww....my little angels!

Modee and Pappy decided to ski with the grandkids while they could still keep up with them. Well, that didn't quite work out, but atleast they could keep some of the kids in sight! It was a beautiful day and we had fun touring around and watching the kids jump and play all over the mountain.

More sledding/sliding and skiing around the neighborhood. We have a great group of kids to have adventures with. This is Dylan, Quinn and Colter, Magnus was just out of the picture.

More fun on the ice skating rink. Dylan still has his go for it attitude and looks a bit like Bambi scrambling across the ice, but he gets it done with a smile on his face. They thought the chair game was hilarious.






With all of these snow pictures, you wouldn't know we are still having a pretty mild winter. We have had some nasty cold spells, getting as low as -25F, but not a ton of snow. Hate to say it since it is only mid Feb., but I am ready for spring to come around and hoping for a sunny and warm March. Colter has had a long break from school for President's Day and we have one more day of fun ahead of us. Maybe some more skiing? We'll see.

Chicago in January?

This past month has passed so quickly. I seem to always feel that way when I sit down to do these updates! More fun, learning and exploring to add to our list. The little snowmobile continues to find new uses--now it is to pull skiers around. The boys are having a great time with this one and the biggest problem is that we are having a pretty mild winter and right now there is no snow to play on at Rob and Sheila's. Earlier this month we had plenty and the boys built jumps and spent hours towing each other around. We have also done a lot of on mountain skiing and riding. Colter finishes up Ski PE tomorrow and is making great turns down blues and some black runs. Dylan is improving each day and has added more blue runs to his list, his favorite is still Enchanted Forest. Yesterday he woke up early and explained to Trevor that he needed to "fix" his skis, they weren't going fast enough and he wanted to "catch big air" So they went to the garage and had a ski tuning lesson followed by a morning on the slopes testing their work. Dylan came home and told me all about how fast he went and how high he jumped, he can get both skis off the ground now in the mini terrain park. Super cute to watch, but I'm not sure how calm I will be in 10 years when he is dropping huge cliffs or running through the half pipe and skier cross courses! Last night the boys had a sleep over at Modee and Pappy's house, shot bows and arrows, built biplanes and went sledding. The melt off that we have had has made the sledding very fast and exciting this week. After I picked them up, we all went and played with friends on the mountain. Karl, Rocky,Trevor and Colter all went snowboarding and did 2 runs on lift 11 and 1 run down lift 10- that is a huge day for Colter and Rocky and they both were linking some turns today which is great for their age. I went with Dylan, Josh, and the rest of the Riebels all over the place and we also had a great day racing around.

The boys and I went to visit our friends Kathleen and Everett for a while. They live outside of Chicago, so we got to get a city fix as well. It was a great trip and we have so much fun whenever we are with them. I wish they lived closer, but was grateful for the chance to go to their world and hang out for a while. This cute pic is of Dylan and Everett at the train station on our way downtown. The boys loved the double decker Metra, the taxis and all things public transportation has to offer.

We walked through the city to go ice skating at "the Bean" and my mountain boys couldn't resist throwing slush balls----gross----they didn't understand that city snow was different than mountain snow. Now they do. We all loved the draw bridges over the river and got to see a few of them going up and down.
 I am going to borrow this quote from a friend "What has more stories than a skyscraper? The 6 yr old standing in front of it!"

We went to two great museums, the first was the Children's Museum at the Navy Pier. Wow, we could have spent days there. The boys were interested in every area. Dylan loved dressing up in the fireman suits, playing in the giant fire truck and putting out fires with the laser hoses, the dinosaur area and the pirate ship. Colter loved the giant building area complete with fabric and canvas covering for roofs, doors and walls. It was a great set up with predrilled 2x2's, nuts, bolts and washers in all different sizes. Colter sat there for over an hour and built a house structure that was bigger than he was. He also loved the dinosaur dig site and the giant net climbing tunnels, and the pirate ship and the ..............

Next up was the Science and Industry Museum and again we could have spent days there. There was an entire floor about weather and storms where we learned about magnets, lightning, and wind. Colter was able to ride in a flight simulator and as he stumbled out, a bit green looking, he asked to do it again. There is the largest train track that I have ever seen that had the boys attention for a long time, it was probably over 5000sf. Along side the track they had several real live train cars and old machines. Colter made friends with the guy in charge and learned how all of the trains on the track were operated by computer. He was really hoping there was a large remote control somewhere that he might get to help with for a while.The picture with Colter and Dylan in front of the white wall was a great activity. I wish we had one of these at home. As the boys moved their arms and bodies the different colors would collect around them or in their arms or on their head and then they could push the colors around, all while standing several feet away from the wall. Dylan and Everett did lots of exploring with Kathleen and had lots of fun details to report whenever we ran into them. Everyone slept well that night!
We also did lots of swimming and playing at their local rec centers. We really need one of those around here! It is such a great way to expend energy during the winter, the boys loved it and so did I. And we discovered the joys of suburban life....xbox 360! With the new kinect adventure games we were rafting, doing obstacle courses, popping bubbles, throwing balls and all kinds of fun stuff with our little tv avatars. It was crazy! No remote controls, you do everything with your body and it is a great workout. The boys would run, jump, giggle, duck and keep moving for a long time. I can see why those are so popular, especially if you don't have a ski mountain in your back yard.

And of corse, we have the highlight of the entire week. Thank you Grandma Toni  or "Meemo" as Everett calls her. We went to this larger than life dinner theatre called Medieval Times and the boys are still telling stories with so much excitement in their voices and bodies that you would think we went to a real castle 700 years ago. It is a huge dinner served with no silverware in metal bowls and plates that you try to stuff in your face while watching an incredible horse show and "medieval tournament" complete with jousting, sword fighting, amazing costumes and beautifully talented horses and riders We were cheering for the Red Knight and although he didn't win, he is still the hero around here. Before the show we walked through the Dungeon that included  "The Rack" and other instruments used to torture people back in the day. Somehow I made it home with only wooden swords and shields and not the real metal carved ones that they had all over the place, I have already been informed of a few items to put on next year's birthday and Christmas lists though. The funniest part for me is that now Dylan won't have a sword fight unless there is a cheering section for each person involved. He is very specific about who each group cheers for and who is getting booed. Colter told me today that next time we go that we have to bring rotten fruit to throw at the other knights (not sure where he picked that bit of info up) That was a great night of entertainment that we will be talking about and acting out for the rest of the winter.

Flying and travelling were really easy this time and I love how adventurous and adaptable our boys are. Now we are back to school and our normal routine for a while. We have been reading the Harry Potter books with Colter and he is loving them (so do we). Colter is wearing his glasses more now and has his hair a bit like Harry's. He had me use henna to give him a lightning bolt "scar" on his forehead the other day. Everyone now has a magic wand (chopstick) and robe(sheet), when we are taking a break from sword fighting of course. I am so thankful that I get to be with my boys and that we enjoy playing and having fun togethe as a family. I hope they can remember some of this stuff when they are bigger.