Alex, Boo and KK Too!

We had a surprising blue bird day on the mountain this Sunday.   The kids were excited to ski again and dawn patrol is just part of their life.   The early departure is a bit more of a pain for me as I have to get up early to walk the dogs, make lunches and breakfast before waking up kids and heading out.   Thankfully the car was packed the night before.   With a holiday weekend I knew it would be busy so we were out the door by 6:15 and parked by 7:45.   We ended up parking next to a car we parked next to before and became friends.   The last time one of them had jokingly asked if I would help him get his boots off too after watching my routine of getting kids out of gear at the end of the day.   We talked for about half an hour about taking kids out adventuring.   They nicknamed me Adventure Mama! Alex did her first black diamond run and the boys and I got to watch her from another run that overlooked it.   KK got himself stu...

I told the kids that Saturday we would go hiking after the basketball game.  That was followed up by emotions ranging from "how long is the hike?" to "Mom, I don't really like hiking" to a complete emotional meltdown that it would hurt their legs too much. The weather also wasn't super favorable but I decided it was time to persevere and make my kids go.  Of course I'm not going to "force" them but they got to pick their lunches and snacks.  When the basketball game was cancelled I danced for joy and we headed out. Family outside & happy = super happy mom Amazingly the drive there was lot of laughter and easy conversation and once we got there everyone got their backpacks on.  The kids were expecting about 3 miles. We headed out on the Rim Trail first, which is the least exciting start, and a mile in KK was telling me this wasn't like a real hike because it was fun.  What made it fun was little things like letting them throw snowb...

Day 3 brought more powder, more wind and our first attempts at a Terrain Park.  After finishing a day of skiing in the high winds I asked the kids what it would take for us not to go skiing.  While they felt the wind (45mph winds at times) didn't make it as much fun, it wasn't something that would make them not want to go.  So the only thing we could come up with was rain.  When it rains, we won't ski.  With that, I gave them the conditions this morning.  Ten inches of powder, storm continues with gusty winds.  Didn't deter them for a second.  The place was empty as expected and the delight at the first run which was through the powder was so fun to witness.  They immediately wanted to go on the ungroomed powder run which caused crashes and tons of laughter.  Falling in soft snow is not like cascade ice.  KK, who started skiing again after two years of snowboarding, has a no fear attitude and he was keeping up with everyone no p...

I'll sum up day 2 as the day I begged the youngest child, the one with an ear infection, to make this the last run after skiing in a storm with white out conditions for hours.  Notice the white out conditions behind K.  Also imagine great gusts of winds... The day started a little slower with me getting up at 6:30, making coffee and slowly starting to quietly pack.  Emmett, my fellow early riser, was also up and by 7am I had everyone else up and getting ready while I packed the car.  We headed to breakfast and Adam joined us for the day and met us there.  We headed up to the resort and were ready to go by the time the lifts were starting. A much smoother start than the day before.  Five fresh inches of snow was exciting for everyone and Kellan quickly asked to go down a harder run with tons of bumps.  He totally rocked it and once his siblings became aware of that run they were also in.  It's hard not to smile watching your kids handle moguls...

Today we headed out on our second annual multi-day ski vacation.  We have a cabin near Meadows Ski Resort and planning to enjoy three epic days of skiing.  Our school district has an extra day off when others don't so Monday brings cheap lift tickets, low crowds and looking at the weather forecast, lots of snow! It felt so exciting this morning as I got up at 5am, walked the dogs, got lunches made, breakfast to-go (pancakes, sausages and fruit) made, car packed with three days worth of gear and clothes, and finally got the kids up, into their ski underlayers and into the car.  We were on the road just after 7 (late due to the pancakes I made) and 30 minutes into the drive I just couldn't stop smiling.  This is what I live for, a day of adventure with kids who are completely on board. I'm grateful we made it here because Kellan had a crazy painful ear the night before.  One thing I don't do well is living in the grey zone.  That will we go or not point....

 There are a LOT of Halloween events scheduled for us and we've actually trimmed them down without complaint from the kids.  You know there is too much scheduled when the kids are willing to not attend one of the parties!  Lucky for me my work party was one of the ones picked for attendance.  We had a great time hanging out with all the other kiddos and of course I was able to get some pictures!

Once I brought up the fall decoration Boo asked me non-stop if he could carve a pumpkin. Since it was still September I pushed back but by the weekend I just couldn't handle the questions any more, so off to the Pumpkin Patch we went. The weather was great and it was quiet which was perfect for me. We found a less commercial pumpkin patch too which was nice. We got a few decent pictures...  After bringing home the pumpkins the request for pumpkin carving still didn't end so two pumpkins were cleaned out that day.  The following morning we were up at 7am carving pumpkins.  SInce then I don't think the pumpkins have been looked at but that's ok.      

ALexandra is now officially an orange belt in Taekwondo.  Although I've noticed that you can pass the test without really trying too hard, we do require Alexandra to do her best and she has to practice her form as well as get all her terminology correct.  We got the terminology a bit late this time so cramming was required but Alexandra did great!

A little late since we started about 16 days ago but here are my "First Day of School" snapshots.  Noodle started on Tuesday and Boo started on Thursday. Both kids had a great day.  Noodle was somewhat upset when she first found out she had a boy teacher but after meeting him he got a double thumbs up.  Not only does he do tea parties with the kids, he also has dance parties every day to allow kids to get their wiggles out.  Boo was super excited to finally start school so the drop off was very easy.  He went right in and got started with his day.  A quick hug and we were out.  I think he'll have a great year too. 

Generally when I come home from work the house is in a decent state. Things look equal or better than when I left in the morning. Today, as I look around the house at noon it's in a total state of disarray.  The kids have been in an awesome ongoing imaginary game that has used about every item on the main floor.  It's hard to force them to pick up after they are done if the game just moves to the next section of the room! The other confession is that the infant is covered in pen marks and Boo is dressed in a skirt since he wanted to wear what I was wearing. 

This week was Boo's first camp experience which was at his pre-school.  After his first drop off I was surprised at how confident he was being in being left alone.  When I mentioned it was time for hugs and kisses he looked a little hesitant but said he was fine.  Then his friend C. came in and he gave him a big hug and they were off playing.  Once we got in the car Noodle started bawling since she missed Boo so much.  It's so interesting since she often is fine leaving but once she was the one being left it was much harder.  On the final day of camp I found out that Boo and C. were often asked to keep their hands to themselves (this came through C's mom who was doing drop off and pick up).  When I asked Boo later he says "Well, I don't like that rule!  I like using C. as a pillow!" Too funny. 

Although we had an indoor camping trip last year, this year we had our first outdoor camping trip.  We found an excellent campground right on the Lake.  It came complete with canoe and on-site babyholders.  Ok, it was Opa and Oma's new house but can you blame us for wanting to camp at a nice peaceful lake? The kids made it through the night in the tent and I feel about 10 years older than I am after sleeping the majority of the night off of the airmattress as Boo and Ham had taken over my space.  After realizing what had happened I moved Boo back to his super nice mattress and slid onto my pretty puny mattress.  Hind sight I should have just leap frogged Boo and slept in comfort.  The nice thing was that when Ham was up at 6am, there was a coffee maker and hot coffee.  I've decided camping is one of those activities that I'm not really excited about since right now we tend to lean towards camping at campgrounds where there are a lo...

I'm not sure why I find the 6 year mark bigger than any other year but this year felt pretty significant for Noodle.  Luckily I was able to take the day off since it fell on a Wednesday.  We started off the day by opening presents.  Since Noodle mastered the two-wheel bike we upgraded her bike.  Of course given my love of bikes I put a lot of research into this purchase!  Luckily it wasn't for nothing as she loves her new bike.  by going to the local amusement park since they had toddler time.  After that we went out to lunch and both kids got chocolate chip pancakes with a candle.  Then it was off to animal shelter where we dropped off all the donations Noodle collected at her birthday party. The rescue gave us a quick tour and let Noodle and Boo take a picture with a puppy and the donations.  We had a little time to ride bikes before heading off to swim class.  Then there were cupcakes at the...

Given my love of biking I was worried that Noodle would never really take to biking since she LOVES her scooter so much.  She finally decided it might be time to try riding without the wheels.  She generally doesn't want to try something new until she can easily master it and this was no different.  Twice I ran with her holding her seat and after that she was off.  Amazingly the scooter hasn't been used since and the kids continue to beg to go out and ride! Not sure why Dad decided to ride the bike but I was glad I quickly got this picture. 

Noodle has been going to Taekwondo for the past year or so but she recently did her first belt test in the big kid class.  To get her full yellow (she was a green stripe white) she had to memorize basic form #1 which consists of 20 different steps, a variety of Korean words including counting to 10 and the Taekwondo pledge.  When testing time came I was very impressed by Noodle's performance.  Many students either didn't perform because of anxiety or just lack of studying. She passed her test with flying colors and she is now a very proud owner of a yellow belt.  To celebrate we had all yellow flowers, some yellow balloons and yellow flowers.  I think it was very much appreciated!

As the weather has been turning nicer we have become that house that all the kids migrate to.  A long time ago J made a comment that it's always good to be the "cool" house that everyone wants to go to because then you have a better idea of what your kids are up to.  Although I am still a believer in this, I've noticed lately we have a lot of kids migrating to our house.  I'm not implying that we are in fact the cool house, but we are basically in the middle of all the homes with kids.  I end up coming home to 8 kids in the driveway playing.  It's quite the transition usually especially given that dinner needs to be made too. One major benefit of this is that I'm often a little happier when the rain comes knowing that the chances of all the kids congregating is a little less!  I do enjoy all the kids though so I'm sure when fall comes and things slow down I'll be sad.