Ski trip

Winter Park, Colorado
This ski trip is the start of a great family tradition. Besides my guilty feelings of Drake hanging back at the condo with Heidi while we skied and Dane being in full-day lessons for 2 days I think over-all the trip was a hit with everyone. The 3rd day Dane was given the go-ahead to ski with us. We purchased one of those little harness things to keep him from "getting away" from us on the mountains and he skied with us. At one point Dane told me to quit holding him back because he wanted to go faster...not yet little boy!

Making due with condo kitchen supplies in the tub...I didn't think of packing tub toys.


Dane on the Magic Carpet...adorable ...little kids ride the escalator up the little slope and snowplow down..so cute, I'll try to attach a video of it.


Me getting a little cuddle time between my skiing with my boys. Heidi brought Drake down to watch Dane do his lessons between them playing on the playground. There was plenty for them to do around the resort.




Andy and I at the top of Mary Jane...we were above the tree line and you can see the clouds right behind us. Beautiful view and very fun skiing down to the bottom. Atleast 20 minutes of skiing without needing to get on another lift.


Family photo taken right outside our condo. We could put our skis on and ski to the lift and at the end of the day, ski right to our door. The retaining wall to the left is where the hot-tubs are...need I say more!


Drake looking out condo windo. We had a great 2 bedrooom condo with full kitchen. The most amazing part was the access to the mountain and our views.


1st time out with mom and dad...Dane barely slept the night before and didn't want to nap, though the meltdown on the mountain reminded us he's 4 and needs his sleep.


Taken right before Dane got on his 1st lift!

Valentine's Day

We were in Colorado during Valentine's day, but here's some fun quickie things we did to celebrate prior to our departure and right after we came home:

Our "heart" cake:


Our card we made for daddy...I traced our hands and made in the sign-language sign that means "I Love You."


when I got out of the shower Andy had "tattooed" a heart with mom on a ribbon as a tribute to me...3 days later the marker is still there. Dane is very proud of it:)


Sharing candy from their school parties at the condo:


Colorado pictures to come soon.

Christmas...late or early?

Didn't I promise pictures from Christmas last month? Well now that we're approaching Valentine's day I'll just consider myself early for next year. In the mean time here are some pictures of our winter time days:) We got just under a foot of snow last week, but those pictures haven't been down-loaded yet. Oh, and exciting news before we scroll down through the photos...we're leaving for Colorado in 3 days. We're doing ski-in-ski-out at Winter Park; it's become our favorite ski resort. Dane's going to take lessons and Drake will hang back at the condo with Heidi.

Reindeer made out of little hands and feet; check-out Dane's hat!


Zoo lights and dinner with Santa and his crew...more characters than I can name visited us during dinner.








Drakie cleaning; notice the goggles, they're from his garagae tool kit!


enjoying hot cocoa and admiring our gingerbread house and marshmellow family. And now Dane is wearing his goggles from his tool kit. There for a while Dane wore them EVERYWHERE, including church, but God doesn't care, so we don't either *smile*


Grooming T-Bone. He's such a good dog; look how thrilled he is NOT.


chowing down on candy necklaces they made. 1st time I ever saw that kit before. It was loads of fun and they still ask to make them (mostly so they can eat the candy)


Bike riding; it's not just for warm, sunny days anymore!


Baby Jesus' birthday cake. I bought special icing so we could out-line the cake and make the train features stand-out...bad idea, it tasted horrible. After the picture, I iced the whole thing over with chocolate icing, just the way my 3 boys like it. Santa enjoyed it too.