perfection

It was the perfect weekend... and I forgot my camera!

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That ususally doesn't happen - especially since starting a blog I tend to take my camera out more often than necessary so as not to miss that great photo op. Well, Saturday afternoon was near perfection and eventhough I wasn't able to capture the moments on digital film... I assure you the images are pretty solid in my mind!

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Anyway, we were lucky enough to have good friends that invited us to spend a gorgeous afternoon in the forest at their family cabin. They have two snowmachines and we all had a great time riding around in the snow, pulling the kids behind us and soaking up the sunshine!

Perhaps one of my favorite moments was driving the snowmachine with Sam in my lap and it looked a little something like this. yeah, seriously.

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The weekend stayed fun as I ducked out early for a girls' night (always fun!) Saturday night, then a family outing to Craig on Sunday to do some shopping and some bowling!

(I am unashamed to say that I tied my 7-year old with a score of 94.)

Then, to top it all off we were able to visit with my brother & his wife on Skype and received some really exciting news!

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So we begin another week of daily adventures... I'll remember to bring the camera this time!

beach party

Monday, we spent the morning at the Rec Center for their "itty-bitty beach party"!

What fun - the pool was all decked out for a party with toys, deck games, beach balls and lots of little people! (ages 5 and under)

So Sam and his best buddy wrestled the alligator and played in the pool until lunchtime...

Sam even did a little bowling when not in the water:

What a great way to spend the morning!

birthday bash

Look who's SEVEN!

and look who's FOUR!

These two boys have had such a great week celebrating their birthdays...

It started with 4 dozen cupcakes last Tuesday (Hamp's birthday) and ends today (Sam's birthday) with a "beach party" at the Rec Center and play dates all around...

But the best part was the in-between!

How lucky we are that the boys agreed to celebrate birthdays this year with a weekend in Glenwood Springs, skiing and swimming, and playing.

Saturday was a fine day at the mountain - a little too blustery for a full day - but enough to get in several good runs with all four of us!

Hamp was thrilled to meet up with one of his best buddies - and he and Sam took the opportunity to play as hard as they could in all the fresh snow:

The highlight of the weekend was opening gifts in the hotel room!

As you can see, there was no shortage of goodies for the boys to enjoy...

The gifts for these guys were really amazing - such thoughtful and great ideas! There were fun games, neat toys (not a battery in sight!), cute tee shirts and lots of really cool creative stuff. Not only were the boys so excited about all the fun things, but their mom & dad were overwhelmed at the generosity and thoughtfulness of each gift, card and kind word from friends and family!

We had a very nice family dinner out, and ended the day with fun in the hotel pool! The boys played basketball in the pool and went down the slide a hundred times until they just almost collapsed! The funny part was Sunday morning when we talked about all the fun things we could do - skiing again, anyone?!?!?! - and the boys' choice: play in the pool!!!!

So that's what we did.

check this out...

Here is Sam trying out his new tap shoes:

And here is another one... same song, same lovely outfit, slightly different interpretation of the music... and he obviously knows that I am filming him at this point, which makes it even better that he was not afraid to just dance!

snowmen

Since last week's snowfall, I have been promising someone a snowman in the front yard... but as you may have seen from the last post, it has not been warm enough to justify hanging around outdoors long enough to build even a snowball! Until today...
Sam helped me build "Hamp & Sam" snowmen!

What cool dudes!!!

playmobil

It has been terribly cold lately...

In fact, after our big ski day on Sunday where it actively snowed all day both on the mountain and here in town, we were looking forward to a week of fun snow activities like sledding and snowman building. But not when the temps have been in single digits for the past three days - and that includes negative numbers!

Therefore, our adventures this week have included lots of indoor fun. Specifically, fun with playmobil. So bear with me as I present to you the new "city" that has taken over our living room downstairs...

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First, there is the Playmobil Parks & Rec area:

There are fun skateboarding and four-wheeling races to watch:
... and a park for the kiddos!
Next to the park is Sam's Deli, open daily for your dining pleasure:

Here we have Playmobil's top notch Emergency Services team, including Police, Fire & Rescue and Ambulance:

This poor fellow made some bad choices.

Perhaps a night in the slammer will straighten him out.

Down the hallway is the desert island where the pirates hide their treasure:

Hmmmm, looks like the infamous bandit El Guapo and his band of robbers has cornered the sheriff:

Good thing the troops are on the lookout at Fort Eagle:

I wonder why the flag is at half mast?

Well, it was great while it lasted. As of this posting, Sam, Hamp and a friend are busy rearranging the city to accommodate their imaginations - which is awesome!

But I always cringe a little when the skater dude and the pirate and the police officer mix genres... but then again it's not easy having OCD and being a mother of little boys - bad combination! So I guess we'll just have serve the pirates donuts in Sam's Deli while the four-wheelers take a ride through the desert!!!

ski day!

What a great way to spend a Sunday - on the slopes with friends!!!

(don't be fooled by Hamp's expression... he was just as excited as the rest of us!)

There were several friends at the mountain on Sunday which meant there was always someone to ski with or hang out with at the lodge. And eventhough it snowed all day, everybody had a great day!

Here's a shot I got of me riding the lift with my boys:

It's so great having both boys going down the mountain - and so neat to see them skiing together! Here's a great shot of Sam's idea to play follow-the-leader... namely, Hamp!

I was only slightly concerned when Hamp decided to take his leadership role seriously and directed his little brother through a stand of trees... but it was no problem at all for the fearless new skiier (in fact, I was the least comfortable of probably all of us!)

home

Easy travels, great adventures, warm weather, and above all... quality family time! Who could ask for a better holiday vacation than that?!

But as good as it is to get away, it is also very good to be home.

And just as I was getting worried that Hamp and Sam would be adverse to going back to a cold, snowy, Colorado January... well, this picture was taken just an hour after pulling in to home!

I guess he's just a snow-boy at heart!

We'll be skiing this weekend again, I'm sure...

Citrus Sports

One of our favorite adventures when we head to Central FL for New Years is attending the Citrus Sports Bowl games!

We are so fortunate that Dado chooses to be a part of the organization ~ of course, he does it becuase he likes to scout college games, especially when Georgia Tech is on the table! ~ but we reap the benefits of his membership in the form of good parking and great seats at both games!

(so thank you Dado for sharing your adventures with us too!!!)

First, there was the Champs Sports Bowl, where we got there early enough to appease Hamp and throw the football around the practice field (aka parking lot!) before heading into the stadium...

Next, we watched the Citrus Sports Parade in anticipation of the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day ~ the boys loved the Alabama and Michigan State bands, the floats made of thousands of citrus, catching the necklaces that were thrown from the floats, and the special appearances by a few cartoon friends like Dora, SpongeBob and Woody the Woodpecker!

Finally, the big day! January 1st was a beautiful 78 degrees ~ just right for a tailgate party... or in our case, a Dolli-gate party! Mojo's big accomplishment was crossing "tailgate" off her bucket list... so this one's for you, mom!

Except for Michigan State's poor showing (final score Alabama 49 ~ MSU 7) the game was really fun! Lots of cool entertainment and people watching...

... espeically when Dado took to the field!

Seriously, one of his "jobs" was to release the players for the game, so we enjoyed watching him mingle with other official people!

Fortunately, he didn't have to stay and got to join us for the rest of the game!