Rio Blanco

See how beautiful our white river is? (note: this is August of last year!)

Well check out what happens when we have a frozen winter like the past couple of weeks have been!

Thank goodness it has warmed up lately - not only has there been some flooding from all the ice damming up the river, but legend has it the town bridge below once moved a little back in the 80s when the river iced up so much!

Looks like we are close:

Here's to more warm winter weather!

Hope everyone has a great weekend ~ Happy President's Day!

ski day

I have to agree with my brother on this one... the warmer weather had us ready for some great outdoor fun! While a round of golf wasn't really possible, we did what we do best on a beautiful winter day in the Colorado mountains:

SKI!

I know I've said this before, but it's so true...

there's no better way to play than with family AND friends!

Take a look at this awesome crew we got to ski with yesterday:

That was taken at the top of the mountain with Mt. Sopris (my fave!) in the background... moments later the kiddos took off and weren't seen again until we got to the bottom!

Sam had a great ski day - he's getting so confident and fast, too! He certainly has his comfort zone - reminds me of someone last year! - and unfortunately that zone involved skiing through the trees! He took several good runs with me, and here he is with Dad:

Meanwhile, I am so proud of Hamp for not only trying some new terrain, but being confident enough to take off by himself or with a buddy and enjoy the mountain!

(don't worry, he knows where to go and still be safe!)

The last run of the day was a great, long run where Hamp took off ahead of us and Dad and I hung back with Sam... it was fun all skiing together!

By the very last hill though the super-skiier Sam was absolutely worn out! Knowing how enthusiastic and tireless he had been all day about doing run after run... I decided to indulge the little trooper and carried him the last bit to the lodge!

Ski boots off, treats in hand, warm weather and friends to play with...

what better adventure is there?!

"respect my authority"

Here's one for all you Southpark fans out there... (Alec)

note: he received a Cartman sticker (in his right hand) from the quarter machine at dinner the other night with friends and was immediately taught how to quote the character appropriately!

p.s. for a reference, check here

I feel like Tom Sawyer

Remember when Twain's infamous boy hero convinces his pals that whitewashing a fence is fun to do ~ and in the end gets out of doing it himself?

Well look what I managed to convince my boy Sam to do for me: In the words of Ol' Tom, "Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence everyday?"

Sounds like me talking about toilet cleaning!!!

nice weekend - no pictures!

It has warmed up significantly ~ although, my neighbor and I laughed about the fact that 60 degrees warmer still hasn't made it exactly warm! ~ and we have taken advantage of the new snow by playing with friends all weekend and skiing on Sunday! The ski day was short, but good and we made it home in time to watch the SuperBowl in style... I should have taken a picture of our picnic, but I was too hungry. So just imagine the four of us on the floor in the playroom with a bucket of KFC and some sweet tea! Perfect...

Hope everyone had a great weekend ~ have a wonderful week!

♥ ♥ ♥

brrrrrrr...

The high today was minus 1.

When we woke up this morning, it was minus 35.

Needless to say, we didn't get out of the house much!

What we did do then was have friends come over! Hamp missed school due to cold (!) so we hunkered down inside and played games, trains, playmobil, and coloring:

Even better was when more friends showed up! That's when I went into hiding and the kids got really creative:

hat - check

nerf gun - check

backpack - check

doctor's kit - check

plenty of plush animals - check

OK then, we have all we need for... uh... what was it we were playing agin?

Here's to hoping tomorrow warms up a little - at least in positive numbers!

I guess if it's still too cold to go outside, we can always play with friends at our house!!!

Hurray for Books!

We've been having spirit week recently - in celebration of books! (naturally)

So last week Hamp wore a hat to school, then pajamas (his favorite!), he dressed up as a hippy - eventhough he didn't really know what it was and neither Jason nor I felt comfortable explaining it! - and then he and his buddy wore their

football jerseys to school for "twin day":

Everyone gets into the spirit of things...

in fact, remeber these guys from Cat in the Hat:

Well, here is the Principal and the Guidance Couselor on Twin Day!

(not bad, heh?!)

So the grand finale for spirit week occurred yesterday and

look who attended the student assembly!

In honor of meeting the goal of checking out 2,011 books in January, the students got to duct tape the principal to the wall... kind of:

Hamp even got the chance to add his piece of tape:
What a good sport!!!
All in the name of reading... I guess!