Cross Country

Our nephew Rob and his wife Haley came up to the cabin with us this past weekend. We had a great time skiing the trails on our property and then going to a cross county ski party at the neighbor's Sunday evening. Here we all are on our trails Saturday evening.





This was only Haley's second time cross country skiing, and she had never tried downhill skiing before, so we decided to mix the two and try one of the hills on our property. She did great. Oh, and did I mention she's 5 1/2 months pregnant!







The cousins spending time together watching videos on Rob's phone.



More downhill skiing Sunday morning.







Sunday evening the neighbors had their cross country ski trails lined with luminaries. It was a beautiful night to ski and the lights looked awesome.



Cross country of a different type...Haley is in town for the premiere of her movie Welcome to America, 50 States 50 Days, where she crossed the country traveling to all 50 states in 50 days.





Steve and I got to see the film Tuesday at the Heights Theatre. The movie was great and it was fun to get to learn more about Haley plus learn the story of how she and Rob met.





Haley saying a few words before the film began.



This movie definitely gives you the travel bug...hopefully we can turn our idea of driving to Colorado this summer (as opposed to flying) a reality and take our own mini road trip--the only kind you can really do with a 3 year old and (soon to be) 5 year old.

Ice Skating

Steve helped me hang up some family pictures on our wall. Finally...no more blank wall! It looks great. I have some ideas of what to put on either side to fill up the rest of the wall...might be a while before that gets done, though. The blank spots are because the package of frames I bought told me all the sizes that were supposed to be inside...but it wasn't quite right.



We got M some double blades and both kids have been asking to go skating, so we joined up with some friends to go on Saturday, January 8th, one of the coldest days of the year here. Here is Daddy getting D's skates on in the warming house.



M is all bundled up and ready to go with his new skates.



The walkers our friend made helped keep them steady.



Even without the walkers ("skaters"???), M did really well. Those double blades are like magic. And D definitely improved from beginning to end. This was only her second time ever skating.









After skating, M went sledding with our friend Erik, whose kids were skating with us, too.



D played on the playground equipment with her friend.



D and the pattern she made using tangrams as one of our activities after reading The Rag Coat.



Luna got a new litter box delivered to our house, which really means the kids got new toys--boxes. They loved hiding in their with their flashlights and waiting until Mommy or Daddy walks through the door, then jumping out and surprising us.

Happy New Year 2011!

The kids have been having a blast this week playing with the toys they got for Christmas. After building M's cabin with Lincoln Logs, he put the cowboy that came with the set in the house. D wanted one of her princesses to go in the cabin, too, so Ariel aka The Little Mermaid went up on the widow's walk. Ariel then proceeded to ask the cowboy to marry him and get married "over here...away from the cabin." Neither the cowboy or M was too interested in the marriage proposal.



My Uncle Robb and Aunt Lynne sent the music to Beauty and the Beast for D as she is so in love with the characters from this movie. When I told her what it was and started to play it, she immediately ran to get on a princess dress and found her two Belle's and the Beast and had a dance party in the play room.




Even Hunter Dan (M's turkey hunting action figure) got in on the dance party action.



She just loves that CD and I think we listened to it five times in two days...we'll all have it memorized soon!

D dressed as Cinderella for her friend's princess birthday party.



We spent New Year's Eve at the cabin with friends Ron, Jennifer, and their son. The kids just love running around the loft area.



We had the most fabulous spread of appetizers...so yummy! I may have to actually adopt a New Year's Resolution after eating this feast.



Thankfully Jennifer and I were able to go out cross country skiing a couple of times. We weren't sure what the conditions would be like after the freezing rain and cold, cold temperatures, but it was great! Saturday morning when we woke up there was a light dusting of snow on everything and the sun even came out while we were on the trails. It was awesome!





The kids played so well together all weekend. They did tons of puzzles, colored, played hide-and-go-seek, and in general just giggled together.





The silly face pose.



Family photos.





Saturday evening, Steve decided it was time to tackle another cabin project. So, he tore down the wall in the "bedroom" downstairs to make the room larger and make better use of the space beside the stairs. Our hope is to actually make this into a bedroom for the kids and put an egress window in the room, plus bunk beds for them and friends to use.

Here are the before shots:



We are going to take out the wall Steve is holding a hammer to and move it next to the stairway.



The hallway after:



This is the before inside the small room as it was before:



And after:



This is the view from the living area downstairs looking into the bedroom area:



Daddy and D put out corn for the deer, and they came several times Saturday night and were there Sunday morning when I opened the shades. The kids had a great time sitting in front of the window watching them eat and get closer and closer.



The kids had a great time going down the slide into the snow Sunday morning.



Can you read the temperature? I think it was like 10-15 degrees today. We think our cabin must be in the Bermuda Triangle for thermometers or something...every one we get doesn't seem to work properly or dies out on us, so Steve finally bought the old fashioned outdoor kind. After about three days in a row of it reading 20 degrees, we knew something must be up with this one, too. He took it off the tree and Ron flung some ice off of it, so now it seems to be working (hopefully!).



Sledding down one of the hills on our property.