Catch-up time (the pre-Christmas edition)

Friends

Well – it happened again, didn’t it?  We went off and let almost two whole months pass by without updating the blog – and it’s not like things didn’t happen in the meantime. 

So – we didn’t win the trip to Iceland, but thanks to everyone who voted for us.  We won’t be doing that kind 0f a contest anymore – it’s too easy to cheat by buying “facebook likes” online, and that’s probably what the winner did.  Enough belly-aching, we still have the cutest kids around!

In any case – you’d seen a preview of the Halloween costumes in a previous post, but here’s the actual official photos of ladybug girl and “Ninja-Zombie” Daniel.  It was a warm night for once, and so we had a good time wandering around the neighborhood. 

 

 

In late October, we took a trip down to Phoenix to meet up with the Pastas – it’d been a whole year since our last vacation with them, and that’s just WAY too long.  Now, I say that we went to Phoenix, but in reality we probably didn’t venture more than 3 miles from the resort the whole time we were there.  We’d deliberately chosen the place for the pool/water park that was attached to it, and that’s where the  kids stayed for 3 days straight.  It was great.

We did go on one hike up to the top of a local mountain, which was a nice break,  but other than that – swimming, more swimming, water slide, lazy river, swim, repeat…

 

Then – it was November.  And while there was nothing particularly “big” that we did in November, it was the month for visitors.  Aunt Erin and Chloe came to visit for Thanksgiving, and they brought pre-Cousin Macy and pre-Uncle Shane with them.  So there was lots of playing  and running around and everyone had a good time.  Also, Craig came to visit, and both kids enjoyed that immensely (of course, the route to  Rachel’s heart goes via reading books to her, but it wasn’t just that..).

  

The cousins will be arriving from Norway in just a couple of days, and they’ll probably look at the sad dusting of snow that we have and wonder why they are here… So for the record – it DID snow in November. And there were snowball fights, and the kids did go sledding.  Actually – it was great, unlike previous years when the hill was too much for one or the other, this year they slid down, hauled their sleds up and repeated the process.  Rachel is a little daredevil on the slopes. 

 

Oh, that whole “pre-cousin” thing that probably had you confused two paragraphs ago?  Yes – Aunt Erin got married and Daniel and Rachel were part of the ceremony.  Rachel was the flower girl and Daniel the ring-bearer, and they managed to pull that off without a fight, so everyone’s happy about that.  On the trip down to Houston, Rachel got to be the pilot…  (aren’t they handsome and adorable?) Imagine if we could get them to dress up all the time…

 

And – well, that takes us to just over a week ago.  Since getting back from Houston, we’ve been wrapping up the school year. (Rachel had a program – we might edit and post the video), and Daniel had a little class party.   The Christmas tree is up, the house is decorated, and we’re ready for the Norwegian invasion which starts tomorrow.

Oh, and we did go skiing on Saturday, and both Daniel and Rachel did really, really well.  We weren’t so sure how it would go, because last year’s skiing experience was – marginal.  But this year we’re ready – and Daniel did so well on the school hill that he graduated to the “real lift”.  Rachel is still learning to stop, but that’ll come.

 

(Could Daniel look any less concerned about his sister getting eaten by a T-Rex?)

Christmas cards are out. If you’re actually reading this and you *didn’t* receive a Christmas card, then we need to update our list, dear anonymous internet user…

Regardless – Merry Christmas to all of you.

 

Love, ADRE.

Friends

So we need your help.  Specifically, we would like your vote in the current photo contest that Icelandair is running between now and November 8th.

The theme of the contest is to take a picture which shows the link between Denver and Iceland, and the winner will get tickets to Iceland for two. 

We'd like to win.  I think we have an excellent chance at it -> most of the other photos don't conform to the rules of the contest, and - well - we've got the cutest kids on the planet. 

But it IS a popularity contest.  The winner will be the photo with the most votes, and in these days of social networks, we're up against people with thousands of friends on facebook.

So if you would, please, take a second to vote for our photo (facebook account required) by clicking on this link then scroll down to our photo and clik the "Like" button.  Won't take you more than 5 seconds.

Then, and this is the part that would REALLY help - if you would encourage your friends on Facebook to do the same, that'd be much appreciated.  hey - if you're not on facebook, you can still encourage others to vote by sending them an email with this link:

http://www.icelandair.us/specials/pages/us/denver-photo-contest/vote-img/item548506/

Having the direct route from Denver to Iceland will shave 3-4 hours off our trips to Norway, so we're super excited to have Icelandair flying from here.

Thanks in advance,
Love, ADRE

It’s October

Friends

It’s just been a beautiful fall here in Colorado this year.

The weather has been gorgeous, and the trees are a more vibrant yellow and red than I can remember for years. We’ve had a couple of cold snaps, and even a little snow, but on Saturday it was 83 degrees out and fabulous.

We took a little bikeride over to the reservoir next door, and Rachel showed that she can bike as well on gravel and dirt as on pavement. Once we got to the lake, we gave the new family kayak its maiden voyage, and it’s clear that that’s going to be a lot of fun come next summer.

Aunt Erin and cousin Chloe were visiting from Houston, so there was a lot of playing in the back yard, frolicking in leaves, climbing trees, etc. And in the evening we went to the firstbank center to see Anida’s second public roller derby match. It was a halloween themed match, so Daniel and Rachel previewed their upcoming costumes.

For the record, Daniel is a Zombie and Rachel is a ladybug.

Other random updates include:

• - We went to the circus, and had a great time. It was a fun show for all ages, but there’s just something magical about watching the awe on a childs face.
• - We had a sleepover with the Backer kids here
• - Swim Lessons have started. This is going to be a breakthrough session for Rachel on the freestyle, and I’m confident that she’ll be swimming well by christmas. Daniel’s group seems mostly focused on the breaststroke.
• - Daniel was the first kid in his class to complete the library reading challenge of reading 1200 pages, and as a result there was a little celebration at school today. He got to tell his class about some of the books he read, and got to “Swing the flying pig” which is a great honor… It was fun, and it’s fun that he loves to read as much as he does. He’s also showing an interest in math, and is using Eric’s old “Little professor” calculator to practice addition and subtraction.

- Rachel is taking an “art” enrichment class after her pre-K, and is bringing home some really impressive drawings. If I remember to, I’ll try to scan some in so I can post them.

- Halley is about 2.5 times as big as she was when we got her. Sam seems to have accepted her as inevitable, which is a little different than embracing her.

That’s about it for now. We need to get better at bringing the camera along when we do things, because it seems that when it’s time to blog about what we’ve been up to, we’re always missing pictures. In any case – we hope everyone is doing great.

Love; ADRE.

Stuff from September

 

Friends

Just as we’ve done for the last 3 years or so, we decided to take a trip up to Miller Farms where you might remember that the routine is that you pay $50 for the family to get in, and then they have a play area with tractors, cars, trains etc – but the real attraction is that you jump on the back of a tractor-drawn wagon, they haul you into the fields and you can pick as many vegetables as you want. 

We’ve gotten smarter about this, so unlike previous years, when we went so late that most of the produce was borderline,this year we hit the jackpot.  The kids love the games, and actually have a good time harvesting carrots, potatoes, etc. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so we ended up with about 100 pounds of: beans, summer squash, carrots, corn, acorn squash, basil, tomatillos, 4 kinds of tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, banana peppers, rellenos, eggplant, 3 kinds of onions, potatoes, beets, watermelon, cantaloupe, okra, pumpkins and indian corn.

 

Oh, and a black kitten – 5 weeks old at the time – now named “Halley” (it’s a cat-woman reference, and if you’re groaning, you should have heard some of the other ideas.

She weighed in at less than a pound when we got her, though she seems to have doubled in size in the last 2 weeks.

Samson is – less than excited about the new addition, but he’s warming to her.  He no longer marches out of the room when she comes in.

And – well – Delilah isn’t with us anymore.  Probably ought to have a whole posting dedicated to that.  The kids have actually taken her absence pretty well – they got to say goodbye, and be part of burying her in the back of the yard.

 

So that was the trip to Miller farms.  And then this last weekend, we took a trip up to Winter Park.  We’d scored a deal on slopeside lodging, and it was the last weekend of summer activities, so we just bought passes for that and played all day long.  There was miniature golf, and a climbing wall, trampolines, a maze, a zipline and some other stuff, but the big hit for everyone was the alpine slide. You can see the track under the picture of the ski lift – basically it’s a one-person luge on wheels.  We probably went down the hill 15 times – Daniel got to drive his own, Rachel had to share with an adult, but didn’t mind at all.  Great fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way home, we caught the leaves changing color, and did a little hike in Rocky Mountain National Park.  All in all, it was a great way to end the summer.  Oh, and we did a quick check of the cabin we’ve rented for Christmas, when the Norwegians will be joining us! It should be great fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite quote from the weekend:
We’re playing “I spy” as we drive up the mountain, and first Daniel chooses something really obvious (like “I spy something with snow on”) and Rachel gets it immediately.  Then the roles are reversed and Daniel immediately gets Rachel’s clue.  So we say “wow, you guys are mind readers”.   Rachel promptly broke into tears and refused to play anymore, because Daniel could read her mind, but she couldn’t read his…

 

School is going well for both Daniel and Rachel.  More on that some other time.  Hope everyone is well.

Love, ADRE.

Rachel Bikes

Friends

 

This is the kind of milestone that just can’t be celebrated without video, but it’s taken a couple of weeks to find the time to get it converted from a high-def movie to something that can actually live on the web. 

So without further ado:  Rachel without training wheels!

Recorded September 10th, 2011.

Love, ADRE. 

Skippertak

Howdy, everyone…

I’m not even going to try to make excuses for the poor blog performance in 2011.  It’s just embarrassing.  I think I’ll blame facebook.  Or maybe some other site for the distraction, but really – there’s no excuse.   However, you may notice that all of a sudden – at least the pictures are up to date.  Not a lot of witty, clever commentary or little memorable quotes from Daniel and Rachel, but the broad outlines of our last six months are finally online in this and the preceding 5 posts. 

The Norwegians have a word for this.  It’s “Skippertak” – which for all intents and purposes just means “the extra effort you do to finish a lot of work that you’d been neglecting”. 

So over Labor Day weekend,  we went camping again.  We didn’t have a reserved spot, which is a bad call on the busiest camping weekend of the year, but nonetheless we managed to get a place up at Turquoise Lake, in a tent-only camping ground that we’d noticed longingly when we camped there last summer among the RVs. 

It was a very nice weekend.  The weather cooperated, though it was a bit cold, with frost in the mornings (there seems to be a theme to our camping trips in 2011), thought that’s sort of to be expected at 10,000 feet above sea level. 

We did the usual camp activities with hiking, fishing,  campfires, UNO at night and all the usual activities. 

This time, we brought the kids bikes, and Daniel had a great time mountainbiking the trails we hiked along. 

The lake was nice enough that Rachel and Eric waded in for a bit, though only Rachel was brave enough to actually lay down in the water. 

 

Now we’re back in town, and back at school again, and summer is winding down.  We have a trip planned up to Winter Park in a couple of weeks, then really nothing extraordinary planned between now and Christmas break – though we’ll probably come up with something. 

 

Here’s hoping that it’s not another six months before the next skippertak.

Love, ADRE.

August 2011

Yowza! It’s August already, and that means it’s back to school time.  These would be the official pictures of Daniel’s first day of First Grade, and Rachel going into Pre-K. 

 

Daniel’s new teacher is Ms. Wilkins – and he’s having a fairly good time so far not being a "Kindie” anymore.  He was a little insulted at the initial reading materials that she pushed his way, but that’s since been replaced by “Find an appropriate book” which lets him read at the more advanced level. 

 

Rachel has only had a couple of days of school so far, but she’s back with most of the same kids and the same teachers as last year, and that’s a good thing.  She’s excited to get to play "on both playgrounds”.  Over the summer, Rachel’s started to read a few things, and her artwork has just progressed incredibly.  If the blogs hadn’t been so far behind, I might actually scan some of it, because it’s really quite good.

 

There was, of course a lot of August that didn’t get captured on film.  Once we got back from Norway, Rachel had “Chemistry Camp” that ran for half-days at the Museum of Nature and Science.  It seemed to consist entirely of making tasty things and eating them, and as the Chemistry major, I’m not sure what to think of that, but she had a good time and while she was there, Daniel played with Sam.

 

 

The following week, they switched roles, and Daniel and Sam went to “Pirate Camp”, while Rachel and Tyler played.  It seemed to go well, and all of the kids enjoyed themselves. 

August was actually fairly busy.  We went hiking again at Roxborough, and this time the kids really rocked the trail and completed the “Moderately difficult South Rim trail in good spirits, even though Rachel fell and scratched herself quite a bit. 

 

Then there were additional trips to Pirate’s Cove, Putt-putt golf, and of course – Derby. 

Anida started playing roller derby about a year ago by going to some practice sessions.  One thing led to another, and she was invited to join the Denver Roller Dolls this spring, was selected onto the “Green Barrettes”  team and has been working her way up to her first public bout at the Firstbank Center on August 27th under the Derby name of “Enyo Phace”.  

There were some last-minute skills and qualifications that she had to prove to the league, so August was pretty busy with practices, meets, tests and and Derby events.  

However, it all paid off, and we got to see her compete for the first time in the league championship, which the Green Barettes won.

There was a LOT of derby in August.  September has been a bit calmer on that front so far.