Skiing/Boarding in Norway

After a 2 day snowstorm, the sun came out today.  Ideal skiing conditions.  So, 

we had a great time riding Gaustablikk (once we figured out the t-bar to start it all off). 

First Ski Day of 2013-2014 Season

The first trimester report cards came out last week, so today was a No School day  so the teachers could hold conferences. We had our conferences on Tuesday.  It is such a pleasure to hear how well both kids are doing - absolutely no issues with either one.  Daniel is still in the G&T program and was assigned to advanced math (4th grade level) this year.  Rachel is reading at a DRA beyond what's expected at the end of first grade and has comprehension skills that are impressive even to her teacher.  

We took full advantage of the day off and headed to Winter Park. Daniel is snowboarding this year. Rachel is sticking to skis.  Both kids had no trouble on the handful of runs that were open.  It was a positive start to the season!

Pumpkins!

Yesterday was pumpkin carving day.  Both kids really got into it this year.  Daniel did his completely on his own.  Rachel just needed a bit of help with the sawing.  I have very proud artists!

Down One Front Tooth

With a little help from a classmate at PE, Rachel's lost her first upper tooth.

Boating Yesterday - Run For a Funds a Today

September 19, 2013

We went out on our friend's boat yesterday. After a super sunny school day, the clouds rolled in for our trip, but the thunder and lightening stayed away.  So, the kids hit the tube!

Today was the big school fundraiser called Run for Funds.  The kids dress up in class themes and run as many 1/16 mile laps as they can in 30 minutes for donations.  Daniel eeked it 27 laps and Rachel 26.  Not too shabby!

It's Wet, But We Don't Need A Boat

Hi!  Just a quick note to let you all know that we have not been affected by the flooding.  Everyone is doing well.  And since I'm blogging, here are some fun pictures.

Daniel started the violin this week.  Here's a picture if him getting fitted for his 1/2 size.

Rachel is taking cooking classes again this year.  It's certainly made her more comfortable in the kitchen.  She and Daniel are showing off the pigs-in-a-blanket they made all by themselves.

School is off to a fabulous start for both kids.  Here's the traditional 1st day of school pic.  

And summer was tons of fun!

Art

Daniel's Cactus Magazine Collage was selected for the West Arena Art Show. Works from all of the schools in the district were considered. Yesterday was the closing reception. Here's a picture of Daniel and his piece. It's hard to see in this picture, but he included a grey toad in the bottom right corner.

Spring Break in Mexico - Day 1

After a quick trip to the doctor's office and pharmacy to take care of Daniel's ear infection Friday, we made it to the airport on time and had an uneventful trip to Playa del Carmen via Austin.
Despite not feeling well, Daniel found his happy place among the rocks on the beach searching for crabs.
Rachel soaked up the sun all day long. At the beach, she took on the role of "famous dog" when a large Mexican family took interest in her. They took pictures, just watched her, and even petted her head a few times. Rachel just went with it and continued working on her sand castle. We ate Mayan/Mexican cuisine for dinner on the main strip where *both* kids tested their heat tolerance by tasting the habanero sauce. We ended the day with an evening stroll down the main strip and then walked back to the hotel where everyone hit the sack pretty quickly.

After School Sledding Fun

We finally got enough snow for sledding!

Awesome Weekend!

Dog sledding, skiing, and snowboarding...

Happy New Year 2013

Hello, Friends…

So, as you probably figured out from previous postings, we spent Christmas away from home.  So it was really quite considerate that Santa swung by the house the evening before we left.  Grandma babe had come over, we’d had some food, and were enjoying some popcorn and a movie, when all of a sudden there were sleighbell sounds from the living room….

Which worked out really well.  Everyone got to enjoy opening presents. 

 

 

 

Then it was off to Los Angeles and the first stop of our Christmas trip.  We had a rental car, and a reasonably nice hotel room just outside of Disneyland, so it was easy to walk to and from the park.  We had a great time splitting our time between Disneyland and California Adventure.  The crowds weren’t bad at all for the first two days, but on Christmas day and the 27th, it was pretty busy – still, we got our fair share of rides and rollercoasters.  Daniel’s favorites – well, he couldn’t pick just one, but “Indiana Jones” and “California Screaming” were tops, and Rachel really, really loved “Big Thunder Mountain” and “Splash Mountain”. The new “Cars” land and in particular the ride are very, very well done –> all in all, we had a fantastic time.

 

After three days of back-to-back park visits, we decided to take a “down day” and do a little sightseeing in LA.  We started with the La Brea tar pits, which was surprisingly entertaining to everyone (that’s a giant sloth behind Rachel), and then on to the beach after a stop at the La Brea bakery.  The beach was cold and windy, so even though the kids REALLY wanted to play in the sand, it was fairly short-lived. 

Back to the parks for one final, fourth day of re-doing all of our favorites, and then on to Palm Springs that evening.  Nothing special about PS, just that it got us out of LA, and going in the right direction.  Seemed like a nice enough place, but we skedaddled out of there in the morning, and spent a good portion of the day at Joshua Tree National Park.

 

Now, to be fair – I didn’t really even know what a Joshua Tree was, but it’s these funky Yucca-plant-like Dr. Seussical trees.  Pretty neat.  Also, lots of cacti, rock climbing and a pretty stunning desert view of the Colorado and Navajo deserts.  Well worth it.  We spent more time than anticipated, then drove state highways from there to Prescott, AZ. 

 

 

 

In Prescott, we’d sneakily arranged for Daniel’s friend Brody to come meet us at the hotel, since he was there visiting his grandparents for Christmas.  It was a fun surprise and we spent the evening hanging at the pool.

 

 

Onward towards the Grand Canyon, we stopped at the roadside attraction of “Bearizona”, about 50 miles outside the park.  This was something new for us –a Jurassic-park-style, “Drive-through zoo”, where there were bears, wolves, bison, various deer and sheep and some other animals wandering around.  This was surprisingly fun.  Really quite enjoyable.

No vacation is complete without souvenirs, and thanks to spending money as Christmas presents, both Daniel and Rachel were able to decide for themselves what they wanted (which worked out really well for the adults too).  It turns out that Daniel is a bit more conservative with his money, while Rachel will buy some thing if she sees things that she likes.  At Bearizona, Daniel got a scorpion and Rachel a stuffed wolf. 

 

 

The Grand Canyon is – well – Grand… Even Daniel could be caught going “wow” under his breath.  It was, however, also *cold* and because of snowfall, a lot of the roads – even on the south rim – were closed.  So we stayed at the park overnight, saw as much as we could along the top of the rid.  Eric hiked a little bit down a path into the canyon, but it was too steep/slippery to be a good idea for the kids to join on that. 

It’s certainly beautiful there in the winter as well – just have to be prepared for the cold (which we were only barely ready for), and the kids will have to be older/taller/stronger before we can do any meaningful hiking there, but we’ll go back sometime in the future.

 

And, finally – on to Las Vegas.  We drove a while on US66, for the fun of it, but it was actually less interesting than the roads in CA had been.  Then passed the Hoover Dam on our way.  It was crowded, and the tours were full for the day, so all we were really able to do was walk across it and go “ooh”. 

 

 

 

And finally-finally, we decided to swing by the Las Vegas strip before going to the airport.  It – worked out OK.  Even though Vegas supposedly has gotten “kid-friendlier” – there’s not much to do, and a world of adult behavior that I’m glad I didn’t get called on to explain – even at 10am.  Still, the Jelly bean statue impressed, as did the M&M store, and they did think it was sort of cool to see a pyramid, new york and the eiffel tower all in one day.  Still, I was glad when we were out of downtown.

Flight home went great. Got home with a few hours left of 2012 and all agreed that it had been a fun trip. 

Happy New Year, everyone.

 

Love, ADRE.