Breckenridge

We headed up to Breckenridge for a day trip to see their snow sculptures.  Pretty neat stuff!

The train was one of only two that we were allowed to climb on.  The rest were works of art.

It was quite hard to get both boys up here safely.  And me, too

Choo choo!

There were some ice sculptures too, though they're not part of the competition

There's some pretty amazing stuff here

This is an international event, with teams coming from all over the world to compete.  

According to Breckenridge's own information "The Breckenridge Ski Resort makes snow recognized to be some of the best in the world.  (They spent years perfecting their 'recipe.')"  So perhaps that's part of why this is such a big deal--they provide really good snow for sculpting.

Typical

Dean's parents have gone up to see the sculptures for the last few years, but this is the first time we've joined them.

It was neat, although I don't know if it was worth the travel time.  (Our travel time was hampered by a longish detour to avoid an accident, and not leaving until nearly an hour after we'd intended.)  Next time we'll have to make sure to leave earlier in order to make it more worthwhile.

Parking was particularly hideous, too--it is ski season, after all.  We were very fortunate that we drove past Grammy and Grandpa while searching for a spot, so we were able to set the boys free with their grandparents, and didn't have to listen to them whine about wanting to get out of the car anymore.  Thanks, Del and Cyndy!

Another possibility would be to get a room and spend one or two nights and make a weekend of it.  Then we'd have time to play around as well.

We did actually think of the overnight idea this year, but the resorts were so full (due to ski season) that Dean's parents weren't able to use their sway as vacation owners in Breck to get a room.  Oh well.

Again.... typical

The uncarved block of snow.  It looks like a Borg cube.  Or maybe that was the Rhoadarmer Gingerbread entry

Our family in front of the happy family Chinese entry

Now Grandpa is holding 60+ pounds of kid

You could climb on these horses too, but Robin didn't want to so we didn't wait in line

Pretty neat!  And we had fun.

January--cold but dry

It was hard to wake up for school the first day back after Christmas vacation.  Too much staying-up-late/getting-up-late.

This little guy loves to smile and say "cheese" for the camera

Uncle Dan brought over an old sled from Dean and Dan's childhood.  Supposedly it's really good, and can steer a bit.  We haven't had a chance to test it yet, but Liam loved getting rides around the house before we put it away in the garage

As of Christmas, everybody in the household now has Batman pajamas.  So we've had a couple of Batman Pajama days!

On the first one, Dean had to take his off to go to the Broncos game (poor Dean.) So we didn't get pictures until the second time we did this.

We have capes, too!

The boys started to go stir crazy around the house during a cold spell.  I didn't really want to play outside, but they needed to run around.  So one day we went out to a nearby mall, which has this indoor play area.

It's full of climb-on Looney Tunes characters.  It used to be giant breakfast foods, but they got sponsorship for a new play area a few years ago.

Tunnels are always a hit

...and not just for the kids

This was a very tight fit, by the way

We decided it was time to move Liam into a booster chair and sit him at the table with the rest of us.

All we'd been waiting for was some chair protectors to keep the upholstery clean, and we purchased those on our trip to the mall.

So now Liam's at the table like a big boy!

Myself and the boys, pressed into the giant pin board thing at the museum

My Uncle John got Robin a Stomp Rocket for Christmas--an air-powered foam rocket that shoots quite far into the air.  Robin kept bugging me to set this up, but we needed a nice day to do so.  I didn't want him doing it in the house--I feared for all our high-up breakables.  Finally, we got a nice day and gave it a whirl.

It really does shoot high.  Robin had a ton of fun.  (I had to take, like, 15 pictures before I finally got a good action sequence like these.  It just moved too fast for pictures.)

We've since brought this to the park to share with some friends on a playdate, and lost one of the rockets.  But it came with four, so we're still in business.  This was fun, thanks, Uncle John and Aunt Nikki!

Baby Big Boy in a diaper box

Aunt Kat gave the boys some really giant marshmallows, so we lit a candle and tried to make indoor s'mores.  And then we gave up and nuked the things for 10 seconds, because a candle just takes too darn long.

Tasty, but messy.  I don't think Liam liked the stickiness much.  For that matter, neither did Robin. He was very eager to get his hands wiped off

Yum!

Life has gone back to normal since the holidays ended, and all the decorations got put away.  Preschool is back in session.  Life got disrupted again by a cold, though, and poor Liam's lungs only just recovered.  I'm sorry that he inherited my shoddy lungs.  At least we have drugs to treat him, although their time-consuming nature (15-30 minutes of sitting still--in front of a TV, that's the only way he'll cooperate--to breathe in a nebulizer treatment) really messes up our day.  But the drugs work, so we're happy.  Not much else has been going on--just normal life.  And I'm almost caught up to the present here, with pictures!  Hurrah!

Post-Christmas

Partway into January, I received this email from the mother of one of Robin's preschool friends:

"Hi there,

Just wanted to let you know that Robin taught C how to write the word "bear" today so C has been making books about bears and writing the name down all afternoon!  You have a little teacher there-- very cute!"

This made me feel warm and fuzzy inside, knowing that Robin is having a positive influence on other kids.  Especially so, because this mom and I had discussed our kids' interests in educational matters, and C hasn't been very interested in letters or writing.  He hadn't even been interested in writing his own name yet.  So I'm glad that Robin has helped his friend garner some enthusiasm.  My kid is helpful!

Robin got an easel for Christmas, and really wanted me to set it up for him.  Then he went to town painting pictures for our walls

We went to my parents' house a few days after Christmas to visit further with Great Nana.  They still hadn't shoveled their snow from Christmas, so Robin decided to help Poppa shovel.  It began to snow again while they were out there too.  Now, we hadn't brought boots or snow pants with us, so Robin got thoroughly soaked.  We tossed his clothes in the dryer, and he wore one of Poppa's sweatshirts for the duration.  I think he looks like an Oliver Twist-style orphan wearing this.

A nice family shot

Four generations

Sitting together in the sensory bin

"Mama, will you take a picture of us?"  I love to see them being all brotherly

Dean got to go to a Broncos game at the end of December.  It was freezing, but they won and he had a lot of fun

Robin decided to put on his Crayon costume from 2011's Halloween, fill his green blanket with toys, and wear a Santa hat.  He's Santa, of course!

Remember how I love to see them be brotherly?  Yeah, I'm seeing this a lot lately.  *heart swells*

All bundled up for a very cold night at Zoo Lights

We went on the very last night.  It was absolutely frigid, but by renewing our zoo membership we got free tickets, so we wanted to take advantage of them.

The two pairs of socks, pajama pants used as long underwear, shirts-sweaters-coats, mittens clipped to coats, hats, hoods, and blanket kept everybody functional until right at the end.

We'll go earlier next year, so we can choose our day more wisely.  We'll also bring hot cocoa next time.

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The zoo had ice sculptures this year!  I don't remember that from years past

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The museum with a friend.  The "C" I mentioned at the beginning of this post, in fact

The boys all measured their strides on the motion capture camera.  Liam, Robin, and C.

The boys got an RC car from my uncle for Christmas.

I didn't want them driving it on our street, so we took it with us to storytime so we could drive it outside the library one day.

They both loved watching it zip around.

And Robin, in particular, loved figuring out how to drive it.

Liam's still a little young.

He still likes pushing buttons though.

I told Robin to be careful not to step on the thing, because I'd had one of these as a kid and the neighbor across the street ran his bike over it, and it never ran fast again.  Then I had to repeat that story over and over again, because Robin was fascinated with the concept for some reason.

Everybody had fun with this.  Thanks, Uncle Glenn!

In conclusion, here are some videos of Liam talking. I was working off of memory so I didn't get all of his words, and he's continued to add more nearly every day since I took these, but this gives you an idea--and lets you hear his sweet voice, if you're far away and haven't heard it.