mommy's little helper

Finn sure is my little helper! He LOVES to help me set the table every night for dinner. Maybe because he can pick out what plate/silverware he wants and give the latter to his brother? He also like to help me cook and bake. Tonight we made pizza, and he had so much fun putting all the ingredients on it. :)

I can't believe he is almost 2 1/2. He's really growing up. He knows all his colors now, and will even pull out a shirt and tell me "Me wear blue shirt today, mama." He is also VERY close to being potty trained. He just wears a diaper at nap and bedtime now. He is so proud of his big-boy underwear (Thomas and Toy Story).

Catholic Schools Week

Cullen's preschool was celebrating Catholic Schools Week this week. On Monday he got to wear his Star Wars pj's and monster feet slippers (huge hit) to school and have pancakes and hot chocolate for snack. I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture, he looked so cute... and he was SO excited to wear pj's to school!

Today was Red, White and Blue day. He made this hat and flag (notice the pattern) we've been working on patterns, and he was quick to point out the pattern he created. :) They learned about the flag and talked about the love for our country. Then they had a little parade through the library and chanted "U-S-A, Hip, Hip, Hooray!"

snowshoeing in Steamboat Springs

Snowshoeing Rabbit Ears Pass in Routt National Forest.
12/31/2010

It was so cold, that Jessica's Gatorade froze.
My gloves weren't warm enough,
I'm wearing Sean's gloves on top of mine.
I still wish I would've gotten a picture of my white nose
an hour and a half later....

The guys. After we trekked up a steep hill in the wind.
(you can see Sean's breath.. always full of hot air, that one)

70's promotion party

Last Friday, Matt, Jason, John, Jon, and Sean threw a 70's themed promotion party at a bar downtown. Yay! Finally made it to Major!

Steamboat Springs

The cabin we rented.

There is the mountain everyone skis.
We actually didn't ski this trip. View from our cabin.

Morning of Day #2.... Sledding outside our cabin.

I got a wicked bruise behind my right knee from this...
I think I'm too old to sled!

Driving to Strawberry Park Hot Springs.
It just snowed, and snowed, and snowed... even the animals
had snow collecting on their backs!

Along the drive to the hot springs. So beautiful, like
living in a snowglobe. :) Sean and I mentioned several
times how much it reminded us of Fort Drum.
The road taking us to Strawberry Park Hot Springs was really narrow,
steep, and obviously snow packed. The road actually dead-ended at the Hot Springs,
we were really in the middle of no where.

Our first view of the hot springs, see all the steam?
(and a few people?)
Sean just recently read an article on MSN about the top
10 things to do/see in the Winter in the World and
Strawberry Park Hot Springs was #3! I can see why...

Look at all the snow on the fence!
Steamboat Springs is famous for their "Champagne Powder" (smooth, dry and crunchy).
It didn't stop snowing the entire time we were there!!

It was gorgeous! Steamboat Springs has 2 natural hot springs, this one and
one right in town... The one in town was very commercial and even had slides.
I'm so glad we chose this one. The website stated that clothing was optional
after dark... glad we left! All the hippies were flocking in as we left...

There are 4 hot springs pools, all different temperatures. The warmest one
is 105*, but the water coming in from the source was 170* (what someone told me).
The warmest pool was really hot, and made our pale skin turn red. But it was such
a unique experience, walking on ice and snow into the geothermally heated water. You
could even see flecks of minerals floating in the water.
The girls and I decided to brave crossing the 50* water to sit in another pool, it
was NOT worth it, it was the coolest pool.

Ready to brave the hot springs!

Sean's expression is priceless!
But it was only 8*...

A group shot, but poor Monte got cut out...

The girls in the hot springs.

The guys.

The natural hot springs were the highlight of the trip!
Such a unique and breathtaking experience.

Having dinner on Night #2
We were all paired up with another couple and in charge of
a breakfast and dinner to prepare for the group. It worked out really well!
We ate in the whole time except, we went out to a really nice dinner on New Years Eve.

Ugly Sweater night
Night #2

On New Years Eve, Steamboat has a Torchlight Parade on the mountain.
This picture didn't turn out, but skiers lined up into a 10, then moved into
an 11, then skied down the mountain with fireworks going off. The red in the pic is the 11.
This is the view from the deck.

After Sean's little promotion to Major celebration.
Early morning hours 1/1/11 Night #3

I am hoping to get some pictures of our snowshoeing adventure from Biff. Biff, Jessica, Barron, Sean and I went shoeshoeing during the day on New Years Eve. We drove to the top of Rabbit Ears Pass, planning on doing a 4 mile loop. It was cold!!! It was seriously -10* outside, I don't even want to think about what the windchill was. The snowshoeing was fun and we warmed up pretty fast, and let me just say... much easier than cross-country skiing (which I did at Fort Drum). The views were gorgeous!! As we trekked along, Jessica started complaining more and more of her hips hurting. (Just so you know, the girl never exercises.) The trail wasn't well marked at all and the next thing we knew, we ended up hiking about 2-3 miles more than we thought! Then at one point, Jessica looked at me with a look of panic and asked me about my nose. She said it was pure white, she called the guys over and from the looks on their face I knew something was going on... They asked me if it hurt, it didn't, but I couldn't feel it either. Luckily Barron had a ski mask, so I put that on. Then poor Jessica really got worried, thinking frostbite was setting in, her pain was getting worse, and then she started dry heaving. Then finally, after 3 hours.... we made it back to the car. And not a minute too soon, I think 4 miles would have been perfect, but 6 or 7 miles was a little much! Ohh and I think that my white nose was a sign of my Raynaud's... but I wish I would've gotten a picture of it. :) Pretty crazy way to end 2010!

Anyway, we had an amazing time in Steamboat Springs with some of our best friends!

Christmas :)

Christmas 2010

Time to eat again.... :)

The cousins.

Trying to make the gingerbread houses.

Cullen's make-shift gingerbread house. :)

We had a great time in Kansas celebrating Christmas! :)

Great Wolf Lodge

Finn climbing in to the Wolf Den.

The boys actually slept pretty well in the bunk beds.

Great memories here! What an amazing water park!

The boys got bored with these puny water slides
pretty fast...

Finn and daddy under the dumping bucket.

Balancing on the snake.

Shooting baskets. Cullen was pretty accurate.

This was hard! Cullen did great,
with a little help from daddy.

So proud of himself!

We did the slides OVER and OVER and OVER.
I'm so surprised Finn wasn't scared.
It was pitch dark in them!

Waiting for storytime.

The animals at the clock tower come alive and talk and sing.
The storyteller came out and read a bedtime story to the kids in their pjs.
After the story snow fell from the ceiling!

This reindeer was in the story and made
a special appearance after the story.

We stayed at The Great Wolf Lodge for a few nights, when we were back in KC for Christmas. I'm so glad we did it, the boys had so much fun. We were all exhausted after the 2 nights, but it was worth it!