Easter Activites

Cullen at the egg hunt.

Finn was a pro, he did the egg hunt all by himself.

One happy kid.

Doing the egg race.

For some reason, Cullen asked for a green bunny nose.

Petting a real bunny.
(Reminds me of Sweetie. RIP.)

Classic.

Getting ready for the egg hunt.

Waiting patiently.

Giving out some high-fives.

We had a busy weekend! Here are some pictures of the boys from the Easter egg hunt our gym put on. They had a great time and we enjoyed watching Finn do his first egg hunt. We told him what to do and he did it all by himself. :) More pictures to follow...

tin can pots

Aunt CoCo got us motivated and gave us the great idea of making our own tin can pots. The boys had a blast painting and decorating their own can. It will be fun for them to watch the herbs grow too. :)

HSC Change of Command

Finn and Clare playing with the ball popper.

Clare tolerating the boys so close to the sit n spin. :)

After the change of command.
Yes, I realize that's the back of Finn's head.

Sean giving his speech.

Sean taking the HSC Flag from the Col.
(Signifies taking over the company.)

Cullen and Finn playing with their buddy, Grayson.
Cute little stair-steps.

Sean with some of the guys from his "old" team.

Sean is now officially the HSC Commander. Let the good times roll... ie: the middle of the night phone calls which will start any time now, and the L O N G days!

Finn and Daddy at Little Gym

These pictures are old, I just didn't get around to posting them in February. Finn loves his Little Gym class! He's about to move up to the next age class, so he's a big boy and a leader in his class. First to get the bells, and first to put them away... he knows the routine!

jury duty

I wasn't good at blogging during the month of Feb. One reason for not blogging was I was called for jury duty. I was called to report on a Wednesday, and since I had plenty of time to plan, I got the boys into hourly care. That Wednesday I showed up, filled out the paperwork and got ready for a long day of doing nothing... had my Us Weekly, my coupons and grocery shopping list. I was secretly looking forward to a whole day to myself of doing nothing! Then hopefully a quick trip to the commissary before my hourly care time ran out...

Just as I was settling into my Us Weekly, my name was called... along with about 30-40 others. We were all sent upstairs to begin the jury selection process. It was a very interesting process. About 2 or 3 hours later I still sat there, with 12 other jurors. I couldn't believe it. I was going to sit on a criminal case that was estimated to last until Friday. I scrambled to get a hold of Sean to have him pick up the boys from hourly care, I wasn't going to be done before 5pm. Then had to scramble to find childcare for all day Thursday and Friday. (I was able to get the boys in to our date-night babysitter for all day Thursday and hourly care took pity on me and squeezed both boys into the schedule for all day Friday.) Then after a short lunch break we started.

It was a domestic violence case. It was awful to sit through and to hear it all. Mr. Logan was being tried on two cases; menacing with a deadly weapon, and possession of a firearm while intoxicated. It took us about 6 hour to deliberate before we could all agree on both charges. Unfortunately we could not find him guilty on both charges. We found him guilty on the possession charge, but could not find him guilty on the menacing charge. That was so hard letting him go on the felony charge! All of struggled with it, we all knew he was a dirtbag but just couldn't charge him "without a reasonable doubt." Anyway he got two years probation. His new girlfriend sat behind him the whole trial, glaring at everyone. It's truly amazing the bond you form with 12 other people (from all walks of life) going through that for only three days. Ughhh, what an experience.... it truly was unique!

One thing I learned from it all, is how thankful I am to be a stay at home mom. I really know my kids. Those three days I hardly saw my boys at all. I had to wake them up early to rush out the door to hurry to daycare, to spend 9+ hours as a juror, then hurry to pick them up, fight traffic home, throw dinner on the table, then straight to bath and bed for the boys. I didn't see them at all, it was sad, really. But the hard truth is, my days were easier; dealing with grown-ups all day, not eating pb&j for lunch (again), no time-outs, etc. Interesting how it took jury duty to make me appreciate my life and family that much more.

Crested Butte

We were finally able to get in on a Family Retreat that the Army puts on. They put you up in a place to stay for 2 nights and feed you, but they don't tell you when you sign up where it's going to be. We lucked out and got Crested Butte. Sean had just been there last month learning to ski, so it was fun to see where he was!

Crested Butte is beautiful!! My pictures aren't going to do it justice. The drive there was just as gorgeous. We did have to pull over at one point. A large rock rolled right in front of us and we had no choice but to hit it. Guess those "Watch For Falling Rock" signs really mean it. Luckily we had no damage (from what we can tell)... The Springs is at about 6,000 feet and Crested Butte was over 9,000 ft and close roughly 10,000 ft when you go to the top of the mountain. It's amazing how much more water you need with only an additional 3,000 ft.

We had a great time on our little get-away! We enrolled Cullen in ski school for all day Saturday. He enjoyed it and it was so cute to watch him ski. He'd ride up this flat escalator looking thing and then ski down the hill. When I went to pick him up, I was able to watch him do one more "run"... it was so cute two little ones in front of him collided and he was able to turn and stop, then ski past them. He passed level one, if we had enrolled him for a second day he would've been on the ski lift and skiing down the mountain. That's a scary thought. (But that's what I was doing in ski school at age 3!)

We took little Finn-Finn to an all day nursery. He can't start ski school until he's 2. He did fine there and didn't shed a tear all day. He was the only one NOT tired, he got a 2+ hour nap!

Sean and I hit the slopes right after dropping off the boys. I was really nervous, the last time I skied was 11 years ago (our senior class spring break trip). Wouldn't you know, Sean got me on the lift and off we went. No warm ups down the bunny hill. Surprisingly I picked it back up fast and did fine. By the afternoon Sean and I were doing some challenging runs and I was keeping up with him w/o him having to slow down for me. It was amazing, neither of us fell at all!

After 5 hours of skiing we were ready to call it a day, we were exhausted and our legs were tired. So we decided to do one more run on our favorite (not challenging) run. About 1/2 way down the mountain a little boy started coming straight at me, but I had no where to go. I was already right at the treeline. So to avoid crashing with an eight year old, I went into the unpacked treeline, hit a tiny tree ( a sprouting branch, really) and wiped out! Sean and I couldn't stop laughing, he saw the whole thing. The whole day, no falls, and then boom... last run b/c I was trying to avoid crashing into a kid. :) I got up, got my skis back on and then, down the next hill wiped out again. That time Sean didn't see it and went on and I couldn't get my blessed ski back on! I finally figured out how to adjust it and met Sean waiting for me around the bend. We laughed some more about my luck on this LAST run! Then he said his famous last words... "I'll see you at the bottom." B/c we were almost done.... Then on the next to last hill he wiped out bigger than you know what! It was a bad fall and some old lady had to bring him his ski. That one I saw in it's entirety. It took him a while to get his skis on, etc. Meanwhile I can't stop laughing... what luck we had! When he met up with me he was laughing pretty hard too. He said thank goodness he was wearing a helmet b/c even with it on, he saw stars! Then I felt bad for laughing... So I can say, we did one run too many Saturday!! We probably did about 12 runs in all.

Overall it was an amazing trip! We can't wait to take the boys skiing again. Especially when Finn's old enough to be in ski school too.

2010 goal

old postcard of the Manitou Incline

a view down

it's a 40%-70% incline

Recently, I've been looking for a good challenge and goal to shoot for and I've finally picked one (or the first one of 2010) I'm working towards. This is my New Years Resolution, so to speak... The Manitou Incline... or "the cog" as Sean calls it. (Sean's done it numerous times.) It's not for the weak, or faint of heart... and judging by the pictures I've found online and posted... I believe the hype. I really want to complete it, and that means not taking the chicken exit half way up, this spring or summer. Here are some stats on it... One mile up. 2744 railroad ties. 2000 feet of vertical. And a four mile hike back down on the Barr Trail.

Believe me, I will post pictures once Sean and I complete it this spring/summer.

This is copied from another blog from Dave Philipps:

The Manitou Incline is the toughest, most-touted and most-trespassed trail in the region, and now it is officially on its way to becoming legal, too.

…the steep jumble of 2,744 old railroad ties

The Incline was never meant to be a trail. It began, just over a century ago as tracks for a work train used to install a pipeline. Then for decades it acted as a tourist attraction whisking riders 1,900 feet up a steep mountainside.

When the tourist train was scrapped in 1990 the abandoned ties became a cult workout of a few mountain runners. Slowly word spread. Today on a nice summer day it can attract over 1,000 people, making it one of the most popular trails in the region.

It has been written up in the New York Times and Sports Illustrated.

The stairs are a regular regimen for everyone from stay-at-home moms to Olympic athletes to soldiers getting in shape to return to Iraq.