Easter

We had breakfast in the mountains and headed back to Denver so we could make it over to the Carlson's to celebrate Easter.  We were lucky with gorgeous weather - a big change from the snow in the mountains!  We had a yummy brunch with lots of food!  Afterwards, the dads hid the eggs while the kids were playing.  The kids all lined up and were ready to go.  They all did a great job in finding all the easter eggs and were ready to open them to see what they got!  We were able to snap a group photo!

Sat. Night Dinner

We were invited back over to the Zweig's on Saturday night for dinner.  The kids had lots of fun with Val (white t-shirt) and Becca (yellow t-shirt) and their cousins!  After dinner, we watch Lion King together, one of Avery and Ryan's favorites!  It was good to see Josh, Brandy and the girls and look forward to seeing them in May for our mini vacation in San Antonio.

Tubing

We got tickets for tubing at 3pm with Josh and Brandy and the gang.  Andy and I had never been tubing, so weren't sure what to expect.  You get to do as much tubing as you can get in for 1 hour.  We grabbed double tubes and off we went up the magic carpet.  The first two times the four of went down together.  Avery's hat flew off and she was upset after that and decided to hang out with Sheri and Max on the side. Ryan loved every second and smiled the entire time.  Next we went down as a big group and thought Ryan was going to fly out of the tube - luckily he did not and we made it safely down to the bottom.  We tubed until the very end and look forward to next time!

More Skiing

On Saturday, we had a delicious breakfast at the Butterhorn Bakery & Cafe. Then, Andy headed over to Copper to snowboard for a little bit. And, I hung out with Avery and Ryan in our condo.  The condo was in a great location and had a one bedroom with bunk beds in the loft area.  We got in a little skiing after lunch and Avery and Ryan both tried out the magic carpet.  Next year, we will be ready to get them in lessons or a program! So proud of them for getting on skis for the first time!

Dinner at the Zweigs

We went over to the Zweig's for dinner on Friday night.  It was nice to eat in so the kids could play and we could have a relaxed dinner with the adults.  The kids did some shows for us - Avery and Ryan were a little shy though.   Bailey, Emma, Avery and Ryan all thought it was funny to call Andy, Josh and vice versa!!

Critterland at Copper

We grabbed lunch and we then went over to Critterland while Andy got in a little bit of snowboarding. I found out about Critterland on Copper's website.  It is a great little kid's area with a playhouse, tunnel, mini tubing hill and a tube carousel.   They had a blast checking everything out and then Andy met us there when he was done.  We got back to the car and the kids were asleep quickly after we left the parking lot!  We had a great day!

Hitting the slopes

Andy and I both had Good Friday off and headed up to the mountains with the kids for weekend in the mountains.  Josh, Brandy and the girls arrived on Wednesday, so we were looking forward to seeing them while they were in town.

We decided to rent ski equipment for the kids to get a taste for skiing but weren't quite ready to put them in lessons since it was the end of the season.  We also had to pick up some "ski" socks and mittens and found what we needed.  We got parked and the kids in the gear and hopped on the bus!    We spent time on the bunny slope and they both did pretty good and quickly got a hang of it! They didn't last too long before it was lunchtime.

Show and Tell

I got to see Ryan do his show and tell as I was picking him up today. Avery and Ryan both love show and tell. Ryan's is on Tuesday and Avery's is on Thursday. They get to bring something in that relates to the theme for the week. This week, Ryan brought in an airplane and the theme was wind, weather and clouds.

Chuck E Cheese

One of the mom's from Avery and Ryan's class arranged a play date fora small group of his friends .  We met up at Chuck E Cheese at 4pm  and were amazed at how busy it was. There were over 10 parties going on at that time.  It ended up being Avery, Ryan, Chase, Tyler S and Sophie.  They had so much fun running around and playing various game.  They took a quick break to eat some pizza and then played some more.  We got out of eating pizza there as we had a date night at the new Alamo Drafthouse that night!

Sledding & Snow Angels

We got lots of snow and spent most of the day staying warm inside and decided to venture out in the afternoon for some sledding.  The kids had fun going down the hill with daddy and Mr. Glenn and then making snow angels.  We didn't last too long as it was pretty cold out.  We came inside and made brownies and the kids had hot chocolate in their personalized mugs from Nan.

Winter Park with Glenn

One of Andy's high school friends, Glenn, was in town for some business meetings and stayed over the weekend. They went up to Winter Park to get in a day on the slopes and were able to enjoy some good conditions.

Yogurt

We took the kids out for yogurt as we had nice weather and knew there was snow coming.  They love the self-serve yogurt and picking out their favorite toppings!

St. Patty's Weekend

On Friday, the kids wore their new St. Patty's day shirts to school.  On Saturday, I ran the Highlands Ranch St. Patrick's 5k with Jennifer and Amber.  This was my first 5k in a very long time.  It was a hilly course that went on the trails for part of it. Afterwards we enjoyed a green beer, but it was pretty chilly so we didn't last long celebrating!

Saturday afternoon we went to the Evashevski's for their annual St. Patrick's celebration.  It was nice get together and the kids had fun play and we had fun catching up with friends. 
Sunday, we had green pancakes for breakfast. They were a hit!

Bikes

We were happy to have some nice weather to get out on the bikes after work and school. Ryan especially loves his bike and zooms around. Looking forward to spring and the extra hour of daylight!

Mammoths

We headed to the Nature and Science Museum to check out the Mammoths and Mastodon exhibit today.  It was a neat exhibit with lots to see and read.  Our kids liked when we got to the elephants as they could relate! 

Snow!

We got lots of wet, heavy snow today and Avery and Ryan wanted to help daddy with shoveling.  They really didn't do much helping, but did have a great time running through all the snow and making snow balls!

Night out with Jennifer Weiner

Amber works for the Douglas County library and one of the events they put together was a "Night out with Jennifer Weiner" at the Highlands Ranch mansion.  It was a perfect outing for our book club.  Jennifer is one of my favorite authors and I have read most of her books!  The event was well done with appetizers and Prosecco.  And, we got our books signed and a picture with Jennifer.  She spoke for an hour and did Q&A.  She was so funny - we had a blast.  Afterwards, we went out to meet Lyndi,  one of our book clubbers who recently moved to Texas.  What a fun night!

Sports Connection

On Sunday, Shyloe made cute pancakes for the kids - a 3 for the birthday girl and A for Avery and R for Ryan!  They loved it!  One thing Avery said that was so sweet - "Shyloe, your house is amazing."

We got all of stuff packed up and heading over to the Sport Connection.  It has a Jump N Play area and then a game area. We started in the inflatable area and the kids had fun checking each one out!  Then, we headed over to the game area and they got to pick out what games they wanted to play.  I think the favorites for everyone were the driving games!  We were so glad to get to spend the time with Greg, Shyloe, Greyson and Taiten - they were great hosts!

We had smooth travel back to Denver and back to reality on Monday!

Greyson's 3rd Birthday Party

The other reason we decided to make the trip was to celebrate Greyson's 3rd birthday!  Her birthday party was on Saturday afternoon at Greg and Shyloe's house.  And, my Mom and Dad came down from Hickory, so it was good to see them again.  Shyloe leaves no details out - she planned a music party for Greyson and it was a huge hit!  The music teacher did a great job of getting everyone engaged! Greg made pulled pork overnight on the Green Egg and it was very good!   And, we followed that with delicious cupcakes!  So glad we could be there in person to sing happy birthday to Greyson!

Shyloe's collage

Charlotte

We got to Charlotte around 8:30 on Friday night after an easy drive.  The kids were so excited to play together and have a sleepover.  It was probably close to 10:30 before they finally fell asleep!
We woke up on Saturday morning to snow!! I had envisioned our weekend to NC being warm and sunny, but that wasn't to be!  We had breakfast at Chick-fil-a and the kids got to run around the indoor playground to burn off some energy.

Hickory

On Friday, we slept in a little and hung out at the house in the morning. We then headed to Science Center and Aquarium with Mom and Dad. We lucked out and it was Free Friday!  We checked out the aquarium first and then the science center.  They have some great exhibits!

For lunch, we went to Jason's Deli and then I gave Andy a tour of Hickory while Avery and Ryan took a nap in the backseat.  Mom made us a delicious dinner and afterwards, we decided to head to Charlotte so the cousins could spend more time together.