Skiing

Yesterday, I took the kiddos skiing at Snowy Range.  We've been there once each year for the last two years. I wish I could carve out more time to get these kids on skis but schedules and finances make skiing a tough hobby at this age.  BUT, we had a great day and I have two daredevils on my hands. 

Look, they are actually sort of hugging each other!

I put them both in ski school for a few hours in the morning so that I could ski by myself for a while.  I'm much less of a daredevil than I was a few decades ago but I did go down a few runs that I knew the kids wouldn't want to attempt...yet.  When ski school was done, I picked them up and we had a picnic lunch.  It was a pretty day in the Snowies.  The sun was shining and the resort has a lot of snow.  They hadn't had any fresh snow in a while so some parts were getting a little icy. 

Lunch  break selfies.  Lots of smiles because I packed chips and cookies.  

After lunch, the three of us headed back out on our skis.  We did the bunny slope for a while and then ventured out on the "big" ski lift.  I found an easy trail for us to take down and it worked well, for the most part.  Reina and I had what she's now calling "Mom and Reina's Super Crash of 2016" where she lost both skis and I found myself bending my legs at angles they normally don't bend at.  But all's well that end's well and after a few well placed hugs and reassurances that everybody was okay, we continued down the mountain.  (Will had a sympathy crash when he saw us go down but he was fine.)  Once we got to the bottom, Reina decided to take a break on the bunny slope and Will and I headed back up again.  This time, we made it down unscathed and to my surprise and delight, Reina was ready to try it again.  She's one tough cookie.  This time she and I both made it down with only a slight crash and I think we even attempted it one more time?  The three of us stayed until the lifts shut down and drove home, tired but happy.  Today I have sore muscles and a gorgeous black and blue bruise on my leg.  Reina claims to feel no pain, Will says his legs are sore but both are ready to try it again.  I hope winter isn't quite done with Wyoming because I'd like to get back out there again, too.

That time we played hooky and went to the Broncos Super Bowl parade

Our house has been full of germs and overdue work projects for the last several weeks and as a result, my blogging time has been severely diminished.  There's also been a lot of football highlight shows to watch and now it's college basketball time and oh yea, kids have homework and house cleaning has to be done from time to time.  So yes, it's been a wee bit busy.  But let's back up to eight days ago when I did something I've never done before and took the kids out of school for a non-illness related reason and we headed to Denver to meet up with Pop-Pop and catch the Broncos Super Bowl parade. 

The Broncos last Super Bowl parade was in 1999. At the time I was 26, swingingly-single, no kiddos and had a boss who said "go to the parade!  You are only young once!" or something like that.  I didn't go to the parade and instead saved my vacation days for something that I don't even remember now.  So in 2016, 40-something me said "who knows when this chance will come again" and I didn't have anything on my calendar that I couldn't miss and the kids hadn't missed too many days from being sick so off we went.  

I'll spare you the gory details about how we almost ended up watching the parade from Pop-pop's living room because traffic was ridiculous and the line for the park-n-ride bus was a good 2-hours long and I started to panic and thought "WHAT HAVE I DONE TAKING THE KIDS OUT OF SCHOOL FOR THIS?"  Suffice it to say, both Pop-Pop and I said more than a few times, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We were determined to make it there and thanks to some kind strangers and their brilliant idea to find another park-n-ride that wasn't a two hour wait and their willingness to patiently explain the other park-n-ride's location to the weird lady from Wyoming, we made it to the parade.  

Even a construction site near the parade site got into the spirit.  Omaha indeed.  

I forgot the fancy zoom on my camera as the owner of Broncos, the Lombardi Trophy and the Super Bowl MVP Von Miller went by on the first firetruck.  We were about 10 people deep from the front of the parade but we could still see everything so clearly.  It was such a fun experience.  

More trophy and defensive player Demarcus Ware and #18 himself.  

Will turned to me later and said "Peyton Manning looked right at us!" 

Wide receivers Emmanual Sanders and Demaryius Thomas.  Lots of smiles.  

A bunch of rowdy defensive stars.  

The Broncos' quarterback of the future unless contract talks break down and some other team grabs him and we end up with RG3 or somebody like that.  

A float full of crazy fans including Broncos Darth Vader and whatever those two fluffy guys are called.  Kids, I won't object if I see you up there someday.  

Look at Pop-pop with that big almost 9-year old on his shoulders.  

So the parade was terrific.  After the floats went by, we had some lunch and then headed back on the bus towards our car and then home.  I'm so glad we did it - who knows when the next Super Bowl parade will be (2017!) and we'll all be able to go.  Sidenote - within a few days, three of the four of us developed bad colds, sinus infections, bronchial junk and a double ear infection but it was still WORTH IT!

A letter to the birthday girl, one day late

Dear Reina:

Today, you are 7.  No one in the history of the world has been more ready to be 7.  Did I write that last year about turning 6?  The night before your birthday, as I was tucking you in, you told me that you couldn't wait to be 7 because you could finally touch the ceiling fan.  I tried to hide my stumped look as you rattled off a list of other things that were great about being 7 and I wracked my brain trying to figure out the connection between ceiling fans and 7.  The only thing I can think of is at some point you must've asked to touch the ceiling fan and I said "oh, you have to wait until you're 7."  Who knows what I've assigned to 8, 9, 10, etc. I guess we'll find out together!

So back to your birthday.  You woke me up at 6:05 - Daddy was on a work trip.  We usually can't drag  you out of bed before 7:00 a.m. so it was obviously a special occasion.  We trooped downstairs with your brother and you opened up your presents.  You got the Shopkins that you wanted, a purple/pink Nerf gun so that you can battle Will and your dad, some clothes, your very own cookbook and cooking tools and roller blades.  Your grandparents gave you a penguin shirt and slippers and art supplies and jewelry and Aunt Vicky is taking you on a spa date.  I think 7 is starting off pretty well.

Reina, you are a delight.  I can't think of any other word that describes you better.  You are smart and interested in a wide range of topics from cats (naturally) to Egypt to old houses and olden times and weird tv shows featuring characters that are like the second generation of all of the Disney movies or something along those lines.  You are reading like crazy and recite signs and billboards to me as we drive down the road.  You'll watch Broncos and Cowboys games with all of us and you get upset when you hear people talk about Peyton Manning retiring.  You like to go hunting with your dad and Bobo but you also like to snatch a few hours of a "girls' day" with me and we go to Target and watch Frozen for the 9000th time and sometimes we paint nails.

You love your cousins and all of your family members and you draw pictures of all of us on adventures. I think you are a wonderful artist and the table is covered with your masterpieces as I type this letter. There's a lot going on in that brain of yours and I can't wait to see what comes next.  Happy birthday sweet girl, we love you!

Super Bowl Champs

Shortest blog post in history but it wouldn't be the Broncos Baby Blog without this announcement.  The Broncos won Super Bowl 50 tonight!!!  We are all pretty excited. I was too excited to take any pictures besides the poorly framed, odd, awkward shot of Will dancing after a Broncos touchdown and Glenn doing um something. The game was exciting, nerve-wracking at times but with a perfect ending.  I had to wait until I was 25 to see my first Broncos Super Bowl win.  I'm so delighted that my kiddos didn't have to wait that long.  Go Broncos!

Snow Day!

Tuesday morning we woke up to the phone ringing at 5:30 a.m. to announce that due to adverse weather conditions, schools were closed for the day.  Certain members of the household rejoiced, when the woke up later.  The older residents had to wait a little longer to find out that we had a two-hour delayed start so that was a pleasant surprise.  It takes a major storm to shut down our jobs and 10 or 11 inches of snow isn't going to do it.  But we worked out a plan to switch off kid duty and enjoyed our snow day.  

Reina didn't let the frigid temperatures deter her from getting outside.  Will was busy watching the NFL network.  

Our neighbor and his snowblower made quick work of our front sidewalk.  We need to make him cookies!  

All bundled up and starting to lose interest in being outside .... after about 7 minutes.  

Let's get Tootsie out there and buy a few more minutes.  Tootsie says "ummmm ok." 

Wait a minute?!  

If a dog can say "neener neener neener, I'm outside off-lease and you aren't" Tootsie is saying it right now.  

 So Snow Day 2016 is in the books.  With the way this winter is going, it might not be our last.  Coco, Tootsie, Trigger, Will and Reina are super excited about that.