Signs of the Season

Saturday evening it started to snow and when we woke up in the morning on Sunday, we had about 6 inches on the ground. It was the first official Shoveling Snow! Darren and the kids played in it while I took pictures. Tevin enjoyed hauling loads of the white stuff up and down the sidewalk in his yellow dump truck. Brynlee enjoyed crawling in it but quickly realized she'd rather walk (holding my hands, of course, so I couldn't get pictures of that). Tevin made a snow angel without my prompting which is something he had seen on Elmo's World in recent weeks. We had a fun few minutes in the snow before the gloves fell off and fingers started to freeze. I'm sure we're in for a lot more snow before this winter is over. We do hope it doesn't snow quite as much as it did last year but we do love the seasons here in Colorado.

Here is our tree! We put it up the first weekend in December. The tree is situated in the front room because we figured it would be the best place for the kids to ignore it. That theory works most of the time although we always know when Brynlee has wandered into the tree room because it gets very quiet and we soon find her pulling on the ornaments!

Most Determined Award

We knew going to bed that snow was going to fall all night and the roads would be icy. We heard on the news last night that this morning's rush hour was going to be bad. Little did we know the rails would be bad too! Around 6 a.m. a coal train derailed, and shortly thereafter, a light rail train hit that coal train, shutting down the line Darren normally rides to work. Around 6:30 a.m., Darren called me to find out whether or not the train was even running. At that time, the news had said NO. The road he was on was shut down due to the train crash investigation. So he started driving toward the East Lines, which would mean at least an hour on one of the highways just to get over to the crowded train station on the other side of town. After spending a considerable amount of time in stand-still traffic, he was about to run out of gas and slowly made his way to a station (they are few and far between in this particular part of town) only to find the pumps were not working. I kept telling him he should come home until we figured out this mess, and the worst-case scenario would be that he'd get there by lunch. Darren was just so determined to get to work, so he back tracked and ended up getting on the road he was originally on (which had reopened) and getting on the train north of where the crash was. He had so many things go wrong this morning but he made it to work about 2 1/2 hours after he left the house. I hereby give Darren the Most Determined Award for the season!

Crazy Hair

Ok this post is kind of silly but I wanted to put SOMETHING on the site because I haven't done much lately. Here it is, December 5th, and my latest post is from November! How lazy of me! ;) Seriously though, we are staying very busy. This past Sunday, we put up our tree. I started working on lights for the outside of the house yesterday but the wind halted my progress about halfway through. If I don't get another nice day before too long, we're going to have just one sad string of lights along the gutter above the garage! I guess I shouldn't complain; this is the first year we have put lights on the house since, well, WAY before we had two small kiddos running around.

We're excited for the coming events of the season! Check back often for updated posts of all our holiday shenanigans!

SNOW!

We woke up on Wednesday morning to find snow in our backyard. I had told Tevin the night before that he could put on his boots in the morning and go out in the snow. So of course, he woke up and said "Wanna go outside!" He was very excited to see the white stuff all over the patio and lawn; he almost skipped breakfast (his favorite and sometimes ONLY meal of the day) just to get out there. But we quickly ate our whole-wheat waffles and bundled up to play. Brynlee was content to be in my arms for a few minutes while we were out watching Tevin but quickly realized she would rather be down on the ground. Of course, I had not prepared for this... she had no snowsuit, boots, or waterproof gloves and so putting her down in it was out of the question. It would have meant a sure trip to the doctor for pneumonia or something... I had to bring her back inside to watch from the warmth of the dining room but as you can see, she was not happy about that at all. Needless to say, I went out on Saturday and bought her an outfit for the next time it snows. :)

Memorial to Michael

Mike Janelle died in Avon, Colorado last night. He was 40 years old. Michael was a wonderful son, brother, husband, and soon-to-be father. He was my cousin: my mom's brother's eldest son. Mike was an avid bicyclist in the warm months and ski instructor in the cold months. He will be missed by so many. He journaled his cycling at http://www.michaeljanelle.com/. He's got some great racing photos.

Here is Mike with his parents after racing up Mt. Evans (Colorado) in July of 2005.

Mike with his new wife Maribel in October 2006. Maribel is due in March 2008 with the couple's first child.

Please pray for the family as they mourn the loss of such a wonderful man.

Mommy's 30th Birthday at CB

We decided no birthday is complete without a trip to Casa Bonita! For those of you who are not from here, I will give a brief history. Nestled between a magic shop and a dollar store in a pretty run-down neighborhood strip-mall, I will swear that Casa Bonita has not changed since it opened in 1974. It's a Mexican restaurant with flair. Looking at the place from the outside, you would be amazed that so much entertainment awaits you: cliff divers, arcade, Black Bart's Cave, full-stage magic show, puppet show, and the Mariachis. Having grown up in the Denver area, I've been there probably a dozen or more times since I was a small child, but even Darren (who grew up 6 hours away in Dodge City) remembers going there when he was a wee lad. This is the place you take your friends when they come in from out of town. The food is sub-par but the entertainment is something you have to experience just once in your lifetime. My adventurous cousin Patrick had his last experience a couple of years ago when he was banished for life after jumping into the pool. Read his recounting of the events here: http://i-heart.blogspot.com/2006/02/being-in-colorado-reminds-me.html ;)

The kids are ready to enjoy the entertainment!

Brynlee can't get enough of the lights. This place looks like Christmas all year-round!

After Mom and Dad win about 45 game tickets, Tevin gets his pick of the 5-ticket prizes from the arcade prize counter. He picked 4 different colored smiley face erasers. Woo Hoo!

The Denver Zoo

A few weeks ago we went to the zoo on a nice October afternoon. It looks cold, but the wind was mostly the reason for the coats. We saw all kinds of great animals, including hippos, which Tevin is in love with! We didn't get any pictures of the live creatures because they were submerged underwater. We think Tevin was a little disappointed that the real hippos don't look anything like his pink Hippo Girl.. at least he liked posing with the bronze statues!

Here, Tev and Bryn are watching in awe as the huge bengal tiger jaunted back and forth in front of them. We explained that they were like big kitties, to which Tevin replied, "Meow, like Toby!". Of course, Toby is our 10-lb. domestic short hair house cat and couldn't hurt a fly even if he wanted to. We had a great day at the zoo with Grandpa, Uncle Logan, and Gammy K!