Lunar New Year!

The kids had so much fun helping me decorate my work's office for Christmas, that we decided to do it again. This time the theme was for the Lunar New Year and this year is the year of the pig. The kids helped decorate the walls, hung red lanterns, laminated and stuck Lunar New Year Facts around the office and managed to eat all of the snacks they could find! It was super fun and the kids were truly a huge help. I love how excited they get about doing this and now every day when I see the decorations I'm reminded of them.

What's Old Is New Again

We are about to start a new project of redoing Adelyn's closet. While discussing our options we were going through some things on her shelves, one of which was an old clock radio that Brian had when he was a kid. Cameron was instantly attached to it and started turning the dials (yes, dials!). He found an AM sports radio station and was in love.
The clock radio now lives in his room, which is really a win-win. Not only does he know what time it is when he wakes up (and hopefully won't get out of bed before 6 am) but we have one less thing to store in Addy's soon-to-be-new-closet. Best of all he treats the radio like it's the best present he's ever gotten. Brian thinks he got this radio when he was 10 or 11 years old, so even though the clock is very old, Cameron is actually relatively young to have such a nice clock radio.

"I hated it, but we did it"

On Saturday we decided to get another ski day in so we got up early and drove to the mountains. It was hard not to compare it to our perfect Christmas day trip, so this one came up a bit short. The traffic was much worse so it took us longer to get there, the lines at the chair lifts were much longer and the snow was more icy, but we made the most of it. By far, the most challenging part was when we convinced Cameron to try a new chair lift. It was a 4 seater so we could all go together, but we didn't get off to a good start. I've never seen a lift like this, but you basically slide out onto a magic carpet that pushes you out until the chair comes around to pick you up. Well Cameron dropped a pole, he fell and then the chair bumped him in the head. He was a real trooper and got himself together on the chair ride up despite a lot of tears. There were no tears when we got off the chair lift and then when he saw the hill the real crying started. 

Brian and Addy took off together down the hill while I tried to convince Cameron there was nothing to be scared of. The top was a lot steeper than he was used to and for at least 3 straight minutes he just screamed saying, "I am NOT doing this, I am NOT going down this hill." I finally convinced him to try and slowly, turn by turn, we went down together as I held onto his pole and guided him side to side. It was the longest most exhuasting hill of my life. About halfway down we both fell and Cameron said "That's IT. I'm calling it, I'm walking the rest of the way down." He proceeded to take off his skis and walk down the hill. I was so tired I didn't even try to stop him. But he did realize toward the bottom third that it was no longer steep and he skied the rest of it and looked awesome. When we met at the bottom after declaring that he would NEVER do that hill again he said, "I hated it, but we did it." It summed it up perfectly. 

Gymnastics

Last month Addy finished another season of gymnastics. She continues to make a ton of improvement and we are so impressed by her strength, balance and flexibility. Every spare minute she has she is doing cartwheels or backbends or asking if I can do some flexibility move as well as she can (spoiler alert, I can't). We are so proud of her and the hard work she has put into her gynmastics efforts. 

Hakuna Matata

Another special thing that we did over the break was go see the broadway show of The Lion King. We went with another family and the kids (and I) just loved it. It was an amazing show and of course the music was incredible.  I'd love for us to make going to a show an annual tradition (yes, you can stay home Brian!)

Winthrop

We were excited to continue our annual tradition of heading to Winthrop to see Chuck and Robin. We always look forward to our winter fun in the snow. There wasn't as much snow as usual, but we also didn't see as many deer so I'm ok with that. Cameron won the guess of how many deer we'd see on the drive and it was three. We also saw the regular deer out Chuck & Robin's window, but didn't make them a snowman this year.
In addition to relaxing with Chuck and Robin and the skiing, we also spent some time sledding and at the outdoor rink and this year Brian and I snuck out for a night out. The kids built everything possible from the legos and read almost all of the books Robin got for them. We all watched "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" a movie Addy got from Grandma Wendy for Christmas. The kids have been singing the song nonstop ever since. I can't seem to get "our fine four fender friend" out of my head.

Go Tell It On The Mountain

We choose to mix it up this year and we celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve (minus the visit from Santa of course) and headed to the mountains on Christmas Day to get in our first skiing of the season. I should mention that it was not only the first skiing of the season, but it was my first time back on skis in over 10 years! I have come out of retirement from skiing now that Brian has done all of the hard work of teaching the kids how to ski (thank you Brian!) My timing was perfect because I am completely content to stay on the green runs all day, which is exactly what we did.
The conditions were perfect, it wasn't busy and it was a beautiful day. The kids were awesome and since we headed out early there was hardly any traffic. I think this might be a new tradition in the making.
We enjoyed it so much, that we made sure to get in another day of skiing on our annual trip to Winthrop, even if the entire ski hill wasn't yet open. Addy mastered the poma lift, and Cameron crushed the tow-rope. It was another great day of skiing.
Brian was on a roll so he took the kids one more day during break when I was back at work. They drove through the rain, but it cleared up and they had a great day. His luck ended when Cameron threw up on the drive home. I think this is the 5th time that Cameron has thrown up in the car and Brian is the one who has to deal with it. I feel terrible for both of them, but as usual, they are both troopers and they made it home and I'm sure will brave the mountain again soon.
Pictures from all of our skiing adventures.