Easter 2013

Easter started off with an egg hunt on Saturday at a church near our house.

 Counting each others eggs to see that they had 12!

Then home to decorate the real eggs!

 

 Ta da! Both their hands were dyed various colors for a few days.

 Easter Morning! Running full speed to see what the Easter Bunny brought....

After a big breakfast we took a family walk around the lake and stopped at the playground to play for awhile.

 

Sister-brother love. We love to see these moments and rarely do we catch them on camera.

Easter egg hunt in our backyard with the grandparents after a yummy early dinner. We hid and they gathered at least 8 times and the excitement never disappeared.

Such a wonderful Easter full of fun and laughter! Nothing beats watching these two smile and grow together. Holidays make you really see how much they enjoy all that life has to offer.

Spring Break 2013

Spring Break started out with a big snowstorm where we did lots of shoveling and playing in the backyard. We discovered how not fun our long driveway is in the winter when it snows. We spend an hour + shoveling while we watch our entire neighborhood snow blow their driveways in about 10 minutes. Let's just say we will be looking into a snow blower in the near future.

Aside from that, we have the best yard for making snowmen, snow angels, and running wild. Here is the snowman Belle built.

Sierra LOVED the weather and got a lot playtime before taking an extra long nap.

 Isabelle then went to an art class and mid week we headed up to Steamboat for a little family vacation. We stayed right at the base of the mountain which was ideal with the kids. Belle did some skiing with dad. It was her first time riding the lift. It was so sweet to watch them together. She did a great job with Dad and I never once saw her without a smile on her face. We know she's going to be quite the skier!

Start of the day.... 

End of the day...

This picture was actually taken on another ski trip we did, but I love the smile on her face. She is always so happy and this is exactly how she looked in Steamboat every time she came down the mountain!

 Mark and I played in the square while they were skiing. Climbing is one of Mark's favorite activities, so these rocks proved to be ideal for about an hour straight.

 

It got really warm up there, so we cooled off with a snowball fight....

And here is how our days ended. Kids 100% wiped out!

Trips (from the past)

I am so backlogged with things to post, I don't even know where to begin. So, here I go trying to do some catch up (again).

 #1:
Our trip to Telluride (months ago). An amazing, beautiful, and fun time!

Spectacular view from our condo.

 The many trips up and down the gondola. Mark and Belle loved this! I think this is such a sweet picture of Mark and "Nanni" (Mark's new name for Nana). He is such a love bug!

Being outside, hiking, and exploring is quite possibly the best thing on earth for Mark and Belle. We spend most our days outside, whether it is hot or cold, and I love that there is no need for toys with these two. They just need to be outdoors.

 

#2:

Romp to Stomp Breast Cancer Snowshoe Race:

Last month we went up to Frisco to visit with my sister who helps organize the Romp to Stomp Snowshoe race which was an amazing race to see. It's unbelievable how many people participate. There is so much energy, positive attitudes, and great pink costumes to support breast cancer. I found it very empowering. The cousins had a blast playing together all weekend long while Aunt Nellie worked! Here they are at Copper Mountain Critter Land where they spent nearly all day sledding and playing in the snow.

Back at the hotel getting ready to leave for dinner. These two crack me up. They are best friends and get along so amazingly well it shocks me. My sister and I are so lucky to have kids that love each other so much. I wish they could be together more often.

The best part of the trip was watching them run the kids snowshoe race. It was so stinkin' cute to see all these kids in snowshoes take off with giant smiles on their face! Here Danelle is getting them all started.

And they're off!!

Mark, the youngest participant, tried to do the race, but it resulted in no snowshoes because he refused to put them on and the binky permanently stuck in his mouth. Once the horn went off and every kid raced off laughing, screaming, and smiling (as in the above), Mark stood there for about 5 seconds before his lip quivered and he bust out screaming and crying for mom with the biggest crocodile tears ever.  So, the above picture is really the only decent picture I got of Noah and Belle racing since I had to go rescue Mark. The crowd sure got a good laugh seeing sweet little Mark all freaked out by the action. This is the only picture I got of him since he was attached to my hip for the rest of the 2 hours...

 Noah got 3rd place for the boys in his age category!!

Belle got 1st place for the girls in her age category!! (She was the only one in her age group :-) )

 Way to go sweet girl!!

Next up (no promises on when) will be Spring Break, Belle skiing, and Easter.