Staycation with Uncle Mark

John and I took a short vacation last week and went skiing in Colorado.  This was the first vacation we have taken just the two of us in 10 years.  The last one we took was in Belize where Hunter was conceived.  Let's hope that no babies are on the way.  HA HA!  That would be next to impossible.  Anyway, we had a fabulous time talking for days and days without interruption.  A little odd but something I got used to pretty quickly.  We went to Crested Butte, CO. 

A friend of ours owns a condo there and it was awesome!  We skied only two days but that's all our tired muscles would allow anyway (in a row).  It snowed three inches right before we arrived so we had fresh powder to ski on.  We also had fun shopping and eating out at some of the many hipster joints Crested Butte has to offer.  Our favorite was Ginger, a pseudo Thai place with The Secret Stash (pizza joint)

a close second.  They are famous for their "Notorious F.I.G." pizza which won the World Champion Pizza Challenge and of which I thoroughly enjoyed.  It was amazeballs!

Uncle Mark answered the call to our desperate plea to watch our small army while we were away.  He held it together GREAT and all of our kids LOVE Unc Unc!  I threw him for a loop when I planned chicken nuggets for one of their meals and we were out of ranch dressing but he managed to take Greyson to the store to get some.  It was particularly good for Greyson and my brother to bond a little bit because we moved away right before he was born.  Mark used to babysit for Hunter, Tyler and Brody very regularly so they all know him well but little Greyson never had that experience with us being a bit farther away now.  And during the day the other three boys were in school so Greyson got Uncle Mark all to himself.  I heard that they played Monopoly but Mark was hiding pieces so that the game would go more quickly.  Ha ha!  He mentioned on a few occasions when I called from CO that he was tired but all went better than I could have hoped for.  The boys all got to school on time each day, homework was done and the boys were well fed.  Speaking of which Mark couldn't believe how much they all ate.  But when I asked the boys how the week went with Uncle Mark in charge Hunter said he was "starving" and that Uncle Mark didn't give them enough food.  HA HA HA!!!  I don't buy it.  When we got home on Sunday night the boys had all been tucked in for the night but they heard us come in and raced downstairs to greet us with big smiles and lots of hugs.  Brody asked us, "Did you have a nice field trip?"  He makes my heart so happy.  All in all it was a great success and we can't wait to plan our next getaway.  Hopefully Uncle Mark will agree to do this

again!

4th grade float parade

Hunter is already in 4th grade.  I cannot believe he will be moving on to middle school in just a few short months.  A 4th grade tradition at his school is the float parade.  The students choose Wisconsin-themed topics to make a float displaying the topic in whichever manner they choose using a wagon from home.  Hunter chose EAA (the fly-in in Oshkosh).  He went to this event several years ago with his aunt and uncle (my sister and brother-in-law) when they were visiting and it really must have put the hook in him.  It doesn't hurt that John (his dad) is a HUGE aviation fanatic.  So we spent a good amount of time building his float to resemble the Eagle Hangar at EAA.  Making it was a family affair.  He worked hard cutting out the airplanes and coloring them, also helping paint the outside and stenciling.  Mom constructed the hangar.  Dad did the research on which planes to display and printed them out.  He also came up with the idea of making a hangar.  Hunter was super proud of it.  Friday was the day of the parade.  The local high school band came to play "On Wisconsin" marching in the halls of the school as the students pulled their wagons behind.  It was AWESOME!  Hunter told me afterward that he overheard some of the teachers discussing the floats and one of them said, "I've never seen a hangar built for EAA before!"  Hunter was beaming throughout the parade.  Afterward though he was a bit miffed because he wasn't immediately behind the band for the parade.  All in all it was a great time!

Pathetic blogger

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  I'm the worst blogger ever.  I haven't typed a single word in this blog in almost a year.  I went away on a scrapbooking getaway this past weekend and have realized something very important.  I forget stories.  I have forgotten so many stories and I'm sad that I did not blog last year hardly at all.  I spent the weekend making beautiful scrapbook pages for our family using images from almost 5 years ago and I am so thankful for this blog.  Why?  Because I could not journal the wonderful stories without this blog.  I'm so happy I had this resource to come to and read all the wonderful and funny happenings of our family at that time.  I vow to at least write the story from here on out.  A few a month at minimum.  Even if I have to add the photos later (usually my hold up because I don't have the time to edit personal images and load them).  I will at bare minimum write the stories.

Babies

I was just looking over my client spreadsheet wondering when the next due date is for mom's who have booked a photo session with me.
Me talking out loud just now, "When do I have more babies?"
Hunter:  "Wait, what?"
Me:  "I'm wondering when I have another newborn session to photograph."
Hunter:  "Oh, I thought you were having another baby."
Me:  "NOOOOOOO!!!!!"
Hunter:  "I know.  That would be horrifying!"
Me:  "Yes, yes it would."
Hunter:  "Yeah, I have enough brothers."

Soccer

Tyler, Brody & Greyson started playing soccer for the first time this Spring.  To be honest I've tried to steer them away from this sport due to memories of playing in rainy cold weather as a kid.  We have lucked out with sunny and fair weather so far, although today was mighty windy.  The season started a couple of weeks ago.

They all got brand new soccer gear from Nona including shin guards, soccer socks, balls and cleats.  They all coordinate so it's easy to tell whose is whose.  Even the balls match the shin guards!  I'm obviously easily impressed because I think that's pretty cool.  The boys love it so far.  They've each had two games each in addition to some practices.

Hunter's team is called "New York City."  He has decided he likes playing goalie so he has been taking turns with another boy named Rod, who has been on Hunter's basketball team as well as in religious ed with him in the past.  He also takes turns on the field and is keeping up with the other boys surprisingly well.  I say that only because he has never played soccer before but you wouldn't know it by watching him.

Tyler and Brody are on the same team and are called "The Sea Lions."  They are keeping track of which goal to try to score in and that's all you can hope for at their age (in my opinion).  It's so cute to watch them out there.  They were thrilled to get their first jersey.  Tyler came home today from his game telling me, "This time they (the opposing team) wore orange.  Last time they wore green.  They keep changing!"  I'm guessing that he thinks they were the same team but just changed colors.

Lunar eclipse

Last night there was a lunar eclipse and we promised Hunter that we'd wake him at 1 a.m. so he could see it.  I was in bed and woke up to him right next to my face saying, "Mom!  Wake up!  You're going to miss the lunar eclipse!"  John was up and woke him.  He was so excited....talking and talking in the middle of the night, running around trying to find a camera to take some pictures, etc.  Then he said, "I have GOT to share this tomorrow at school.  Emergency share!  Mrs. Lo Duca sometimes allows that if it's an emergency."

Dinosaur Problem

So it's always inevitable that when I am deep in thought at the computer researching something important that my boys are interrupting me every 30 seconds informing me such things as, "Mom!  Brody won't let me have a turn with that dinosaur!"  or "Mom!  Brody STILL won't let me have a turn with that dinosaur!"  You get the idea.  So today it happened again and I told them (as I often do), "Tyler, you are a big boy.  I know you can handle that problem on your own.  You don't need me for that."  About 15 minutes later they both came over by me and when I looked at them and saw their sweet, innocent, soft-skinned little faces I told them, "I love you boys so, so much!"  They both smiled very big and Tyler replied, "Even though we talk to you too much?"  I had to burst out laughing at that one.