New Addition

It is amazing the things we want and get excited about as adults. This was a birthday gift from Chris and my in-laws, and Chris was kind enough to hang it for me on Saturday.





That and this handy shelf to add more storage to my closet.

Amazing Accomplishment

If you remember, I started teaching Kristen how to ride a bike last summer. As a barely-turned five-year old, she had a bit of a struggle. This year, as the weather has turned nice quite early, I told her that she needed to start praying for courage to learn to ride a bike because we wanted to go for bike rides as a family. She balked and was determined not to learn.

Ice cream.

I bribed her with ice cream. Savvy little thing, she said, "I don't want ice cream, I want $10 bucks." I told her no, she could have ice cream. She negotiated me up to two scoops. I figured it was a success that she was even willing to try. I was willing to buy a little ice cream.

So on Thursday when we were close to 70*, she and I headed outside to the cul-de-sac to practice. We started off in much the same fashion as last summer--we practiced starting and stopping, looking forward, more stopping. I think she was on the verge of quitting altogether. And then...[insert Hallelujah chorus] she got it. I ran beside her lightly holding my hand against her back. She did fine thinking that I was hanging on to her. When she finally stopped I did my own little wahoo, happy dance and shouted, "You did it!" She looked at me like I was crazy. I told her I wasn't really hanging on, and suddenly you could tell by the look on her face that she KNEW that she could do it.

I took her to Wal-mart for ice cream at McDonalds. She chose a smoothie.

I admit, she has been my most challenging child to teach, but I am so thrilled that she finally got it. On Friday afternoon, we were out practicing again. Amy arrived home from school and Kristen was anxious to show off her new skills. I ran home to get the camera while Amy stayed with her and yelled downstairs to Chris, who happened to be home, that Kristen was riding a bike. I grabbed the camera and a water bottle, and we headed back to the cul-de-sac. SHE WAS RIDING!!!!!

Chris needed to take the van in to get the tires rotated Friday afternoon, and us girls tagged along--Kristen was getting more ice cream. We had Chris drop us off at Carl's Jr, but they don't have ice cream cones and Kristen was quite adamant that today she wanted a cone. We ran like crazy girls to cross the street on the light to get to Chick-fil-A. Kristen got her celebratory ice cream cone. Her learning to ride a bike was well worth the investment.



As with all of my girls, I taught them on a smaller bike where they could easily put their feet down to stop if they had to. It was their security blanket, if you will, but the bike was obviously too small. Chris bought new tires for our next bigger bike (he's secretly glad that his garage is going to be minus two bikes soon), and Kristen was off.

Swimming Lessons

Kristen's swimming lessons this week were not quite as much fun as previous weeks. The "kiddy" pool was being fixed and was closed off for lessons. All of the kids had to endure the big pool. I say endure because it was obviously a lot colder water as you saw a row of six little kids shivering on the steps. Another drawback was in having much deeper water. The kids had to swim one by one. Not so much fun, especially when you were freezing. Hopefully next week the problem will be fixed.

Amy's Toe

Last Saturday, all of the girls were outside playing with the neighbors enjoying a wonderful day of sunshine and Spring. They flew kits, jumped on the trampoline, ran around, played soccer--fun. Amy didn't complain too much about her injury until Sunday afternoon when she took off her church shoes and could hardly walk on her toe. I took a peek at her toe and noticed it was red and bruised on the end. I made sure it wasn't an infection that was causing her the pain and asked if she had done something to injure it.

She thought back to the day before when they were playing soccer and she had kicked the soccer ball smack dab straight on with her big toe. I told her that there wasn't a whole lot I could do, or even a doctor for that matter, for a sore, sprained or broken toe except to tape it to the toe next to it. We tried that, but as you can imagine, that didn't really take away a lot of the pain.

Monday she was up early getting ready for school and still complaining about her toe. I suggested that once she had her tennis shoes on with support, it should help. It must have been a pretty good kick because she came home Monday night and spent much of the evening languishing on the couch. She kept telling me that I could get crutches for her from King Soopers. I finally relented around 8 pm as the girls were going to bed and went to King Soopers to pick up some crutches. Learned something new: give them a $30 refundable deposit and they WILL lend you a pair of crutches.

Tuesday morning she was again getting ready for school but feeling a little more chipper about having crutches. As her time to catch the bus grew near, she wasn't moving quite fast enough. I saw one bus drive by and thought it was hers and that she had missed the bus. I agreed to drive her. As we got to the corner of our neighborhood, her bus pulled up. She still wanted me to drive her to school. I, unfeeling as I am, told her no that the driver would wait for her.

Fast forward to the end of the day. Amy's foot was markedly improved. I've had broken toes before, I know how much they can hurt. I think what helped was that she had a day off the toe to allow it to recover. New pain--armpits.

I returned the crutches Wednesday morning, but not before her sisters found a lot of reasons to use the crutches too.



A close up of a cute face!

Amy's Band Concert

Amy had her second band concert of the year. She has improved immensely in her flute skills. Taking piano lessons and flute lessons at the same time has a positive impact on her abilities with each instrument--specifically, her ability to sight read has seen marked improvement. We are proud of her for working so hard.

Chuck E Cheese

Kristen is lamenting the fact that we have never taken her to Chuck E Cheese. That's because we took her older sisters a couple of times and quickly learned that it is not so much fun for parents to hang out there. While Kristen was engrossed in a commercial during lunch she asked, "Mom, why can't we go to Chuck E. Cheese?" My response: "Because it is an annoying place for parents." Referencing the parents in the commercial, "But they're having fun." I replied, "They're actors."

Camera Fun

I am having fun learning to take better pictures. It is not instinctive for me to know what setting to put the shutter speed or the ISO to, but the fact that I know they need to change for different lighting and activities is a big jump from my "Auto" days. My girls are not always appreciative of my request for them to pose so I can practice.



I like the foliage and trees around my house because they don't complain; however, they aren't all that exciting this time of year either.





When I got on the trampoline with them, Misha and Kristen were quite happy to pose for me.

Heart Moments

We try to follow a schedule in the morning before Amy leaves for school in order to have family scripture time and prayer. Sometimes she is hungry and likes to sneak in a few bites of cereal before we all gather together, and then she is finished eating early and begins to interrupt our time together with getting ready to get out the door.

So the other morning I could hear her spoon clinking in her cereal bowl, while her dad and I were still upstairs. "Are you eating already?" I yelled down to her. Her response, "Don't worry, Mom, we're reading scriptures."

See, it was one of those moments when my heart took a picture.

Swimming Lessons

Kristen is taking swimming lessons, and she is doing fabulously. I signed her up for classes at the Longmont Recreation Center as opposed to the Rec Center in Frederick because I like Longmont's style of teaching and the set up of the pool. The difference is letting all of the kids swim at the same time instead of holding on to one child at a time while they swim.

Spring Cleaning

Last week when the girls had the day off, Amy and I did a little spring cleaning in her room. Due to some unforeseen incidents with paint and fingernail polish and various other "potion" making ingredients, the desk in Amy's room was moved to Kristen's room. She threw out A LOT of stuff--and this was the second time in six months that we attempted a deep clean on her room. We threw out a lot of stuff the first time--a lot of it that quickly made its way in to the garbage bag when Amy wasn't looking--we just didn't throw out enough stuff. It was getting to the point in her room, where I didn't even want to go in there. Now, I like it so much better that I can post a picture!

Cinebarre Theater

The girls had the day off from school on Friday. After visiting a couple of stores, we settled in to our seats at the Cinebarre movie theater to watch Gnomeo and Juliet. I must admit, I wasn't too thrilled about seeing the movie, but it was our only kid-friendly choice. Chris was flying home from a week in Las Vegas and we planned to meet him at Olive Garden on 120th. Cinebarre was the only theater in the direction that I needed to go that was showing Gnomeo and Juliet in regular format and not 3-D. I can't stand watching a movie in 3-D--gives me a headache. I wasn't too keen on Cinebarre as a theater, either, because it seemed to be in a less-popular part of town. However, it was renovated and not too bad; it is a theater where you can order food while watching and the servers bring it to you. There are tables in front of the seats to make the process pretty slick. I'd go back again, but not having been before, I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

The girls and I were the only ones in the entire theater, so they felt free to dance around during the final credits.

Orthodontist

Misha had a visit to the orthodontist last week for a check up. She was thrilled to have her 'turbos' removed. "Turbos?" you ask.



Look at her molars that look as though she has a hunk of marshmallow stuck on her teeth. Those 'turbos' were applied to her teeth last September to keep her from closing her jaw together. Annoying! But now her jaw seems to have straightened up and she no longer has a cross bite.



Kristen quickly assumed her "waiting at the dentist position" and selected her favorite coloring book and crayons to use while waiting for Misha to be done.

Charming Charlie

Have you been there? Holy cow. It's as though you walk in the door and have to have a moment of silence. Chunky rings, necklaces, bracelets, bangles, earrings, purses, bags, scarves, bling...it is delightful. My girls and I went for the first time on Friday when they had a day off from school. Kristen fairly danced through the store. There was a lot of trying on, and oohing and ahhing, and "Mom, come look!"

When She's a Mom

Kristen just told me that when she is a mom, she is going to have pink stripes in her hair with glitter. She'll be stylin'. She wonders why I don't have any pink stripes.

Cool scenery

I have miles to go to improve my photography skills, but I thought this was a pretty cool picture of the wind blowing snow in the mountains.

If you have advice on what I could have changed to make the picture better. I would love to know.

Hot Dogs

Making hot dogs for Kristen for lunch. "Don't make them so hot this time." She requested. "But I have to make them hot to cook them." As though a light bulb went off, "Ohh, that's why they are called 'hot' dogs." So I wanted to see what her reasoning was on why the "dog" part. "What about the dog?" I asked, "Is it a chihuahua?" She thought for a second and then I realized I shouldn't have gone there, "They make them out of chihuahuas?"

Glasses

I remember when I was about Amy's age, I used to wear a pair of glasses around that I had popped the lenses out of. Something about looking cool wearing glasses. I also remember that my older brother thought I was ridiculous and hid those glasses more than once.

Impressions

My five-year old, bless her little heart, wanted to get the impressions of the carpet in her play doh.

Please note that no child was harmed after the documenting of this artistic endeavor, but it was really tempting.

Since We've Been Home

So nice to be home and have some 60* plus weather instead of the minus something that inundated the state while we were gone. So crazy how my world continued to rock with those imaginary swells for which the Colorado plains are so well known. Seriously, I thought about applying a dramamine patch for the first half of the week. The vertigo has mostly stopped, the laundry is caught up, and my house is relatively tidy. It's Friday though, so in about three hours my girls will descend and the tidiness factor will quickly spiral downward. It is good to be home.

While We Were Gone

My girls were so excited to have their grandparents come and stay with them while Chris and I sailed off in to the sunset. I didn't get a lot of time to spend with my parents, but my girls did. At the beginning of the week, we'd call and receive glowing reports as to how wonderful my children were. By the end of the week, there was some hesitation in my mom's voice and she readily owned up to being tired. I understand. I'm with them all the time. I'm always happy for bedtime because kids tend to wear you out.

Knowing my penchant for keeping track of life, my mom left a list of their activities while we were gone. It is just a list, mind you, so I'll have to improv a bit from the conversations we had over the phone.

Just because we were gone, it didn't mean my girls were off the hook from doing their chores. If anything, Grandma was going to be a lot more vigilant in making sure they got done. After all, they were on "the list." I then suggested that going to the library would be an activity everyone would enjoy. You know they took that suggestion to heart when we returned 69 books on Monday after we got home.

There was a neat meeting on Saturday night that I made arrangements for my parents to attend. Sheri Dew was speaking at a church building in Northglenn. Friends from church agreed to pick up my parents and take them with them. Both my parents LOVED, loved, loved listening to Sheri. Amy babysat for the evening, and though the road conditions weren't the greatest, my parents had a fabulous time.

We talked to our girls Sunday (February 6th) after they arrived home from church. Their friends, Audrey, Jonah and Sophie Wasden, had invited them over for a Super Bowl party and there was excitement abounding. Wasden's parents were also on their way to a cruise of the West Caribbean, so their Grandma Jo had the joy of hosting all of our kids.

I had hoped that the weather would cooperate and give my parents a little break from their chilly Canadian winter, but I guess it was something like -20 one morning while we were gone. My dad still had to shovel snow. Boo. We were up to almost 70 degrees two days after they left.

The girls had their normally scheduled piano lessons on Tuesday afternoon. I love that their teacher comes to our house. Such a nice treat for me and one less outing for my parents to worry about. In fact, I had made arrangements for Kristen to be picked up from kindergarten all week long, to make life a little easier on them.

My parents attended my institute (religion) class at the church on Wednesday morning. They were as impressed with my teacher as I am. See, coming to visit Colorado even when I am not in the state is still a neat experience! And look at how much I can say about my girls' week when I am not even around. (Course, I am having to clarify a few things with Misha. Such as when I asked her if they had Family Home Evening while we were gone, she began telling me about what Grandpa taught: King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream about a man made of iron, brass, gold and silver and Daniel was able to interpret it. Misha has a great memory for things like that.) There was a little dancing after FHE too.



Wednesday was a busy night for Amy and Misha. They both had Activity Days at the church at 5:30 and then from 6:30 to 8:00 pm, Amy was invited to New Beginnings for Young Women since she will be turning 12 later this year. She came home thrilled because she might get to go to girls' camp this summer. Might.

Misha had a piece of artwork from school entered in an art show. It was on display at Bella Rosa golf course. She was hoping to win an award, but was just as happy to receive a book and coupon to Chic-fil-a. My parents were great about taking her and being supportive. Thanks so much. I know it meant a lot to Misha.





And look who got to have a Kristen makeover? You know you're in the inner circle of trust when... Grandpa was surely a good sport. (I must admit, I laughed out loud when I came across these pictures on Misha's camera.) Those are earrings that my grandmother used to wear. My dad's a trooper, because I've tried those earrings on before and they are not very kind to your earlobes.







A little snuggle-time with Grandma can't be beat.



I guess by Friday it was warm enough to play in all the snow that had been dumped on the state during the week. It started out with Grandpa and Kristen playing in the snow and ended up as a fun snowball fight. Such great memories my girls will have of their grandparents. Swimming was a fun way to round out the evening. Not sure if my girls had planned to meet up with the Wasden kids at the pool, or if it just worked out that their grandma took them at the same time, but they had a lot of fun.

Add in the crafting moments with my mom and my children hardly noticed Chris and I were gone. Okay, so maybe they did notice, but they missed us in a happy way.

Nine-Day Date-Day 1

The nine-day date. That's what Kristen called our most recent get-away. She was excited to spend that same time hanging with my parents. My parents flew in Friday, February 4th. Chris' return business flight home landed about an hour before my parents' flight, so it was an easy pick up from the airport. I was busy pulling all of the last-minute details together for a week away, so Chris also stopped at Dominos for a no-stress dinner. Fortunately, no one was disappointed.

We got my parents situated and oriented to the girls' schedules, gave a quick tutorial on how to work the tv and dvd player, talked about food ideas, and handed them the list of things to know. I'm sure I probably missed something, but I felt confident that my girls would be a big help in figuring things out.

Our flight left at 10:30 am on Saturday morning for Ft. Lauderdale, FL. We left the house around 8:30 and were excited by the prospect of an entire week together. We can't say thank you enough to my parents for being willing to stay with our girls for well over a week. Such a treat for Chris and I. We left the heavy winter jackets behind and hurried to the shuttle stop in the Pikes Peak parking lot. It was fortunate that Christopher remembered that he had left his cell phone in the car before we got too far. He jumped off the shuttle, raced back to the car, and met us again on the other side of the parking lot. Whew. I think that was the first moment where his normal flight "mojo" began to disappoint. I guess you have to have an off flying experience every once in awhile.

We were able to check in without any difficulty and headed to concourse "c". We didn't have too much extra time, in fact, many people were already in line waiting to board when we arrived at our gate. Chris was A16, the first in the business class section. I had B57. Normally, the SWA agent doesn't cause a stink about letting us board together, but not today. Fortunately, Chris was able to get on first and save a seat in an exit row. I boarded quite some time later. We enjoyed a quiet flight while watching a couple of movies.

After deplaning in Florida at the Hollywood International Airport, we walked to the Baggage Claim area to retrieve our luggage. One, two, three....and a fourth that just never showed up. After waiting for some time, hoping to see our final bag, I decided to look behind the plastic curtain flap to determine if any more bags were coming. Nope. Bad mojo.

We headed on over to SWA Claims and determined that a jam at the Denver airport had delayed our final bag--the garment bag with all of our dress clothes. If we had to be without a bag, I suppose that was the best one to have missing, but still... We hoped that our bag would arrive on the next flight from Denver.

Our next step was to locate our shuttle to the airport. Some people said, "It's that way, just keep walking." We walked and walked and then started to get nervous that maybe we had passed the shuttle pick-up location. When we finally stopped to ask for more directions, the individual we asked had no knowledge of the shuttle service we were looking for. Really? Chris had made reservations on-line before we left Colorado earlier in the day, so it was confusing as to why no one had even heard of the company. Bad mojo. So we chose to go with another shuttle service--Go Airport Shuttle. The agent we talked to wrote down a quote of $42 to take us to the Conrad Hilton on Brickell Ave in Miami. Note: Brickell is not downtown Miami. When we got on to the shuttle, the driver charged our credit card but added an additional $10 to our fee. When Chris inquired, our driver said that going to Brickell was the extra fee even though the first guy had quoted us $42. He went to talk to his supervisor who came back to the van and said, "We'll fix that for you. Can we have your quote ticket?" So the guy took our ticket and gave us a new one with a quote of $52. Well, shoot, that made it all better. Bad mojo.

We finally arrived at the hotel after circling the block. We entered the building and were directed to the 25th floor for check-in. Our room was on the 21st floor which required us to use another bank of elevators to go back down. It was even crazier later when we went to the pool. We had to go up to the 25th floor, change elevators and go down to the ground floor, out past the valet parking into a parking garage to a new set of elevators to reach the pool.

We headed out in search of a restaurant and found Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant just a short walk from the hotel. How cool is it that we sat outside on the patio to dine in February? We decided to walk after the meal and find a grocery store where we could pick up an easy breakfast for Sunday morning.



Anyway, upon returning to our hotel, we were greeted with a plate of chocolate-covered strawberries. Chris said, "I may or may not have told them we were on our honeymoon when they asked if we were celebrating a special occasion." We enjoyed those chocolate-covered strawberries regardless, while also enjoying the amazing view from our room and bathroom.



We made our way over to the pool and hot tub after dinner. Our quiet time was interrupted by a couple who thought it would be fun to smoke in the pool! Really? You had to smoke there?



Chris called the airlines to see if our lost bag had arrived. The plane was late, but the SWA employee assured us they would call us as soon as they knew if our bag was on the plane. Otherwise, we would be given a stipend of $600 to purchase clothing on the ship. Not in Miami, mind you, on the ship. Fortunately, we received a call a short time later with the happy news that our garment bag was now in the state and would be delivered to our hotel ASAP. It was late, so we gave instructions for them to leave the bag at the concierge desk on the first floor. At least we saved them from the confusing elevator situation.

Nine-Day Date-Day 2

There was a little miscommunication on when we could actually board the cruise ship. The last item I looked at suggested that check-in time was noon. If we had made our way to the port around 10:30 am, we might have avoided an afternoon of standing in line. When we arrived, we were quickly informed that the computers were down for check-in. Thus began our two-hour wait, and oh, let's see, Chris' most memorable comment to me as we stood in line with the masses, "Well, you're not the whitest chic here." Thanks so much sweetheart.



We did slowly inch our way forward, but that's only because people were pulled out of line if they were old, returning cruisers, or really great complainers. That's the only reason we moved forward, we weren't really getting anywhere. After awhile, people began shouting at the port attendants that they needed help and an ambulance. A man ahead of us in line had "fainted" or was at least feeling woozy. The paramedics arrived and after helping him came to assist a lady with diabetes who needed help. At that time, Chris was talking on his phone to his mom indicating that it wasn't really that hot--about 75*--and it was crazy that people who were complaining about standing in line in the sun would shortly be on the ship laying out in the sun. One of the paramedics heard Chris and said, "Could you say that over a PA?" You might say it was a little bit more bad mojo, but really it wasn't a big deal.



There was a great cheer when word came that the computers were up and running again. From there, the line moved quite quickly and we were on the boat in no time. We dropped a few things off in our room, and headed off in search of lunch. As we were walking down the hallway from our stateroom to the stairs, we passed four older ladies who had a decidedly Boston-type accent. Now, imagine Edith Bunker from "All in the Family" saying, "These halls are sooooo narrow." Chris and I joked about this the whole cruise.

We laughed our way up the stairs to the 12th deck and the Garden Cafe and were introduced to "Washy Washy! Happy Happy!" An employee stood outside the cafe all day long spraying peoples' hands with alcohol and saying those words in a sing song voice. We climbed stairs up and down all day long. We avoided the elevators as much as possible since you could climb faster than it would go with all of its stops.

Chris and I had hamburgers outside on the rear of the ship and enjoyed the beautiful afternoon before leaving port. Because of the computer glitch at check-in we left port a little later than planned. It gave us a chance to talk to our kids after they returned home from church before turning off the phone until Wednesday morning. They were all excited because they had been invited to a Super Bowl party at their friends' house. Hooray for my parents, I say, for a little down time.



Muster was at 5 pm and happily did not involve putting on a life jacket. We sat through that presentation and then went to the Opening Social for our group. We were traveling with a group for the 4th Annual Couples' Valentine's Cruise headlined by Laura M. Brotherson. The Star Bar on deck 13 was already full of happy couples when we arrived and the group continued to grow to standing room only. We met our first new bunch of friends--Nathan and Polly and Justin and Susan--while participating in some fun get-to-know you games.

After the social Chris and I were snapping a few pictures of the sunset when we met Lisa and Scot who offered to take pictures of Chris and I together. The four of us headed off to dinner together in the Indigo Dining Room and enjoyed fun conversation getting to know each other.





After dinner, Chris and I went to one of the evening entertainment options. It offered a little bit of everything for the upcoming week's performances.

Nine-Day Date-Day 3

We loved having a balcony in our stateroom and would definitely choose the same for our next cruise. On our previous cruise, we had a small window, but this was so much nicer to be able to step outside and check the weather or watch the scenery as we were pulling into port. We changed our clocks ahead another hour as we headed out to sea. Kind of weird being three hours off our regular schedule.

Monday was our first full day at sea. Along with our Couples' Cruise, we met with our group in a half day of seminars about how to strengthen our marriage, led by Laura M Brotherson. Great information. I think a little jet lag caught up to us Monday afternoon as both Chris and I crashed for an hour or so after our seminar. In fact, we had to hurriedly dress for our formal night in the Summer Palace Dining Room.



Here's our first towel animal.



After dinner we watched Broadway Show tunes in the Stardust Theatre followed by Battle of the Sexes in the Spinnaker Lounge. The women proved victorious. We weren't quite ready to retire for the evening and went out in search of someone who could take our picture while we were dressed up. We came upon a bunch of couples from our group and after getting our desired pictures, we sat down and chatted for a couple of hours. Fun to find out that at least five of the husbands in the group served in the Philippines and spoke Tagalog, much like many of the employees on the ship.

Chris had a lot of fun surprising the workers by speaking to them in their language. Always they wanted to know how he had learned their language. Did he marry a Filipina? He then had a chance to share that he had served a Mormon mission in their country. One young lady, later in the week, was talking to Chris and was pretty taken aback that he knew Tagalog when along came another guy from our group who spoke to both of them in Tagalog. Her reaction was hilarious as she visibly jumped.