Gavin's ski lesson #5...

Look at our little skier!  (Reminder:  He's the adorable one in the yellow coat.) 

He was tall enough to catch the lift all by himself, and he looked like a pro doing it, too!

I think that this picture just about says it all...

Gage's music class with Miss Kelly...

I'm so glad that I have some pictures of this experience, because I always seemed to be missing my camera when I thought about it during music class.  Miss Kelly teaches Music Together, and Gage LOVES her classes!  They're pretty pricey, so we can't do it year-round, but I'm SO glad that we've taken several sessions with her, because Gage loves music and his marvelous music teacher.  This particular session was all about drums, and doesn't Gage's face just about say it all right here?  So much joy!

An added bonus and blessing during the last class we took was that Gage got to take the class with his good buddy, Emma (see adorable girl in side ponytail above).  And Emma's mommy, Tall Natalie, and I are friends too, so that's always extra fun!

And the kids loved feeding the neighboring horses after music class.  We tried to take carrots or apples from time to time, and Gage began to ask about it whenever we drove by the church where his music class was held.  It's fun having adventurous boys who really aren't scared of very much. 

Little helper...

I wish I could remember better what, exactly, what going on here, but I think that Gage was trying to help Gavin with a sight word that Gavin was supposed to practice at home.  So sweet, whatever it was! 

Snow day!

Oh, how our little guys love to shovel with Daddy.  Gavin singlehandedly shoveled the whole driveway at least once this past winter, and it was so sweet to see how proud he was of himself.  How much he wanted to help Daddy and make him proud!

There's Sweet Gagie with his birthday shovel.

And how 'bout the double shovel technique?  Have you or your kids tried that one yet?

Lucy visits the Koel household...

Gavin's class pet this year in Junior Kindergarten was none other than Lucy the Hamster.  Brought back some fond memories for me, remembering "Hammie," our one and only pet growing up...besides an occasional gold fish or two.  Gavin (see below) is letting Lucy get some exercise in the ball, and watching him reminded me of when we accidentally let Hammie go straight down our vertical driveway in the ball when I was little.  It was pretty adorable to see how much love and affection both of the boys showed Lucy during her stay with us.  And, thankfully, we returned Lucy to school on Monday, still alive and in one piece and not much worse for the wear, I hope. 

Gavin is Eldorable!

Here's our little skier in the Eldorables ski program.  He was one of three to five other kids his age in his little class, and I'd say that we watched him grow in his confidence and skills in the four weeks that we went up to Eldora.

The kids boarded a little shuttle to transport them from the lodge to the bigger practice hill, and Gage and I would follow them over in our car to watch and take pictures.

The children's museum...

Gage likes to dress up like a firefighter at the Children's Museum, and I had to give it a try, myself, this time.  I guess that coat wasn't quite big enough, huh?  Pretty sure that Andrea and I got a bigger kick out of taking that picture than I do now from seeing it. :)

Tubing in Frisco...

We have some friends with a place in Frisco who have graciously let us stay there a few times over the past couple of years.  The tubing in Frisco was a day adventure that we didn't want to miss this winter, and you can see why not.

So we all had to have our own tubes, including Gage, and that was a gamble.  They told us that they'd refund our money after one run if he was terrified, but he wanted to go again...and again...and again.  You pay for the hour, so you better believe that we were trying to get our hineys down the hill and up the treadmill thing (can't think of the real name of that to save my life!) to repeat the fun as many times as possible in 60 minutes.  It's not a cheap adventure, so Mama has particular interest in getting her money's worth :)

Gavin was all over the place, as could be expected, and seemed to have NO FEAR from the first moment to the last.  Do you see him waving to the camera in the picture on the tubing hill?  (I can't even explain what he's doing in this picture, or I would try.)  Meanwhile, Gage's position of choice for most of the runs was to hunker down inside of the tube with his little blue hood covering as much of him as possible...and then he'd re-emerge at the bottom of the hill.

His response to a new situation is not as obvious as Gavin's, so it took us a little while to evaluate that he was, indeed, having a blast, though he hardly looked out of the tube the whole ride down.  Brent and I held the four of our tubes together, so we all went down as a blob.  Each tubing "lane" was a bit different, and we tried out a few of 'em.  I could feel every bump during the first couple of runs, so I had to learn to partially suspend myself in the tube during the descent.  This is a great memory! 

Eldorables ski program...

Gavin participated in the Eldorables ski program at Eldora this winter, and as you can see in the picture above, he was indeed eldorable from top to bottom.  The program was five consecutive Wednesdays for two-hour lessons each day, and we're glad we did it.  Gavin definitely got more comfortable with skiing, and Brent now feels like he could take him out alone on some green runs.  I take some personal pride in having found this winter's AMAZING coat at a kids' thrift shop for like $6.  Gap coat, awesome color, super warm and has a hood!  Need I say more?! 

For the first couple of lessons Gavin's group of about five students went up and down this little bunny hill. 

And then they graduated to this hill.  See the little conveyor belt in the middle?  Gavin got pretty good at coming down this hill (sometimes remembering how to turn) by the end of his program.

When you put a kid--any kid--in this kind of legitimate snow gear, let's just admit that he looks pretty legit...whether he is or not. 

Monster Truck Jam - Part 2 of 2

Here is Gage a bit better in the show and as you can see he seems to be enjoying himself a bit better.  He kept his blue ear plugs in the whole time, though it was still pretty loud even through them.

Here is Gavin's representation of what he thinks of the whole show.  He obviously didn't have a good time.  Clay is behind him again.  They chowed down on all sorts of healthy stadium foods like cotton candy, french fries, and dip'n'dots. 

Here is "Tall Tyler" and his kids with Gavin after the show.  We figured the parking lot was going to be a zoo so we waited around to let everything clear out a bit.

Here is one final pictures of the boys with me.  We had a great time and I was glad that I could do something unusual with the guys that they will look back on some day.  Hopefully as I get finished with my MBA program we can do more family weekend outings like this as the guys just love the adventure part of it.

Monster Truck Jam - Part 1 of 2

Tara's friend "Tall Natalie" had heard about Monster Truck Jam coming to town and had let Tara know about it.  She promptly conveyed the idea to me (Brent) and I was immediately in.  It brought back memories of all the funny things I did when I was younger with my Dad and Step-Dad...WWF wrestling, monster trucks, Globetrotters, ect.  We met "Tall Tyler" (Tall Natalie's husband) and his two oldest kids.  Above is Gage's first impression when the monster trucks fired up their engines and he was all business.  He initially was somewhere between intrigued and scared.

Here is Gavin sitting next to Clay during the beginning of the event.  We had to buy them ear plugs and headphones to block out the sound because it truly was deafeningly loud.  We got there about an hour early which was fun because we got to see them line up all the trucks and get ready for the show, but they also got a bit restless.

This picture shows all the trucks lined up and ready to go at the beginning of the show.

They started off with some individual jumping competitions and them moved into some head to head races.  Above is the famous "Gravedigger" which is about the only truck that I have a vague recollection from.

Extreme Altitude...

My boys LOVE Xtreme Altitude, a gymnastics place that does "Mornings for Moms" during the week.  You can drop your kids off--though I usually stay and meet a friend there--and the kids have free reign on most of the equipment for an hour-and-a-half, with a snack time in the middle of their fun.

My mom bought Gage a punch pass to XA for his birthday, and that's been a terrific gift for him!  For both of us, really.

I just remembered that these were actually pictures from Bode's birthday party.  Bode and Gage are in the same class, and Bode's older sister, Callie (see below), is in Gavin's class.  Their mom, Natalie, and I are good friends, so we all have a lot of fun together.  Gavin was sick this particular day :( and bummed to have missed this fun party.  I'm saving two punches to take both boys with Bode and Callie when school gets out.  They'll have a blast together.  Please do note that Gage (age 3) and Callie (age 5.5) are about the same size.