Snow Fun

I love to watch the boys playing in the snow.  They love it, and I'm surprised how long they can stay out there in the cold.  And I keep being surprised/disgusted at Gage's incredibly low standards when eating snow.  On top? OK.  Underneath and touching the dirt? OK.  Two-week-old, dingy, left-over snow? OK.  Wow!

My baby snow angel...

Christmas at the Toppings

We had a lovely Christmas celebration at Brent's family's house.  Gage was excited about his new ski hat and cool game watch. 

In my limited mobility, I got to sit in the leather chair in the corner with my foot up.  The mantra is "toes above the nose" for the first little while after surgery.  I had a good view from my seat, and it's always fun to watch the kids open their presents. 

Here's "Grandma Mike" with Sarah.  It was the year of the scarf, so Sarah was helping to model some of those for us.  Lou Jean gave all of the girls some fun scarves this year. 

Christmas Morning

Our boys still love Legos, and Gage has become especially interested in anything/everything Star Wars, thanks to his good buddy, Dylan.  The combination of Legos and Star Wars made Gage one happy boy on Christmas morning. 

Brent was cute to get the boys some Pokemon cards, a relatively new hobby for them, and one we're trying to keep pretty tame at our house.  Funny, the things that come along with elementary school. 

Ankle Surgery Take Two

On December 19, I had another surgery on my right ankle.  The first one was almost two years prior--a micro-fracture--and I never got to return to running, and in fact, I was in pain just doing everyday stuff again.  Dr. Ocel said that his procedure works for 85% of patients with my condition, but unfortunately I was in the unlucky 15%.  Not really what I wanted to hear, but I was glad to learn that there were other things that could be done.  I tried hard to avoid a second surgery, but eventually we decided to go with a second opinion from an excellent surgeon named Dr. Ng.  He recommended a cutting edge surgical procedure called De Novo, in which he would place pediatric cells in my osteochondral defect, and upon re-integration and healing, I would be able to run again and live pain-free.  We decided to take this option and get the surgery right before Christmas because Brent would be home for almost two weeks, the most critical time of my recovery.  I'm also so thankful for all of the help I got from parents and friends who were helping me get my kids to/from school.  I couldn't drive for four weeks (again!), and that has real life implications when you're a mother! Crutches and the wheelie cart were helpful, again, and I'm so glad to be on the other side now!!!  I'm still going to physical therapy once a week and glad to report that they said I had great range of motion when they checked it just the other day.  I'm finding it hard to live hopefully yet appropriately cautious.  The last thing I want to do is re-injure myself, but I want to live actively and in freedom.  It's humbling to realize that I don't have the same body in my late 30s that I used to have.  There were plenty of years when I ran the Bolder Boulder cold turkey, having run ZERO every day of the year prior to the race.  It's hard to realize that I'm getting older, and my body won't cooperate with my whimsical athletic ideas and ideals. 

Christmas Tree Fully Decorated

What a beautiful sight!  Really, I love how a fully-decorated and -lit Christmas tree looks.  I love seeing it through the window when we come home at night, and I love smelling it in the house.  If it were up to me, we'd probably get a tree closer to the beginning of December, but the challenge is having a "live" tree by Christmas if you get it that early. 

Christimas Tree Fun

I love decorating the Christmas tree with my boys!  Each year, I'm getting better at letting them do more and more.  I have to remind myself that it's more important to me that they're involved and feel like it's OUR tree than for me to have a perfectly-decorated Christmas tree. 

I like to turn on Christmas music while we decorate and tell the boys the background on each ornament.  It's been fun to see the collection grow: a combination of our childhood ornaments and now my boys' special ones from all of us who love them so much. 

And we're still die-hards about getting a real Christmas tree every year.  We love the smell and the tradition and the whole thing, really.  

I found little mailboxes at the dollar store before Christmas, and we've had lots of fun with those.  Gavin and Gage still have one outside each of their doors, and we leave messages and other random stuff for them there (a run-away single sock, a rock from outside, Legos, etc.).  Don't forget to raise the flag to let the boys know they have mail!!! 

Ski Lessons at Eldora - Part 2 of 2

Gavin mostly disappeared to the upper slopes for most of the day, so I don't think we were able to capture any more pictures of him this day.  However, Gage finally made it to the larger magic carpet ride above.  He was absolutely psyched because this is where it starts to feel more like skiing and that he is doing what Gavin is doing.

He was one of the more advanced kids in his class and got to have a bit more one on one work at times with the instructors.  Here he is following his teacher doing an awesome job!

Gage also decided to lead a bit in front of his instructors at times and did a great job staying in control, working on his turns, and getting so much better.  He was able to do quite a few laps on this larger magic carpet hill which always feels like you are getting more value for what the lessons cost with this much skiing.  It turned out to be a warm day with only a bit of wind and both guys had a great time.

Ski Lessons at Eldora - Part 1 of 2

We decided that it would be to start off the ski season with a lesson for both of the kids, even though our strategy with Gavin is to ski together outside of lessons.  We remembered the last time we had lessons we arrived late which was a huge mistake.  The later you arrive the longer you wait, so thankfully we arrived nice and early this time.  Gavin was one of the first ones in the lessons line and went out with an early group.  Here he is waiting for his green lesson group to head outside to the slopes.

Gage's group also got an early start and he is above in the yellow coat getting some help with his boots.  There were six kids in his class and Gage finally jumped up to a yellow group.

I think Gage started out remembering how to do "pizza" to stop on the little magic carpet slope.

Here is Gavin getting suited up for some runs next to the smallest lift at Eldora.