Skiing with Dad

This year we got free Epic kids' passes for both boys that gives them four tickets to several different resorts for the year including Keystone, Vail, Beaver Creek, and Breckenridge.  I was able to pick up a four pack of Epic tickets to take them skiing.  They really love skiing so I want to make it priority to go, but coordinating the whole adventure, fighting traffic, and then keeping track of these two rowdy guys among the thousands of others racing down the slopes is quite exhausting.  The exciting thing was that was our first year skiing somewhere else than Eldora and we landed on Keystone as the destination of choice.  I actually really loved Keystone as it really caters to young skiers and has special family parking up front with carts to take your skis and gear up to the lifts.  Great idea!  Another awesome thing is that after taking about a 10 minute Gondola ride up, you can ski down for 3.5 miles before having to come up again which makes the kids love it even more.  Here was a picture at the beginning of the day and they were excited to get rolling.

You know we had to stop in front of this gigantic snow fort at the top of the mountain.  I am not quite sure what is going on with the posing, but they were loving it.  There were several tunnels you could slide down that were frozen into the ice and you could get on top of the wall and look all around.  Pretty cool, but there was more skiing to be done so we didn't stay too long.

Here's our best "selfie" from the day.  I think this was towards the end of the day as we were winding down.  Gavin is still the better skier of the two, but Gage did an amazing job at keeping up on the Green runs in the morning and then towards the end of the day we went down two long Blues and he did amazing!  Gavin was getting crazy and tried his hand in some bumps bordering the edge of the Blue run we went down.  Part of me thinks this is dangerous but looking back on what I was doing at his age, I just had to let him roll with it.  He really only totally crashed and lost all of his gear once.  What a fun time together!

Grandpa Bruce Visits!

We always love when Grandpa Bruce comes to town.  Even during a winter trip, the guys were excited to show him their bike riding skills.  It certainly is more challenging with lots of ice and snow all over the place.

Here is a picture with Dad and I, though the lighting isn't quite optimal.

This is another picture with the boys and Grandpa Bruce.  Gage must be scared of something because he has come to the picture armed with a bow. 

Gage's Birthday

The festivities started early for Gage's sixth birthday.  Gavin had spelled out the above message in yarn right outside of Gage's door so that he would see it when he up.

For his party, Gage chose to head to Jump City to jump his heart out with all of his closest friends.  This place is lined wall-to-wall with trampolines with copious pads covering every seam.  You can literally just jump for 50 yards across a series of 20 super long trampolines across the whole place.  We also enjoyed a jump dodge-ball room where you can rip balls across the room while jumping around.  It was super awesome but very tiring.

Here is a sweet birthday hug from his older brother.  These guys have so many good times together, but unfortunately these times are sprinkled in between some fairly rough times.

Though it's a bit goofy, here is the full family shot for the party.  Happy Birthday Gage!  We can't believe how big you are already getting and how fast you are growing up.

Here is a final picture with Mom and her six year old boy.

Uncle Adam Visits

The Christmas break also brought another Uncle into town.  Uncle Adam took a two week trip into Colorado and made the rounds over his break from college where he is in his junior year at Occidental College.  He initially stayed with some friends down near Colorado Springs and then spent several days and nights with us up in Broomfield.  Adam was a bit under the weather when he first arrived because he had been staying with a family with multiple animals and he is fairly allergic to them.  I convinced him to let me take him to the doctor to get some antibiotics and medicine, which was probably the right thing to do because he looked a bit rough around the edges.  The kids, however, didn't let him relax because they got right into playing together and just goofing around in general.  It was great to have him around.  The funny thing is, I do remember that they noted how obvious the resemblance of Uncle Adam's physique was to their dad's.