Easter Hunt at the Toppings

Cute that Brent snapped this picture, and I don't even remember...and cuter yet that he picked it for the blog!  These pictures were taken at Brent's parents' house on or around Easter time.  Brent's sister, Jackie, is standing behind me.

Pam's cute Easter idea this year was to let the kids hide the eggs for each other.  I think, if I remember right, the older two hid eggs for the younger two and vice versa.  They had lots of fun!

From left  to right, on Grandma's couch:  Madison, Gavin, Sarah and Gage.  They're all getting so big!

Blizzard Aftermath - Part 2 of 2

The neighbor, Mark, and I took all the boys (they have two boys, too) to the nearest sledding hill, and it was so much fun!  The run ended in the ditch that was quickly becoming a slushy mess, and it basically moved from sledding to whitewater rafting when you reached the bottom.

I get into sledding, too, so if I don't have to go too far to do it, I'm in!

Oh yeah, this was the first day we used the snow tube that the boys got for Christmas from Aunt Jackie and Uncle Karl.  That thing flies over the snow!

Look at my sweetheart squinting in the sun, before he lost any of his teeth.  This is all going too fast...

Blizzard Aftermath - Part 1 of 2

It's pretty crazy for me to see this snowy chaos.  This really happened!  And I don't remember a school year with quite so many legit snow days.  (We don't ever complain about those in our household.).   This whole saga started the first week after I switched jobs to Leprino Foods from Sandoz.  My previous job was located about 7-10 minutes drive away to the west of our house down a single street with moderate traffic.  My new job is located about 30 minutes south of our house down some serious high volume roads.  Unfortunately, the difference in these commutes were made very apparent on this day.  Some light snow started in the morning with just four to six inches predicted for the day.  Apparently, Meteorology is still the only profession in which you can be totally wrong all the time and keep your job.  As you can see in the above picture, we were on our way to somewhere between 28 - 32 inches by nightfall.  My work sent people home by 1 pm, but that was already far too late.  Every Prius, Geo Metro, and every other two wheel drive car in the whole Denver Metro area seemed to be out on the roads getting stuck on each corner and slight hill.  It took me almost two hours to get home and it was just a total free-for-all weaving between stranded cars everywhere.  The trusty Subaru got me all the way home, though once in the neighborhood it was another beast altogether.  Our road hadn't seen a plow yet, so I just gunned it down our little road and slid sideways into the driveway.  After a full sixty minutes of shoveling through knee-deep snow, my car was finally free and I could try to pull it into the garage.

Our boys LOVE shoveling...though this definitely pushed the limit!  After saving the Subaru, we went on to shovel out another car that wasn't piloted by a driver with quite the snow skills that I had.  They were stuck on the main road and took quite a bit to get them free, though I am not sure where they ended up making it to.  We finally returned to making snow forts and igloos and slides, of course.  Tara was surprised at the lack of coats in this picture!

Here are some pictures of their sweet snow igloo.  I love how Gage is wearing his ski helmet!  This thing was fairly massive with walls that were almost four and half feet tall on three sides.

Here are these guys down in the interior of the snow fort with a cave they could both fit down in.  I think Gage was trying to eat the snow again.  Somehow he doesn't seem to understand that dirty snow isn't worth eating.  Snow days like this are pretty epic in the end and we spend many hours outside before collapsing in the afternoon.

Open Space Hiking with Dad

I can't quite remember what Tara on this day, but I am always happy to take the boys outdoors for any sort of hiking, climbing, biking, or whatever.  We have said this many times before, but this truly is where they are at there best because they love being outside.  We headed over for a hike that was a bit closer to what could be described as a walk in the open space near the big windmills to the west of Broomfield.  Gavin and I have actually ridden this same trail on mountain bikes a few years back, but I figured it would be better for us just to walk and see what we could find.  For a March day, it wasn't actually that cold but it was fairly windy which gave us a decent chill.

This picture is from about the point that we turned around.  I love this view of the Flatirons in the background and these guys were happy to give a quick pose to the camera.  I don't think we got to see any major wildlife on the trip but we did chase several birds and find some random assortment of bugs and things.  What great memories!

Biking Time

How cute is our little legit biker boy?!  That jersey is pre-cious, and Brent cleverly offered Gavin some of his old arm-warmers to use for Gavin's legs.  I tend to wear Brent's old team jerseys, and I'll occasionally get funny looks on the road, as if former teammates of Brent's are wondering if they should know me?  We'll exchange the classic biker wave (small and low and no big deal), and then sometimes I'll get the double take, as well.  The gear is free to me, so I'm not complaining. 

Jungle Quest for Madison and Sarah's Birthdays

Sarah and Madison had a joint Birthday party at a place called Jungle Quest.  I think there are two of these in Denver and this one is the closer of the two to them.  We have actually never been to one before, but Gavin and Gage are obviously always up for something that involves ropes and climbing and swinging and general chaos.  I am not sure they were ready for the craziness was about to take place.  Here is Gavin swinging across the room on a giant rope swing. 

They had several people there assisting at different locations, but they essentially turned the group of twenty to twenty five kids loose with harnesses and they were free to clip in to all sorts of different traverses and swings.  Thankfully, our kids have rock climbed enough to where they were comfortable and competent in doing this by themselves.

One of the funniest obstacles to watch (and most challenging too) was this rope walk where you had to step from rope loop to rope loop as you traversed across the whole area.  This often led to positions like Gage is showing us above in the splits.  It's a good thing kids are so flexible when they are young, because I am not sure I would be walking after a few of those.  In the end, there were no injuries and they closed the day with some cupcakes for everyone.  It was great to be able to celebrate with Madison and Sarah for their birthdays!