Christmas at Jackie's

As mentioned in the last post, this year we headed up to my sister Jackie's place after we had the morning to ourselves.  They are up in Granby Ranch near Winter Park and had plenty of snow on tap to play in.  The plan was to spend the evening and even spend the night in their amazing, finished basement.  The kids quickly suited up and headed out or some sledding on the side of Aunt Jackie's house.  They first needed to get some of the fresh snow padded down to better sled down.

As you can see after several runs, it started to really look like an actual sledding hill.

Aunt Jackie has two dogs (Baily & Poppy), and this one is the larger of the two, Poppy.  She just loved the deep snow and kept burying herself and just rolling around in the deep powder.  Unfortunately, Gage has to stay a bit away from this one as he is allergic to dogs that shed.  What is so funny about Poppy is that she is this huge dog but super afraid of strangers, so she often runs and hides when we show up.

The unfortunate part about this trip was that sometime after dinner, perhaps around 8:30 pm, my heart started pounding again and I had what in retrospect was likely a panic attack.  I just felt like we were far away from any emergency services and that must have triggered something with me.  After taking my blood pressure and seeing it spike again, I had to share some difficult news with the family that we would need to head down.  They were very understanding, but I just hate that this heart stuff was impacting so much of my life and my family's life.

Christmas Morning

I always love having some family time with just our family on Christmas morning.  There is something special about the excitement of the morning, some tasty monkey bread that Tara usually makes, and just the job of sharing gifts and laughs together.

Here is Gavin and Tara getting close and cos in their red-themed attire.

Tara getting a nice new mug...and demonstrating that you can never have too many mugs.

This year, my mom got the whole family Rumpl blankets.  If you haven't had the pleasure of these guys, they are a lifesaver for the soccer parent.  They are virtually windproof and super lightweight which makes them perfect for half of the games we watch each year between the two kids.  Mine was the Arizona variety which was awesome.

As previously mentioned, we couldn't go too long before heading back into the kitchen for a second helping of Monkey bread.

Gavin got this great new Sonicare toothbrush.  This is truly the present that all kids wish for!  In any case, he needed a fresh new one as his old one stopped working.

Tara also got this nice wooden painted sign with "Love" on it.  She was psyched about the gift.  After spending the morning alone, we typically head to one of the extended family's houses to have some afternoon fun.

Gavin's Second Heart Surgery

Almost two years ago, Gavin had a heart ablation surgery to address a condition he had called AVNRT (Atrial Ventricular Non-Reentrant Tachycardia) which would cause his heart to start racing at times.  It helped with his condition, but he was still having a few episodes every now and then.  We talked to Gavin about what he would like to do.  Would he like to try another surgery (something they told us would be an option if the first one didn't take) or would he want to pursue taking medicine (something he might have to do for the rest of his life)?  While either choice had pros and cons, at least we knew that the condition isn't life threatening.  Gavin elected to try for another surgery so here we are for round two!

The first time, it was really tough watching him be put under general anesthesia and then being wheeled away.  This time we had been through before so it wasn't quite as scary, but we were hopeful that this time would really fix the issue.  The surgery in the end was a great success and the doctors felt very strongly that they had been able to take care of the problematic cells.  This should ensure a much better quality of life for him playing sports moving forward.  So thankful for all the amazing doctors at Children's Hospital in Denver.

Family Lion's Lair Hike

I wasn't getting out much due to my exercise restriction, but we had this beautiful December day and had to take advantage of it.  We decided to take the crew up Lion's Lair, which is the back side of Sanitas for a hike.  Shockingly, they had never taken this route so it was a great treat for all.  It starts out as this super chill false flat trail and then about a mile in starts to gently wind up towards the Sanitas summit.

I think Tara and I appreciate the hiking a bit more than the kids, but they were pretty good sports.  About an hour in we stopped at this rock outcropping and had some lunch.  Here is Tara taking in the sunshine and warmth of the day.

Gavin was taking in the views and snacking on a sandwich.

 

Gage, as usual, spent his rest time eating some food and cracking up at some jokes that Gavin was making.  Unsurprisingly, after lounging on the rocks like a bunch of sunning lizards the decision was made to turn around and head back home. 

Going down is always easier than coming up.  I captured this picture of the guys on the way back...it looks like something in between a friendly arm around your shoulder and a headlock.  I am still not quite sure which of the two it was, but they truly are a great pair when getting along.

New Gavin Art

This is an assortment of the latest Gavin art projects.  Most of these were made through school assignments.  His personality is such a funny mix of competitiveness, math and science linear thinking, and then this super creative side with art where he can sit down for hours and work on stuff.

This one is all completed with a blue ball point pen.

This is also a pen drawing, but in black.  He is much more creative than I am, but he comes up with these great ideas and pieces and just has learned over years of practice how to bring these ideas to life.  They are truly awesome to see when he brings them home.

Pets are Hard to Lose

This is a better set of pictures of Gage's winter white dwarf hamster.  He had a great temperament and was the perfect balance of energy and chill.  He would spend hours just digging around the bottom of the cage and then running endless laps on his yellow treadmill.  The nice thing about this little guy was that he would also let you hold him without biting your fingers, which was an improvement from the previous one.

Unfortunately, we had a sort of freak accident with this little guy.  One evening, while we were sleeping, he must have been climbing on the cage wall and fell down and his arm got wedged and trapped behind the water bottle holder.  He was unable to free himself and by the time we had woken up in the morning, there was significant trauma to his arm.  I was able to free him, but the damage was already done.  We contacted the vet and the best option ended up being to put him down.  This was especially hard for me at this time because I kept feeling some sense of personal responsibility and with my heart condition, I was feeling the realization of my own mortality.  I would love to have another hamster someday, but after the last two experiences I am not sure that will happen.

Early Christmas

With several pairs of Grandparents spread across the United States, sometimes holidays look slightly different.  My mom (Grandma Mike) was able to come up in early December this year and we did a bit of an early Christmas.  We saved some of the items for the actual Christmas, but it's pretty hard to wait when you have all of these things sitting in front of you so soon.

Gage opened a little Lego set that he quickly put together.

Gavin opened a spherical snitch model from Harry Potter that he had to assemble.  It was a short trip with seeing my mom, but always great to have her out.  The guys love having her out and spending time with her as well!

Thin Red Line

Our home church, Flatirons Community Church, has a real passion for men and their role within the family structure.  They have put together a series or program that specifically calls on men to step up and own up to what is expected of them.  Much in the same way that baptism is a public proclamation of our faith and commitment to Jesus, they have created this Thin Red Line as a public proclamation of taking responsibility for our families as designed by God.  This includes: I will fix my eyes upon Jesus, I will love and honor and be faithful to my wife, I will lead out the training and instruction in my children, I will teach my daughter, I will teach my son, I will forgive myself and others for the past, and I will never give up or surrender my God-given call to take responsibility for those in my life.  When ready, you get to sign this book as your commitment, and you get a Thin Red Line bracelet you can wear around.  This was really awesome to see our guys make this pledge, though they will probably still spend years experiencing, learning, and being challenged on what this pledge truly means as they mature into young men and eventually Fathers someday.