Ski day 2

For our next day of skiing, the kids really got the hang of it and wanted to ski on their own. That was a relief as my legs were getting a bit sore from snowplowing down the hill with Zack between my legs!
We went to Boyne Mountain and spent the day on the *free* beginner area. It is a really nice area and perfect for the kids. The kids were basically only interested in "racing" us down the hill. They were pretty quick!

Sydney was a bit too competative and kept the race going until the very end of the hill, this close to the gate and line.... (yikes!)


Don't we look like we should be up in the Swiss Alps somewhere?? :)


A good time was had by all, and we skied until around 2pm and then headed back home.


Alan and mini-Alan.

A day on the slopes

wow, what a day of skiing we had. It started out pretty good - when we dropped the kids off at ski school and got to enjoy 90 minutes of skiing along I mean! haha but seriously, the kids did enjoy their ski instructions at Nubs Nob and we were told that that they did good. Sydney definately can ski better than Zack, but Zack is doing well too. Unfortunately Zack gets so angry when he is frustrated and skiing can definately be frustrating for beginners. We had a lot of fun, but a bit of tears from both kids too :(

Here is Alan getting in trouble - he had been skiing backwards and didn't know he had snow making equipment behind him. doh!!

We enjoyed our lunch of PB&J's and HoHo's and Nutty Bars after ski school and then we were ready to take the kids off the beginner hill and on the green runs. We were surprised to find out that the green runs that we thought were so simple were actually a bit too fast for the kids in places. So after a couple of hours of skiing on blue runs we ended our day with a cup of hot chocolate in the lodge.

The hot chocolate was very hot (as usual) and my eyes almost popped out of my head when I saw Zack spill a whole cup of steaming hot drink all over the front of himself! He screamed and I started trying to get his cocoa soaked clothes off of him. Thank god for layers of clothes - it only soaked through his snow pants and didn't actually touch his skin. From now on that will be known as the "hot chocolate incident" :)

For dinner we went to Papa Lou's, a rustic little bar in downtown Petosky.

They had the best pizza!

Petoskey

We headed up north this morning for our annual post-Christmas ski trip. The car ride was pretty nice - not snowing too much, and oh so quiet because we got a DVD player for the car. Money well spent for sure! When we got up to Indian River we stopped by to see our friend Gina. Then it was off to the hotel. A nice place, very close to the slopes (Comfort Inn).

We decided that it would be a good night to go tubing, so we headed over to Boyne Highlands. The tubing hill is so cool! I had forgotten how fast those tubes get flying down the hill. Zack had to ride down with us since he was under 5. He'll be so happy when he can go by himself next year... although I wonder if he'll be ready. It was a scary ride! Within an hour I was getting chilled to the bone, and we hadn't eaten dinner yet, so we left

Dinner was at LaSenorita's, right down the road from our hotel. Yummy Mexican food! And our day ended, with two exhausted kids (and 2 tired parents).

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone!! My house went from this ...


... to this, in about 4 minutes! Wow!


Present opening began at 7:30, when we finally allowed Sydney to wake up Zack. Sydney was the early riser as normal, getting up at something like 5:45am. I'm only estimating because I was too tired at the time to really accept what time it was. Zack was obviously tired because he is usually up at 7am also, but I was glad he "slept in".

I think one of the kids favorite toys was the Bakugan balls they got from Santa in their stockings. Those things are pretty cool when they pop open!

They were quite sick of me taking pictures by now, but they should be used to it :)

Pico wanted in on all of the holiday action. She made herself right at home wherever she was. The kitties loved their treats and toys they got too. It was so thoughtful of Sydney to buy them fun toys from Secret Santa shop at school.

By far I think the whole family's favorite present was the Wii. Zack is skilled at boxing, while Sydney is trying to learn all of the games. I even like the Wii Yoga! I told everyone it was a Pajama day, and that we wouldn't get dressed all day - I almost made it, but I wanted to put some workout clothes on to do Yoga. Zack did stay in his jammies all day. It was such a nice relaxing day, I think we'll have PJ day at least one more time this winter!

So true...

Today we showed Zack and Sydney a video that was sent from Santa. It's really cool, it says several specific items about your child and even has their picture! It's called Portable North Pole. As we watched the video Zack was pretty surprised to see all of the stuff about himself - his picture with "Nice" marked, where we live, his request for "jets" and even that he has been trying to get along with his sister! At the end of the video he ran off to go tell Sydney about it, and he said "I didn't know I was going to be 'Nice'!"
Yes, that was pretty surprising!! haha

A visit to see the Big Guy

We went to see Santa over at Levis Commons tonight. It went well - neither kid was too shy to talk to him. It was cute, Sydney forgot what she was going to tell Santa, even though it had been rehearsed in the car several times before we got there.
Sydney asked for a "make a plate kit" and Zack asked for "jets" and a "nerf gun". Since Sydney couldn't think of what else she had wanted, Santa recommended that she write a list and give it to Mom & Dad so we could let Santa know. Good plan!

Manor House

One of our annual holiday traditions is going to the Manor House to see all of the decorations. We used to go see these displays when I was a kid! The house is so beautiful, I like to walk around the estate and imagine what it would be like if I lived there....

The solarium was decorated all twinkly and these glass trees glowed along one of the many fireplace mantles.

Here are the kids - and they even stayed out of trouble and didn't touch anything :)

A large train track is set up the basement. As always Zack was mesmerized by the trains. Fortunately this year he left without tears in his eyes!

$17??

Today Zack asked when were were going over to Grandma B's house again. I told him I wasn't sure because they were on their cruise.
me: "Why?"
Zack: "I wanted to ask Grandma a question."
me: "What is that?"
Zack: "I wanted to ask her if she has $17"
$17 is how much the HotWheels Power Drop Transporter truck costs at ToysRUs that he wants for Christmas. He saw it there last time we were shopping and has had it on his mind every since. He wants the orange one. I told the kids how much several toys cost, so we didn't end up with $80 toys on the "I want for Christmas" list!

Lights at the Zoo

It was a cold night at the Zoo - but we bundled up and braved the cold weather. The lights were beautiful as usual.

The dancing tree lights are always a favorite of the kids.

Here is the grand tree at the front of the zoo. Looks just like the one in our yard!! haha

Here is what keeps everyone going - a cup of hot chocolate! First Sydney complained that she was only getting a half a cup of hot chocolate, and then she spilled half of it on the floor. There was so much in Zack's cup that we shared and everyone still had enough. Despite the weird look on the kids face, they really did like it :)

Home repair

Alan has been repairing the squeaks in the upper floor. Last weekend we had the carpet pulled up, he peeled it back, and put screws in about every inch of the floor. It really worked! No more squeaking. In a couple of areas he had to put in shims to even out the flooring. Since that worked, he decided to go over to the other loft and do it there too. And then Sydney excused herself from the kitchen and said she wanted to go look at something. And she stood there, just staring at this....

oops. yes, that is the shim pushing out of the wall upstairs... I think Alan hit that shim in just one too many times. :)

Happy 50th Anniversary Grandma & Grandpa!!

The day I have been waiting for has finally arrived - my parent's 50th wedding anniversary! With a little persuasion from my Aunt Louise, we decided to throw a surprise party for them at our house. The only challenge has been keeping the kids from mentioned it to Grandma & Grandpa. Of course the kids really had no clue what was going to happen, they did know we were having a party for them and that would have been enough to tip them off.

But the kids did a great job of not mentioning it, and Grandma & Grandpa were truly surprised. We even made this little sign for them, and Grandma didn't get it when she saw it.

All of the Aunts and Uncles were there along with some old friends: the Littles, and the Henry's. The kids wore their finest for the special occasion.

Alan was our chef for the evening - thanks so much Alan!! I really appreciated it.

The look on the kids' faces is priceless - dig in!! Even they could find something they liked to eat - well, mostly just treats, pretzels and maybe a cucumber, but hey, that's what parties are for :)

A family picture - Brian, Mom & Me The party was a great success!

There's a mouse in our house!!

Wow, some mornings are way more exciting than others. You know, school mornings, work mornings, yawn, snore. But what about this dreary looking Saturday morning. The kids are watching Disney Playhouse, I'm working on my computer looking at pictures... and all of sudden I see Pico jumping around in the train room. What the heck? A spider? A bug? As I get up to investigate I see a *field mouse* scampering an inch in front of Pico's paws. What?? First thought, how the heck did a mouse get in our house?? Second thought, quick get a bucket to catch him! Luckily he made his way out to the kitchen, and into the sunroom. We closed the doors fast and he snuck under a cabinet. Soon he ran out and I stuck a bucket on top of him. Poor little guy, he was so scared. After a thorough investigation of the mouse, Alan set him free out by the fence in the back yard. Fun! but I hope I never see one again in the house :) Pico has earned her treat for the day.

Photo session

In honor of my parent's 50th wedding anniversary I thought it was time to get a portrait of the two of them. So I offered my semi-professional (haha) photography skills and took them out to Wildwood park for a photo session. It turned out to be a great day and we got some good shots. Here are a few of my favorites. Still a cute couple after all of those years :)

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween everyone!! We went over to Aunt Anita's house for Trick or Treating this year. The kids were dressed as a cheerleader (yep, a repeat from last year) and a football player from our favorite football team - Ohio State!

Zack loved running around with the football.

Go Bucks!!

In contrast to our all American kids, we had the vampire princess over at Aunt Anitas! Doesn't Alexus look cool?! We all had a lot of fun. The weather could have been a little warmer, but the candy was good anyways.