Recent Happenings

We have had many activities going on recently. I posted the video of E's first ski trip. That was at Winter Park. Winter Park is pretty close to Denver and is a relatively small ski resort. She enjoyed her first time and really benefited from the lesson that she took there. I could have benefited from a lesson as well. I feel bad for WS, he stays on the easy slopes with me. I'm sure that he would rather be doing some real skiing. The trip to Winter Park was great for E's first trip because it was on a Friday and there really weren't very many people on the slopes. It started out beautiful, but then began to snow by lunchtime. I don't mind skiing in snow, but there was this accompanying wind that was very cold and biting. It stung anything that was exposed.

The following Saturday (12/11), WS' parents took us to the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs for an anniversary dinner. I had never been to the Broadmoor, so it was a really nice treat. It was very decked out for Christmas and there were lights galore. We ate at a great restaurant and decided that we'll go back there to actually stay sometime.

Lake view of the Broadmoor.


WS and I on the bridge that goes over the lake.


I'm relaxing in the lobby.


Broadmoor and lake with lights.


The immense Christmas tree with lots of lights.


Just this past Friday we took a trip up to the mountains once again for some skiing. However, we were fortunate because one of WS' friends has a mountain condo that was available for us to use. We drove up to Silverthorne on Friday late afternoon. WS' sister and her family also came up on Friday evening to spend the weekend with us in the mountains for an extended family ski trip. The condo is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath place. WS and I were in one bedroom with E and his sister and husband in the other bedroom. The kids slept in the living room on air mattresses and couches.

We arrived on Friday at about 6PM. It's a good thing that we came up on Friday night. Although we haven't had any snow down here in Denver (in fact it's almost 60 degrees outside right now), the mountains have been getting hit about every 2-3 days. They have unprecedented amounts of snow. It started snowing late Friday night and continued until we left on Sunday (it's actually supposed to continue off and on until next Friday). We were able to drive from the condo to Copper Mountain on Saturday morning. It was slow going due to all the snow, but it took us only 20 minutes from the condo.

We put E in another class for the day. She did really well. Her instructor said that she was the best in her group. She moved up a level and is now ready to move into level 3. She even took her first chair lift up. When she skied at Winter Park, the kids got up the mountain on snowmobile sleds, so this was a little bit of a different experience for her. It scares me a little bit to picture 4-year-olds on ski lifts, but I guess that the instructors know what they're doing.

I have to say that I've never skied snow like this. I'm not exaggerating by any means. It was powder up to my knees. The snow was falling and it was so dry and powdery that it was just fell apart if you tried to touch it. In fact, WS said that he hadn't skied snow like that either (and he's skied a lot in Colorado). I just think that there's been so much snow up in Copper Mountain that the conditions are incredible. We had a great time skiing with WS' sister and her kids. Everyone is a better skier than I am, even the kids. But, I'm doing my best and I do feel myself improving. I definitely felt more confident by the end of my day at Copper. I'm on my way to get my 10,000 hours of practice (Malcolm Gladwell reference) and then I'll be an expert.

After a day of skiing we went back to the condo and had a big spaghetti dinner. E and her cousins had a great time together. She loves to boss them around and they think that everything she says is so funny. She was calling everyone "Captain Madam." I don't know where she comes up with this stuff. We played Apples to Apples and it was pretty silly by the end. I played my "Elizabeth Taylor" card for the category of "Miserable." I couldn't believe that it didn't win that category!

We were going to stay in the condo until today, but I was concerned that the snow would be too much for us to drive down in. It was unrelenting all of Saturday night and Sunday morning, so we drove back on Sunday afternoon.

E all geared up for her second ski trip.


The bottom lifts were pretty crowded at the beginning of the day. Everyone was trying to get up the mountain. The trails weren't crowded though. Some of the time it was almost like we were skiing alone. I think it's because Copper is pretty big.


WS warming up before our first run. He likes to stretch out. He moves his skis in all directions. I tried to do it too, but I ended up almost falling over.


Snowy slopes.


The entire gang (except WS and E - he's taking the picture and she's in her lesson). I'm the farthest to the right.


WS' youngest niece and me! We did really well skiing together because she and I are almost at the same ski level. She's a lot younger than me though!


Snowy, dusk view from the condo.


I'm relaxing on the couch and wiped out after skiing.


E and the cousins.




This week will be busy. I haven't really done any Christmas shopping, so that's on the agenda. E will be going to school for 2 days this week. Her preschool is open for most of the next two weeks. We're having WS' family over for Christmas Eve. The tamales have been ordered and we should be all set. I'm going to attempt to make Mexican rice and beans. Why do I do this to myself?! I should just order food. I'm sure it will turn out alright, but I'll be very stressed out about it. I think I'll do a trial run tomorrow.

E's First Ski Trip

Anniversary and Tea

Our seventh wedding anniversary is tomorrow. We celebrated it a little bit on Saturday night. WS is in Anaheim for a pharm. convention, so we won't actually be able to celebrate it on the day. We didn't do anything too fancy, we had E with us! WS had flowers delivered to the house. That surprised me because I normally get a bouquet of stargazers from the market. Which I love, but it was nice to change it up a little bit. WS made sure that they included stargazers in the bouquet. Very beautiful.


Here I am with the flowers.

We also exchanged a little something with each other. I'm on a very tight budget, so WS got a shirt that he really liked from Kohl's. It's a great shirt, but I felt a little bit cheap when I opened up his gift.

He gave me this beautiful art print. We really needed some art for our bedroom. And I had been telling him that, so he took it upon himself to find some.


The art that he bought was extra special because he had a reason for buying it (other than just that he liked it). It reminded him of this picture that I had taken on our fall color walk in Kenosha Pass. He thought that the print would remind me of Colorado and the aspen trees.


WS hung our outdoor lights on Saturday. He was feeling a little bit competitive with our neighboring houses. Quite a few of them already had their lights up. We didn't do anything elaborate. I think that he wanted to do more, but I told him that we could add to it every year. Do you know how expensive the lawn decor is? He wanted a deer and they're more than $60! Since we bought the lights this year (they're energy-saving LED!), we decided to just leave it at that. Maybe next year we'll buy a snowman for the yard.
Here's the front of the house.




Here's our pine.



E and I had our own activity on Sunday. We invited WS' stepmom to come with us to a Doll's Tea at an old downtown hotel. A friend of E's from ballet was going with her mom. The unfortunate thing is that my camera batteries died before we even left our house! So, I didn't get any pictures at the tea! Hopefully, E's friend will e-mail us any pictures that came out on their camera.


Here's E posing before we left. It was her idea to pose smelling the flowers!




Mommy and E!



She chose to take her ballerina to the tea because there were ballet dancers that put on a little show after everyone was done eating.


It was such a cute little event. The girls all sat with their dolls at little tables right next to the mom's tables. They had their own little tea snacks and hot cocoa instead of tea. Each girl's table had a bowl of marshmallows that the girls were supposed to add to the hot cocoa. E went crazy! She had 2 refills of cocoa and she put two big scoops of marshmallows in each one. Then, when there was no more cocoa, she just scooped a big mound of marshmallows right on her plate! I finally had to go over and tell her "no more marshmallows." As if the cookie, cupcake, and chocolates that each girl had weren't enough sugar for them!

The moms had champagne (only 1 glass though, boo!) and really good tea snacks. Ballerinas came out and danced right in the middle, and all of the girls were right in front. I don't think that E moved the whole time.

WS has Friday off from work, because he's at the conference all week. His boss told him to just take Friday off. So, I'm taking the day off of work, too. We decided to go skiing on Friday. We're pretty excited. It's going to be E's first time on skis. She's going to be in an all day lesson. Hopefully, it won't be crowded since it's a Friday. The mountains have been getting a lot of snow, so the conditions are supposed to be really good. I've never skied in Colorado, so this will be a first for me. We'll see how it goes!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving weekend was pretty low-key, but definitely in a good way. We baked pies on Wednesday. I made my pumpkin with a secret ingredient. WS made his grandma's blueberry/peach pie recipe. Both pies were great and they were equally enjoyed by everyone who tried them. We went to WS' parents' house on Thursday. They had made a delicious turkey with homemade stuffing and a really yummy sweet potato recipe. We brought the pies and the green bean casserole. The pies were wonderful, but the green beans were horrible. Everyone tried to tell me that they tasted fine, but I was embarrassed by how they turned out. We blanched the beans before baking the casserole, but I don't think that we boiled them long enough. They were very firm. I warmed the casserole up for the amount of time that the recipe suggested when we arrived at the house, but it was very cold. So, I will not make that recipe again. I don't understand why it got so many fabulous reviews on the food network website?



Our pies on the buffet.


Getting ready to serve dinner.


After dinner E spent time with her grandparents.



On Friday we had Thanksgiving dinner number 2. We went to WS' sister's house to have dinner over there. E was so excited because that meant that she got to see her cousins. They served ham and WS' parents brought over the leftovers from the day before. Everything was delicious. We had a great time talking and catching up. E loved "bossing" her cousins around. They're such good sports. They even participated when she wanted to form Club Ella. She told all of the grown ups that they weren't allowed in the club. It was so funny!

E and I stop for a photo before heading over to WS' sister's house.

We did housework and yardwork (we filled up 4 large, black garbage bags of leaves) on Saturday morning. We had one of WS' friends and his wife over to our place on Saturday night for drinks and snacks. It's one of his friends that he knew growing up and he recently became reacquainted with him. He lives in the next neighborhood over from us and is only a 3 minute drive.

We ate at The Pancake House on Sunday morning. YUM! I don't think that I've ever had better breakfasts. And we tried to relax before our busy workweek started up again. Now it's back to the grind. Fortunately, I only have 3 weeks left until my winter break! It'll be so nice to have 2 weeks off. Countdown is on!

Safest City?!

I just found out that our city (Centennial) was ranked as the safest city in Colorado! Here's the very short article. 9News Article. We were also ranked pretty well nationwide. We had no idea, but it makes sense to me.

Also, in case you were wondering, WS beat me badly in chess. I've never won him. He not only beats me, but he finds a way to corner my King with three or more of his pieces! And I'm not a horrible chess player. He should play in a chess club or something. I've decided that he and I are going to play more often. It makes me think, so it must be good for me.

On another note, I did find a green bean recipe. It's a casserole of sorts, but it's not the old standby. This one includes "fancy", french beans and fresh tomatoes. I found it online and it had very high reviews. We'll see how it goes.

Our low temp tonight has been lowered to 5 degrees...should be fun. Happy Thanksgiving!

Ready for Thanksgiving?

Well, I'm officially finished with my parent-teacher conferences. They actually went really well. So much smoother than in my previous school. The parents were all so supportive of everything and really, really positive. We didn't have any complaints! Amazing. I've never had that happen in my 10 years of teaching. I thought that it would be difficult to have a conference with two teachers, but it actually went well. I didn't find it hard to contribute and we just were able to do them well together. Now I have the next 5 days off! E is going to school tomorrow and I'm going to try to get some shopping done and just take some time for me. I feel a little bit guilty, but I spend so much time with her and it's only for one day.

WS and I are going to have some wine and play some chess tonight. That's one of my favorite things to do even though we don't do it very often. Just something about wine and chess...I don't know what it is. A kind of dorky way to celebrate my vacation, but I love it!

Tomorrow night is pie-making. I always get nervous even though my pie always turns out the same. I just anticipate the worst. It should all work out though. I'm still trying to figure out a green bean recipe. I don't think that I want to make the traditional casserole (even though I love it), but I haven't found a recipe yet that stands out. I'll have to do some emergency online searching tomorrow.

Busy Days

I haven't had the chance to update the blog lately because things have really been busy. First of all, I am preparing for the upcoming parent-teacher conferences that I have next week. Since I teach at the preschool level now, I don't have to do report cards. However, that doesn't mean that I'm off the hook. My co-teacher and I have to present each child with a "journey book". This is basically a very extensive portfolio that includes all that the child has done/learned since September. This is actually an ongoing collection and we'll continue to contribute to each one throughout the year. These are not the typical portfolios that I've seen (those are basically just comprised of the child's work). No, no, no...we have to create "write ups" for each work sample that we are including and also for the many, many pictures that we've taken of the child engaged in activities/tasks. We take pictures every day of all of the kids doing things in the classroom. The write ups are quite time consuming and actually I had to reach into the depths of my brain to remember all of the educational jargon that I've learned to include in each write up. Well, we are done with this portion of the journey books. That was a big relief. We have conferences on Monday and Tuesday and then I'm on Thanksgiving Break. I'm so glad!

A really happy surprise that came last week was a visit from my mom. She called us on Wed. and told us that she'd be coming on Friday. So, she stayed with us from Friday to Thursday. It was unexpected, but a very welcome visit. We didn't do anything complicated or fancy, but it was fun just to spend time with her.

We'll be spending Thanksgiving with WS' parents at their house. We're looking forward to that. It'll be very low-key and that's exactly what I want. WS and I are making the pies as we have done for the last 4 Thanksgivings. We each make our specialty pie and then try to figure out which one people liked better. It's our little tradition and it's an innocent competition that we enjoy. The weather has been cooler, but we haven't really had any snow except the one little snow shower. The weather is supposed to be even cooler this week with a low of 8 degrees on Wednesday. Maybe we'll have some snow for Thanksgiving!

Photos From Our First Snow

Our first snowfall for the season came yesterday afternoon. It was pretty brief and only really accumulated on the grass and rooftops (about 1/2 inch). Thankfully none of it stuck to the driveways, sidewalks, or roads. It was more like a snow dusting. E was so excited to go out and play in it, but there really wasn't enough to do anything with it. Tonight and tomorrow it's supposed to snow again. This one is supposed to be pretty mild too. They're predicting only 3 inches max for Denver. However, the mountains have been getting dumped on. I know that WS is dying to go up for some skiing. I think that we'll have to plan a trip up soon.


E getting her gear on for playing in the snow.
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Stepping out into the backyard. Her very first time seeing snow! She had no idea what it was like.





E loved trying to taste the snow. She was eating it off of her sleeves and trying to catch it on her tongue.



When we came inside, E wanted hot cocoa. I didn't have hot cocoa, but I had baking cocoa and soymilk. It was pretty bad and definitely not a hit with E. But she did eat the marshmallow.

First Snow

Our first snowfall is happening right now! It's unfortunate that E's napping because she has been waiting for this to come. It's supposed to be a small accumulation today, but a bigger snowstorm will be arriving on Thursday. I was so hopeful that it would hold off for a few more months. The weather reports claimed that this fall has been unseasonably warm so far. At least my fleece vest purchase will prove to be useful this week.

Fleece Vest

Colorado is the land of fleece. In order to be a true Coloradan you must have at least one fleece vest and one fleece zip up. Both of these are usually made by North Face. This has always been the case. When I lived out here in the late-nineties, everyone in Boulder wore fleece. Back then I was appalled by it. It just seemed so unfashionable. Since I wasn't very happy living in Colorado then, I made fun of everything Coloradan. I made a point of despising fleece and vowed to never, ever buy a fleece vest. Well...right now I'm wearing a fleece vest! My first fleece vest. I feel a little like a Californian trying to fit in. Which I am. My vest isn't North Face (those are out of my price range). It's from Old Navy. I must say, it's very warm and comfortable. I might not be fashionable, but I'll be ready for the first snow that could be here by Tuesday.

The Last Two Weekends of October

Our last two weekends have been pretty busy. Two weekends ago, we were celebrating my high school friend's daughter all weekend long. She turned 2 and we went with them to Santa's Workshop on Saturday and her party on Sunday. Last weekend was Halloween and my dad and stepmom were staying with us for a visit. We had a great time and just stayed very local. I actually don't have very many pics from their visit out, but I have a few from Halloween night. They're not the best pictures, but at least you can see E and her costume. My dad also dressed up and coordinated with E (Alice and The White Rabbit).

Santa's Workshop is an amusement park at the base of Pike's Peak in Colorado Springs. It's only about 1 hour south of us. I've never been to Colorado Springs. It's so beautiful! It really feels like a Colorado town. There are views of the mountains and hills. Santa's Workshop was a lot of fun for E and Maddie. It's aimed at little ones. There weren't any crowds, but it was a bit cold there. I wasn't prepared for the temperature difference. It was mid-sixties when we left our house, but mid-forties at Santa's Workshop plus a wind chill.

E had the chance to meet Santa. She was a little bit shy.


We rode on the skyride. It was so pretty, but FREEZING! Next time I'm wearing a parka!


Holly and Maddie on the skyride as we passed them.



These next two pics are of the candy cane slide. E loved it! WS took her and they went down with a burlap sack.



E on the rocket ride.


The cars. I was surprised, but she was tall enough to go by herself. She's growing up!


E and Maddie rode the motorcycles together.


Getting in line for the train.


The following Sunday was Maddie's actual birthday party. She turned two and her party was at a place called Little Monkey Bizness. E had so much fun. Monkey Bizness is an indoor playground filled with jumpers, climbers, riding toys. When a child has a birthday party, the playground is closed to the public. So, E and the other kids basically had the place to themselves.




The staff at Monkey Bizness also have a room set aside for the birthday party. There was a mask craft for the kids to do. That's also the room where they serve the cake and pizza.




E was Alice in Wonderland for Halloween. My dad dressed up as The White Rabbit and took E trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. We had a fun weekend showing our houseguests our house and around our neighborhood. E had a great time. She's already planning what she wants to wear next Halloween. "I want to be ketchup, grandpa will be mustard, daddy will be a hot dog, and you can be chili." Too funny!





We only had a few trick-or-treaters. I had received information from other local people that we would have a lot, but we didn't. We totally overbought candy. Now we have bags of it left! Another reminder that everything is new learning experience with a new home.