Silver State

LT qualified for silver state (one step below the hardest to qualify for)!  They had these cute posters up for all the qualifiers (not too many!) and LT found his.

Salad

"B, what do you want for snack?"  "Um, I love salad!"

Cousin Playdate

not exactly roughing it

Apparently the only photo I took last week was of the 3 o'clock cookies at the base of Beaver Creek.

Ski Routine in Beaver Creek

 We spent the week in Beaver Creek skiing and relaxing as a family.  It was full of adventures (like the car battery dying one evening on our way to get pizza), but hey, life is boring without adventures to talk about!  We had a pretty nice routine while up there.  Brian and I traded off mornings of skiing alone and then the other would take the boys in the afternoon for a few hours.  

 One of the luxuries of Beaver Creek is the cookies they give away each and every afternoon at 3.  The boys quickly learned this tradition and we indulged in pretty yummy cookies right about at meltdown time.  We were even able to squeeze in an extra run after the sugar intake.  

And hot chocolate is usually a must with mom while skiing, at least once on vacation.  

Ski Playdate

 While we were in Beaver Creek last week, Ads and I had a mom/son ski date day with A's best bud from school.  His buddy has been on ski team for several years and I was a little worried about Ads not being able to keep up.  It was no problem, A came a long way with his skiing this past week and by Friday he was a pretty competent skier.  We went down several challenging blues that had been groomed earlier in the week and he had no problem with.  However, on Friday it snowed about 6 inches and those challenging blues were now more like blacks, full of moguls and pretty steep.   I was a little scared watching him at first, but soon realized that he had things under control.  We even let the two of them ride the little gondola alone while my friend and I had a drink at the base (we could see the run they were on).  

Probably the best part of the day though was that our reluctant to get poles son, now wants poles!  A huge milestone for all of us.   He not only is a good enough skier to have them, but he's getting heavy to push/pull on flat areas (including every lift line)!

Hopeful

 Last week, for the first time, I listened to MLKs entire speech.  I had heard bits of it over my life, but I decided it was something that deserved my time.  I wasn't shocked, but saddened to hear his words and how much of that speech applies today.  Its easy, as a white person, to turn our backs and pretend everything is "better" and racism is a thing of the past.  However, the more I learn and listen, the more I realize thats just white privilege and not truth.  As boring as my work can be at times, its also incredibly eye opening to the realities of our country.  I recently watched a Ted Talk for work about racism and implicit bias.  In it, the speaker compared racism to oral hygiene.  The gist was that one doesn't wake up with clean teeth one day and be done with oral care.  We brush daily, go to the dentist, eat non sugary food etc.  Its daily work.   The same is true with racism.  One can't announce one day that they aren't a racist.  Its a constant learning process, never complete.  For some reason this really resonated with me.  I have made a conscious effort to be more aware, to learn more, read more and listen more to anything regarding racism (even when its hard to hear).  I am trying my best to listen, truly listen.  I am trying to lean into my own biases, recognizing them and work on them.  Its a struggle at times, but its an important one, and something I personally can't turn my back to.  I hope our kids can do the same with our support.   The marade is a start, and a chance for us to discuss racism openly with our kids each year (though we talk to them often about their white privilege and the sadness of it all).  My hope is that with baby steps, racism will be lessened in our country and that our little family can learn little by little how to be better people.  I am hopeful and not afraid to have these discussions.  

MLK day was really cold (high of 25), but we marched anyway.  We walk from our house to the start and march with several families.  We cut out a little early to make a big loop back to our house (and stop for lunch on the way).  B hasn't missed a marade yet!

Snow fun

 It snowed quite a lot last Sunday and the boys had been anxious to get outside and build a snow fort with our snow brick makers.  Unfortunately, one layer in, the brick makers broke so we had to make due with various other tools.  It ended up being about 5 layers tall though, and felt like a fort!

Dinner

For Christmas, the boys (and my parents) gave us a dinner a month.  It basically means that the boys go with my parents, plan a themed meal, go to the store to buy everything, cook and bring over a piping hot meal right at dinner time.  It truly is one of the best gives we have ever gotten.  This month's theme was a cowboy theme.  They brought over this little fake fire, made chili with toppings and then made a spring fling cake (which in our opinion was better than the Market's!)  The best part is that these boys are so proud and have so much fun doing it.  

A boy and his snow

Chicken Butt

I remember a friend of mine who has 3 boys telling me that the youngest isn't always favored by other first time parents.  She realized after months of him starting school that he was the only kid who hadn't been invited to birthday parties and quickly realized why.  He learned things from his older brothers that other parents weren't too fond of.  She laughed telling me that she doesn't have time anyway to take him to parties with the other two's schedules.  When B was born, I couldn't help but laugh at this story and think the same would probably be true for us.  Luckily I have several friends who have kids B's age that have older siblings, so he's not alone.  He will have at least 2 or 3 friends, which is plenty.  However, until recently, the boys have been pretty good role models (and still for the most part are really good) and I didn't see anything that might make B stand out.  Then last week, this happened.  I went into the liquor store to buy wine for book club I was hosting that evening.  I left LT and B in the car (never would I have done that with LT when he was little!).  I could see them out of the window in the store, and it was just so much easier to not drag two kids into a store filled with expensive glass bottles.  I bought the wine and came out to the car and LT said, "Guess what B?"  To which B replied, "CHICKEN BUTT!"  And I realized this was the beginning of the end of what was going to be taught to little B.  It's pretty funny for us, but I am sure first time parents wouldn't find this funny.  Like my friend said, I don't have time to take him to birthday parties anyway, and he gets lots of other positive things from having two amazing older brothers.  After weeks of trying to get it on video, I finally got this one last week. 

New Shoes and Sunnies

Hibachi

 We took B for his first Hibachi experience and he loved it!  Except the big flame in the beginning.  

Big Cousin

We met my brother at the park this morning and B wanted to pull his baby cousin in a bucket.

Snuggled

Playing Store with LT

 B got this cute little cash register for Christmas and he and LT love playing store together with it.  

Decked out at Baba's house

Adler LOVES playing.  He gets fully into character and a few weeks ago was no exception.  He very seriously got all dressed as a construction worker.

Annual NYE Party

 We had two other families over for our annual NYE chocolate fountain/fondue party.  This year Nicholas was still in town, but my brother had plans and so my parents brought him over before heading to their NYE party.  As usual, things were chaotic, so the pictures are pretty terrible, but they give you an idea of the fun the kids had!

Archiving some notes

 I've slowly been going through all my drawers and cabinets in an attempt to not have too much stuff.  I found all these cute notes from the boys over the years that were getting ruined, but I wanted to make sure to remember them so I thought this was a good place to keep them.  Above is Landon's thoughts about me.

 This I found just 2 weeks ago as a surprise left by Adler on my nightstand.  

 From Landon.

indoor swimming

Many year round swimming programs have a reputation for being pretty intense and requiring a major time commitment. But we (okay Kari) found a program that is a little more laid back, which the older boys have been doing this fall and winter. They go to one or maybe two practices a week and do an occasional meet. LT recently swam in a meet in Jeffco that was a little smaller than some of the others. So there was less competition but there were still some very good swimmers. He swam well dropping some time and finishing in the top six in all his events (50 back and breast and 100 free).