Marcy goofing around with the kids in Keystone

This past week began in Keystone with the Martin Luther King long weekend. I had to leave early but Marcy and kids stayed around and went ice skating. And they had this fantastic train ice sculpture at River Run that Jude thought was really cool.

Riding the ice train at River Run, Keystone

Ice skating at the rink in River Run at Keystone

Then this past weekend the kids had ski school again and the instructor took them on their first blue run ever. Already they are venturing beyond the beginner slopes. Anna said it was pretty scary going down the steeper run but she did it.

This morning we gave the kids the option – they could go skiing again or ice skating – they chose ice skating. But this time we decided to go down to Keystone Village and skate on the big lake there. We all strapped on skates and by the end of the day the kids and I were all skating well (Marcy is already a good skater).

Jude all bundled up skating on Keystone Lake.

Anna is always styling – even as she skates on Keystone Lake.

Anna getting a little tired after two solid days of skiing

Both kids were feeling much better by the end of the week so it was up to Keystone for the next ski school lesson. We dropped Jude and Anna off bright and early on Saturday morning. Normally, then Marcy and I head up to the slopes for the day but this time Marcy went solo. I ended up catching whatever the kids had and was a coughing and sneezing mess so I had to lay low.

Jude and Anna did great on their lesson and were worn out. No wonder. When I asked the instructor how they did he said they skied really well and that they had down “at least” four top to bottom runs. These runs are over three miles so Jude and Anna skied over 12 miles that day. Needless to say they slept well that night.

Sunday morning we had a family ski with all four of us heading up the mountain for a few runs. I was still feeling pretty bad but decided to give it a try. But with the Bronco game starting at 1pm Marcy knew I wanted to be off the mountain by 12:30pm. It just so happened that we didn’t time things exactly right and at 12:25pm we were all at the top of the mountain. So, I skied down by myself while Marcy stayed with the kids. They were pretty worn out by this stage but still in reasonable spirits when they got to the bottom.

Anna and Jude celebrate after a hard weekend of skiing

Marcy promised them a burger after their hard exercise so they stopped in at a sports bar and watched a bit of the Bronco game. It was Jude and Anna’s first exposure to Broncomania and they thought it was pretty cool.

Enjoying a post ski burger

Meanwhile back at the condo I was enjoying a great football game albeit by myself. Although I was texting with several friends during the game which was nice. But I was really happy to watch the end of the game with my two little munchkins by my side.

Watching the Bronco game with my two favorite kids

Anna huddles with her best friend, Reed, after school one day this week

It was back to school this week after two weeks off and everyone was happy to be back. But after being really healthy for the first half of the school year both kids came down with a fever this week.

First, Jude woke up on Friday morning feeling awful and coughing a lot. Needless to say he didn’t go to school and he spent most of the day lying on the couch or his bed. His fever hit 103.5 degrees so he had absolutely no energy and wasn’t eating much either. Anna was feeling fine on Friday, in fact I took her out downtown on an Anna and Daddy date to her favorite restaurant that night.

Saturday, she was starting to feel lousy and Jude wasn’t much better. So, there was nothing much happening. Jude and I watched some football and that was the most activity he had all day. Marcy took this opportunity to introduce Jude to the wonders of Harry Potter as we started reading the first book.

Marcy reading Harry Potter to Jude & Anna with both kids not feeling well

Today, Anna was hit hard. She was like Jude was on Friday, just going from the couch to the bed. She still wanted to put on her Peyton Manning jersey and watch the Bronco game. Jude was really into the game – in fact he watched more football this weekend than he ever has before. It is fun (for me at least) to watch Jude learn and enjoy the game.

Anna paints her nails and then takes a photo of them on Marcy’s phone

There is a bit of a story to the photo above. Anna painted her toenails by herself and was very proud of them. But that is not the interesting part. What she did, unbeknownst to Marcy, was take Marcy’s phone and go upstairs to our bedroom and proceed to take around 80 photos of her feet, our bed, our closet and many other parts of our bedroom. There was even an 18 minute video that she obviously didn’t know she was taking. She even caused Marcy’s phone to run out of backup storage. Sneaky girl.

The five cousins with Jude, Lily and Anna featuring various cats on their faces

All five cousins were together to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Des Moines. One of the reasons we make the effort to visit so regularly is that they really do love each other and get along so well. And now the twins are three they are starting to play more together. Although for outings it is usually just Lily, Jude and Anna – as was the case with the Science Center celebration where the kids all got their faces painted.

The kids toasting in the New Year at 6pm on December 31.

The highlight of the trip was definitely New Year’s Eve. We did an early celebration so the kids could all do a countdown and then a toast to the New Year. They get quite into the spirit of the evening. We even did a balloon drop that was very exciting – see the video below.

There was not much outside time on this trip, it was too cold and unfortunately not enough snow for sledding. And the five days were over too soon and then it was back to Denver. Where we had one night at home before heading up to the mountains to Keystone.

Marcy and Chloe sharing some quality time

Jude and Anna are booked in for ski school every Saturday in January. It was bitterly cold on Saturday – Marcy and I skied a couple of runs and decided to call it quits but Jude and Anna did great. They tooled around on the kids slopes in the morning and in the afternoon went up the mountain to ski down. The instructor said there were no tears and no tantrums and all the kids did great. They are already looking forward to doing it again next weekend.

Anna and Jude all bundled up and ready for ski school.