What a winter!

As I write this, I'm looking out my back window at the snow coming down for the 2nd time in two days.  I've lost track of how many "snow" days we've had this winter - I think this week may get us to a total of 5, a whole week of school missed! It's nothing compared to the winters we have in Canada, but you would never know it!  The world stops.  Over and over and over again. 

Poor Gus - can hardly move in that snowsuit!

Our first snow man!

The StayPuff Marshmallow Man

Luckily, we are fans of the white stuff and actually got a fair amount this time (we seem to have a lot of false alarms for some reason).  So today was spent out playing in the snow, making snowmen, throwing snowballs etc.  Matt and I somehow managed to take care of both kids all day - but we both collapsed on the couch as soon as they went down.  Man, those kids are exhausting!  At any given moment, Gus is scaling new heights, climbing on anything and everything he can. I can't tell you how many times I've walked into a room and found him standing in the middle of a table! His head is constantly covered in bruises from knocking it on the undersides of tables while climbing, or from tumbling down a flight of stairs, as he did last weekend.  Hank is a touch less adventurous, but much more vocal so he wears us out in a different way.  Did I mention that he is also currently obsessed with pee, pooh, and penises?  A delight!

The boys at the cabin

So, besides the weather this year being a series of polar vortexes (known simply as "winter" in Canada)  and snow storms, it has been a great but busy time! We've done a lot of traveling, heading to Chicago early in January for Whitney and Ryan's engagement party, and then to Park City for MLK weekend for an awesome 40th birthday celebration of a friend of Matt's from college.  Throw in a trip or two to NY for work and we have been run off our feet.  We were happy for February to arrive knowing that we had no plans to travel for the entire month!  What a concept!

We've been heading out to the cabin every weekend and really enjoying this bonafide winter we are having this year.  It has snowed every time we've been out which makes everything beautiful and more fun for the kids.  Hank continues his ski education, while Matt and I still haven't done one run!  One day...

Hank celebrated his birthday in Bryce with a small group of friends

Receiving his favorite gift - a very loud airplane from Auntie Alice and Uncle Brian.
He is beside himself. 

I'm wrapping up my Animal Planet project in a month and looking forward to going back to having only one job.   Also on the list of things to look forward to - our spring break trip to the Dominican. Bring on the sunshine!

I leave you with some cute shots of the Goose Man.

Happy 4th Birthday Hank!

My little baby is turns 4 today!  It doesn't seem possible, but if I've learned anything since becoming a parent it's that time is a funny thing.  The past 4 years have been the longest and the shortest of my life at the same time. Having Hank has been a wild ride; he's teaching us as much (probably more) about ourselves as we are teaching him. 

This year has seen Hank grow from being a curious toddler to a precocious preschooler.  He loves school, other kids and his little brother.  He also really loves anything mechanical, including watching videos of washing machines on you tube.    He is confident, defiant, sweet and silly.  We can't wait to see how his unique personality continues to develop in the years to come. 

More on his birthday celebration next week, along with an update on our whirlwind of January. Mwah! 

To Hell You Ride!

At least that's how it started...

We are back from a week long glorious vacation to Telluride, also known as "to hell you ride", and for good reason apparently.  The trip started out on the wrong foot with one of the top 5 worst travel days we've collectively experienced. Highlights include:

- barely making our flight to Denver

- flight to Telluride cancelled 

- argument at rental car counter over car

- lost one of 6 bags; caused hour long delay and argument at baggage counter

- blinding snow squalls on 7.5 hour drive over mountain passes

- accident in Eisenhower tunnel shutting down highway

- herd of deer crossing dark highway in front of our minivan

- almost driven off road by car trying to avoids an obstacle in his lane 

- getting caught behind a snow plow traveling at 15 miles an hour for the last 5 miles of the journey

Alas, we arrived in one piece and are happy to report that it was well worth the effort.  Telluride is awesome.  Beautiful beyond words.  Wonderful weather.  Great snow.  Amazing house.  Great restaurants.  We woke up everyday to incredible views of the mountains, walked ten feet to the slopes outside our door to ski 6 days in a row (unheard of and only made possible by a wonderful babysitter and Nana who watched Gus during the day).  Hank attended ski school every day and loved it.  He learned all about pizza wedges and french fries and will be skiing down the hills faster than us in no time.  My parents came up from Arizona on Christmas Eve to celebrate with us and we had a lovely time with them. 

A Christmas break to remember for sure. 

Our trip home was luckily much less eventful. We spent our 6th anniversary (also known as New Year's Eve) with some good friends over a good dinner and then headed up to the cabin to finish out the week.  All in all, a great break from our crazy schedules and a much needed recharging of our batteries.  

We'll need all the energy we can muster for January.  We travel to Chicago next weekend with the kids to celebrate Whitney and Ryan's engagement with the whole fam (and we'll get to squeeze in a visit with the Auntie Alice and Uncle Brian).  The following weekend sees Matt and I back on the slopes in Park City with some London-based friends to celebrate a 40th birthday.  Not too shabby!

Wishing you all a happy new year! If you have time to kill, click here for our entire Christmas album. I've included some highlights below.

A cool customer...

A funny little elf...

Not bad view over lunch

Santa found us in Colorado...

Our little angel in the school pageant

The view from the living room...

Happy Gus on Christmas morning

Writing the letter to Santa with Nana

Getting creative with our undergarments. 

Checking out the frozen lake at Bryce - thank you polar vortex! 

Jingle Quack!

The presents are wrapped, the cards are sent, the out of office message is on, and the packing is done (well, half done).  We are off to Telluride tomorrow on a ski vacation that we have been looking forward to since July.  The last couple of weeks have been manic but all worth it when I think of the down time we are about to enjoy in the snowy Colorado mountains.

Bring on the wine, good food, and most of all the powdah!

I leave you with Hank sweetly singing his rendition of a Christmas classic....hope you all have a very merry Christmas! 

Santa baby?

A few pics from our visit to Santa this Saturday.  Santa came all the way from the North Pole to Hank's school book fair.  It all started out just fine with Hank and Gus enjoying story time with the school librarian.  Once their big moment came with Mr. C, Gus has second thoughts.  Hank managed to get in his request for a "fixed zube tube" (the worlds most annoying toy which had recently broken much to my relief) and a silver bell (inspired by the polar express) in spite of his brother's protests.  

Thanksgiving and then some...

Time is flying and I haven't had a chance to put up a post about Thanksgiving - I can't believe that Christmas is less than 3 weeks away! 

We headed out to the cabin for the weekend to host Matt's sisters, Katie and Alice, and their families for Thanksgiving.  Sadly, Alice and her husband Brian had to turn around early in their road trip to deal with an urgent health issue, which was the right thing to do.  We missed them none the less but are glad to hear that things are on the mend.  Katie, David and the kids arrived on Tuesday and we came up Wednesday afternoon.  Just as we arrived it started to snow which was lovely!

Camp Kelly in the snow. 

The weekend was filled with lots of hikes around the lake, trips out in the canoe, fishing, chopping logs, watching movies and eating TONS of good food.  After Thanksgiving dinner, the kids had the brilliant idea of disposing of the turkey carcass in the lake.  Uncle Matt led the team down to the waters edge and Harrison launched the bird into the drink.  Country living!

Harrison and Hank taking selfies on Uncle Matt's camera.

William and Maggie teaching Gus about Tucker.  Or was it the other way around? 

This shot is blurry, but that's only because of the kid's speed.  Future Gretzky or what?

Log chopping, a favorite activity. 

The view from my morning walk around the lake Thanksgiving Day.

The Bells left Friday and we stayed up for the weekend to relax and enjoy the house.  The ski hill opened on Friday and Hank went skiing in real skis for the first time.  We are trying to prep him for our
 trip to Telluride over xmas when he will be put in ski school (wooohoooo - finally!).  So far, so good!

Skiing phenom! 

Gorgeous sunset Saturday night.  This is view from our living room. 

Saturday morning, we were sitting in the main room and out of the corner of my eye I see a bald eagle fly by and land on a tree right by the lake in front of the house.  This is not a common occurrence. Woodpeckers, yes.  Bald eagles with 5 feet + wingspans, no.   Then I noticed that many of the lake's resident Canadian geese were hanging around down there too.  All too soon, the reason became apparent.  It turns out that geese and eagle really like Thanksgiving turkey too.  Somehow the carcass had made its way to the shallow area in front of our house the birds were all trying to get a piece. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but the turkey this year was pretty damn good. The eagle hung around for a while and was fascinating to watch so we may try this method of rare bird attraction again.

Our friend the eagle. 

Sunday, we rushed back to the city to try and get the house all dolled up for Christmas and just like that the holidays were in full swing.  You can see our full Thanksgiving album here.  I'm in LA right now visiting my new little nephew Greyson and my old little nephew Hayes.  We'll be decorating their Christmas tree tonight.  When I get back to DC tomorrow we'll only have two weeks before we leave for Colorado...counting down the days!

The littlest elf of all. 

One proud big brother! 

Hope you all had a nice holiday and are enjoying the most wonderful time of the year.  Mwah!

Post script:  I am now back in DC by the hair of my chinny chin chin.  The ice storm made for a treacherous landing but God bless the pilots at Alaska Air for getting me back to DC (and not diverting the plane to Boston which was plan B - would have been wicked awful).

Photo Round Up

Couldn't resist putting up some cute pics from the past week.  Don't tell the kids but we skipped the actual night of Halloween and went up to Bryce for a long weekend...

"Are you kidding me with this costume?"

Scrum-diddly-umptious! 

The Nursery class at the Halloween parade.

How did Hank get so big!?  Out fishing with his dad...

Hank is in to being gross right now, not cute.  

Cooking in our underwear, socks and a floral apron, natch. 

Two cute boys in a chair. 

Hank LOVED his fishing rod. 

Hank and Dad in the canoe on the lake.