Thanksgiving in Winter Park

Our Thanksgiving tradition to Glenwood Springs had to be altered this year. First off, someone is always sick at Thanksgiving and second I didn't want to travel far with a newborn. We decided instead to go to Winter Park which is only about 2.5 hours away (instead of 4 hours). It was a good thing too because a few days before we left Josie came down with a terrible cold. I took her to the doctor the day before Thanksgiving and found out not only was she sick, but Lily had a double ear infection. It never fails that someone is sick on Thanksgiving. 

It is so sad to see my baby sick

Thursday (Thanksgiving) morning I dropped Luke and Jack and Lily off at the train station. This was the first year that Lily got to take the train with the boys and she was thrilled!

Breakfast before the train

Getting ready to board the train

All ready for the train ride

Although the train is fun, it really is a pain. Not only was the train delayed an hour at departure, but then it was held up another 90 minutes by freight trains. So I was supposed to meet everyone at 10am in Fraser and they didn't show up until after 12:30.


It was a beautiful and warm Thanksgiving day. After picking Luke and the kids up at the train station we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go sledding.

The sledding his was a blast! My mom stayed and watched Josie so I was able to get in on the fun with the kids. We stayed on the "easiest" slope but it still took my breath away. The hill was so fast I couldn't imagine what would happen if one of us fell out of the tube. Thankfully there were no accidents.

After sledding we went back to the room to relax for a couple hours.

Josie is enjoying her first hotel stay

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Deno's Mountain Bistro

I'm not a fan of Turkey so I ordered the prime rib dinner. It was pretty good, although I think I'd rather save the money next time and get pizza.

Josie slept through the whole dinner

After dinner we headed back to our hotel and Luke took the kids to the indoor pool to swim for a couple hours. 

Friday was another beautiful day and we headed to the slopes to get some skiing in. We had hoped Jack would remember how to ski (he learned in Switzerland), but no such luck. He was like a limp noodle.

After a few hours like this Jack was tired and frustrated. We took a break to eat lunch and then put him in ski school.

Meanwhile we rented ski gear for lily

And Luke took her out on the bunny slopes:

Lily is a natural.

And Josie is a great sleeper


Three hours later we picked Jack up from ski school:


He was so excited to tell us that he went on the big chair lift and down one of the main ski slopes. He took us back over to the bunny slope to show off his skills. It was amazing to see the difference the lessons made:

After a long day the kids were beat!

Lily fell asleep before we could even get to the car

Since Jack did so amazing with skiing we decided to rent the gear for another day. Saturday was another nice day and we headed back to the slopes. This time we went to another side of the mountain where you can pay $10 to ride one lift as many times as you want.

$10 lift that is perfect for beginners

Jack spent all morning skiing with Luke and my mom and dad. It is so neat to watch him, it's only a matter of time before he's better than all of us.

While Jack was skiing, I was hanging out with this beauty

Then it was her turn to join Jack on the slopes

After everyone was done sledding we were ready to head back to the car when we saw Santa!

Afterwards we loaded up the car and headed back for the 2.5 hour drive home. Unfortunately it turned into a 6 hour drive with traffic and random bathroom breaks. Several of those hours were spent like this: 

I think it will be a while before I am ready for another "vacation"

Winter is here

It was such a warm fall. As Halloween came and went with no snow, I was wondering if the snow would ever come. We enjoyed many warm fall days outside: 

And then it hit us. The cold weather came hard and fast. Lots of snow and freezing temperatures overnight: 

I was sending the kids outside to play in the snow until one day I heard a crash and screaming. Turned out Jack had climbed on the plastic covering over the window well and it broke and he fell down the well. Thankfully he wasn't hurt. Just shook up. And me too. I didn't send them outside again for a while.

I still have to walk Jack to and from school in the freezing weather so we all get really bundled up. Even Josie:

A couple last pictures of Jack and his little sister look alike

Time with Lily and Josie

Now that Jack is in school all day, Lily finally gets time to do fun things for just her. She gets to have her own play dates: 

And she loves to go shopping:

She is also in gymnastics:

And once a week we go to princess story time at a local cupcake store

She gets to go on outings with her friends:

And even gets some outings with Daddy

Josie tags along with us everywhere. She is such a happy/easy baby!

Lily loves her sister!

Josie is getting so big now. But she is definitely smaller than her siblings at this age. At 2 months she is just 10lbs. A tiny little peanut.

But she is cute as a doll

She is learning to suck her thumb

And giggle

Here is a video of Lily singing to Josie and Josie smiles at the end of the video