Thanksgiving at Glenwood Springs

Ever since our trip to Glenwood Springs last Thanksgiving, Jack has been asking to go to the "Water slide hotel" again. All year long, Jack would ask when he was going to take the train with daddy to the water slide hotel. So we knew, we needed to make it a tradition. 

Thanksgiving morning Lily and I dropped Luke and Jack off at the Amtrak in Denver for their 6 hour train ride up the mountain. 

Lily and I made it to the hotel several hours before Jack and Luke were to arrive so we hit up the water slide for a bit and then took a walk around town. Then we waited by the train tracks to see the boys' train come in

After picking up Luke and Jack we went to the River's Restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner. I'm not a fan of traditional Thanksgiving food, so I was happy to order a tasty steak while everyone else had ham and turkey.

At Thanksgiving dinner. Lily is hiding behind Nani
and Jack is preoccupied with coloring.

There's Lily!

 Some pictures at our hotel

Friday morning we visited the Hot Springs. It was a little bit stinky at first

But after running through 20 degrees in our bathing suits, it felt nice to get into the warm water! The kids actually had a great time jumping of the diving board and swimming in the fog. But it was so cold outside that any part of our body not in the water (aka our face) actually stung. 

Friday night we walked around the town and stopped in a couple ice cream/candy stores. The first stop had saddles as seats

And the ice cream was good too!

But the best part of the trip (at least for the kids) was going on the water slide...over and over... and over and over again

Saturday morning we took the tram up to the adventure park

The kids were excited at first

And then Jack told Lily we were going to crash...

Jack and I went down the alpine slide until we were frozen

Luke's attempt to get a picture of me and the background....

We also had a lot of fun at the 4D theatre. The workers were nice enough to let Lily in even though the minimum age was 4... but she LOVED it. The seats moved and air/water sprays at your face, but Lily had a blast. We watched all four movies two times. I was happy that Lily was able to have fun since she couldn't go on the alpine slide or the laser tag. 

Finally we headed down the mountain

It was a great time! Until next year...

Happy Halloween

Halloween and more

We enjoyed many Halloween outings this year, but the favorite was a "trunk or treat" festival at a local church. They had a fun spinning ride that both kids got to go on:

waiting in line for the ride

Cute dragon

Then, in the parking lot there were rows of cars. Some were decorated, some weren't but they all had candy in the trunk (hence "trunk or treat")

Candy in the trunk

Well decorated van

It took some courage, but Lily finally went into the van.

Checking out their candy stash.

I arranged for a local painting studio to come to our clubhouse one Friday night to paint the sunset over our lake. It was a lot of fun and our apartment supplied all the food and drinks.

Luke's finished masterpiece of the sunset over our lake:

My grandpa stopped by for a visit on his way home from Montana. The kids remembered him from last year and were really excited to see their Papa again.

During the warm days we started a hobby of looking for snakes. There are tons of them that live around the lake so we would see how many we could count and catch. On one of our walks we counted 8 snakes.

One of the little snakes we caught

We even caught a huge bull snake. It was probably six feet long. I held it for a second but it rattled and tried to bite me so I had to let it go. It was the biggest snake I have even seen in the wild.

Big bull snake.

Lily and a little snake

Luke is more afraid of the snakes than anybody :) So afraid in fact that he gets nervous even trying to take a picture of the snake...that is why half my head is missing

The kids touching a baby snake

Jack's kindergarten is going great! His class got switched to part time so he is home with me more which I love. He is growing up so fast!

Jack's Kindergarten Picture

Lily turns two!

Lily had a big day for her 2nd birthday. First we spent the day at Jack's school where his class was able to sing her happy birthday

Then we joined Jack and his school on a field trip to the farm. Lily was most excited about being able to ride on the school bus

She was so excited that she could barely contain herself :)

At the farm we were able to pick pumpkins

See the farm animals

Play

Walk around the farm

And then we got to ride the bus back to the school

At home that evening we had a small party for Lily

She was thrilled about the new shoes she got from Nani and Papi

She was already able to ride her new scooter like a pro (sorry the video is sideways, I couldn't figure out how to rotate it)

Happy Birthday to Lily

Lily and her princess dress

Her new bed and tent from Nani and Papi

The birthday girl

Happy Birthday Lily!

Lily's favorite present is probably the Barney doll that Jack got her.

Fall is here

I officially packed up our summer clothes and unpacked all our jackets/sweaters, etc. It seemed like the cold weather came on really fast this year... there was no time to adjust before the freezing temperatures hit. Our poor garden has suffered from the cold and we just picked what might be the last of our harvest:

Jack and Lily each had their first check ups at the dentist. I think they must be the only kids who LIKE going to the dentist

 Luke and I did a 5k through our church which was right around our very own lake. The post race party was really fun for the kids with bouncy houses and lots of food and even ice cream

 Lily has taken in interest in running. She loves to put on her "running" shoes and run on the trail

Jacks school has been going good. He has started saying a few things in French. His class is too small to be profitable though so they are switching it to part time. Part of me is happy that Jack will be home more. Full day kindergarten is a lot for a 5 year old.

Lily will be happy to have Jack around more too. They miss each other so much during the day. As soon as we pick Jack up from school they spend several minutes just hugging.