May: Month of the grandparent

The kiddies got to spend time with all their biological grandparents this month. We had Grandma and Grandpa visit from Michigan for two weeks and the went to Denver where we spent time with Grandad, in town from Texas, and saw a bit of Gammy too.



















Grandma noticed the kiddies like to ride the broom and mop so when she happened to spot some horses at the thrift store she put two and two together.






































We have a lot more pictures of our long weekend in Denver than of the two weeks of visiting grandparents at our house, probably we were inspired to take more photos being around Aunt Lisa with her camera, her lovely pictures of our time together can be seen here on her website, and check out her blog to see some fun short movies she made.

Mexico '15

We had a fantastic trip to the Puerto Vallarta area for Alex & Aline's wedding on March 14. They got married at Villa del Cielo, in a lovely civil ceremony officiated by a Mexican civil official and translated into English by a friend of Alex's. The mariachi band entered just as the paperwork was notarized and the novios kissed. Audrey slept during the ceremony so that she could save energy for the dancing. Her strategy for finding dance partners was to stand next to and stare at her intended until they let her cut in. Alex and Aline did an awesome performance of bachata dancing, there was some line dancing that I missed out on while putting the kiddies to bed, and then the dancing really heated up so the bride and groom decided to cool off by jumping in the pool!

More wedding pics here.

We stayed at the villa with family for a week and had some fun adventures including a couple boat outings to remote beaches, snorkeling spots and hikes to waterfalls. One of the hikes was serviced by lots of horses for rent so Audrey and Grandma took a ride together. We enjoyed a few trips into old town Puerto Vallarta to visit some restaurants, check out the beach and malecon and swim in the river. The area of the villa was called Conchas Chinas and the beaches there were little sandy spots surrounded by rocky outcroppings that were easily hopped along to get to the next sandy spot, so that made for some fun exploring and playing.

After everyone else went home we moved along the coast to a resort in Bucerias. It was an all inclusive resort complex so it was very easy. We had a huge kiddie pool just outside our room and the beach was nearby. I got to go on a quick catamaran ride right from the beach. We took one big adventure away from the resort when we went to the sought after Playa Destiladeros, where I had the unfortunate opportunity to meet una agua mala, or jellyfish, other than that it was lovely.

At one of the resort restaurants

At the resort beach

Dancing on the beach

One of the resort's resident iguanas

Family self-portrait attempts

View from our room

The last of our beach time before heading to the airport

Props

Julian had a good time playing at our neighbors house, probably because they have so many awesome "boy" toys, like this light saber.







Audrey feel asleep this way with fairy wings and rock star glasses in place.

Beautiful weekend for skiing

Even though we are on track for the lowest January snowfall on record, there is still enough snow for skiing, especially the type we are doing. Audrey is getting quite bold doing laps on the magic carpet, skiing down all by herself and heading right back up again. H, sJulian loves the magic carpet too although he has no need for those slippy slidy skis.
We spent Saturday at Howelsen and Sunday on rabbit ears for a long xc tour.

















The view from Howelsen nordic trails



Snack break on rabbit ears west summit trail

Hut trip

Should my New Years resolution be to do more timely blog posts, hmmm, well first I have to catch up. Here are some pictures we took on a hut trip in mid December (next post will be Christmas). This trip was a family trip, four families with kids ranging in age from 3 1/2 to almost 1 1/2, two nights in a hut one mile from the trailhead. It was the longest mile I have ever hiked and the general consensus was that part of the trip sucked, one friend said she is not going on another family hut trip until her kids can ski in themselves. Julian was on my back and all the other kids were in ski-mounted drag-a-long devices, what made this hard was the two feet on freshly fallen snow, the steep route and losing the trail for awhile. Once we were all there together things got better and when the snowy clouds lifted we had some beautiful views, so overall the trip was pretty good.

Christmas & New Years

We put up the Christmas tree right after thanksgiving so that we had plenty of time for Julian to investigate which ornaments were fragile, so that we could then glue some back together and place them higher on the tree.








We went to one of the community holiday celebrations, the one where they shut down the main street/US highway for several hours, this one might not last much longer. But for this year we were lucky enough to again have the presence of the fire breathing dragon (see Halloween) this time playing carols. Audrey was ready and so excited to meet Santa, then fell asleep within minutes of leaving the house, so we hung around downtown, got a beer, eventually she woke up and we went to meet the man. In the (very short by that time) line Chris explained the process of asking Santa to bring you some specific Christmas present, so she came up with "a stuffed animal Santa".



























Santa delivered his stuffed likeness, among other things and there were other deliverers too...Thanks Everyone!


























The wrapping paper was really fun for a while too.









And then came New Years Eve, which in our gang of friends doubles as a birthday, so we celebrated James's 40th with pointy hats and noise makers.

Thanksgiving in Durango

I was a little worried when, twenty minutes into a drive that lasted another 7 1/2 hours, Audrey started asking "are we there yet?" But the worry was for naught as we had a smooth trip there and back to visit Dan in Durango.

Here's the gang outside the Durango train station:



Welcoming Santa to town:


Playing in the Animas River:








Sliding at one of the parks we visited:



Heading home: