Weekend In Breck...

When Payton and Brady were each about a month old, we headed up to Breckenridge for a night away. My parents have a time share at the Grand Timber Lodge, so we are lucky to have a great place to stay when it's available. We couldn't break tradition, so we loaded up the car and headed to Breck this past weekend.

Wes and his friend Bradd drove up Friday morning to hit the slopes. In their single days, they skied together almost every weekend. The kids and I joined them in the afternoon. A beautiful sunny day with amazing snow!
After a quick dip in the pool/hot tub, we settled in to our room for the night. The kids enjoyed some hot chocolate by the fire.
My college friend and roommate Kristi and her husband Jason flew in from Ann Arbor for the weekend. They were skiing with some friends, but they drove over to visit with us for a while. It's always so great to catch up...we need to plan a reunion with all of us soon!We had dinner in our room, but we headed down to the restaurant for some dessert. Nothing better than chocolate cake...Saturday morning, we got up bright and early to do another swimming session. Swimming and snow, brrr!
Two of the hot tubs are connected by a cool water fall. We spent a lot of time there climbing and exploring. The steam added a mysterious touch :)And finally, back to the room to clean up. All three kids have had a session in the jacuzzi tub as newborns. It was Landon's turn this time!Before we headed back to Denver, we stopped by the Snow Sculpture Contest in downtown Breck. There were about 20 different sculptures that all started out like this massive ice block.Payton and Wes's favorite: MedusaI liked this one...it was supposed to be two kids playing Marco Polo in the pool :)It was really nice to get away (once the car was packed and we were driving). We are lucky to have the mountains so close. Now we just need to get the kids up on skis!

One Month

Pictures With 3 Kids Take 1, 2, 3, 4...

The Stock Show, Yee Haw!

Friday afternoon we headed down to the Denver Coliseum for our annual trip to the Stock Show. I really wanted to take Landon but thought twice about dragging a sleeping newborn in a stroller through lots and lots of dust, poop, snow, etc., so he stayed at home with Grandma Inge.

This was Payton's 7th trip to the rodeo, Brady's 3rd. As a result, I feel like I take the same pictures every year, the kids just get a little bigger! Oh well, it's all part of the experience. We had a great time hanging out with just the "big kids". The weather was beautiful, the cowboys were cool, and we all got a taste of the Wild Wild West!

The Stock Yards.
It took Brady a while to figure out which animals were horses and which were cows. I guess all he sees are cartoon pictures, so he was a little confused. Payton grew out of her favorite red boots, so Brady got to wear them this year!
My favorite places to visit are the livestock barns. We were watching this man give his cow a shower, and he asked if the kids wanted to help. So cool!We HAD to pay for the $6.00 pony rides...
And of course, no visit to the Stock Show is complete without spending some time in the petting zoo.
The goats sure do like Brady's straw hat!Payton's favorite baby goat. See her video below...

Landon will join in the fun next year!

Rub A Dub Dub, Three Kids In A Tub

Ice Skating Adventures

On New Year's Eve, my mom and dad took Payton and Brady to the DU Hockey Game. This was their first game ever, and as you can expect, they had an absolute blast. They got to see five goals scored by DU in the 3rd period, made posters in the lobby saying Go DU and thumbs down to the ""Green Team", AND they got hockey pucks from Uncle Dave. They had a great time, and a huge thanks to my mom and dad for watching the big kids so Wes and I could go out to dinner.

That was last week Friday night. Every day since then, Brady has asked/begged/pleaded for us to take him ice skating. So, this morning, we loaded ourselves into the car (this takes significantly longer with three kids) and headed over to South Suburban for some quality ice time. Payton did a great job...I think her roller blading experience really helped her out. She was able to get around the rink on her own, and she really got moving fast when she used the metal support.

Brady was a different story. I'm pretty sure he thought he would be able to step out onto the ice and skate like the hockey guys. Not so much. It was hilarious watching him figure out how to stand in hockey skates just on regular ground. He resorted to hitching rides with Wes and me. I think his favorite part was inching his way along the wall to the player bench. Oh, and wearing the hockey helmet.

Giddy Up

I am happy to report that it's that time of year again...I've said it before, but this might just be the ONLY reason to be happy that Christmas is over. That's right, it's Stock Show time!

Abby, Jayne, and I, along with our five boys (poor PR is in school) headed downtown to watch the Stock Show Parade this afternoon. Jayne told me this was her first trip downtown since they moved to Denver! She (and the rest of us) got to enjoy the steers, horses, wagons, and tractors celebrating the Wild West. (We'll have to babysit Cohen so Brad can take you on a date to enjoy the other side of downtown soon :))

It was a sunny January day, the boys thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and we had a great time!

A New Year & A New Life

Happy New Year!

Wishing you a happy 2011!
(Our first family-of-five photo celebrating an Irish Sun Bowl victory!)

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010 was an adventure to say the least.

I couldn't decide whether or not to make a video. But, I wanted to add too much text, so the result is this VERY LONG post. Oh well, there was a lot to write about :)

It started way back on December 18th with Christmas #1. We celebrated at my parents house with Mark & Abby, Brad & Jayne, and all the kiddos before they flew home to Chicago and Michigan.

We had a great day opening stockings, spoiling the kids with presents, and just spending time together!

Oma & Opa and all of their grandkids. Well, minus Landon. He was still -3 days old :)
As good as it gets with 5 kids under 6...

Wes just LOVES Heator...it's pretty easy to see why.
Baby Co-Co's First Christmas...
Payton & Brady LOVED their gifts. Among their favorites...a puppy pillow pet and whac-a-mole game for Brady. Auntie Abby had a great time buying "girly" toys for Payton who was in heaven playing with her Squinkees, Magic Fabric, and Zoobles (doesn't this sound like a foreign language?)

And a few more fun shots from the rest of the day...

Nolan and his Buzz Lightyear
Jayne got me some very large white wine glasses from Crate & Barrel. I am pretty excited that I can now actually use them!
Brady sporting Opa's Dancing with the Stars hat...The Boys...
The Girls...
A pretty special Oma & Opa!
Then we decided to take a break from our regularly scheduled program to have a baby. See videos, pics, etc. on previous posts.

We got home from the hospital on the 23rd. The morning of the 24th we headed back to my mom and dad's for Christmas #2.

Wes set up Brady's train around the Christmas tree this year. Opa remembered that he had his train set from when he was a little boy buried deep inside the crawl space. He dug it out and set it up, very cool!
Payton's presents to us...And, again, favorite gifts included:

A Hummer for Brady...
A robe and Fazoodles (more strange language) for Payton. Oma actually got a matching polka dot robe, but she didn't wear it for the picture :)And a wok for Wes (that sounds like a toungue twister)
For the past two years, Wes has given my mom and dad five extra gifts. They come out after the rest of the presents are done. It was Wes's turn to get the gifts this year...
What Baby Landon did during his first Christmas:
This brings us to the night of Christmas Eve. For as long as I can remember, we have headed over to Oma Bosch's house for a night of food, caroling, and a visit from Santa. This year was no exception...

The oldest and the youngest party attendees:
During carol time, Payton read a Christmas story for everyone. She did a great job!

And no Christmas Eve is complete without Jingle Bells and a visit from Santa.

And this leads us FINALLY, to Christmas #4/7/whatever on Christmas Day. We love waking up with just our family (unfortunately at 6:15 in the morning) to see if Santa has come to visit...

Grandma Tammy & Grandma Inge joined us mid-morning. Pictures seemed to taper off here, but let's just say that gymnastics lessons and a remote control car were a big hit.

And a few hours later, we were joined by my parents, Gwen, Tim, & Rylan, and Dave for our traditional Christmas dinner. A big thank you to Tammy and Grandma for doing ALL of the cooking.

Wes and Tim enjoying their sons' new toys.
And the entire group sitting down for dinner.
So, I think that pretty much wraps up our 2010 Christmas adventure. It was crazy, hectic, and wonderful all at the same time. I think that at this point next year, I will look back and wonder how we did all of this with a newborn. I guess the answer is by being surrounded by such amazing family and friends. And isn't that what it's all about?