Mardi Gras Parade!

All of us had a blast at the ardi Gras Parade on Tuesday. The kids caught loads of beads and stuffed animals. And Tye even caught the Grand Prize...the special Fat Tuesday feather boa.

Everyone was going nuts in the street for the wild boa and the little girl who was to throw it out specifically picked Tye!! "That cute little boy...right there...that one! He gets the boa," she said! She kept pointing until everyone knew it was to go to Tysen! It was crazy. She was probably 8 years old and seemed head over heels for our little man. Tye felt SOOOOO special. Of course, Jake was disappointed she chose TT but it was quite a special thing for our Tye! You can see in the pictures how excited he was and how much fun we all had.

Dammy and Papi's Visit

"Daaaamy"! "Paaaaapi"! - That's what Josslyn yelled every morning when she woke up for the past 6 days. Even this morning, she woke up yelling the same thing and we could tell she was dissapointed when daddy came in and got her and brought her downstairs for breakfast without 'Grammy and Papi".

The past week was fantastic: full of fun with grandma and grandpa Botkin. We told the kids, about a week before my parent's came, that they were going to get 2 very special surprises that we had to go pick up in Denver. So on Wednesday, we packed up the car for the drive and headed towards the airport. The kids kept asking questions: Do we have to share them? Can we play with them? How big are they? Can we take it to the ski resorts with us? Etc, etc. Each of our answers just puzzled them even more. NEVER did they expect the surprise to be their grandparants.

As soon as we arrived at the airport, the kids realized where we were but it still didn't dawn on them that the surprise would be people. Jake excitedly said, "I know....are we blasting back to Arizona???" Just then, he spotted his grandparents. His eyes grew huge and his mouth dropped. Then, he yelled. "Grammy! Papa!" Tye turned and spotted them and they whipped off their seatbelts and flew out of the car. They were SO excited and SO surprised. Jake said that it was the best surprise they ever had...

The rest of the week was equally as fun and exciting. My parents surprised us even more by putting on skis and skiing for 2 full days! It was a blast. And they did so well. My dad even had skills enough to take some videos of the kids snowboarding as he skiied down the mountain! We spent loads of time at the ski resorts and enjoyed some sight seeing as well. It was so nice to have them here and have them share in our happiness here in Colorado. It was good for all of us. And needless to say, the kids were in heaven.

And, Nick and I had a chance to go snowboarding together for the first time! It was so much fun! Although, Nick pushed me so hard on the black runs, that every muscle in my body aches. And I took my second big smackdown, this time from catching a heelside edge. And although I knew Nick was an amazing snowboarder since he has competed and won loads of competetions, seeing him in action in the snowboard park was UNBELIEVABLE! I will bring my camera and video camera next time we go together so I can post pictures of him doing a 540 with a twist over a 45 foot jump! It's insane! Really. It's still not nearly as frightening as Jake doing a 5 foot jump in he kid board park! Now that freaked me out! Pictures of that also to come.

One last thing...both Nick's laptop and mine were out of commision for the last week and a half...Papa fixed those two AND our home computer! So we're back in action on the blog.

We're looking forward to John Smiez's visit this week, Auntie Chantelle, Uncle Jon and cousin Leighton's visit in early May and then, Auntie Erin in June. And then, grammy and papa will be back in July to take Nick and I white water rafting!!!! Wahoooo! Anyone esle want to come out and vivist? You're more than welcome!

Fun in the Snow

Today, Tye, Joss and I went to the park...quite a different experience than winter parks in AZ. The snow was so deep in areas that Tye went all the way into it up to the top of his head! It was a blast. Thankfully, I brought the sled to pull Jossie through the deeps. We'd have lost her in the snow without it! And boy, I still get out of breath quickly exerting that much energy!

It's so beautiful here. And with the weather warming up, we are starting to see lots of animals. We see Elk almost every day, foxes, deer and rabbits. Our neighbor Gail has dogs, goats and mini horses. The kids LOVE to go over there and play. We feels so blessed to have so many good things in our life.

And speaking of good things, Grandma and Papa Botkin are coming out for a visit next week. The kids are going to go nuts when they just show up at the door. We are keeping it a surprise. In the mean time, Nick and I are very, very excited!

Just some pictures

Josslyn is growing into such a big girl. She loves the bath, swimming around like a crazy little fish in the tub.

You can see a few of the green runs that the boys do in the background of the picture of Josslyn in her pink snowsuit (Thanks, great grandma!)

Snowboarding and sledding are two of our favorite pasttimes. In one of the pictures, Nick chases Tye down the T-Bar Bunny Hill and in the other, Jake sleds down the road to our house. We have still not had any cars drive past our house except for our neighbor, the fabulous Mrs.Gail. She has loads of animals including mini horses and goats and runs an Alpacka rescue in the warmer seasons.