Powder Fresh

Jason and I actually took advantage of living in Durango today and went skiing! (JR stayed home with Ayi since she'll only be here 2 more weeks.)

When we lived in Beijing one of our favorite things to do was go to the markets and haggle. After they would give us their first price we'd roll our eyes and put on a big production about how we were "local" and not "tourists". We'd then tell them they needed to be giving us "the special price". Well, seems that "the special price" also works for locals in Durango. Jason and I love hollering out we're locals (although I usually let Jason do it because I know my accent will give me away). And since were locals, we were able to rent all our ski equipment today for $6. $6 Total! I was a little nervous about getting my ski legs back; we haven't been skiing in 5 years. But luckily skiing is a lot like riding a bike. It came back pretty quick.

Going skiing also gives us a chance to tell 2 of our favorite stories. As soon as we sat down on the first ski lift of the day I said, "Okay! Time for my Pentecostal skiing story." So the very first time I learned to ski (which was in college) there was a group of Pentecostal girls in our group lessons. Since Pentecostal women don't wear pants, all the girls were dressed in long, denim skirts. They were doing good for the first part of the lesson (better than I could do in a skirt), but then came time to learn how to get on and off the lift. They were a few chairs ahead of me, so I had a front row seat for the whole show. They actually made it on the lift without a problem, but getting off the lift...not so much. Their skirts got hung up in their skis as they were trying to get off and they all crashed in a big heap. They had to turn off the lift to get them all up again. They weren't hurt so the whole thing was absolutely hilarious! But I do give those girls tons of credit, there's no way I'd even try skirt-skiing!

Our other favorite skiing story is from when we went to Banff, Canada with my parents and Jason's mom. My dad would sit in the living room of the house and watch all the snowboarders walk around town bumming rides to the mountain. My dad thought all the snowboarders were really cool, and by the end of the trip he told us, "I think I could have been one of those snowboarders when I was young. You know, I was a really good roller-skater." My mom being ever the #1 fan of my dad replied, "Oh John! You would have been great! Jan, your daddy was the best roller-skater there was!" Jason and I still laugh about my dad the snowboarder/roller-skater!

Singing Sensation

I was back up at JR's school today. This time it was for "Music Play Day", which translated means: "parents come watch your kids in music class". Being that I can't go anywhere without causing some sort of minor scene, I show up with twin babies and a Chinese woman in tow. Since I'm as used to being the new mom as JR is being the new kid, (and everybody was already checking out my entourage) I walked up and said, "Hi! I'm JR's mom, Jan, we're new to the school." The other moms were nice enough to introduce themselves to me, and one freaked me out a bit when she told me where I lived. Wow, this is a small town. Another mom asked me if Ayi was JR's grandmother. I thought I did a good job of hiding my shock at the question, but what's even stranger is tonight a mom from snowboarding class asked me the same thing!
JR's music class was actually cute and fun. JR was thrilled that we were there, and the babies thought the kids were there to put on a private show just for them. Kyle and Reed sat in our laps and clapped and "danced" thoroughly entertained.
At one point the teacher went over and played a song on the piano. She asked the kids, "What song am I playing?" About 5 hands shot up, JR's being one of them, and she began to call on kids.
The first kid said, "I forgot."
Next one named a song that was wrong.
Then a little boy said, "The Pirate Song."
The teacher said, "No, but you're getting close."
She called on another kid and she gave the wrong answer too.
Finally she called on JR.
And of course, JR in his genius brilliance said, "5 Handsome Sailors!" (Right Answer!)
The kid that said The Pirate Song blurted out, "But that's what I said! I said The Pirate Song!"
No buddy, sorry but The Pirate Song isn't even close to 5 Handsome Sailors. I would agree that Johnny Depp is quite handsome as Captain Jack Sparrow, but I don't think that's where you were going with it.
Oh yeah, JR got the right answer...sure seems to me like these Coloradoans 'don't got nutin' on us Texans!

Next!

Alrighty, It's Kyle's turn to show off his Chinese trick. The video is super short, but if you watch it twice, watch Reed the second time. He sticks out his tongue...obviously if he hears Chinese and sees a camera he thinks it's time for his trick again too!

Happy Niu Year

I was reading that's the way the young Chinese that speak English are greeting each other this year..."Happy Niu Year". It's the year of the ox, and "ox" in Chinese is "niu" which is pronounced almost identically to our "new". I got a giggle out of that one, and was wishing it had been the year of the ox when I was there, because "Xin nian kuai le" (Happy New Year) is almost impossible for this Texan to get out of her mouth.

JR and Ayi were traditional Chinese last night and spent Chinese New Year's Eve making dumplings. JR really does like to help cook (must get that from Jason). And yes, in case you're wondering, it's also tradition to wear a Batman costume while you work. Okay, I made that last part up, but the Chinese have so many traditions they won't notice if I throw another one in there...besides, we were just happy he was wearing a shirt!


During part of the dumpling making process I was downstairs and heard all kinds of banging upstairs. About that time Ayi came and got me and told me to bring the camera. To my horror I found JR chopping onions with the giant butcher knife only Ayi uses. I quickly took a picture hoping not to freak out or faint. JR and Ayi were both so proud I couldn't bring myself to use common sense and tell them "no", but I think she could tell by the look on my face that there needed to be some extremely close monitoring going on.


Getting them all "wrapped" up.


Ayi and I went to JR's school today and talked about Chinese New Year. I read Tiki Tiki Tembo to the class and then the kids all ate the dumplings JR and Ayi had made. We taught them a few Chinese words, and as you can see, I brought in some Chinese costume pieces (hats and vests) for them to try on. You can't tell from the picture, but JR looked super-stylin' in his Chinese PJ's with Spiderman snowboots! JR is sitting on the floor behind the blonde girl in the pink ski bib.

He's Got Tricks In Him

One of Ayi's favorite things to do when we lived in China was to show off JR's Chinese skills. I think I've mentioned before that JR didn't really talk until he was 3, so Ayi found other ways to make sure everybody knew she was teaching JR Chinese. When JR was about 15 months they had a whole routine worked up. He would point to his eyes, ears, head, etc. as she would call out the body parts in Chinese. But really, what's a routine without a big finish? And it never failed, JR and Ayi's big finish always brought the Chinese people watching to tears of laughter. Jason and I never understood why she taught him this, or exactly why it was funny, but the end of their routine went like this:

Ayi: JR, Késou. (translation: JR, Cough.)

JR: Acugh-Achug (JR makes fake coughing sounds)

Chinese laugh.

Ayi: JR, Mā-mā Tìpen . (JR, Sneeze like your mom.)

JR: Achoo-Achoo-Achoo-Achoo-Achoo!

Chinese laugh and laugh, run over to hug and kiss JR, then give him candy or anything else they might have in their pockets.

I guess JR's now too old for their big fake sneeze routine, so Ayi has started working up new routines for the babies. Kyle's not yet ready for his debut. But as you'll see by the video, Reed's on his way!

Baby Talk: By Reed

Reed: Hallelujah! We're not sick anymore! We had some kind of lung virus that really made us sick. When Mommy got us to the doctor our oxygen levels were only 84 and 85%. Mommy knew we should be in the high 90's from our days as teeny-tiny babies in the NICU, but the doctor said that we only had to be at 89 or 90% because of the altitude here. We were only a few minutes from the doctor putting us in the hospital, but after our breathing treatment our numbers came up to 89%, so we got to go home. Mommy and Daddy have been giving us breathing treatments, and now we're all better and back to our old selves.


Since we weren't sick anymore, I was excited that brother and I got to go the doctor for our 1 year old check-up. (Clap! Clap! Clap!) We're as healthy as can be. We're still really little...we just can't get to 20 pounds, but we've consistently stayed little, so it's okay. The great thing about being little is that Mommy lets us eat whatever we want....she lets us do whatever we want too, but don't tell her we've got that figured out! Anyway, I'm going to get back to playing now...lots to play with and get in to when you're a big 1 years old like I am!

Snow Surfing

Is this the coolest kid you've ever seen or what? JR started snowboarding lessons last night. The lessons are actually called "snowsurfers", how cute of a name is that? He was so excited about his lessons that he wore his helmet in the car on the way there. There's a small "mountain" a couple of miles from our house where you can ski and snowboard at night. So he will be snowboarding Tuesday and Thursday nights for the next two weeks. I know snowboarding is hard, (not that I've tried, but it looks hard) so I talked to JR a lot about how he was going to fall down, and it would take him awhile to get the hang of it. He was convinced that they would teach him "to do a flip" on his first lesson.
After we got there, I stayed and watched his lesson and at one point I thought I was going to have to go and "have a nice chat" with the teacher. JR came down the hill and then she unlatched him from the board and told him to carry his board back up the hill. I watched JR struggle with that board for 5 minutes. He'd try and drag it a little way and then he would loose his grip and it would slide back down the hill. (The teacher was ignoring him and helping somebody else.) I was getting more furious by the second, there was my 5 year old baby struggling in the snow with that big, heavy snowboard! Had I been wearing my new snowboots I would have pranced myself right into the middle of the lessons, but I was afraid I'd slip on the ice and really make a spectacle of myself. I just wanted the teacher to go carry it for him; I had no idea there's an "easy" way to carry a snowboard. But apparently there is. One of the other moms standing there also felt sorry for JR and went and showed him the right way to pick it up and carry it. After she showed him, JR picked it right up and marched up that hill like it was the easiest thing he'd ever done. I wanted to strangle the teacher! She didn't even show him how to carry it! Now if we'd been paying big bucks for this class I would have made a big production of speaking to managers and such, but the class is taught through the Colorado Parks and Recreation Department. The 2 week class is only $24, how can I complain? After the "carrying fiasco" the rest of the class went really smoothly. He got a bit frustrated trying to get up, but other than that he really liked it. He was very proud of himself, and I was proud of him too. My little snowsurfer!

Identity Crisis

Poor Kyle and Reed. They have so many nicknames it'll be a wonder if they ever learn their real names. (At 5 JR still has trouble with his initials being his name. If you ask him his full name he'll tell you "JR Ingersoll John Robert". He knows John Robert has something to do with his name, but he's certainly not giving up that JR.) Jason and I have gotten better at referring to them by their names, though if I'm speaking about them together I call them "The Babies". Of course if we're stressed for time we do revert back to calling them "Mine" and "Yours". Jason's dad refers to them as "Ronnie" and "Donnie" which are his middle and younger brothers' names. Donnie is fabled to have lived a charmed life while growing up, so Jason was sure to call his dad and tease him that he and "Donnie" were going to upgrade to First Class for our flight to Albuquerque while the rest of us sat in the back. Poor Reed has gotten slammed with all kinds of nicknames from Jason's dad. Besides "Donnie", he also refers to him as "Alien" and "Casper"...a nod to both his preemie look and his pale white skin. Kyle has managed to skip the other nicknames since he's always told, "It's like looking in a mirror...you're so handsome!" when being held by Grandpa Gary. Now that Ayi is here, the boys have added two more nicknames to the list. "Da Di Di" (sounds like it's spelled) and "Shao Di Di" (sounds like "Shout" without the t). Which literally translated means "big little brother" and "little little brother". Oh yes, along with all those other nicknames, Reed is now known as "Little Little Brother". Leave it to the Chinese to be completely literal. Poor Reed, can't we give him just one tough guy nickname? Maybe Jason and I can start calling him something like "Hacksaw" or "Sledgehammer". Although that might not be much better. When the poor child starts school he'll spend the whole morning just trying to write his name on his paper..."Sledgehammer Ingersoll".

Army Men

The great thing about visiting China is that every touristy thing you'd ever want to see is conveniently located in Beijing. All except the Terracotta Army, those are in Xi'an (pronounced She-an). We made two trips to Xi'an to see the army/soldiers and Ayi went with us both times. Part of the tour is a movie where they reenact the soldiers being made and then destroyed (or how they think they were made and destroyed...they date back to 210 BC and the Chinese didn't even know they existed until 1974 when a farmer accidentally discovered them). JR always got super excited about the movie and would say "Bīngmǎ Yǒng! Bīngmǎ Yǒng!" (which to me sounds like Be-I-Own) everytime he would see one. If you've ever been to our house, you know we even have a 3ft. one standing outside our front door. Knowing how much JR liked the Bīngmǎ Yǒng, Ayi brought him 4 soldiers that he could "excavate" himself. It's actually quite cute. I took pictures of the excavation process, and now JR is the proud owner of 4 more Bīngmǎ Yǒng(s) to add to his collection.

Each solider is "buried" in it's own block.

Add some water...and get to work


Keep "digging"

Brush him completely clean

Another soldier "discovered"! (I know it's hard to see since everything in the picture is brown, the soldier is sitting on the counter to your left.)

Smarty Pants

Jason and I just knew that Ayi would love Kyle the most. In general, the Chinese have no problems playing favorites. Ayi loves JR like he's her own, and since Kyle looks exactly like JR (pacifier and all) we knew he would be the favorite. One thing we didn't count on is that Kyle doesn't have the same personality as JR. Ayi keeps saying that in all the pictures and video she's seen Reed was always crying and Kyle always looked happy, but in real life, Kyle is fussier and Reed is happier. And she's right. Kyle takes a great picture, the camera comes out and he starts to pose. Reed, who is usually always happy, looks scared and pitiful eveytime he sees a camera. Needless to say, Reed is really winning her over. Reed "dances" everytime he hears music (which she thinks is hilerous), and is also more active than Kyle. So after spending all of about 6 hours with them, Ayi decided that Reed is the smart one. The real kicker was that she spent all day yesterday trying to teach them to say "Ayi". Over and over

again I would hear "I-eeeee", "I-eeeee". Reed got the "I" part (really he already had the "I" part down before she got here), so of course she thought Reed was trying to say "Ayi". Yep, smarter one. But wait...Not so fast! Oh how quickly things can change! Kyle is now back in the race for smartest and favorite. As of this morning, she's decided that Kyle can understand Chinese better than Reed. Now I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it, but we were sitting in the playroom and she was talking to the babies. All I understood was the last word "huátī" which means "slide". As soon as she said "huátī", Kyle crawled out of my lap and went over and started climbing up the slide. Now maybe Kyle just felt like sliding at that very moment, but in Ayi's world, Kyle can understand Chinese. Reed was still playing at the coffee table, and since he can only say "I" of "Ayi" and Kyle understands "huátī" means "slide" (in her mind anyway) guess who's the new smarter one...it'll be interesting to see who wins out in the end!

SHE'S HERE!

JR and I were "arguing" on the way to the bus stop this morning about who was more excited that Ayi was coming today. We went back and forth saying, "No! I'm more excited!" What some of you may not know is that our ayi doesn't speak any English, just a few words here and there. Of course she and I can carry on extensive conversations. After basically living with her for 3 years, we know what the other one is trying to say. Unfortunately, random airport people aren't privy to our "language", so we had reason to worry about her (Beijing to San Fran to Denver to Durango). But to be honest, I wasn't worried about her at all. She's an amazing woman, and God takes such good care of her when she's coming to see us, that I just knew everything would be fine. And of course, there was a man who spoke Chinese on her flight from Denver to Durango. What are the odds? Actually, pretty huge. I knew she'd be delivered to us just fine. I was too busy tearing up when we saw her to take a picture of JR hugging her for the first time, but I think this picture is hilarious...she insisted on holding him just like she used to. He looks bigger than she is! JR is thrilled she's here; they played until he had to go to bed. She thinks the babies are pretty great, just can't get over how much smaller they are than JR was at that age. One things for sure, this month will pass way too quickly for all of us!

Bus-ing It

I know I've said this before, but JR loves the bus. I mean, really, really loves the bus. And to that I say: Praise the Lord! JR's love for the bus really helps me out. Especially since we live on what I would call "the top" of a mountain, and JR's school is near "the bottom" of the mountain. The Durango schools say that a Colorado school bus is 47 times safer than the average family car. I'm actually willing to bet that a Colorado school bus is 99 times safer than any car this native Texan could drive through the snow and ice. You'll remember that I told you there's only 1 school bus for his elementary, well in the mornings there's only 1 school bus for our whole neighborhood. Yep, the high school kids ride with them. JR told me, "Mommy! There's this one kid on our bus, and he's so big he's like a High School Musical Kid!" And since the High School Musical kids are all skinny and gorgeous, I'm guessing JR's use of the word "big" meant "tall". At the ripe old age of 5 I am also too unworthy to hang out with JR either. I'm not allowed to get too close to the actual stop, and lately I've been coming home with JR's backpack in the afternoon since he wants to walk home with Corbin. Corbin lives directly across the street, and since he's in the first grade and has a Wii, he's the absolute coolest person alive in JR's world. Did I mention Corbin's mom is a pediatrician? Oh yeah she is! As Joel Osteen would say, "The favor of the Lord is upon us." So here's a picture of JR getting on the bus in the morning. He's in the back with the blue backpack (not to worry, we've unboxed his Spiderman backpack so all is well with the world again). You can see how far back I'm required to be, and you also get to see all the High School Musical Kids.

Baby Talk: Get The Party Started!

Kyle: Mommy's taken over the blog again and hasn't let us post anything in awhile.

Reed: We've been telling her to let us post; we know our fan base has been wanting to hear from us!

K: Especially now that we've turned one. Dude, the ladies are gonna be knockin' down our door now!

R: There's even a little 9 month old girl that lives down the street from us! We've got some competition from the other one year old boy on the street...but really, who can resist twins?

K: So here we are on our birthday. We still can't talk, so JR picked for us to go eat Chinese.

R: Which was fine with us since we really love dumplings.

K: And since it was our birthday, we thought we'd really crank it up a notch.

R: Yeah, I told Mommy we wanted "a double".

K: Ummm. Milk. So good after a long hard day.

R Now that's celebrating!

K: We also celebrated our birthday on Christmas so the grandparents could eat cake with us.

R: Oh yeah, let's take a look at that too...

K: Finally we get to be shirtless like JR! He's still running around the house shirtless...even here in Colorado!

R: Come on Kyle! Get yo' hands in the air! Woo-Woo!

K: Dude, I'm busy eating.

R: Quit eating and get your hands up! Woo-Woo!

K: I told you I'm busy eating! I'm just like Mommy. I like to take naps and eat cake! Umm, this is good!

R: Well Mommy likes to boogie too! Come on, Clap those hands! Feel the rhythm!

K: Reed! Dude, I'm so not interested in shakin' it right now. Can't you see I'm trying to give my cutest smile so Mommy will give me some more cake? And if she won't, I'm just going to lick this plate clean...


R: Ya know, more cake does sound like a good idea. Here's my cutest smile, Mommy. Can I have some more cake too?

Cool Runnings

JR has been dying to go sledding ever since we got here. (Not that he's ever been sledding before, but I guess he's seen it on TV.) The first day we were here he tried going in our backyard. Unfortunatley he wound up sunk to his eyeballs in snow. (I literally think Jason had to go dig him out.) We added that one to our list of lessons: you need packed snow to sled. Luckily, there's a small ski mountain near JR's school that also has a sledding hill. So today, Jason and JR spent the afternoon sledding there, and true to form, JR loved it. Jason said JR screamed at the top of his lungs everytime he went down and even had a few wipeouts that were strong enough to send him rolling. (That just makes it better if you're a boy, right?) Over dinner as JR was telling me all about their day Jason said, "I think Mommy should go sledding with us." JR looked right at me and said, "Mommy, I don't know if you can take it."

It's a good hike up the hill, especially for a 5 year old. JR was so worn out he was falling asleep at the dinner table. That's JR to the left in the orange.

Ready to sled

Check out that face...I'd say he likes it!

Come on down...

After a "rough" day

Fake and Bake

(Disclaimer: This picture has nothing to do with today's story, it's just here to make the grandmothers happy.)

Today's post is yet another instalment of "JR. What Will he Think up to Say Next?"

JR: Mommy, When we lived in China was I tan?
Me: What do you mean?
JR: Like, was my skin a darker color?
Me: You mean in the summer or all the time?
JR: All the time. People who live in China are pretty tan, so was I tan when we lived there?
Me (trying to not fall on the floor laughing): No, Baby, You were the same color as you are now.
JR: Why wasn't I tan? We were living in China.
Me: Yes. But you're an American. Even though you were living in China you still looked like an American. Just like Melissa, she was living in China, but she didn't look tan. She looked German.
JR: But Ayi is tan.
Me: Yes, But Ayi is Chinese. She was born in China, and her parents were born there. Daddy and I were born in America and we look American, so you look American.

Then silence. And I can tell by the silence that he's thinking about what I said, and isn't really satisfied with my answer. I wasn't really satisfied with my answer either since "American" can be many different colors, but I was trying to give him the shortest and easiest answer possible. Thankfully, he soon went on to something else. We always joked that JR thought he was Chinese, but actually, I think he really did!

One More First

And for one more first...today was Kyle and Reed's first birthday! Fastest year of my life for sure! They are so much fun, and I'm pretty sure they came 6 weeks early just so they could join the Ingy party. Jason, JR, and I aren't the quietest people around, so I figure they were thinking, "Enough already, people! You wanna party? We'll show you party!" I'll let them fill you in on the details of their birthday in a later blog. I don't have any pictures from the day they were born (remember we weren't expecting them quite yet), but here they are probably a day or two after.

Kyle was born first at 10:17 P.M. weighing in at 5 lbs 4 oz


And here he is today. He's got a bit of a cold so he wasn't in the mood for picture posing. (And just like Grandpa Gary, you know Kyle's sick if he's not in the mood for having his picture made.)


Reed was born at 10:18 P.M. and weighed in at 4lbs 15 oz


What a difference a year makes!

Firsts

One things for sure, Durango is almost as different from Houston as Beijing...almost. We've experienced lots of new firsts (MN relatives, please don't laugh at our snow ignorance.)
Firsts:
1. When driving in snow and ice for the first time we learned that it is even harder and less fun than we thought it would be.
2. We were wrong in assuming the roads in our subdivision would be cleared like the roads in town. We had our first experience driving on packed snow...which will be an everyday occurrence.
3. We put the first set of all-terrain tires on our car yesterday. They make a HUGE difference.
4. Jason shoveled his first driveway and sidewalk. He gets to do this everytime it snows.
5. JR rode the bus home on his first day of school. There is one bus for his whole elementary school...ONE!
6. I was the only mom who walked to pick JR up from the bus stop for his first bus ride home yesterday. All the other moms drove.
7. I was the only mom who drove JR to the bus stop this morning. Everybody else walked. First lesson learned about the bus stop: if it is snowing you drive, if it is clear you walk.
8. JR is supposed to wear snow boots and snow pants to school everyday. No jeans because they stay wet from the snow after recess. Being from Texas this is the first time I've ever heard you can't wear jeans somewhere!
9. I made my first trip to town and back without Jason. I was very proud of myself!
10. My neighbor was clearing his driveway with a snow blower while wearing shorts. Texans do not wear shorts their first winter in Durango.

Back Online

The Internet guy just left, so I'm back in business. I've got awake babies, the cable guy here working, and a million boxes to unpack so I'll update tonight after I get the kids in bed. And by the way, this snow situation is unbelievable to a Texas girl like me!

#5

Jason, JR, and I have lived in 5 houses in 7 years. That's 5 houses. I'm not counting apartments/other people's homes/hotel rooms we've occupied between major moves. I know Jason and I are always doing something "crazy", but 5 houses in 7 years is crazy even for us!
House #1- August 2001-December 2003- Katy, Texas
I have better pictures of this house (and us, ugh!) but this is the only one I had on my computer. Look at little week old JR. If he only knew how we'd drag him all over the world...


House #2-January 2004-January 2006-Beijing, China
Jason picked out this house without me. It was so big that we could never get it warm in the winter. The water was actually frozen in the toilet bowl the first time I went there. During the winter we only lived upstairs except to run down and eat in the kitchen (and then we would wear our coats). But I loved the location of this house, we were the last on the street (so no cars) and only a few steps from the clubhouse.


House #3-February 2006-November 2006 -Beijing, China
We moved just around the corner from our first Beijing house and only lived there a short time, but we loved that house more than any other house we have ever had. It was smaller (and warmer) than our first one and was a perfect floor plan. We have so many fun memories from that house!


House #4- April 2007-December 2008-Houston, Texas
The babies first house! A perfect yard for birthday parties; a terrible yard for hurricanes!


House #5-January 2009-? Durango, Colorado
Well, First time I've lived in a house where the ground is covered in 5 feet of snow!

Durango Move IN Day

So after the fiasco about the driver worrying his truck would get stuck, guess what happened this morning? Yep, it did. It started snowing this morning and of course, he got stuck trying to make it down the street to our house. Here are just a few of my observations about the whole truck situation:
1. If the driver had left Houston when he was supposed to we would have gotten our things yesterday (when they were promised) on a beautiful, sunny day.
2. I'm not an 18-wheeler driver, but if I was heading to Durango, Colorado I would bring more than 1 (that's right, ONE) tire chain.
3. 18-wheeler drivers are REALLY good at backing up.
While the truck was stuck it was blocking the whole street plus one of our neighbors' driveways. What a great way to start off as the new family on the street. We might as well have put up a sign in our yard saying: "Hey, sorry to block the whole street. And guess what? We also don't eat organic, we don't drive a hybrid, and we voted for McCain!" Actually, everybody was really great about the whole thing. They all told stories about getting stuck when they moved in, and were quick to introduce themselves and come say 'hello'...maybe Duragno isn't so different from Houston after all.
Even with the snow and getting stuck, the day turned out just fine. The truck driver went and bought 2 more tire chains (3 chains for 18 wheels?) but it worked and he was soon unstuck...let the unloading begin!

Durango Move Day 4

Jason talked to the guy driving our 18 -wheeler full of stuff today and he said he's nervous about getting stuck. The main roads are clear, but the road in front of our house is covered with a thin layer of packed snow. It hasn't snowed here in a week, so Jason informed him that if he doesn't think these conditions are good, he might as well wait until March. (Insert full Jason Ingersoll sarcasm into that last sentence.)

Hunter isn't sure what to think about the snow. Although he's had no problems whatsoever making himself at home in the hotel. We bought him a little dog coat today (all the dogs here are wearing them), so here he is enjoying both hotel luxury and Durango doggy fashion.

It was a beautiful day today and we were able to spend most of the day without a coat (the locals were walking around in shorts). But as soon as it gets dark, the temperature really drops. The babies are really good sports about being so bundled up!

Durango Move Day 3

We had a super fun time New Year's eve with Jay and Sheryl, and JR had tons of fun with their kids. We pulled out this morning and headed toward Durango. We stoped in Roswell, NM for lunch where I took some great alien pictures. I also had some great pictures of JR and the Parker kids, but while downloading my pictures from the camera, I had some technical difficulties and lost all of them. Hummmm, technical difficulties, or alien powers? Roswell certainly plays up their alien "heritage", which I found quite amusing. After pit stops and a dinner stop we pulled into Durango about 8:30 PM mountain time. We are staying at the Double Tree awaiting our things. Everybody is asleep but me, so I think that's my cue to head for bed too!

Durango Move Day 2

We pulled into Midland on Tuesday night about 7:30. Midland isn't on most people's site-seeing short list, but it was on mine. My excitement about going to this one ranks right up there just under the Great Wall...Check out the smile on my face!

Midland has done a great job restoring the home to just the way it was in the 1950's. It's a very small house, but they have a tour guide that takes you through and gives lots of details and history. Leave it to JR to have the comment of the day. While we were touring he asked everybody: Is he still the president now?

Me/Jason: Yes! President Bush is still the President.

JR: But I thought Oklahoma was President?

Me/Jason: What? Oklahoma?

JR: Yes, I thought Oklahoma was the President now.

Me: Oh! Do you mean Obama?

Laughter all around

Later on in the tour...

Tour Guide: President Bush is the 3rd left handed President in a row, and we will continue to have a left handed President since Oklahoma is also left handed.

Durango Move Day 1

The house was emptied and the truck was loaded by 7:00 P.M. Monday night. We pulled out and headed for the Lost Pines Resort in Bastrop. We got there about 9:15 and left at 1:00 the next day so I don't have lots of details, but from the few hours I was there I can highly recommend it. They had a huge Christmas tree in the lobby and I took this super cute picture of the kids. I took it while Jason was packing up the car. 2 ladies were reading books by the fireplace and obviously we were way more entertaining than their books since they sat there and laughed at me trying to take this picture. I just can't imagine what they found so amusing...

Picture attempt #1: JR drops Kyle. Reed is surveying how many things he can grab off the tree.

Picture attempt #2: Kyle crawls away, Reed still busy picking out which ornament he is about to rip off the tree. Picture is blurry since I was in mid leap to catch Kyle, I then had to go wrestle a Christmas ornament out of Reed's hand.

Picture attempt #3- Reed has now escaped, nowhere to be seen in camera view. Kyle is selecting his Christmas ornament to snatch off the tree. JR is laughing that Reed has crawled off.

Picture attempt #4- JR has them both trapped, but Kyle is still wanting to pull off an ornament, or the whole tree on top of him...either would be fine.

Picture attempt #5- Everybody looking at the camera! That's a wrap!