All the Speedy Pants plus Me

Jason and I felt like these two could ski by themselves this year.

Of course we trust their skiing ability.  Which just don't trust their speed, jumping, or love of tree trails.

We skied with them as much as our legs would let us.  Jason even videoed them one day, which I was totally impressed with Jason's skiing and videoing at the same time skills.  

All of them are speedy pants.

 Jason and I quite enjoyed just sitting at the bottom and letting them ski while we rested every now and again (especially after lunch).

Jason even got some work done. (Notice the phone stuck in his helmet on his left side.)

All of JR's friends had gone home by our last day, so we made him ski with us a bit. 

Jason told him "act like you like your mother" for this picture.  

This is what we got.

Kyle was having none of that, so we had to take another one...with Kyle still pouting that I'd given JR too much attention.

3 Stages

The 3 stages of exasperation that your brother won't hurry up and drink his hot chocolate so you can go ski some more:

Skiing with Friends

We ran in to quite a few friends while we were skiing.

Our first day out we skied with my friend from Denver, Randi, and her family.  

JR and her boys took off from us as fast as they could, but the rest of us certainly had fun.  

I didn't get any pictures, but I did get a picture of Kyle with their dog when we had dinner with them at their Breckenridge house.

JR was able to find all kinds of people (that he wasn't related to) to ski with on the mountain.  

He hooked up with a friend from school for 2 days, and also hooked up with our next door neighbors...I only knew he was with them when I saw this picture on Facebook.

We were also able to ski with our neighbors, which trilled Kyle and Reed more than anything.

Skiing with Dave

Resting with Ben

Kyle and Reed's friend, Miles, hadn't skied a lot, but after a one-day refresher lesson they drug him all over the mountain.  

Kyle and Reed don't care if you are a beginner or not, you're just supposed to keep up with them!

Miles's mom is one of my good friends, so I was happy to have a girl to ski with (and watching her on the snowboard just confirmed my desire to not snowboard).

Kyle and Reed's favorite skiing buddy though is still Jason.  Apparently, I'm way too slow! 

10

I can't believe these people are 10 today.

In my head they still look like this.

 (Kyle/Reed)

I guess I never think about them growing up because they have always been able to do everything.

Kyle and Reed are the most independent kids who have always done everything for themselves.  They make it very easy to be their mom.

They must be like Jason and hate change, because really, they never change.

They have always loved to:

play sports 

 Be the star of the show

love on animals

ride things with wheels

ski

do impressive tricks

And of course, they've never worn shirts...ever.

Happy Birthday to 2 people who have brought me many, many smiles and happy times. 

#7

Best I can tell from looking back at this blog, this was at least visit #7 for us to The Big Texan Steak Ranch.

After 7 times we are old pros at all things Big Texan, but it always gives us something to look forward to for dinner on our way to Colorado.

Kyle and I aren't much for steak challenges, so we were happy to just enjoy our new set of Big Texan souvenir cups to add to our "collection". 

JR decided he would do the 18 ounce steak "challenge".  You get all the sides of the 72 ounce challenge, but only 1/4 the size of the steak (and of course it's not free if you finish it).

JR was able to eat the roll and the salad but the rest of us ate his baked potato and shrimp.

And this what was left of his steak.

He keeps telling people that he ate an 18 ounce steak, and then Kyle and Reed scream "No you didn't! You only ate 17 ounces!"

This picture will haunt JR's version of events for the rest of his life.

In other steak size news, Reed had no problem finishing the kids steak.

School Christmas Party

I'm going to back up and work forward for the next few days.

I'm Kyle's room mom this year, so though I wasn't in charge of the entire 4th grade's Christmas party (I'm in charge of Valentine's), I was in charge of making sure what was assigned to his room got carried out.

The 4th grade rooms were divided up and the kids rotated between rooms, with each room doing a different activity.  I was super disappointed when I found out my room was not chosen as 

"Winter Dance Party".  

I even went to the mom that was in charge (who I'm friends with) and said, "I'm not the dance party room?  Do you not know me at all?"

Instead I was given "Winter-Wear Relay Race". Which I transformed into the best "Winter-Wear Relay Race" EVER, and was told by all the kids and moms that it was the most fun and best station of all.  (Of course it was).

To keep "winter wear" from being lame, I added socks, a Christmas headband topper, and high heels to the mix!

Here's Kyle getting dressed as fast as he can.

This relay race taught us a few things.  Reed is an amazing athlete, but walking in heels is not one of his strong suits.

And all of  Kyle's gracefulness that he's learned in diving, definitely came in handy in this game.

I was also in charge of  Kyle's class gift.  

The class gift is totally voluntary, but every class does it. Some class moms take the money and buy a present for the teacher.  I'm not about to guess what somebody might want so

here's what I gave our teacher from the class.

That's $450 to spend on whatever she wants!  

Happy New Year 2018

We rang in 2018 with lots of fun.

I went to a NYE 75 minute spin class...complete with a DJ. I'm the one at the bottom that looks extra fat and extra tired.

 

Thankfully the "after spin" included mimosas.  I'm the one at the bottom that looks extra happy about that. 

While I was at spin, Jason took everyone to NASA. Our friends from Denver, the Stengers, are here because their daughter, Anna, is a super smarty pants and is here to do a college visit to Rice.

Kyle looks unhappy in this picture, but Jason said they were loving it, he was just cold.

I went to the store to buy 2018 party favors, but Walmart was cleaned out.  It probably would have been easier to just go to another store, but instead I bought birthday party hats and made my own with craft stuff I had around the house.

I didn't take many pictures at NYE, but we had fun with our friends and neighbors.  I think we had about 23 here. 

Happy 2018!