Girls' Trip and Mondays

I was post-call today so I planned a shopping trip with a friend NS to Kerrville. Another friend of hers went with us to visit yet another friend MGW, who sells "CAbi" clothing (a home sales company). NS usually has a party at her house so this was a different experience for me. I really wanted to take a few pictures but I actually get embarrassed about that when I'm with my non-scrapbooking friends, so instead I'm showing this picture of Eric looking embarrassed. At least he didn't say "No pictures!"

We stopped at Starbucks on the way there and spent most of the time at MGW's house. It was fun seeing the different pieces and outfits and trying them all on. As opposed to MGW traveling with all of that stuff, we got to see all the outfits on display simultaneously plus all of the clothes that she bought for herself were there. Since she seems to be about the same size as I am, I had more clothes that I could try on. Afterwards she took us for a tour of her town and then to lunch at Francisco's. I had fish tacos for the first time--yummy tilapia! I really don't get to go on many girls' outings, but I have so much fun when I do.

I have to interrupt this post to talk about how we'll be doing our own thing around the house and then we hear these types of chatter:

Alex: Eric, what kind of gun do you want?
Eric: I want a machine gun.
Alex: What kind of machine gun do you want--sub-machine gun, light machine gun, assault rifle?
Eric: Light machine gun.

Yes, they're playing Call of Duty: Black Ops, Alex's favorite pastime. Eric loves to "shoot bad guys" and the sounds of gunfire are always echoing through our house.

Even Natalie plays sometimes. I thought it was ironic that she is in her pink nightclothes shooting up bad guys. That's my baby girl!

I came back from my little shopping trip in time to pick up Miss Natalie from school and take her to piano lessons. She forgot that she gets picked up on Mondays and one of the teacher's aides had to fetch her from her school bus. Luckily her new bus driver does not leave as early as Mr. Hayes used to.

Dinners are hard to plan for on Mondays because one of us is with Natalie at her lesson and the other one is picking up Anthony. Anthony has to then eat quickly so he can go to soccer from 6:30-8pm. Today we picked up Wendy's on the way home--so healthy. The three youngest kids all had the Spicy Crispy Chicken Nuggets. Anthony finished his Double Baconator in about two minutes. Natalie got ready for bed right away and then she had two friends come to our door asking her if she wanted to play outside.

This is rapidly becoming a very random post--oh well. Eric has been eating really well lately, so I didn't have a problem giving him a second small helping of ice cream for dessert. I caught him pouring what little liquid ice cream was left from the mug into his spoon so he could eat every last drop. He's been eating the Blue Bell Coffee Ice Cream lately, the one that Natalie rejected in favor of the Haagen-Dazs brand. I guess he likes it a lot.

I'm off again tomorrow so that I can hopefully actually accomplish something at home--yay! Mom and Dad are coming for a visit on Wednesday--yay! We haven't seen them since January 1st. That's a long time for them. I'll be sure to post more pictures when they're here.

New Parking Garage

I'm at work tonight so I've preset this entry to post tonight automatically. This is just a picture of the "PALS" parking lot where I park every morning. I've parked here for two years minus the period of time when I parked at the "Archery Range" parking lot (because they converted that one to "Disabled Veteran" and "Handicapped" parking). The buses in the picture are the ones that take all of us from the satellite parking lots to the hospital. The lot looks empty in the picture only because I didn't get off work on Tuesday (when I took this picture) until 7:30pm when most of the people parked in that lot had already gone home.

On Monday, April 4th at 6:15am, the new parking garage near the hospital will open in a limited capacity. For about three weeks, they're only allowing certain people to park there. No one is sure why they're phasing it in rather than letting everyone park there right away. Perhaps they first want to see what the traffic pattern will be coming in and out of the garage. Perhaps they're not quite done with the garage. Perhaps they're not done with the sidewalk/walkway from the parking garage to the hospital and they don't want too much traffic in that area yet. I know that the rest of us who don't have a special parking pass to park in the new garage will be watching and waiting to see how it all goes. The projected date when the buses stop running is July 2011 and this "PALS" lot will be the last one to close. I'm hoping the transition will go smoothly.

Incredible Pizza Party

Eric and I went to a birthday party today at the local Incredible Pizza. Eric talks about B all the time, so even though I wanted to watch Alex's soccer game (scheduled at the same time), I took Eric to B's birthday party.

We were the first ones to arrive. We even got there before the birthday boy. It was so cute to see Eric waving to all of his "friends" as they arrived, saying, "Hi [fill in the blank]!"

They had a buffet so Eric got to choose what he ate. He chose plain fettucini noodles. My nieces and nephew often like just plain noodles, but my kids usually choose alfredo sauce, so I was a little surprised. I wasn't surprised that he loved the cake, complete with blue icing that colored his tongue blue!

They also had a pinata will pull strings that malfunctioned so B's dad had to shake out the candy. Eric's favorite candy is usually the lollipops. I prefer that to the hard candy that they also gave out.

One of the party favors was a $10 game card to use for all the games. At first Eric only wanted to do the little kiddie rides (car, jet, horse, and mini merry-go-round), which at 25 cents apiece would have made our visit quite endless. Luckily he started playing some games too. We tried a variety, and I let him choose what to play, even though I felt like he sometimes wasted the money.

Here he is holding a very huge rifle, at least compared to his size. He wanted to shoot it and at first I let him just hold it and pretend to shoot, but then he wanted the rifle to make the shooting sounds. I scanned the card in and he started shooting. He didn't try to aim or anything. He just pulled the trigger 10 times straight and ran out of ammo. He was done playing with it after that.

There were a couple of games that he picked where the only purpose was to get tickets. Luckily he only chose a couple of those, because they were pretty boring. He also got on this one game where you were shooting planes on the screen (see picture to left) and the seat would tilt to the right and left as if you were really in the fighter plane. It didn't bother him at all that his plane kept crashing or being hit by enemy fire.

We played one game of Skee Ball. Eric was hilarious! The first time he threw the ball overhanded and the ball bounced off the machine onto the ground. Then he threw the ball and it rolled off onto my little toe. Ouch! Next he threw it and it landed in the empty lane next to us and into one of those holes. I tried to show him the correct way to throw the ball and that was hilarious to see him doing just as I had shown him, except that the ball didn't have enough momentum to reach the holes. I shot some video so I could remember this.

At the end we had lots of tickets to redeem. One of his friends was at a game next to us and the game started giving out lots and lots of tickets. It must have been malfunctioning and his friend's mom didn't want to take all of the tickets, so we took some and another girl took the rest. It was enough, along with our winnings, to get a ring Frisbee type toy and a glider plane.

Eric didn't want to leave when we ran out of money on our card. We had arrived there at noon and it was already almost 3pm. The party was supposed to be until 2pm. He must have been exhausted. He fell asleep in the car on the way to church. He woke up when we got there, but then he fell back asleep for most of mass. I was jealous--I wanted to take a nap too!

Achievement Auditions

Natalie has been working on two pieces for the "Achievement Auditions" for months. Patrick took her out of school early because otherwise she wouldn't have time to get dressed and then to get to the judging location before her scheduled time of 3:27pm. I've stepped back from hovering over her when she practices, but I did sit with her last weekend. She seemed to have learned the pieces fairly well and had no trouble with memorization either. That was last weekend. The judge's comments (as seen on the paper in her hand in this picture) are as follows:

"La Serenata"--mood unclear, needs memorization, pedaling needs attention, poise needs to focus on not playing between pieces

"British Grenadiers"--This had good dynamics, phrasing and mood great!, was memorized

I was a little surprised that she forgot parts of the first piece. Patrick could hear her playing and he said that she recovered pretty well despite that misstep. I wasn't surprised about the "poise" comment. Apparently that means that she was fidgeting a bit in between pieces instead of sitting still. That sounds like Natalie. In all, I'm not disappointed with this at all. We sign her up for these things so that she can get some performance experience. She did great with that in mind. She got a red ribbon (her favorite color, of course) for her "Excellent" rating ("Superior" and "Superior Plus" were the highest ratings), so she was happy with that.

In other news, I had to drop off Anthony at school before 5am this morning for a field trip to the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransa for Biology and Chemistry. Patrick was going to do it but then I realized that getting to work that early would mean that I could park in the hospital parking lot instead of the off-site parking plus I could do a favor for the colleague who was on call last night by letting him go home early. Patrick picked him up around 8pm this evening. Anthony didn't say too much, in his usual fashion, except that he enjoyed himself.

Alex had a "Falcon Friday" event after school. It's basically a social event and he and his friends really enjoy being able to participate. Today's activities included a water balloon fight. Apparently it only lasted about ten minutes but it was "fun for the time that it lasted." I got to stick around near work so I could pick him up from school by 5pm. That meant a very long day for me!

Eric just hung out with Papa today. He went with Patrick and Natalie to her Achievement Auditions. At one point Patrick texted me that Eric was telling "knock knock" jokes while they awaited the results. Yesterday Patrick told me that our housekeeper found that one of the bolts holding one of the dining table legs was loose and that the table leg had almost fallen off. I guess we now know what else he's been doing under the table besides playing with toys...

Commitment

This is Anthony with his Chemistry teacher, Mrs. F. Anthony's magnet school emphasizes four "core values"--Perseverence, Integrity, Commitment, and Kindness. Each of the 16 teachers picks a deserving student for each of the core values. A particular student can only be chosen once a year and cannot receive more than one award for the same core value. These awards are given out each nine week grading period. Anthony was selected by his Physics teacher Mr. G last year for "Integrity". This year he was chosen by Mrs. F for "Commitment".

Patrick and I met Mrs. F after the ceremony. She had glowing things to say about Anthony, about how he is such a dedicated student. He's not just an "A" student, he is much more. We felt so proud! She knew that he is also involved in soccer and she added that he should get more sleep. What?!! I was waiting to hear why she would say that. Apparently, my wonderful student was nodding off in her class. Granted, Chemistry is right after lunch, but still, Patrick and I reminded Anthony that sometimes when we suggest that he get more sleep, maybe he should actually do that. I guess this means that Anthony is an even better student, showing his "commitment" even when he's sleepy!

Daylight Hours

It was nice to come home today during the daylight hours. Anthony didn't have any after school practices, so we got home by around 4:45pm. Alex was already home and Natalie and Eric were playing outside in the backyard. I really miss the little ones when I haven't spent much time with them. It's not that I love the big boys any less, but the younger ones interact with my more, talking to me and giving me hugs and kisses.

They both acknowledged me by yelling, "Mama!" They were too busy to come give me hugs, but that was okay. They were both being silly and energetic. Eric had just jumped off the deck onto the grass and he was all smiles. My picture is a little overexposed because I didn't change my exposure settings fast enough, but I loved catching that mischievous smile.

I love seeing these two play nicely together. Both of them seem to love to be tickled. Eric will even hold his arm up to expose his armpit for easy tickling. He did that right before I took this picture, and Natalie of course couldn't help but tickle him. We'll be at home tonight watching American Idol while Patrick takes Anthony to club soccer practice. We've all been affected in some way by the high pollen count here, and it'll be nice to just hang out at home.

Little Monkey

This is just a picture of Eric hanging on the handrail near the local Baskin-Robbins yesterday. He does this on the handrail at the top of our stairs at home, too, but I haven't been able to get a good photo of him on the one at home because of the closer quarters. He also hangs on the door handles on the closet doors at home. He straddles the door and puts his hands on the door handles on each side of the door then brings his legs up to "ride" the door while it opens and closes. Patrick has had to fix a couple of the door handles as a result of these acrobatics. If it weren't for the destruction, we would find this very amusing (and kinda cute!).

I worked late tonight, so I didn't get to see the kiddos until around 8pm. Patrick let them stay up a few minutes late so they could say good night to me. So cute and it made the stress of my day melt away! Alex had just gotten home from soccer practice. Another neighbor now has soccer at the same club we do, so they took Alex home tonight. We could get used to this carpool thing. It really helped tonight because I wasn't home to do some of the driving. Patrick had planned to take Natalie to swim practice, but she didn't feel well so they stayed home. Anthony is at his high school varsity soccer playoff game right now, so I saw Patrick for a few minutes before he headed to pick up Anthony. Not too much family togetherness tonight, but we still have lots of family love!

Natalie at 8 1/2

This is the play area at the boys' home soccer fields. Anyone else would see this picture and think it's just a picture of Natalie playing with some other girls. She did do some playing too, but here she is talking to the other girls. I kept hearing her voice and only her voice and I was hoping that she was allowing the other girls a turn to talk. Yes, my dear daughter is very chatty. I always say that is something she got from her father. *WINK*

Besides being chatty, she can do things sometimes that defy reasoning. We didn't bring any drinks with us to Anthony's game yesterday because we thought the concessions would be open and we could just buy something there. Well, the concessions were closed. Natalie kept asking for something to drink and I held her off because I knew Patrick and Alex would be coming from Alex's game and they would have something to drink with them. They got there and Natalie promptly grabbed the red Gatorade declaring once again that red is her favorite color. She hadn't had very much of it yet when I saw her pouring some of it into the sand in the play area. Obviously she couldn't have been too thirsty or she wouldn't have done that, right? I took away the Gatorade and told her she couldn't have any more.

Natalie also likes to play with the boys in our culdesac. She plays with girls too, but there are more boys close by in our culdesac than girls and they like to play outside like she does. Today after we got home from her piano lessons, she went to play with two of the boys she usually plays with and another boy who was visiting. The boys were all on their bikes and finally she asked if she could learn to ride a bike (which is a good thing). She got her bike from Santa the Christmas before last, something she asked for, and now it's covered in cobwebs and the tires are flat from not being used.

Well, the boys all want to walk a block over and play in the wooded area with their bikes. Natalie asked me if she could go too. The first thing that came to my mind was, "My daughter wants to go into the woods with a bunch of boys?!!" Next I realized that at least one of the boys is always getting in trouble and I didn't want her going anywhere with him. She was upset that she couldn't go, but she understood that I was looking out for her. She was crying and I wanted to make her feel better. Since I seem to go to food for comfort, especially ice cream, I offered her some. We're out of her favorite--Haagen-Dazs Coffee ice cream, so she asked if we could go out for ice cream. We won't be able to go to Dollar Scoop Tuesday tomorrow because I'm working late, so I agreed.

I even let Natalie have two scoops. I'm easy--what can I say? She got one scoop of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and one of Jamoca. Eric got a scoop of Rainbow Sherbet. This picture just cracks me up because Eric is the one who had his thumb up first and Natalie just followed. Apparently, Eric thinks the phrase "Rock On!" goes with the thumbs up sign. I'm guessing that some older boys taught him that. :)

When we got home Natalie got to watch a show on the Discovery Channel--something about Sasquatch. Eric got to play Call of Duty: Black Ops with Alex. Then, Natalie went to bed right on time because she said that she hasn't been able to fall asleep very well lately.

Sorry for the rambling posts lately, but that's how my mind has been. More pictures tomorrow!

First Club Game

We had two soccer games today. Alex's game was at 2:30pm in New Braunfels, which is north of San Antonio. Patrick took him to that game and I took Anthony with the little ones to his game at 3:30pm. I took this first picture because I wanted to show how tall Anthony and his teammates are. Most of them have been playing for a few years now and they've all hit their growth spurt. There are even a couple of them who are still in eighth grade and they're still as tall as everyone else.

It was a physical game, as most of them seem to be at this age. Our team came out strong and ended up winning 4-0. Anthony rested his injured hip flexor this weekend by laying on the living room sofa with a heating pad, which seemed to work. He got to start and play most of the game and he played at his normal intensity level. After seeing his high school JV team play, it was refreshing to see how soccer is supposed to be played. The team passed to each other. They spread out so there was someone to pass to. When one person failed to get a goal, there were at least two others in a position to try again. They worked together--it was wonderful.

After the game, most of us gathered at a local Freddy's Custard place for dinner. Anthony and his teammates all sat together, of course. They looked like they really enjoyed each other's company.

Tomorrow it's back to high school soccer practice after school, then club soccer practice right after that. The Varsity game is on Tuesday. We're still hoping that with Anthony back at full strength, he might be picked to suit up for the Varsity game. Wish him luck!

Back to Typical Saturdays

Today was a "typical" Saturday. I got to sleep in until about 9am when I got up to make banana chocolate chip pancakes and turkey bacon for my starving family. They all finished breakfast before I finished cooking everything! It was already 11am by the time we finished everything, so no one was interested in lunch.

Natalie practiced her piano pieces that she'll be doing at the "Achievement Auditions" next Friday. I'm just a little bit biased, but I thought she did a great job with both pieces. She has all the notes and dynamics down and she even has them all memorized already. The pieces she plays nowadays are much nicer to listen to than what she used to play. I even told her how pretty she sounded on the piano. After practicing, she got to play outside with her friends. I got to take an early nap and Patrick woke me up so we could go to Alex's afternoon soccer game.

The weather started out cloudy but the sun came out before the game. Luckily it wasn't too humid and there was a slight breeze, so it didn't feel bad even at 90 degrees. The game was at the STAR Complex, so the fields were pretty nice.

Alex's team played pretty well, but they're problem is that they can't seem to score. Alex had some great kicks, including another corner kick that almost made it into the goal but alas, it didn't and they lost 0-2.

Anthony stayed home with the kiddos so he could rest his leg some more. When we got home Natalie was reading in a chair and he was playing PS3. We asked where Eric was and Anthony didn't know. No big disasters this time, but Eric did submerge one of the small dry erase boards in the kids' bathroom sink.

After all of that, Patrick and I went out for dinner and then to the Majestic Theatre to see West Side Story. We love this little routine of ours enough that we recently bought season tickets to next year's lineup of musicals and other shows at the Majestic.

We just got home so hopefully this post isn't too random--it's getting late. Tomorrow we have church in the morning and two soccer games in the afternoon. Yup, just another "typical" weekend for us.

Soccer Starts

Just because Anthony had his last high school soccer game doesn't mean that we don't have any more soccer games, of course. He still had practice yesterday afternoon and he'll have practice on Monday afternoon. Supposedly the whole JV team will go to the Varsity game, even if they don't plan to play them all, so they all still have to practice. He scrimmaged with the Varsity team yesterday (Thursday), but he has a "pulled hip flexor" from the game on Wednesday. He hasn't been able to play as hard as a result. He still hopes to play with the Varsity in the playoffs, but he was not invited to the Varsity practice scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday) morning.

The other problem with being injured is that Anthony won't be able to play as hard for his club soccer team either. He's worked hard to earn the respect of his club soccer coach, and he doesn't want to let him down.

These pictures are of Alex. He has three soccer games this weekend, while Anthony has one (club soccer). The first one was tonight. He used to flip back and forth from center defender to center midfielder, but some boys have come and gone, so he's been in the center midfielder position this season.

He took the corner kick early in today's game. The ball bounced off a player from the opposite team into the goal. Alex in his typical understated fashion said that he didn't score the goal--the opposing team member did. Still, the referee gave him the official "credit". Unfortunately, this was his team's only goal and they lost 1-4. Hopefully they'll do better in their games tomorrow and Sunday.

Anthony will hopefully be well enough to play on Sunday. His coach told Patrick that he hopes Anthony feels better too, because he needs him on Sunday. Anthony has to feel good about his coach saying that about him!

Last Game

Today was the last game for the season for Anthony's JV soccer team--yay! The Varsity team still has playoffs and there's a slim chance that Anthony will get to play a little for the Varsity team during playoffs, but we're not holding our breath. It would be really nice if that happened, though.

I was surprised to see Anthony starting the game today, and he ended up playing most of the game, too. I was already there because I came from work. Patrick was a little late because he had to pick up Alex from school with the carpool and take him home and then come back with the little ones. He got to see most of the game, though.

In case you're wondering what this picture is about, that's because Anthony had just headed the ball but the ball had bounced away by the time I snapped this picture. I still thought it was cool that he is in mid-air, even if there's no apparent ball in sight.

Eric got a haircut today. That's why his hair is "spiky". He actually sought out some "older" boys to play with (younger siblings of Anthony's teammates). He and Natalie started playing "soccer" with them. There were six of them in total, so in order to make even teams, we noticed that they put Eric on one of the teams. It was humorous because obviously Eric is three years old and was liable to run off because he wants to play in the dirt or something instead of actually playing soccer. In this picture he looked like he was trying to "put pressure" on Natalie to give up the ball. He's getting more and more coordinated with the ball judging from how he can almost kick and run at the same time.

Today was a little stressful on me, having to give a lecture this morning then having to move locations because of a defective generator. On top of that I had a difficult case, so I was really looking forward to a little relaxing time at soccer with the family. Now that high school soccer is over, club soccer begins--and possibly track and field for Anthony also.

My Little Shadow

Yesterday I was on call all day and night. Patrick was preoccupied with getting Anthony to his soccer practice and Alex to his game yesterday afternoon among other things, so they didn't come for a visit like they often do. I figured that I had just been with the whole family for Spring Break, so I didn't miss their visit as much as I normally would. This morning when I met Patrick and Eric at Starbuck's after I left work and after Patrick had dropped off Anthony, I realized that I still missed them. Just last night one of the nurses, upon hearing that Eric was almost four, said that it was time for another one. I know I say this pretty much every time I've been on call, but she reminded me that I need to appreciate what time I have with my family. The kids will all grow up way too soon.

Of course Eric is the one I miss the most, just because he's the cutest and youngest and the one that "needs me" the most. Whenever we meet at Starbuck's, he always wants to go home with me. That's what happened this morning. When we got home, he also wanted to play where I was. I washed up in the bathroom while he played with some of his stuffed animals in my bedroom. I asked him if he wanted me to take a picture of his stuffed animals and he brought almost all of them into the bedroom and lined them all up for a picture. I took a number of photos and he willingly posed for the pictures, although he did have his "cheesy" smile for some of the photos.

When I'm off work and I go out somewhere, Eric also wants to go with me. This morning I wanted to go to the mall to get my niece some birthday presents, so he went with me. After we got that done and had some lunch, he wanted to play in the play area there. Patrick does this all the time with him, but I'm not usually there. Eric can play in that play area for a long time. I didn't mind it at all because I got to spend some time with him and I got to practice taking pictures with my camera. He was surprisingly cooperative today. After a while I was getting tired and needed a nap but he still didn't want to leave. I resorted to bribing him with a lollipop so he would agree to go home without a fuss.

Tomorrow I'm off work again but Eric will be going to school. Whatever will I do without my little shadow? :)

Ski Sizes

I took this photo on our last day of skiing. We lined up our skis to get them ready to put in the van to take back to Sports Authority. We had already returned Natalie's skis since we rented hers as part of the lesson package at A-Basin. We also rented a helmet for her and for Anthony. Alex used an old helmet of Grandpa's.

When we got our skis, I noticed that Alex and I had the same exact size, although our ski boots were different sizes. Alex wore a size 7 1/2 ski boot while I had a size 5 1/2. We had different size ski poles too. Patrick and Anthony also had the same size skis, with similar poles, although Patrick wore size 9 1/2 ski boots and Anthony wore a size 10 1/2. This meant that we had to pay attention to the stock numbers on the skis when we got ready to put them on so we would choose the correct ones. Pretty soon I won't have any trouble telling which ones are mine and which ones are Alex's. Of course Natalie is quickly approaching my size.

Today Anthony had a JV game in the morning. He got a few minutes of play time. It was clear that if he had been around to practice this week, he would have gotten more play time. In the future this means that we might have to stick around for Spring Break. I don't really understand why they have games during Spring Break, since the games are against other schools in the same school district--which all have the same vacation time.

Some botched scheduling for Alex's game resulted in Patrick having to make lots of phone calls since we arrived home yesterday. Alex's team had three games scheduled last weekend and this weekend. Patrick ended up moving the one that was supposed to be played today because there wouldn't have been enough boys to field a team. No one is happy that they're playing games during Spring Break.

One more high school soccer game for Anthony on Wednesday, then club soccer season starts. No rest for the weary.

Group Photos Plus

I took lots of photos this past week. I'm going to post a few here on the blog and I'll probably post the rest in an album on Facebook.

Notice the look on the kids' faces in this photo, especially Natalie--if looks could kill. They were not happy that I wanted to get a photo of them on their first day of skiing. I thought that at least Anthony was trying to smile (Alex tries NOT to smile), but he looks pretty upset with me here too. They recovered from the trauma their mother inflicted on them and had fun skiing that first day anyway.

I took this one on the first day also, the only day that Grandpa skied with us. This is the only day that cousin Joe skied with us too, since he and his mother, Patrick's sister Linda, went home the following day. When we arrived on Sunday, Alex was excited to see that he is taller than Joe despite being two years younger. Patrick and I always say that we're not sure where the boys' height comes from.

I took this photo at the top of the hill on Wednesday or Day #2 of skiing. The kids don't look as grumpy. :) Natalie had found Grandma's old red mittens to use on this day. That girl is absolutely obsessed with red clothing. Patrick has to do the red laundry more regularly now, and most of it is Natalie's.

This photos was on Day #3 of skiing, or Thursday, when we all finally got to ski with Grandma. I really enjoyed that day because we stayed together, going up on the ski lift together and skiing downhill together. It's too bad that we couldn't go to the top of the mountain because of the wind, but we made the most of it.

This isn't a group photo, obviously. It's hard to see how good photos are in the camera, so I wasn't sure how good this one was until I saw it uploaded in the computer. All week, Eric kept telling me "No pictures!" over and over again. If I caught a smile, it was so fleeting because as soon as he saw the camera, he would say, "No pictures!" I took this one while I was on the second floor patio/deck of the house. I called to Eric and he looked up at me at just the right moment. You can see the snow all over him, like he's been crawling all over the snow, which he was. He was so excited to be playing in and with the snow. This picture pretty much sums up our week in Colorado.

Thanks for a great time, Grandma and Grandpa!

Last Day Recap

Today was our last day of skiing. This time Eric stayed home with Grandpa for a couple of hours so Grandma was able to ski with us. The weather has been pretty fantastic during our vacation so far, but it got very windy today. It was so windy that the top of the mountain was closed due to wind. Patrick talked with a guy who got there early and went to the top before they closed those ski lifts down. In his words, the ride was "rather unpleasant" with wind gusts of about 30-40 mph that caused the ski lift chair to swing back and forth. So, that meant that we got to ski several shorter runs at the bottom of the hill and that the lines at the bottom were long. Still, for Spring Break, the lines were reasonable.

We let Natalie choose which runs she wanted to go on, and the rest of us followed her. She chose mostly the easier green runs, but we did go on a couple of blue runs also. Every so often Patrick would yell "grape juice" to her. That meant that she was supposed to pretend she was squashing grapes under her toes--a reminder not to lean back on her skis but to lean forward instead. He also kept after her to ski with more control. She would ski downhill pretty fast and she needed to concentrate more on making turns and slowing down.

We were all pretty much done after a couple of hours. We returned all the rental equipment and just hung out at home. Patrick and I figured that the kids were pretty tired, because none of them asked to play in the snow outside. Eric was good to Grandpa while we were gone. Grandpa sounded especially happy that he didn't have to mess with Eric's diaper at all. Eric had a bad night last night, waking up and crying, so we're hoping for a better night tonight for him and for us.

We "celebrated" St. Patrick's Day today with wearing green and ordering Chinese food takeout. Grandma didn't think Chinese food was really in keeping with the St. Patrick's Day tradition, but none of us felt like having any corned beef, either. After dinner we all sat down to watch the American Idol results show. We're mostly packed and ready to leave bright and early in the morning. We're hoping for good traveling weather as there is supposed to be a storm rolling in. It's been fun, but it'll be nice to sleep in my own bed tomorrow night.

Ski Lessons

Natalie was the only one that got ski lessons this time. Patrick had asked the boys before we left if they wanted ski lessons and they didn't want them. Of course when they got here and heard that their cousin Joe was snowboarding instead of skiing, they wanted to learn how to snowboard too. We convinced them to wait until next year.

Natalie had a full day lesson on our first day of skiing, which was yesterday (Tuesday the 15th). One reason why we decided to get her lessons at Arapahoe Basin (or A-Basin) was that there aren't as many beginner level skiers taking lessons there, so the class sizes tend to be smaller for her level. The instructors are also very good. She was so eager to start her lesson that she was outside in the class waiting area a good half hour before class even started.

At first there were 2-3 younger kids in class with her going through the basics. In the afternoon she was one-on-one with an instructor since she was so far ahead of the other kids. At the end of class, the instructor said she could ski on the Blue level runs, but she had to work on maintaining her control, especially on the bumps and in the trees. The instructor said that basically any kid under the age of 10 likes to go fast. Natalie also was almost ready to use poles. When Patrick heard about Natalie skiing on bumps and between trees, he knew that he would be the only one to be able to keep up with her. :)

Today we got to ski as a family while Eric stayed with Grandma and Grandpa at home. I loved watching all the kids skiing. The fact that they learned early will help them. I especially enjoyed watching Natalie because she looks so little and she isn't even using poles yet, but she can easily out-ski me (not that I'm that great a skier, but she's so much younger).

We met Grandma and Grandpa at the ski hill around 10:30 and Grandma got to ski with Natalie, but she kept missing the boys, so she didn't get to ski with them. Eric and I got to play in the snow for a bit. He was feeling much better today.

Tomorrow is our last day to ski. Hopefully the weather will hold up. It's been sunny and beautiful with lots of snow.

Snow Fun

If the kids saw snow in a regular basis, I'm sure they wouldn't be as excited about playing in it. Yesterday they played in the snow even when their feet were soaking wet. Eric's boots don't seem to be snow-proof, or at least the way he plays in the snow. He went inside and outside a few times to warm up, each time having to put new, dry clothes on.

The big kids built snow forts from which they threw snowballs at each other. Eric would just walk or crawl around on his own. Every so often, he would yell, "I'm stuck!" the snow was deep enough that he would get stuck up to his armpits. Anthony would have to fish him out and he would be off on his merry way.

Anthony, Joe, and Natalie together built a snowman. Anthony insisted that a snowman had to have at least three parts. They even put sticks on for the arms and Anthony tried to put snow around the sticks for more substantial arms. I had to chuckle when he named the snowman "Tom". Later as part if their "snowball fight", Alex destroyed "Tom" with the shovel. Anthony yelled, "NO! TOM!" as if it hurt him physically when Tom was destroyed. Joe put the snowman back together.

Today, despite a full day of skiing for Natalie, as soon as she got home she rushed back outside to play in the snow again. Eric and I had come home around lunch to take a nap. He had been patiently waiting for someone to play in the snow with. All the kids went back outside for another couple of hours of snow play.

Spring Break 2011

I was too tired to post last night, but I wanted to post today about how we made it here without any problems. Nonstop airplane trips are definitely the way to go, especially on Southwest where they don't charge you for baggage either.

It was a quick hour and a half trip, quick enough that Eric didn't nap but he didn't get too restless either. Anthony and Natalie napped on each other. I should have gotten a picture, but I didn't. Alex was listening to his iPod the whole time.

Getting the rental van was relatively painless as was the drive up the mountains. On the way we saw a big traffic jam of people returning home after a weekend in the mountains. We're glad that we plan on skiing only on the weekdays.

Patrick's sister and nephew were already here from their home in Albuquerque. We don't see them nearly enough. It was a couple of years ago when they were here for Spring Break and the kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousin, especially the big boys.

Last night we were all playing Words With Friends with each other. Mom was wondering why we didn't just pull out the Scrabble board. Even Grandpa was playing against Alex on the iPad. I think Anthony decided that he won't play against me anymore, after I got lucky and scored a 147-point and 107-point word against him in the same game. :( The boys played Poker before going to bed. I was asleep before they finished.

We're planning on getting boots for the little ones today, and then playing in the snow. We'll get use to the altitude and then go skiing tomorrow.

Two More Games

Only two more high school games after today--yay! We started out today with breakfast at "Benny's Tacos" next to Anthony's school. For only $11.05, we got six breakfast tacos, two giant chocolate milk and two orange juice drinks. Notice the size of the chocolate milk bottle that Eric is drinking. We forgot to ask for straws. Eventually he spilled some of it on his hoodie. Not too bad considering he finished almost that whole bottle.

I thought it would be fun to take a picture of Patrick walking back from throwing away his breakfast trash. I didn't realize at the time that he was sticking out his tongue. He probably didn't think I would post this photo on my blog either... He is in his team shirt because he is the manager for Alex's club soccer team and Alex also had a game at 2:30 PM across town. For this reason we let Alex sleep in and spend some time at home instead of dragging him in for Anthony's two games.

Natalie wanted to wait in the car again instead of watching the game, so I gave her the iPad and she watched "Despicable Me". Eric had too much energy, so he didn't stay with her, although we had to visit the van a couple of times to get his jacket, change his diaper, etc. One time, as we walked up to the van, the engine started. I was a little frightened when I realized that it was only Natalie in the van at the time. Yes, she started the van's engine all by herself! She wanted to roll the windows up so she could come out to the game (after she finished the movie). We had a little talk about not doing that again.

The JV A team lost 0-6, and Anthony's B team tied 0-0. Alex lost his game 0-2, but the opposing team's coach went out of his way to make a comment to Patrick about how that kid "with the Bieber hair" was a "GOOD little player". He didn't know that Patrick was Alex's father, but it was an unexpected compliment from someone who didn't have to say anything at all, but did anyway.

Tomorrow we're off to visit my in-laws in Colorado. I hope I can do a few posts to this blog while we're there.