Dakota Gets a Bath

Our dog has issues. While on a nice walk on a beautiful afternoon, Dakota running off leash, gleefully throughout the land...she finds a dead "something". It was in no way, shape, or form recognizable, and Dakota started jumping up and down, each time rolling a different side of her body onto this apparently irresistable morsel. Oh, did I mention the fact that there were maggots crawling around on it? Sorry, how could I forget. After Jamie was able to get her away from this disgusting remnant of a critter, we finished our walk and took her home for a bath.

Now, last summer we did attempt to give her a bath once or twice, and she HATED it. Thinking that she is now almost 1 so a bit older and wiser (come on, she's really 7 in dog years!) and knowing that she loves to jump in the ponds etc, we figured she'd at least be cooperative. Ok, tolerant...maybe.

Jamie proceeds to get out the hose and spray her a bit to get her a little wet for the soap to lather. She is already getting a little agitated and as the water spray proceeds, she becomes even more ticked off. Eventually she goes into full yelp mode. All three kids have their ears covered because she is so loud. By this point I am sure the neighbors must think we are practicing some evil torture ritual and it is getting downright embarrassing. She decides to shake (as all dogs would) but I am convinced she had unpure thoughts in her head as she was doing this, sending out the message that she is NOT amused, and just wait and see how many more rolls of toilet paper I destroy and leave all over the house. (That is her new favorite pastime. See, I told you she has issues.)

Anyway, she is now quietly laying on the porch, calmed down from all the excitement, and most likely secretly plotting how she is going to get even. But hey, at least she smells good.

Mowing the Grass

Lars' preschool class got to grow their very own grass in a tray and Lars was adamant that he get to "mow" his grass once it got long enough. The tray of grass seed looked pretty pathetic when he brought it home, but 3 days later and we had a full on jungle! Anyway, I just love the little projects that bring a 5 year old such joy!

Happy Birthday Kent

My brother turned the big 4-0 so of course being the baby sister I have to give him at least a little grief. It's only fair after all, since he was 4 years older and won virtually every fight we ever had because he could either out "wit" me or just plain hit me harder than I could him. Actually, he's a great guy and I couldn't be happier for him or think more highly of a person than I do him. He was a great big brother and a good role model for me to want to be like (I even went to ISU instead of Iowa!) and I wish him the best. Here is a classic picture of Kent that shows his fun spirit and personality--Happy Birthday Big Brother!

I've Been Tagged

Ok, so my friend Vicki "tagged" me over 2 weeks ago and I am just now getting around to doing this, but apparently I am supposed to tell you 10 things about myself, so here goes.

1. I will celebrate my 15th wedding anniversary this year

2. It has been the best 15 years of Jamie's life (hehe!)-ok, mine too!

3. I ran my first half-marathon, did my first 12 hour adventure race, and am competing in my first triathalon this year.

4. For as athletic as number 3 sounds like, I should look much more like an athlete than I do.

5. I would love to own a loft in NYC so I could stay there and go to all the Broadway musicals when I visit.

6. My dream home is an old New England farm house from the 1800's.

7. I am fortunate enough to have loved my mother-in-law dearly.

8. I miss my dog Ben.

9. My favorite dates with Jamie are when we get to go running together.

10. It wouldn't be summer without a trip to Okoboji!

Spanish Whistling

The other day our family was in the van and Lars announced that he had finally learned how to whistle and proceeded to give us a demonstration. Upon hearing this, Maddi decided that she was not going to let her whistling skills be overlooked so without missing a beat, she proclaims, "Well I can whistle in spanish!", and then whistled us a little tune.

Maybe we need to hold off on the Dora videos a bit....

Swimming in the Snow?

Swimming was another popular item on our trip and we all thought it was pretty cool that we were able to go swimming and have snow at the edge of the pool. Jamie dared Drew and Alek to go lay their bellies in the snow and see who could do it the longest. I'm not sure that was the best idea (does "frostbite" ring any bells?) but they were smart enough to only do it once.

As for Lars, he was content hanging out at the edge of the pool where he could touch and grab on if need be. No being wild and crazy for him when it comes to being in the water. Just a silly, toothless grin for me as I tried to take his pic in the pool. Did I mention that he lost another tooth while we were in Colorado? The tooth fairy sure pays a lot more there than in Iowa, and since Emma also lost a tooth the same day as Lars I had to make sure of the going rate.

Maddi on the other hand was constantly begging Jamie to throw her up in the air, each time higher than the time before. She loves to dunk her head in the water and likes to try and swim to the edge of the pool "all by myself", even though she just sinks. She comes out laughing and giggling every time. I got some nice shots of her swimsuit bottoms falling off of her while being thrown in the air--talk about a "crack" up (bad joke I know but it's been a long day).

I hope you enjoy the pics and stories from our trip. For some reason, my camera erased the pictures of the kids at the ice skating rink but I think you get the idea of all the fun we had and what a great time it was to see our friends again.

Dirt Bike Park

The day the boys got to go to the "official" dirt bike park might have been one of their highlights of our Colorado trip. To be quite honest, I'm not really sure what the difference between an "official" course and a non-official course would be, but the fact that this was a "real" one was definitely brought to my attention more than once.
The boys liked this so much that they actually went to it twice the week that we were there and Lars didn't even care that he had to ride Emma's Barbie bike. (I foresee these pictures coming around to haunt Lars in future years).
It does look pretty fun and it seems as though this was something that Lars could do that let him keep up with what the big guys were doing. It's hard to be 5 and have the big guys be 8 and able to do everything with just a little more ease than you can. Keeping up with the big guys is exhausting work!

Fish Creek Falls

On one of our days in Steamboat we did a little hike back into Fish Creek Falls. It was absolutely beautiful with all of the snow and on the picture of me and the kids on the bridge you will notice that our heads are actually at the peak of the bridge . There was about five or six feet of snow cover on the ground so we were actually walking at the heighth of the hand railing. Pretty wild! Anyway, the pictures can't quite express the beauty and tranquility of being there but enjoy anyway.

Steamboat!

On Monday, our friends headed with us to Steamboat Springs for a few days of playing in the mountains. When we first arrived the kids headed outside our condo and enjoyed sledding on some hills (actually just huge piles of snow). They had a blast and it burnt off some cooped up energy they had accumulated on the (GASP!) 3 hour car ride. Funny how that seems like an eternity for kids yet us adults interpret it as three hours we can sit on our butts and do nothing! hmm.....

Anyway-after that we headed downtown to Beau Jo's for pizza. Being St. Patrick's Day and all, it was quite a busy evening and we had to hover around like vultures to finally find a table to sit at. Our kids were seated first so we literally stood by their booth while they ordered and ate. In the mean time, the adults ordered their food, hoping a table would open up so we could actually sit down and eat. We would stalk the other tables and watch for people to be almost done eating, and then "slyly" go stand by their table so we could snatch it when given the chance. If people started taking too long we would start giving them the evil eye as if to say "hurry up you moron" and finally someone relented. Now, if that sounds too brutal, let me assure you, we were not the only ones doing that. It was almost as if it had turned into a game and was actually quite humorous. Anyway, we ended up having a decent meal and a good story to tell. What more could you ask for??

Hot Tubbin' in the Mountains

Well, we survived it--a week of spring break fun in good 'ol Colorado. We took the Amtrak train (aka the "Bullet Train" if you ask Lars) from Mt. Pleasant, IA to Denver, CO for a week long adventure of hanging out with friends, eating, snowboarding, hiking, (ok, it was just 1/3 of a mile but it was a beautiful trail), eating, sledding, ice skating, shopping (REI, a sporting goods store, makes my husband giddy with excitement), dirt bike riding at an "official" dirt bike park, did I mention eating?, and of course, swimming and hot tubbing. Whew! We crammed a lot in there but we had a blast and already wish we could go back out there soon.

This first post of our trip shows the boys in the hot tub at Katie and Eric's house. The first day there we went to the rec center where they have an indoor water park. Of course I forgot my camera so I have no pictures of that but the kids had a blast and got to get into the hot tub later that night back at the house so I could have my photo op.

The next day we went to Eldora, a ski resort outside of Boulder in a town called Nederland. Maddi didn't come on this adventure so me, Jamie, and the boys got our snowboards on and trekked over to the big mountain known as the "bunny hill". Jamie gave Drew a few pointers to get him going while our friend Eric was kind enough to try and get me down the hill without killing myself. I decided that I like bunny hills in Iowa much better than I like bunny hills in Colorado. I was NOT a fan. Lars also made it down the hill once with Jamie helping him out, then he decided that he just wanted to sit down at the bottom of the hill and just watch. After all, before we even left for Colorado, Lars told us that he didn't really want to ski down the mountains, he just wanted to roll around on them. Being the good mother that I am, I decided to sit with him. Lars started to get really cold so we (I) carried all of our gear back to the ski lodge and listened to him have a near meltdown because he was just "too tired to walk anymore!" Both of our fuses were running a bit short by the time we got back inside so first things first, I decided to set down our snowboards as both of my arms were ready to fall off. I saw a counter with all the other returned snowboards propped up against it and I set Lars' down and then did the same with mine. Apparently I was a little careless with mine, because in true domino effect fashion, my snowboard started to lean into the one next to it, and so on down the line. Fifteen or so snowboards in all, crashed to the floor. Nice.

After picking up the boards and getting mine and Lars' boots off, Lars wanted to sit in my lap. I could tell he was exhausted so I laid him in my lap and looked away for maybe 10 seconds, and by the time I looked back at him, he was sound asleep. We sat in the ski lodge for over an hour and a half, waiting for the others to get done for the day. Lars didn't wake up once and several staff members were kind enough to ask if I needed anything to drink, etc, etc. It was a pretty sweet moment really, and even though I see him as this big boy, I have to remember that he IS only 5.

Maddi's First(?) Haircut

Maddi has been a bit "hair challenged" since birth. Both of my boys needed haircuts by 15 months of age, yet here we are with my daughter, 3 1/2 years old, and still BARELY needing a haircut. When I found out I was having a girl, I had visions of cute, bouncy pigtails or even braids flowing out of my daughters head. Disgusted by the fact that I have never been able to be successful at having long hair, I had big dreams for Maddi. However, I am still waiting to live out those dreams as Maddi has hardly any hair and what she does have is very thin. I mean, come on--even I was wearing a full blown mullet by the age of two. (I have pictures to prove it if no one believes me.)

After last summer, the ends of her meager hair strands were left a bit dry and coarse, so today we finally decided to go in to get her a real "big girl" haircut. (In case any of you didn't know, Maddi did get a "sample" haircut from her brother Lars as they were playing one day a year or so ago and then another little "trim" from her friend Olaiya a few months after that, but those were just a few random clips here and there.)

When we got to the salon (does Cost Cutters classify as a salon?) she hopped right on up into the chair and gave me a big grin for her "before" picture. I snapped away during the course of her haircut and Maddi was very pleased with the end result. Now, I realize that most of you won't be able to tell the difference between before and after, but Maddi had a great time and thought her hair looked "much better!" after. The highlight of it all? Getting to pick out a toy from their special drawer of course!

Ski Warm-Up

About three months ago Jamie and I presented our kids with three different "Spring Break" options. The first option was Mexico (hot sun, shorts weather, swimming in the water all day, fruity drinks with little umbrellas, ahhhh.....), the second was Disney, and finally, snowboarding in Colorado. In unison, Drew and Lars screamed "SNOWBOARDING!" (much to Jamie's liking--I think he responded with, "That's my boys!") and so our trip was decided. Who knew at the time that this would be the year that Iowa tries to beat all previous snowfall records and that we would all be dying for a trip to somewhere warm. (Ok, maybe that's just me, but darn it that I got out-voted!)

To get ready for our big adventure we decided to go to Snow Star, a ski area outside of the Quad Cities, and let the kids try out snowboards and skis and see how they did. The night before we went to Scheels to get the kids some ski goggles. Lars was so excited that he made us put them on him before we even left the store, and insisted on wearing them while he ate breakfast the next morning.

Drew did awesome at snowboarding and Maddi loved skis. She would scream, "CANNONBALL!" as she plowed down the hill (we're not really sure why she chose "cannonball", but that's okay) and Lars tried both the snowboard and skis. I think he preferred the snowboard better but I'm not really sure. He was mad that they wouldn't give him any poles so that might be why. I tried to snowboard for the first time and decided that it might not be my thing. Jamie and Drew were able to go down a blue run by the end of the day and Drew thought that was pretty cool.

Look out Steamboat, here we come!!!

Enough is Enough

Ok, so I like snow as much as the next guy--maybe even a little more, but we have definitely gotten our share of snow this winter. I love snow when it is warm enough outside to go and play in it, so maybe my real gripe is that it's also been bitter cold and the kids have been cooped up for too long. Here are some pics of a rare outdoor photo-op highlighting the massive amounts of snow burying our mailbox and the end of our driveway. Poor Jamie gets home from work at 4AM and has had to shovel snow the snowplows have left behind way too many times to count just to get the car in the driveway. These pictures don't do quite the justice as actually seeing them up close, but the kids have had fun playing on them and thinking they were quite cool.

Once Upon A Time...

My daughter is a thief. Well, at least when it comes to her big brothers' toys. Especially the "important" ones that she knows her brothers can't live without. We've all caught on to her little game of taking her brothers' toys and stashing them in her bedroom--and she usually hides them in one trunk in particular. So the other day when Drew got home from school and wanted to play his Nintendo DS (aka "tendo" as Maddi calls it) he went to his room where it was plugged in to the charger.

Not there--go figure.

He proceeds into Maddi's room and asks her where his nintendo is and of course she says, "I dunno." He then goes straight for the trunk where she usually hides it but he can't seem to find it anywhere. Now we have a problem, and Drew is getting a little frustrated. I decide to get involved at this point to help out poor Drew, and when I proceed to ask Maddi where the nintendo is, she says, "Once upon a time, there was a princess." Thinking she is not listening (and I'm a little annoyed by this point) I ask her 3 more times where the nintendo is. Each time, she says, "Once upon a time, there was a little princess." Finally on the fourth try, she added the rest of the story, "... she liked to put the tendo in the basket and played with it. It was really fun!" at this point I searched a different basket in her room and found the nintendo right away. Her brothers were actually cracking up at this point so I decided to end the story with, "...and the princess gave the nintendo back to her brother and they all lived happily ever after!"

Little sisters!!!

Lars Loses a Tooth

Well--it finally happened--Lars lost his first tooth. When we got home tonight I asked to do the ritual "tooth check" and to my amazement it was so loose that I knew he could get it out with a little encouragement. Watching his face as he played with it and then the hesitation each time he "thought he got it" was hysterical. Part of me even sensed that he might be a little sad to lose it, after all, it had been with him for the past five years! I think he was anxious and nervous because he wasn't quite sure what it would feel like when it actually came out. When it did come out, Drew and I were the ones screaming, Lars was more concerned about all the "blood" that was coming out of his gums--and not in a good way--I think it freaked him out a bit. After the bleeding stopped he was fine and then thought it was pretty cool to play with the space between his teeth and loved twisting his tongue around in there. He insisted that I write a letter to the Tooth Fairy, because he absolutely does not want her to take his tooth with her when she leaves. I'm not sure what his big plans are for it, but he has been reminding me for weeks to make sure I don't forget the note for when his tooth would finally fall out.

He is so proud to to become a "big boy"!