X-Country Skiing

 We've been talking for months about taking Asher and Leif cross-country skiing with their older cousins, Paul and Ben. We left our younger three kids with Austin's sister so we could just focus on the older boys. We went to an area near Boulder called Brainard Lake. We never saw the actual lake because we stayed in a smaller area going back and forth a few times to get the boys used to being on skis. (Austin and I are hoping to go up just the two of us soon and ski near the lake, but we'll see.) Leif wasn't the biggest fan of it, especially since there were some pretty steep hills we had to go up and then down (much harder in cross-country skis in my opinion) and Leif said he much prefers downhill skis. The other three boys had quite a bit of fun and Austin and I loved it so much that we are planning to get our own skis. 

. It was super windy in the parking lot which made everything freezing and we were a little worried it would be a miserable day, but luckily once we got into the trees, there was hardly any wind.

Austin was a pro teacher and did a great job mentoring the boys. He and I haven't been cross country skiing since we were newly weds, but he picked it up again really quickly and was able to help the boys a lot.

Sledding with Cousins

We haven't gotten much snow this winter, so even though we only got a couple inches last night, we decided to go sledding before it all melted. We were surprised, but pleased, that no one else was at the hill on a golf course that we usually go to.

The kids had tons of fun sledding and Torben had fun racing full speed from kid to kid and waiting for someone to throw a snowball for him. Ben did a really good job keeping him entertained and even kept him distracted from a few other dogs that walked past. I don't remember the last time I actually went sledding myself, but Heidi asked me to go with her and I had a lot of fun. Natalie came with us a couple times and I went with Trevor and Natalie on a few runs.

Each of the kids tried "snowboarding" for a little while.

Leif got so exhausted that he needed a little rest.

And they eventually decided to have a snow battle.

I'm so glad we got out sledding this winter. Hopefully we'll get to go again, but if not, we had fun today.
 

Valentine's Day in Denver

We went to Denver for a Department of Education meeting about homeschool and while we were down there we decided to go to the state capitol since it was across the street.

We got there just before a new tour was going to start, so we grabbed a few little snacks from the cafe (it was lunch time and I didn't want the little kids melting down while we were on the tour).

We learned a lot about the capitol building, about Colorado's, and about the governance of Colorado and got to see lots of different rooms.

The highlight was going up into the dome and getting to walk around on the outside and see downtown Denver.

There was also a little museum at the top of the building where we learned some interesting facts.

Since we were only about 10 minutes away from the zoo and we have a season's pass this year, the kids begged to go. It was already 2pm by the time and I was starting to get tired, and didn't want to get stuck in traffic on the freeway, but we agreed that each kid could pick one animal and we would only see those unless we happened to be walking past others.

Trevor picked the lions. They had just eaten, so they were all just sleeping, but they are always interesting to see.

We saw the penguins briefly just because we were passing by.

Asher chose the tigers. Both the male and female were awake and active and were very fun to watch.

Here's the male pacing back and forth.

We were also there at just the right time to see a trainer working with the female tiger.

Natalie wanted to see the sea lions, but their exhibit was under construction and we didn't know where they had gone, so she settled for seeing horses- the only horses we could find were some wild horses right next to the tigers.

We saw the fisher cats because they were awake and prowling around while were in the Asian animal house.

But what we were really there for is Leif's choice of the otters and we got quite the show! They disappeared into a little door right as we were getting there, but we waited about five minutes and they all came back out- we assume they were getting fed. We were the only ones there and when they noticed us watching them, they were very curious and playful.

They were all over the place investigating everything and wrestling with each other and checking to see what we were doing.

Leif had a special experience with one very curious otter who came up and looked at him twice. He LOVES otters (so does Heidi) so he was very pleased with this!

Heidi's choice of animal was a mountain goat. Last time we were here, there we two babies, but today there was only one snoozing high up on the rocks. Not very exciting, but she was still thrilled with all the time and fun we had watching the otters, so she wasn't too disappointed .

When we finally got back home, Austin wanted to take me on a date and won me over by reminding me that this was the only time he'd ever asked me to go out on Valentine's, so we went to Wendy's (our typical date place since its cheap and we both like it) while the kids decorated some Valentine's cookies that someone had gifted us that morning. I left Asher in charge of taking a few photos.