day at welch

last saturday, we loaded up the kids and met Pappy at welch village for a day of skiing. since the chairlifts at welch are only 2 person lifts we need another person to meet us for all 3 of the kids to be able to ski at the same time. it worked out perfectly and I can honestly say it was the first time I left the hill and said “that was fun” not “that was utterly exhausting!”. this was helped by the fact that it was 35 degrees so I wasn’t worried about it being cold for the kids, the kids all did a great job of being motivated to get out and ski (so once we started putting on gear no one started crying like crazy)

ellie trying to pull out a chair to join in on these other guys conversation.

taking a quick water break. before we head out.

we skied about 5-6 runs and then thought the kids should come in and have lunch. now I actually had packed pb&js and snacks, but pappy took charlie up to the cafeteria and this is what they came down with. I am not complaining – I love onion rings and we devoured this tray.

claire trying to eat the sprinkles off of the tray.

back out on the slopes I tried to take more pictures.

at one point ellie and I were at the bottom of the hill and claire skied up to ellie and then just whapped her on the head. bill and I were like “what?”. then they had a sister showdown. a lot of staring each other in the eyes and trying to push the other one with their gloved hand. I would love if they never had these sort of interactions, but I don’t think that will be the case. thankfully the harnesses came in handy and we pulled them apart and tried to help them communicate love to each other.

bill and claire.

 

more sister standoff.

me and kindercare on the lift.

claire – love this picture! I was trying to cheer her up after she took a fall and got a little bloody nose. this was about 1pm so she was sort of shot for the day.

bill fixing eleanore’s goggles. they are so big for her face.

they can never decide if they want them up or down. even while skiing down they will change their minds.

charlie is skiing awesome! he is growing into such a big boy! he seems so grown up to me when I see him skiing alone and “chasing and racing” (basically where charlie goes straight and as fast as he can giggling like a mad man and bill makes big turns back and forth in front of him).

I wanted to capture one picture of the 3 kids together, but ellie had other plans. as soon as I would get them in a line she would start to move forward. ugh!

one more attempt. look at how good claire and charlie are.

one seestor shot! love these two girls.

what a great pappy! charlie adores him.

giving us a wave.

me and eleanore on the lift.

pappy and charlie behind us. it was such a gloomy day!

bill and claire coming down.

claire was spent after her crash so I took her in and ellie and charlie wanted “mooe ski!” so bill and tom took those two out for a few more runs. bill said ellie is a pro. he said she has this “rock solid, wide base, downhill skier stance and basically carves turns by looking in the direction she wants to go”. hmmm – we’ll see where that goes.  claire currently likes to wag it and look around and her skies are closer together and has a mild side slip all the time. they both seem to love it though because when they see the skis in the garage they both start chanting “ski ski ski”.  what a blast it was skiing together as a family. although it is a lot of work – I love doing things that we love with our kids and seeing them love it too. thanks pappy for helping us out!

 

that night – we took the kids to Rochester’s Social Ice.

the girls put their hands in their pockets to keep warm.

most things were made of ice. benches, animals, etc. it was cold out though so we didn’t stay very long.

charlie touching the ice sculptures. the only thing that bugged bill and me was that most of the sculptures were advertisements.

I did like the running shoe though.

after a quick loop – we headed to caribou for some hot chocolate. after spilling it midway through we cleaned up and headed home. we had a busy saturday!

phone obsessed

claire and eleanore are obsessed with any phones – iphones, talking on old school home phones, fake phones – whatever.  this does make me nervous for when they are teenagers. good thing we probably won’t have 1 home phone line with no call waiting otherwise it would probably always be busy. or maybe we should consider that…hmmm.

anyway – pappy called our house last week around dinner time and the girls really wanted to each have a turn talking to him. I would say they are finally communicating just enough for there to actually be some back and forth. not sure if pappy heard it because their voices are soft and jumbled and they move the phone around, but I could hear “hi pappy”, “hooe beebee no no" (when telling him about their desires and dreams to see and hold baby no no), “ski snow” (referring to when we were going to be heading to welch to go skiing), etc.

here is claire. so proud of herself for sitting on a chair and talking on the phone (probably like mom).

 

ellie asking for her turn in 1 minute (see the finger – that means 1 minute please).

focused.

ellie was sick of waiting for her 1 minute and tried to help herself.

with a little help from me – claire is still holding the phone and sitting in the chair.

ellie’s turn! except claire wasn’t so happy after she realized she really did turn the phone over and her turn was done.

LOVE this picture. what a beautiful little girl she is growing in to!

having her little convo.

 

in the middle of talking.

thanks pappy for calling. the girls (and charlie) all loved the convo. we are preparing for next year where there will only be phone conversations for most of the year.

a chill weekend

last weekend we had a chill family weekend. c woke up from nap and was proud of these tall towers. post nap it is sometimes hard to get pants back on.

 

this proves why I don’t put a ton of effort into doing crafts. our kids only like them for 5 minutes. it is just not worth the effort sometimes.  I had seen this craft on pinterest and it is super easy. claire definitely liked it the best.

i had fun writing on them.

 

ellie liked to pick at the tape, which is classic for her personality. she will literally find fuzz or lint or any dirt on any carpet and demand to put it in the garbage can. not fun when we are out places.

 

ellie goofing while eating.

mikel, becca and nolan came over for dinner. the kids were SOO excited to see mikel they were climbing all over him. mikel was reading a book to charlie and the girls climbed on board as well.

then we threw nolan in. that is a lot of kids on mikel’s lap!

can a dog catch a break around here?

I hate to admit this, but lily doesn’t even have a real water dish at our house. I can usually tell when she is thirsty when she waits by the sink or bathroom door. when I put water out for her the girls have to watch her every move. the poor thing. soon lily – we will be in NZ and you will be with a family who gives you a water bowl.

compliment?

the other night bill and I were hanging out both doing computer work when he reached over and started touching my neck and jaw. at first I thought he was pulling some sort of crazy move from The Bachelor until I realized he was moving his fingers in weird investigative ways. then he said “you would be a great neck dissection. everything is right there”.  and by everything I think he means - veins, lymph nodes, bones, etc.  gee thanks weyam! how romantic!