Relaxation

Jennifer and I took our first trip sans les petits (just for you Jason). It had been nearly 8 years since our last real getaway just the 2 of us. After searching long and far, we decided to head to Denver and better yet spent a couple of days in Vail. At least the rooms are 1/3rd of the price that they are during the ski season... since most everything else is still expensive. Anyway, it was also our 10 year anniversary so this was our idea of splurging.

Much thanks to Jen's parents who volunteered to watch all of our girls during our trip. They sure kept them busy and the girls had a lot of fun!


Here are a few pics from our adventure up the Vail mountain. It started up the gondola (our hotel is on the far left of a pic). Then, you see us together at a place called Wedding Deck (guess we decided to finally tie the knot). Then, you see an actual wedding about to take place. Too bad for them the wind had just started to pick up a bit. You can also see the proof of a little 1 hour long uphill trek we did from Eagles Nest/Adventure Ridge to the 'You Are Here' sticker. It was a bit longer than we thought.

Finally, we decided to give biking a try and I found the 'greenest' trail on the map. However, we didn't realize that the only thing you needed for this trail was 1) patience, 2) courage and 3) your brakes. We barely pedaled on the 7+ mile trek. We went back up again and this time decide to go about a mile down the trek and turn around and head back up hill to the gondola station. Now That was uphill mountain biking... yikes.

The area had record snow fall this year and Friday was the first day that the Gondola was running for the summer season. As you can see, there is still a lot of snow in places and it caused a number of creeks and rivers to be quite high.


Saturday had us heading down the road a few miles to Beaver Creek. This area is much smaller than Vail, but seemed to be extremely kid friendly. There was kids stuff to do all over the place and I think if we came back sometime with kids, we would look to stay here (then again, I don't know that they would do the chair lift... the gondola in Vail is much more their style). The chairlift had been opened for a couple of weeks so they didn't have as much snow hanging around.

For the entire trip, the weather was awesome. As you can see, most people were in shorts (did you expect anything less from me?), and it was very comfortable. Having not been to the mountains since college, I forgot how intense the sun is up there. Regardless, it was a nice relaxing break and a wonderful place to escape for a few days in the summer.

Happy Anniversary My Dear! Hope we have many many more decades together like the first one.

Dance Banquet

Abby had her Dance Banquet; just her and I decided to go since the tickets were $35 each (although the dancer and 1 parent could attend for FREE)! They had an Italian buffet dinner, cheesecake for dessert, followed by awards, and a slideshow showcasing the year. It was a dress-up event, and the girls all sat at tables together while the parents sat at separate tables. Abby loved getting dressed up, eating a fancy dinner, and being able to sit with her friends. She is just growing up way too fast!

Happy Father's Day

Wii Widow

Brian and I decided to purchase a Wii. We've been wanting one for awhile, and with gas prices as they are, we decided to try to spend more time at home this summer. So, for our family entertainment, we finally broke down and bought the Wii. Abby is really into it, and Emma is still learning. Emma is a master of the Nintendo DS, can navigate pretty well on the ol' world wide web, but the Wii is taking her a little bit longer to grasp. She always enjoys watching Brian and Abby play, but she isn't always participating. I have no doubt that she will catch on soon though. My favorite game is the Wii Fit (when I am able to get on the Wii)- I give it great reviews. Brian's favorite would probably be Starwars. With all the rest of the family playing the Wii today, I did manage to get 3 loads of laundry done and the entire gameroom gutted. "Gutting the gameroom" consists of dumping all toys into the middle of the floor and either organizing them, giving them away, or throwing them away. Now, no one is allowed to play up there since it's perfectly clean and organized. How long will that last?

Below, you see Abby trying the hula-hoop game.

Golf Camp

Abby and our neighbor and friend, Brooklyn, took a golf camp this past week. I was a little worried they wouldn't enjoy it, and it wasn't exactly cheap. To my surprise, the girls had a wonderful time. They listened well and learned quite a bit in just 5 days. Abby likes chipping better than putting, and they absolutely loved riding in the golf cart, drinking powerade, and chewing gum that their instructor had given them. Abby said she can't wait to go back next year!

Backyard Fun

The girls had fun on Saturday playing in our little wading pool and shooting their waterguns at our dog, Bailey, who thought it was the best fun yet. She loves it when anyone comes out to her 'kingdom' of the backyard.


After Bailey kept coming back for more and more and more water, she decided to dry off by rubbing herself all over the grass. It really didn't take her long to dry off in this Texas heat.

One LONG Dance Recital

This weekend was the annual dance recital for our girls. This year both of our girls got to participate in the program. The adventure started on Friday night, when we had the rehearsal. It started at 5p and every dance did a run through. Looking at the run sheet they gave every parent, this meant all 78 dances would be performed. About half of those dances were competition dances done by the company dancers, so they were easily 2-3 minutes each. The other dances were the recreation classes (about 1/2 of those dances included company dancers who decided to do yet an additional dance or two from their technique classes).

First up was Abigail, who was in the company opening number as well as her 2 competition dances that were within the '2nd quarter' of the schedule. Since rehearsal didn't include full dress for the company girls, I got to be the parent on duty for this part while Jen was at home getting Emma in her full costume and makeup. Anyway, nothing started on time... a few acts were slow in either having dancers show up or making costume changes... and finally by 7:30 we hit the half way point. Emma's dances were early in the 3rd quarter and late in the 4th quarter putting her last practice around 9:15p (one tired little girl). Just to add to the fun, the company wanted to practice yet again their opening number at the end of rehearsal, so Jen left with Emma after her dance and I got to hang around until nearly 10p. Luckily the dance took place just 5 minutes from our house so it made driving much easier.


On Saturday, they asked for the company girls to be there at Noon for the 1p dance... so there I was with Abigail. I stood around for a while and finally got in to get our seats. Jen and Emma showed up about 12:45p so they could see the opening number. It finally started around 1:15p and about 1/2 the girls looked lost (the opening dance was put together over the last couple of weeks... not the months spent on other dances). Abigail did well (she is dressed kinda like a dancer from flashdance). From that point forward, Emma was wanting to know when it was her turn to dance. Hearing her on Friday night after her first practice say 'Dad, that was Fun! Can we do it again!' sounding like she had just gone down a fun slide.

However, since it was recital day, Jen got to go backstage and fix Abigail's hair in a couple of different styles, each time taking Emma with her. This did help to pass the time. And even though the girls' dances were all spread out, it allowed Jen to be able to see all the dances and not be caught backstage as I heard a couple of moms were.

Abigail's 2 competition dances were awesome. In contrast to Abigail's opening number and the controlled chaos on the stage, she was completely in her element, having all of her steps down and not looking one bit lost. It was great to watch.


Next up was Emma and her 'best pal' Jordyn. As mentioned above, she could hardly wait to get back on stage. As expected at her age, the girls were all over the place but they looked cute and Emma looked so grown up on stage, having no fear and looking like she had a lot of fun. She came home and said, "Mommy, I'm a star!"

At the end, she got to walk out with Abigail to the curtain call, and we were finally off to dinner at the 'early' hour of 5:45p. So, I spent close to 11 hours out of the last 24 hours being the 'support' parent for my little girls and watching them on stage like big girls. Great Job Girls... you made me one proud daddy!

Last Day of School

We have been counting down the days, and summer has finally arrived. I thought Abby would be thrilled, but we got an e-mail this morning from Abby's teacher saying she was transferring back to her former campus due to a great opportunity there. Even with this sad news, I still anticipated shouts of joy when I walked up to get her this afternoon. Instead, my poor child hugged me tightly and started sobbing. She is so sad her teacher is leaving. Since her teacher attends the same church as us, Abby has requested we begin attending Saturday nights because she said that is the night her teacher is usually there. Poor thing! So, we skipped one of her 3 dance classes this afternoon to go to Peter Piper Pizza to cheer her up. She is all smiles now.

We have a busy day tomorrow with dress rehearsal for the recital for both girls. Abby has one dance that requires she wear her hair in a bun, the second dance is a curly side pony tail, and the 3rd dance is a high pony tail with poofy bangs. Since we had her hair cut, this is going to be even more challenging. I know you moms out there feel my pain....lots of bobby pins and dippity do! Oh, and I now have Emma to get ready as well. She is so excited about being in the recital and wearing her pink tutu - and the best part to her is that she gets to wear make-up! After our recital on Saturday, I feel like summer can officially begin!

End of Year Party

Abby had her end of the year party today. It was a "beach theme" complete with snacks, a conga line, limbo, and a beach attire relay race. The kids had a great time, but you can certainly tell it's the end of the year, and the kids are ready for summer.


They had a short awards ceremony after the party, and Abby received an award for Leadership. Who would have thought my shy child would emerge as such a leader in her classroom? She has had such an amazing, incredible teacher this year, and we are going to miss her!

Just one more day to go....let summer begin!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband. What an amazing man you are!

Slip and Slide

Jen and I gave some long discussion to getting some type of back yard entertainment to help with the downtime during the summer. After going back and forth with a couple of the big inflatable water slides, we decided it was way too much hassle (and cost) and went very low tech, the Slip and Slide.

Our girls have so much fun playing with anything that involves water (i.e. see yesterday's post about Emma going down the 5 second kids slide dozens of times) that we figured we'd give it a shot. So, Jen picked one up at Target along with a sprinkler hose that sprays water everywhere and gave it a try this afternoon.

First up was the slide. In case you didn't know, we don't have any daredevil kids (I never get to ride roller coasters or any of the big slides... :-( ), so they never could figure out how to run and slide on their bellies. I should've walked around the neighborhood until I found an elementary aged boy to demonstrate the belly slide. Instead, they did their sliding on their knees, which worked out just fine for them. By the end, they were sliding nearly 2/3rds of the slide to the little slash pool at the end.






Besides just sliding, the girls did a lot of water drinking. Why they must always drink the water (swimming pool or not) is beyond me.


Next, we tried out the sprayer hose attachment. It has all these little hoses that spin around everywhere spraying water. It wasn't that much of a hit. The girls just sprayed each other with water for a little bit and wanted to go back to the slip and slide. It think it will be a dud.


All in all, I think we will get our money's worth out of the slide. An extra bonus is that its probably only going to be used when its nice and hot, so little Bailey won't mess with it because she very smartly moves from shaded area to shaded area... usually only leaving them to play with a toy or chase the random bug/dragonfly/butterfly that comes through the yard. The only time she came close was when she was chasing a dragonfly... and took a big leap over both slides and the little sprayers in the middle, just getting a little bit wet. So, for now, we shouldn't have to worry about her putting a hole in it.