Thanksgiving in Florida

My mom treated us all to Thanksgiving in Florida this year. We didn't time it quite right-- while we were gone it was warm and sunny here, and then we flew back just in time for a 3 day snowstorm-- but it made us appreciate the warm Florida weather that much more. Kendall & Nate and Andrew & Maddie joined us, so the kids got lots of grandma, aunt, and uncle time. Thank goodness for them-- 6 adults worth of energy is almost enough to match 2 kids. Almost.

Most of the photos below are from Maddie... without her it would be the usual random fuzzy cell phone shots. 

Family pic at the beach

Sunset outside my mom's condo

Grandma Z

Maddie did a quick family photo shoot.  Here's our family pic, minus Daddy who was back home in CO.

Ama and mama

Ama

Ama

Ama and LoLo

I am LoLo. You Will play with me.

Ama

Building sand castles

Ama & Auntie Kenny

Super windy beach day

Kenny & Nate

More windy beach time

Ama and mama at the pool

Pool time

They only had pink life jackets at the store.  Logan was a good sport about it. 

Swimming with Uncle Andrew

Thanksgiving dance party

Upside down with Uncle Andrew

Dance party antics

More dance party

Andrew got quite a workout

Restaurant near the little Vero Beach airport, where you can watch the planes take off and land

Maddie was always behind the camera... but here's one fuzzy cell phone picture of her

Welcome home to snow

Ama loves to eat snow

Random picture from Tammy's thrown in... Ama named her baby doll at Tammy's house "Mark".

Logan & I got to make a turkey on parent's day at school. (Actually grandparent's day, but we missed parent's day for climbing so I went on grandparent's day.)

Fall in Colorado

We spent most weekends climbing out in Rifle, CO this fall. Luckily Rifle is a beautiful spot and pretty good for the kids. Its flat and there are no cliffs for them to fall off of. There is a river, just big enough that it would be trouble if the kids fell in, and of course Amelie's favorite place to hang out was on the narrow little bridges crossing it. There's also a road that people drive way too fast on. But other than that, it's a kid-friendly place, and they had lots of opportunities to collect rocks and sticks and shells and build forts. They had lots of opportunities to play the Kindle/iPad too... its a balance:).

Logan takes lots of pictures with my phone.  Usually they're blurry pictures of his foot or the inside of the car... but sometimes they seem to represent Logan's view of the world to me.  Like this one, where front and center is his latest lego creation.

Xander's birthday party-- Mark got in the jumpy house and was a kid-magnet

Ama at Tammy's house. Around me she always looks like a ragamuffin, but she'll let Tammy do her hair.

Pine Valley Ranch Open Space.  After 7 years in CO, this is the first time we've been here! I love that we can still find places we've never been close to home.

My kids eat plenty of junk food.  But every once in a while they surprise me-- like when Amelie wanted broccoli for her treat at the grocery store.

Neighborhood volleyball game at the Gulland's

Kenny & Ama hiking on the trails behind Marshdale (another recent discovery of new trails near home)

Aspens at Kenosha Pass.  We took a very traffic-y detour home from Rifle to see these. It was definitely not worth it. (Note to self for future years)

A rest day trip to Aspen to see the last of the fall leaves

Ama in Rifle Canyon

Ama & Daddy taking a break at Rifle

Playing in the woods

Logan trying to be like Daddy, doing arm exercises with the stretchy band

in Rifle Canyon

Swings at Rifle

Axel & Logan playing minecraft at Rifle

Ama & Uncle Mike

Lucas & ama playing drums in their fort

"Wuke" and Ama.  Amelie LOVES Lucas.

At the park in Glenwood.  I taught Ama the joy of crunching leaves.

Running through the corn maze

Ama so proud of herself for climbing all the way to the top by herself at the corn maze/ pumpkin patch

Pumpkin patch