Lake Tahoe adventure

We had a wonderful time skiing in Tahoe in February. Not only did we get to ski, but we got to ski with our San Diego friends. Aaron was reunited with his love, Alice. And we all had a great time together.

For some crazy reason, we thought a 6am flight was a good idea... something about getting into Tahoe with daylight and time to get equipment for the next day. Nonetheless, we made it and adjusted and had a wonderful trip to Tahoe. 

The lady who drove us out to Heavenly from the airport made a stop at Lake Tahoe for Aaron to go potty. (Great timing Aaron!) And we got a great view of the lake. 

We hadn't planned on Aaron skiing, but when we went to get our equipment, he didn't want to be left out. So he got skis as well. And as you will see, he skied. 

Emily and Kyle ready to go to ski school

The super early flight and 3 hour time change was hard on Aaron. 

Ski school for Kyle & Emily

Aaron getting all ready to try skiing. 

Aaron and Alice reunited again

Happy birthday dinner to Ian!

Betsy with Aaron & Alice

All the kids playing iPad

Me & Jeff

Me & Betsy

Betsy & Dustin

Our adult skiing crew. Aaron & Alice had a babysitter and the rest of the kids were in ski school. Can you say actual vacation?!

Emily, Kyle & Ian

Skiing is exhausting! So are jet lag and time changes. 

Aaron up for another try at skiing

After 2 days of ski school, the big kids - Kyle, Emily & Ian - skied with us

Aaron skiing

As mentioned previously, we hadn't planned on having Aaron ski but he did not want to be left out. And he really wanted to try skiing. And he did. And he did great! And he loved it!

Aaron had a lot to say on his gondola ride up to ski with Jeff. 

Aaron on the makeshift bunny hill

Aaron thought skiing was so much fun that each day he wanted to try skiing again. So his and Alice's babysitter brought the kids up to have a turn on the skis.

Aaron graduated from the bunny hill to the magic carpet hill.

Speedy Aaron on the magic carpet hill

And then Aaron wanted to go up on a chair lift. So we took him on the green chair lift for an easy green hill. He had a great time on it. Of course he cannot ski on his own, he's 2 after all, but for a first time ski, it was great that he enjoyed it and wanted to ski more. 

Em homework

Emily brought home this gem of homework today... 

Use banquet in a sentence. 

I would like to drink champagne and eat fruit at a banquet. 

Loppers

Kyle and Emily love lopping up at Grandma's house. Our bushes needed some trimming so they got to break in the loppers I bought and took care of our bushes. Thanks Grandma!! 

Duke game

Today was a beautiful day so we headed up to Duke. We enjoyed hanging out around campus and even took in a women's basketball game at Cameron Indoor! It was cool to be in Cameron especially after the men's team had a great game the evening before against Notre Dame. Anyhow, Aaron was especially into the game clapping along, cheering and following the crowd for free throws.

Chili for breakfast

Chili is a hit in our house for dinner. And for breakfast as well with these guys! 

How we school

Emily had a rough night coughing and didn't get much sleep so she got the day off school. So we had school at home and Aaron got in on the fun as well working on his letters and colors. 

Bear in the woods

Cutest little Bear in the woods. 

Kinect Sports

We're totally digging playing Microsoft Kinect Sports as a family!

Aaron skiing

To piggyback on Jeff's post about playing Kinect, here is Aaron skiing. He loves playing "Connect 4 season 2"

Comfy cozy

Hurray for furniture! 

2014 Year in review

Inspired by Spike and because it's fun to revisit our year, this is our year in review. It was a year of big changes for our family.

January: This month was spent having a lot of fun around San Diego. There were hikes, zoo visits, playing at the playground and just having fun, enjoying the San Diego (non) winter. We sure love San Diego.

February: This month's highlight was a visit by Papa & Kari. We had a lot of fun with them. The kids all got to go horseback riding for their first time with them - Aaron included! We golfed, went to the Wild Animal Park, had great food and enjoyed having them here.

March: This was an awesome month. First, Aaron turned 2. While we determined in February that we were going to be moving to Raleigh, North Carolina this summer, we decided that we had to make the most of our remaining time in California. During the kids' spring break at the end of March / beginning of April, we decided to drive up the coast to San Francisco and enjoy California. We started in San Diego and made stops in Paso Robles, Cayucos, Monterey, San Francisco and Napa. On the way home, the kids and I (Jeff flew home after a few extra days in SF with friends) stopped in Modesto and Irvine. This drive along the coast only reinforced just how much I love living in California. It is a gorgeous state and the coast is amazing. It just feels like home for me. 

April: Continuing our farewell to the west coast tour, Jeff and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in Maui, where we spent our honeymoon. Grandma came to town to watch the kids and visit with us. We played hookie from school after we returned to have a beach day with Grandma as well. 

May: Ian & Judy visited us from Australia; Josh, Stephanie, Ben & David stopped by San Diego to visit us while they were on our coast visiting their grandparents. Mike, Mary, Mason & Max also visited us for a Cubs game against the Padres. Aaron and Alice spent loads of time together as well. And we kicked off summer early with a lot of beach days spent boogie boarding and surfing with friends.

June: Kyle and Emily finished 2nd grade, we went to Chicago, Jeff and I visited Raleigh, Aaron spent a lot of time with Alice and Kyle took 2nd place in his Little Mo tennis tournament.

July: Kyle and Emily turned 8 this month. We have all been soaking in our last bits of San Diego as our move nears. We got an offer on our house at the end of the month, scheduling our move for August. We went ice skating, go-karting, to the beach, biking, took the trolley downtown, went to Seaport Village and just had a great time with those that we love here in San Diego - Haiden, Simon, Alice and their families. 

August: This was our last month in San Diego. It was hectic and hard. There was a lot to get done before moving, but we had a lot of experiences left to have in San Diego. And we got to spend time with our friends who had become family to us. 

September: We were officially in Raleigh. Jeff and I had birthdays. Moving was miserable. It was hot and humid. We lived in a hotel for 2 weeks. We couldn't get the kids into a good school so we rented a tiny apartment for 4 weeks before our house was ready. We were all desperately missing the familiarity of San Diego and being surrounded by our friends and routines. But we found some rainbows to lift us up from the pits that we were in: we made fast friends with a family that Kari knew from Illinois who had just moved to NC, we found the Marbles Children's Museum and some fun parks and we went to a Duke football game. And most of all, we were all together.

October: We moved into our new house and our stuff arrived from San Diego. Kyle played tennis, Emily started gymnastics, Aaron played marbles and we all celebrated Halloween with our new neighbors.

November: Aaron started a preschool program at Marbles, Kyle played and won 2 tennis tournaments, we drove home to the midwest for Thanksgiving and the kids were off school for most of the month.

 

December: This month should be about the holidays, but instead it was more about our drive home from Chicago. Kyle got super sick and landed himself in hospitals in 3 states - Ohio ER, West Virginia admitted for 3 days and North Carolina ER. Thankfully, he tested negative for some potentially really awful diagnoses and recovered after about a week. On the bright side of the month, Papa & Kari came to visit us, and we had a wonderful first holiday season in our new house.