Skiing with Spike, day 1

We had a fantastic weekend skiing at Mammoth with Spike for her going away trip.  This was the first time for Kyle and Emily on skis.  They had seen my videos from skiing 2 weekends prior and were quite excited to try it out themselves. 

The first day was a warmer day which was good for our liking, though it did make the snow a little slushier.  At least the kids weren't too cold. 

Kyle getting decked out

Emily getting decked out

Kyle strong man carrying his skis

Emily in her gear

Kyle in his gear

Ready for speed

Excited to get on some snow

On day one, we thought we could take Kyle and Emily out to ski ourselves and they would magically know how.  :-) Unfortunately, it didn't quite work like that. We did find a nice bunny hill with a magic carpet ride up the slope to practice. Thankfully there were some ski pros there who worked with Kyle and Emily and gave them some good skiing basics.  They got the hang of turning and stopping.

Videos of Kyle skiing on the first day.






Emily skiing day 1. She did quite well and seemed comfortable on skis.



 

Some warm food for lunch

Emily skiing, day 1

Videos of Emily skiing on day one after a lesson with a ski instructor on the bunny hill. 

Kyle skiing, day 1

I will write a more thorough soon (and catch up), but we have promised many people videos of the kids skiing during our awesome weekend at Mammoth with Spike. These videos are from day 1 (of 2) after a session with a ski instructor. 

Getting ready to ski!

Getting all geared up to ski!  Kyle and Emily were brimming with excitement! 

Happy Hannukah!

Happy Hannukah!

Kyle and Emily were so excited about the monkey and kittie winter gear

Can you tell he loves monkeys?  His shirt even has a monkey on it!

Emily and her kitties

Opening a gift

Kyle all decked out in monkeys. It was a warm December day, but he wanted to wear his monkey hat.

Kyle riding his new scooter. He woke up the morning after receiving this scooter wanting to ride his scooter. It was a preschool day and he hadn't had breakfast yet, but he was so eager to ride and really wanted to share it with his best friend, Miko.

Randoms

Just some cute pictures.  No real story or event, just pictures.

Comfy cozy to watch a show

Kyle drives with Daddy

Kyle koala

Kyle has been a koala since he was born, always being quite the hugger.  At 8 weeks old, he would wrap his arms around my neck to give hugs.  And mind you, at 8 weeks he should have only been just born!

Such a cute little snuggler!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  We had a fun Thanksgiving with our family in Chicago. 

Trip got off to a slow start with delay.  At least Kyle and Emily were well entertained by shows and video games in the airport.

Kyle and Emily had some quality time with Grandma reading books and really making great progress in learning to read.

Kari drying Emily's hair

Ikie boo chilling with some milk

Visiting Santa

Playing in the 'snow' just before seeing Santa

Plasma car races with Gloria

Pinball with Papa

Kyle LOVES pinball

Check out his score - 98,000!!!

He's pretty proud of his pinball skills

Dance party with all the cousins at Josh and Stephanie's place.

All the cousins (who can walk) dancing together

Daddy weekend

This weekend I went skiing with Spike at Mammoth.  While I was having a blast skiing with Spike, the kids had a great Daddy weekend. They were very busy with all kinds of kid activities that were fun for Jeff and the kids alike.

They did their first kid race, a 100 meter run I believe.  In the rain no less!

Kyle getting ready for his race

Little racers

It was quite rainy for their race, but they enjoyed getting to use their rarely used rain gear.

Jeff also took them over to Sea World, but this wasn't just their normal Sea World experience.  This was the Sea World experience where they got to go behind the scenes and get up close and personal with dolphins and sea turtles.  Emily, in particular, loved this as she is quite the little animal lover. And dolphins are one of her favorites. 

Here comes the dolphin

Dolphin smiling at Emily

Up close with a dolphin

Feeding the turtles some lettuce

Turtles

Sea World experience

And since we were all going skiing together in a few weeks, I sent Kyle and Emily videos of skiing as I went down the hill so they could see what it is all about.  Plus, with our different schedules and the difficulties in answering a phone while going down a ski run, it was also a nice way to say hi even if we couldn't connect live.  Apparently, Kyle and Emily kept asking to watch the videos.  :-)

*Comment from Jeff with further explanation: Not only did Kyle and Emily keep asking to see mommy's recorded videos of her skiing, but they are so used to skype/facetime calls with family, that they would verbally and visually respond to Kathleen's videos: when Kathleen would say "I love you Kyle and Emily" in the recordings, Kyle and Emily would respond out-loud: "We love you too Mommy!", and when Kathleen would say "bye-bye" into the camera, the kids would wave and blow kisses good-bye. This was particularly cute after watching the same video 7-8 times and seeing it elicit the same responses.

And here, they sent me a video to say thank you for your videos and that they were having a birthday party for I Love Crystal, Emily's doll.  They had some delicious banana cream pie that I had made prior to leaving. 

Excited for dessert

Pie time

Spike and I on our ski trip. Those mini skis really are the size I use and like!