Beaver Creek 2011

Mommy and Daddy took me skiing this year. Davis stayed home with Nana and Aunt Marsha but he will be on the next trip, for sure. Here I am in front of our plane heading straight to Eagle, CO. It was a big plane. I watched two movies on the way there and hardly bothered to look out the window.

I am dying to throw my entire body into this snow. I have NEVER seen so much snow in my life. It was super awesome.

Family picture at the top of the gondola lift. This is really from the third day but it seemed appropriate to put it at the top of the post since Mom and Dad and I are all together and it was a family trip.

We went on the trip with our friends from Marshall. Here is my buddy Cade. He became an awesome snowboarder on this trip.

Here I am at my first day of ski school. I would ski down this slope and then ride up this magic carpet. It was tiring but I did finally learn to ski by the third day. I did. Oh, and check out my helmet cover. All the coaches and friends called me Frog Man. And, Mommy and Daddy could see me from far away.

After ski school and when the slopes were closing down, the Beaver Creek peeps would pass out yummy choco chip cookies. It was a perk!

Day 2 of ski school was BRUTAL. It was snowing something serious but I hung in there against my better judgment.

After Day 2. COLD. But that did not stop me from getting some gelato with mom and dad later.

By Day 3 I had it down. I had my own lane, could pizza (stop), french fry (go) and turn. Success!

Daddy snowboarded this entire trip and LOVED it. From what we hear, he was pretty good too. He took this pic at the top of the mountain. He had it all to himself early Monday morning.

But it wasn't all skiing. We played around in the village, went tubing, hung out with a babysitter while the grown ups went to Spago, played lots of video games, watched movies, went in the hot tub outside (which was warmer than anything I have ever done but so worth it), and even worked out.

Beaver Creek has a local celebrity who plays the accordian and this long horn every day when the slopes close. He draws a crowd.

Poser!

I could not resist. I was normally ready before all of the others in the condo every morning so I occupied myself by playing with more snow. I could not get enough of that stuff.

Snow Angel. I only did this about 50 times in 5 days!

Here I am going down the tubing hill. We did this after my 3rd day of ski school and I was pretty wiped out. I think Mommy and Daddy had a good time though.

Here Daddy is about to be thrown down the mountain!

And Mommy too. This was about all the action she saw on the mountain because she decided not to ski (she didn't want to get hurt before her half marathon but then got an upper resp infection and stomach bug so couldn't run anyway...the irony).

On the last day, Cade and I needed to burn off some energy before getting on the plane to come home. Mom took us down to the gym and we walked on the treadmills, did some yoga, and some dips. It was fun but we could have used a few more hours in there!

And here I am on the way home. I loved flying. I watched tv shows on the way home. I hardly noticed when we landed back in Houston. I was a great travel companion. Can't wait for the next trip.

Chasing Frisbees in Heaven

Lady went to heaven on January 17, 2011. She was 14+ years old. She was Daddy's sweet girl and long time roommate. We miss her tons but we know that she is playing frisbee in heaven and watching over us!

Happy Birthday to the Bearded Man!

Daddy turned the big 35 this year. We celebrated a little early so that he could go hunting with his friends in Abilene. He had pizza and then cake and ice cream. We gave him some wading boots and all the Star Wars movies but then surprised him with a new room upstairs where he can make his fishing poles. Mimi and Buddy helped us put the room together. Daddy was surprised and thankful (he was not so thankful for the stomach virus he and Luke contracted but that is another story). We hope Daddy has a great, happy year!

Camping? Testing, Testing.

Daddy got a tent for Christmas. It is pretty big. So big, it would not fit completely stretched out in the playroom. We set it up the other night to give it a try. So cool and we are so excited to go camping sometime soon.

We got sleeping bags for Christmas and here we are "modeling" with them in the tent! Our tent is so big we can sleep on one side and Mom and Dad have plenty of room on the other side!

I have no idea why we felt the need to strip down in the tent but we did. And we had just eaten breakfast. Normally our stomachs do not look like that! I assume some summer camping may look like this in the future!

Daddy was also modeling. See, there is so much room you can even use a laptop. And when you are finished computing, you can hide it in the little "closet". We are super jazzed about that closet!

Luke- 54 Months

Hi everyone! It is me again. What a busy month we have had. Of course, the biggest news is that I am riding my bike with only 2 wheels. 2 wheels! I'm pretty good at it too. I've even been over my neighbors bike ramp! I'm working on starting on my own but otherwise I have it all figured out. Even stopping. A lot of my friends on the block have started riding too. We like to ride, play our Paper Jamz, and then have huge hide and seek battles. It is so much fun. Other than playing outside in our pretty temperate weather, I've been to the movies twice to see Yogi Bear and Tangled. I tried out the new Chuck E. Cheese too. I figured out some of the most generous ticket machines and I stuck to those. Did you know that CEC pizza is pretty good? It is. Really. I've enjoyed hanging out with my cousins Nash, Mary and Ryan. I've also had fun playing computer games on Mommy's computer. And of course, I love my TV shows. Phineas and Ferb and some oldies like Scooby Doo and Garfield are great. I have also recently been allowed to watch Sponge Bob, but only with Mom and Dad and Davis has to be asleep. This does not happen often but that is ok. We have been cleaning out toys and clothes lately and I'm working on cutting down on my hoarding issues. Mom and I actually got rid of a lot of random pieces of plastic and gooey eyeballs and squishies that were showing up all over my room. I kept some but not too many. Also, just so we can remember in the future, I weight a whopping 47 pounds. We checked the other day. Whoa! I'm going snow skiing for the first time in a few weeks and I'm super excited. Will talk about that next time.
Later,
Luke

Davis- 32 Months

Hi Again,

So... we survived Christmas and New Year's. We have been so busy and having so much fun. We have seen so much family and explored all sorts of new activities. I'm worn out and ready to go back to a routine (oh, wait, I'm just repeating what I keep hearing from Mommy and Daddy!). This past month has been awwwesome. I've been singing Christmas carols and the songs that came on the Paper Jamz we got. I love, love, love my new big boy bike. I also love my musical instruments from Donna and T.C. My TinkerToys are also getting a big work out. You can do so much with Tinker Toys! I have seen two new movies this month too. Yogi Bear in 3-D and Tangled. They were both great and I was able to stay in the theater the whole time. That's endurance. I've given about one million kisses to my cousins Nash and Mary. I'm so super gentle with little kids. Big kids are another story. I'm really rough on my brother. We wrestle, fight, squabble and argue ALOT. I continue to spend quite a bit of time in our time out corner. I had really stopped biting but I brought it back with a vengance. And speaking of vengance. Mommy and Daddy are back to the sleep training. They are having to lock my bedroom door at night to keep me in. But that doesn't really stop me, I still scream and yell and make them feel pretty crummy! But we all know this should work eventually so we are sticking to it. Luke benefits the most because he gets to go Mom and Dad's room when I through a really nasty fit in the middle of the night. Lucky dog. I'm looking forward to celebrating Daddy's birthday in January. We are working on a surprise for him that Luke and I came up with on our own. Hope it works.

Later,

DMB

Ringing in the New Year

It was Mommy and Daddy's turn to host the NYE party for our neighbors. That is fear you see on their faces!

It turned out to be a fun night. These are the wives. The hubands were there too.

Goofballs.

We stayed at Mimi's house during the party. Mom and Dad came to Mimi's to pick us up and hang out with Mimi and Buddy's guest for their New Year's Day party. On NYE we did some fireworks like sparklers and just a few roman candles. But we missed the ball dropping, even in New York City. We were in bed by 10:30.

My godparents, Donna and T.C., came to the party at Mimi's. We had some bonding time. I told them all about Christmas and showed them a few of my tricks. Including my Karate Kid impression (though Luke acted out parts of the movie with T.C.!).