Christmas 2013

This year we spent Christmas and John and Karla's house in the Springs.  Everyone gathered on Christmas Eve and we had a wonderful evening.  There was too much food and too many gifts, but having such a wonderful, loving family is the best gift of all!!  We were so excited to have a new addition at Christmas this year.  No, not talking about Kelsey and Jordan's puppy, Moose (although he is a cutie!) I was talking about Ingrid!  What a gem she is!  :-)

Knute, Hana and I spent the night, while the rest of the Denver crew went home and came back Christmas day for more food and festivities.  Santa brought her the glow pet she wanted and we got her the "every color" soccer ball she wanted.  (Came with markers for her to decorate!) 

The next day, Glenn and Jane came to our house to spend a few days again.  Thursday, they went to Hana's swim lesson to see her in action.  They frosted a whole bunch of "grandma" cookies with grandpa's special frosting and my huge variety of sprinkles.  We went to the Fresh Fish Company for dinner one night and to a newer restaurant in the Highlands (Linger) for lunch on Friday (I got off work early.) 

Hana's other request was a Barbie Dream house.  It was a no-go, for sure, until we lucked out and found one for more than half off!  It may have been a mistake to put it in her room though!  We will see!

Saturday, the 5 of us went to The Nutcracker ballet - Hana's first!!  She had a wonderful time the first half of the show, but had a rough time after intermission.  No nap will do that to a 3 (almost 4!!) year old!  Hopefully next year will be better.  I do hope to make this an annual tradition! 

Bahamian Fun!

We just spent a week in Nassau with the Turners!  It was nice to be back at Westwind II.  I still love the place, just like I did as a kid and it was nice to be able to share it with my family.

Knute and I managed to get in two dives, but the weather was super windy (and the water had large waves with white caps and was extremely silty, causing terrible visibility) the day of our 2nd dive, so we decided not to go.  It was probably the "safe" decision, but I felt sad after we decided not to do it.

 

Knute and Tony went fishing with some other folks from Westwind and had a pretty good time. It would have been better had they caught the fish, but I was glad that some were caught at all!  They group had a potluck (35-40 people showed up!) the next day and that was fun and delicious!! 

Hana had a blast swimming every day!  There were some other kids her age and a bit older that she was able to hang out with as well, so that was good.  One girl even made her a bracelet!  Hana practiced her snorkeling skills (she can do it!) in the pool, but with the rough water towards the end of the week, we didn't try it in the ocean.  She was having too much fun to do too much actual swimming practice.  She worked on her "twist jumps" into the pool and even tried doing handstands.

The 6 of us went out to eat a few times and mostly hung out at the condo the rest of the time.  With two little ones on different nap schedules, things were a little more limiting than in the past.  I think everyone had a good time though, so that's what counts!

It would seem that I missed November!

Surprise!  We had another busy month!  Knute went to Wisconsin 3 times (1 deer) and we all kept busy the rest of the time too! 

 

Obligatory swim shot!

On the 9th, Hana tested for her white belt in Karate.  She loves Karate and Sensei Justin and passed with flying colors!

 

 

 

On the 18th, we went to diner with a group of 7 at Old Major with author and amazing game cook Hank Shaw.  I thought I would hate it, but everything was delicious!!

 

 





Since most of the family was out of state for Thanksgiving, we decided to help "host" the "misfit" Thanksgiving at RooBar.  I baked my first ever turkey and Knute fried his.  Despite the fact this his looks burnt to a crisp, I have to report that his was more moist than mine! We brined both in an apple/orange juice/brown sugar mixture and mine actually tasted better.  I will try again for sure!!

This was at Hana's preschool on Monday.

They had a big "Thanksgiving Feast" and it was a perfect birthday present for me!

 

 

Finally, the MOST exciting thing that happened was that we got Hana her first set of skis and went to Cooper to try them out!  She seemed to like it quite a bit and we even put her in a half day lesson, although she quit after 2 hours, because she was "tired and a little sad"!  When we go back next time, (and for the next 5 visits) she'll be in full day group lessons!  She'll be a speed racer by the end of the season!  We're all excited to be getting back up there more often now!  :-)

 

 

 

Next, we're off to the Nassau, Bahamas with the Turner's!  Scuba, snorkeling time!  Can't wait!  :-)