Hot Chocolate Love

Christmas Mischief

Emilia discovered the box of ribbon.

Christmas Caroling

Sunday was our church caroling party. I had volunteered to bring cookies, so I baked some sugar cookies and Ella, Ava, and Addison decorated them (with some help from Alex).

The cookies were loaded with frosting!

Dena always dresses up in a festive outfit for caroling.
The weather was perfect--chilly enough to feel seasonal, but not too cold.

Emilia got passed around quite a bit.
The girls ran up to the front at each house we went to. They didn't want to miss any of the action.

More Christmas Program Pics

Church Christmas Program

(Pictures: Kelvin Heitmann)

Sunday night was our church Christmas program. I will post more pictures later (at least that's the plan). These are a couple of pictures Pastor Kelvin took of Ella. She made her piano debut at the program, playing "Good King Wenceslas" from the book of Christmas songs I played out of when I was her age (complete with my name in block letters on the front and stickers on the pages I had mastered). Ella practiced very hard and played her song very smoothly.

Meanwhile Emilia climbed all over Nicole and me and yelled things like "the baby is crying" (about a baby who was clearly NOT crying). I managed to keep her quiet part of the time with Smarties and suckers, but eventually I had to take her out. The joy of two year olds.

Pictures of the season

Negotiations

Dear, tooth fairy

If it would be posible...I would like to keep my tooth. But leave the money, because I diserve it. I got it poled and so I think you should eather leave the money and leave the tooth or don't do anything. But if you would like you can take the tooth and next time I loose a tooth take it and give me back my other tooth.

Ella

Little Baby Pack Rat

Whenever Emilia leaves the house, she carries a backpack...and a purse...sometimes two. She stuffs her bags and pockets and diapers full of loose change, dollar bills, and keys, whatever she can get her hands on. She carries an old cell phone everywhere. She wears one coat and carries another. She goes to bed with two blankets, a book, a doll, and a toy every night.

Like mother, like daughter, I suppose.

Family pics

Nicole's mom Julie took family pictures last week. Go check them out!

Poor neglected blog

Dearest blog, I would promise I would update you more faithfully, but it would be a lie. And i don't want to lie to you. Maybe someday I will catch up. Until then, here are a few random pictures to tide you over. I'm sorry. You deserve better.

K

Capulin Volcano Run

I ran the Capulin Volcano Half Marathon (13.1 miles) in September. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done, but also one of the most rewarding. The route went up this volcano.


It started on an incline on the highway beside the volcano, then went up the road on the volcano, and then on a trail around the rim of the volcano. Basically, the first four miles were uphill. The altitude is also pretty high, starting at 7100, going up to 8200, and then ending at 6400. After we went around the rim, we went down the volcano and then ran on the highway for about eight miles to Folsom (population 77). Once I got on the downhill, I felt pretty good, but going up the volcano was absolutely killer. I could taste blood in my mouth as I was running uphill.

I finished in 2 1/2 hours, which I think is about as well as I could have done on this course. I had to walk quite a bit of the uphill. My friend Kim finished in 2 hours, 20 minutes, which was 15 minutes faster than she did last year. Brent ran the 10K (which was essentially the same route but without going up the volcano). He took 5th place!


The race itself is super challenging, but also fun and quirky, and the goodie bags were fabulous--they even had homemade granola. I haven't decided yet whether or not I'll do this again next year, but I have decided to run another half marathon. I'm running one in Hays in a couple of weeks to see how I can do on a flat surface at the elevation I'm used to.

Future Tigers

Here are the girls in their FHSU hoodies from Grandpa Bob. Since they were both wearing them at the same time, I thought I'd better snap a picture. First, Emilia was smiling, but Ella's eyes were closed. (Ella is definitely her mother's daughter.)

I told Ella to open her eyes. She did, and Emilia decided to show us where her eyes are.

Now Ella is smiling and looking at the camera, but Emilia is looking at Ella. The joys of photographing children.

Notice the baby shoes on the ottoman. Emilia discovered the drawer where I had stored all of the baby shoes, and she is now obsessed with them. She keeps trying to cram her feet into teeny tiny shoes. We can't seem to convince her that it's not going to work. That' s my baby!

Happy Birthday, Emilia!

Emilia is two today! Here's an update on Little Baby Naughty Pants:

Favorites: chocolate milk, candy, junk food of any kind, balls, babies, having her hair brushed, getting her nails painted, climbing, being outside, anything dangerous

Hobbies: hiding things in the refrigerator, trying to get the Reddi-Whip out of the refrigerator to spray in her mouth, trying to find candy, following the big kids around, generally creating havoc

Nicknames: Little Baby Naughty Pants, Meals, Happy Meal, Poopsie Rotten Bottom, Stinky Pants, Grouchy Pants, Monkey, Sleepikins, Mia

Special skills: finding candy

An abridged Emilia lexicon:

Peas (Please) = give me the candy
Thank you = hey, you gave me candy!

S'more Love

My Little Readers

First Day of School

Here is Ella on the first day of second grade. She's grown so much since kindergarten and first grade. She was so excited for school to start, she even took an apple for her teacher. The poor apple was pretty bruised by the time it got to school I'm afraid. First I put it on the table for Ella, but Emilia climbed up on the table, stole the apple, and hid it in the bathroom. She thought it was a ball. (That doesn't explain why she hid it in the bathroom, but this is Emilia we're talking about, after all.) Then I rescued the apple and handed it to Ella, who promptly dropped it. Who knows how many times she dropped it on the way down the hall once she got to school. But it's the thought that counts, right?

Water Park New Mexico vs. Great Wolf Lodge

As you may recall, we spent at night at the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City over Spring Break. For our ABQ vacation, we stayed at a Radisson hotel with an attached water park. When we were contemplating the Spring Break getaway, we debated whether to stay at the GWL or stay at a Kansas City hotel/water park combo similar to the one in New Mexico. If you have ever faced a similar dilemma (or if you're a reading teacher searching for text structure examples), here's my comparison-contrast of the two experiences.

The GWL is slightly more expensive. Their pricing also fluctuates more with the seasons and school schedules. The hotel in ABQ was priced about the same as any decent hotel would be, plus another $30 or so each day for the water park. We only got water park passes for two days, and that was plenty. (This also meant that our reservation was kind of complicated. It was a good thing we called instead of trying to place the reservation on-line.)

The GWL is bigger, Ryan thinks about twice as big. It needed to be because there were more people there than in ABQ. We didn't really think there was anything missing from the water park in ABQ. It did have one nifty feature GWL didn't have: a surf-simulator called the Flow Rider. It was a padded ramp with water shooting up it that you rode on a boogie board. Ella did it several times and thought it was fun. But there was almost always a long line, which meant there was also a big audience to watch you, so I never tried it. I thought the water park in ABQ was warmer (a good thing), but who knows if that's psychological. It was snowing over Spring Break, and we could see the snow out the windows, so that might have made me cold. I also might be more used to standing around in a wet swimming suit right now as opposed to March.

The GWL is more of an overall experience...talking animals, theme restaurants, theme decorations, all that jazz. The Radisson was just a hotel with a water park. This led to some weirdnesses. For example, there was a Hebraic Roots convention at the hotel, so there we were in our swimming suits surrounded by people blowing these bizarre ram horn instrument thingies. You don't get that at the GWL.

But all the whole experience thing at the GWL tempts you to spend more money, too. If our weekend hadn't been so rushed, we would have wound up spending more money at the arcade, spa, craft center, gift shop and so on.

Overall, I am a big fan of the hotel/water park combo, and either way you go, I think it's cheaper than staying at a hotel and going to a separate water park. And it's easier to go a water park right there without having to mess with lugging your stuff all over the place and dealing with 100 degree temperatures. You can go for just an hour or so without feeling like you have to stay all day to get your money's worth.

If you're looking for a whole experience, go to the GWL. If you don't care about that, just stay at a hotel with a water park.

Sandia Peak Tram

Riding the tram to the top of Sandia Peak was my favorite part of our ABQ vacation. The tram was super fun, and the views were absolutely beautiful. It was cool and drizzly the day we went, and while that might have been a negative for lots of people, these Kansas kids loved it. Ella especially liked being up in a cloud. We hiked around a little bit...as much as we could in the drizzle carrying Emilia, whom we bribed with a giant lollipop. She was actually good most of the time. We had hot chocolate at the restaurant at the top and then headed back down. Ella loved it. She can't wait to go hiking again.

Albuquerque Recap

We spent five days vacationing in Albuquerque with my parents and Aunt Faye and Uncle Pete from California. The weather was beautiful...overcast and in the 80s most of the time. Our hotel was connected to a water park, which was perfect for us. We played in the water park when it was rainy, and I love being able to swim without worrying about sunscreen.

I'll post more details and pictures later, but here are some of the highlights of our trip:

• Taking the tram up Sandia Peak and hiking in the clouds;
• Eat at the Church Street Cafe in Old Town (outdoor dining, margaritas, vegetarian tamales...what more could you want);
• Drinking coffee and eating sugar cookies at the Flying Star (I've never been a fan of royal icing, but their sugar cookies made a convert out of me);
• Ella riding the train with Grandma to Santa Fe;
• Visiting the ABQ Zoo, Aquarium, and Botanical Gardens.

More to come later...

Emilia on her horsie swing