Sky Zone

For the first time in a long time, Daxton actually wanted to have his friend birthday party. He chose to take the Bobocado group (plus bonus members) to Sky Zone. We were the first ones there which meant that the kids had the entire place to themselves for the first hour. They just ran around like crazy, which is exactly what was supposed to happen. This group of friends he has is incredible. They have been loyal buddies for years and watching them play is so much fun!

Trying a backflip

Going for distance and style on the slides.

Battling it out.

King of the mountain.

This became really interesting when Jeremy joined the game.

Obstacle courses.

Jeremy being a kid again.

Pizza and cake! The kids sang the loudest version of Happy Birthday I've ever hear. Instead of shying away from it, Daxton just revealed in it. I love seeing him confident and happy.

Happy 10th birthday to the best kid around!

Spelling Bee

Daxton did something incredibly brave and signed up to participate in the school spelling bee. He's been going to practices for a few weeks, and before we knew it the actual spelling bee was upon us. I have never been to a spelling bee. All I remember is I had a friend in elementary school who was a spelling bee fiend and always carried around a list of words to study. I was so scared for all the kids who were participating. I've taught them all and just wanted them all to succeed. Daxton made it through the first round just fine. During the second round he was given the word "author." He was so confident that he went too fast and made a mistake. He knew it immediately but there was nothing he could do at that point so he had to go sit down. It was disappointing to be eliminated on a word he knew, but I was still so proud of him! 

 

Daxton's Double Digits

When we were talking about how Daxton wanted to spend his birthday, he complained that he is the only kid who has to go to school on his birthday. So we thought why not give him the day off. We let hi play hookie just because it was his birthday. The day began with a plate full of sausage. "I think I'll start with five," he says. 

He went on to have two more, plus a banana scone, plus a full glass of strawberry milk. It's his birthday! He cheerfully watched his siblings head off to school knowing that he was getting a treat. Jeremy took him hiking up at Chatauqua Park.  Jeremy said the two of them just had a blast feeling free up in the mountains. 

They came home for a quick snack before heading off to Dave and Busters. We collected all of the token cards we had laying around the house and they went crazy! They spent hours there just playing without a care in the world. They spent nearly 600 tokens and earned nearly 11,000 tickets. Daxton was able to get a remote control helicopter with his winnings. He thought that was the end of his spectacular day but he was wrong. 

Jeremy and I put him in the car and surprised him with a trip to the bike shop where we was able to pick out his very own bike. He couldn't believe that he wasn't getting a hand me down and was so excited with the bike he chose. When we got home he immediately ran in and told Kelton to come and check out his really awesome bike!

His day still wasn't done. We still had cake and presents. He got a new Nerf gun-let the Nerf battles continue-and a new NASA hoodie. 

It's crazy that this kid has been around for a whole decade! Double digits is a big deal! I love his good morning hugs and his super quick brain. We are so lucky to have this kid in our lives.

Leaving again

It has been amazing having Cambrie back home. Somehow those three weeks absolutely flew by and it was suddenly time for her to return to Purdue. We all went out to dinner with Jacob and his family at Benihana. The boys have never been before and have both declared that it is their new favorite restaurant. I guess we have to go back!

When it was time for Cambrie to catch her flight, there weren't nearly as many hugs and tears as last time. Now that the kids know what to expect with her gone it was a little easier to see her go. (Okay, that's not true. I don't think we'll see her again until May and that is a very long time!). So instead of a cheesy hug good-bye, the girls opted for a high-five farewell. Just as cheesy, just a little more energetic. See you kiddo! I hope this semester is even better than last!

Sweet 16!

McKenzie has been dreaming of her sweet 16 birthday party for years. That's a lot of pressure for a mom to pull off! We started off with what we are good at, her special breakfast and presents. Everything she received was for her new car! Ok, not new exactly, but new to her. She had a vision to deck out Baymax to have everything a passenger princess could ever want: illuminated make up mirror, vent scents, perfume, lotion, bobby pins, hair elastics, lotion, brush, gum, lip gloss and probably a dozen other girly girl things that I'm forgetting. She is so excited that she will have the freedom of a car! We weren't able to get her license on her birthday, as last year it was on a Sunday. So she will be getting that tomorrow. 

When we talked about a birthday party, she couldn't decide which friends she wanted to invite, and secretly wanted her friends to throw her a surprise party. I coordinated with Lily to make that happen. While Lily kept her occupied all day, Cambrie, Jacob and I decorated the basement, bought treats and made sure it was sparkly enough for her. Needless to say McKenzie was very surprised to see her friends walk in the door as she was working on her birthday cake.

 The girls spent hours downstairs talking and laughing. Daxton and Kelton made the judgement that teenage girl parties are boring, but it sounds like the girls were having fun.

The next day was the day McKenzie was looking forward to the most-getting her driver's license! She passed her driving test with flying colors. Unfortunately when we arrived at the DMV to register her license we were missing some paperwork. Apparently we needed to have her driving log printed and signed. Because of this we lost our appointment slot, she didn't get an updated picture, and we had to renew it online with her previous photo. In her eyes it was nearly the end of the world. However you wouldn't guess that as she skipped out to Baymax to drive to gymnastics practice by herself for the very first time. She's free!

She is an incredible person who lights up the room as soon as she walks in. She is so positive and wants to make everyone around her feel a little bit better about themselves. I am so proud of everything she does. Happy Sweet 16 Kenzie!

Broken at Keystone

As we were looking at our calendar and trying to find a good weekend for our annual Keystone condo visit, we realized the only time we could do it was over New Years. As a bonus that meant Cambrie could join us! But as the day drew closer we had a few obstacles to overcome. The first was that there was hardly any snow! It has been a very dry winter and there were only 18" at the base. We knew we would not have the tree skiing we normally love. The second problem was that McKenzie still had a broken ankle and couldn't skit. We did a couple of things for that; she let Cambrie use her pass, and we let McKenzie invite a friend to spend the day in the lodge with her. Lily was a super trooper and spent two days in the mountain and never complained that she couldn't go skiing. The girls hung out in the village and the condo looking for cute boys, drinking hot cocoa, and taking naps. Not a bad scenario actually. Now that McKenzie had a friend it only made sense that Cambrie could invite a friend too, which meant that Jacob joined us for yet another family trip. We had a full condo! Luckily our condo was big enough we actually had beds for everyone which was a miracle. 

On the mountain the snow was definitely sketchy. It was mostly icy but dusted over in some spots with a fluffy inch or so. Our favorite runs were closed and we were skiing around a lot of unmarked obstacles. I still love hanging out with my peeps on the ski lift, watching the boys race down the runs, and handing out happy pills to whoever might need them. The first day we scoped out where we wanted to go and spent a lot of time looking for the least popular runs to try to find any untouched snow. 

As is the case almost every year, we spent half the day remembering how to ski as a group. We kept losing people and had to wait a lot. We finally figured it out but I still laugh that we struggle with that every single year.  

The next day Jeremy had to go down to work so it was just me and the kids. Luckily they're so good now that it isn't hard to go by myself any more. We had a couple inches of snow overnight and managed to find some fantastic runs over on Outback. We found a few runs we have never been on before, and while they were steep and hard, they were absolutely incredible. We never managed to find our favorite again, but we had fun playing on the other side of the mountain. 

After lunch we were headed back to find our fun spots, when Kelton had an accident. He was skiing the fringe of the run like always, looking for little jumps. He was flying when his ski caught on an exposed root or something and he was launched into a tree in his path. I saw him crash and immediately knew that it was a bad crash. He was groaning pretty badly when I got to him. I checked for a broken arm, but couldn't find anything immediately alarming. He hobbled down to the base of the run where he wanted to sit and rest while we went on another run. By the time Daxton and I got back down to him he was crying pretty hard. He couldn't bend his elbow and it really hurt. I had him take off his jacket and saw he had a good size lump on the bottom of his arm near his elbow. I flagged down ski patrol to come take a look. He suggested that we get Kelton to the ER as soon as we could. He tied up Kelton's arm in a sling and we made our way to the top of Ruby where a toboggan was waiting for us. They strapped Kelton into and Daxton and I followed them down the hill. 

Luckily there is an ER right at the base of Mountain House. He was admitted and the X-rays confirmed that he fractured his ulna and radial head. 

He was in a lot of pain as they positioned his arm for imaging, and as the reality of his injury start to set in it didn't help his mood much. With a broken arm he can't rock climb with his new team. He won't be able to participate in ropes season. He can't play indoor soccer. He can't even ski for most of the remaining season. Not to mention all the other inconvenient things like riding his bike to school, walking through the hallways, playing his bass, or even playing video games. It was not the night we were expecting. While we were at the ER, Jacob was back at the condo making sure everyone was happy and fed. When we showed up with a boy in a hospital robe he definitely made a scene and it put a damper on the rest of the vacation. As a bonus though, he didn't have to help load the car at all!  Time to figure out a new reality with another broken kid! (Are we the only family that consistently has broken kids? I'm beginning to think so).