Ice Skating Fun!

For Thanksgiving this year, we went over to my parents' in Jackson, MS.  My brother and SIL just moved over there with their two adorable boys in September, so it was really exciting to be there to celebrate their first holiday in their new city.

 

And it was cold.

 

I'm not talking chilly, I'm talking bone-chilling cold.

 

So cold the lake near my parents house froze and we were all able to ice skate on it.

 

See?

 

 

Ok, kidding.  I think it would be another ice age before Jackson would actually get that cold! (But, seriously, it was near freezing and to me that is beyond cold!)

 

The Baptist hospital near their house had set up an ice rink and sledding doohicky.  We decided to try our hand at ice skating despite the fact that our only other skating experience had been an epic fail trying to teach them to roller skate.

 

My mom, SIL, and I took the little kids over there to check it out while the guys (including Jack who I'm pretty sure now thinks of himself as one of the guys) were golfing.

I wish I had a picture of the incline.  It was steep!!

 

After some sledding, we decided to try some skating.

It was somewhat challenging at times but a lot of fun!

 

 

So fun that we even went back over there later that evening so the boys could join us too!

 

 

Cousin love!

Right before school started, we took a trip over Jackson to visit my parents.  My brother and SIL were also in town so Ben could take the Mississippi bar.  Since they currently live in Denver, we are always excited to see them any chance we get, but this time we were doubly excited because...

 

We also got to meet sweet baby Hayes!!

 

We don't get to see our CO cousins enough (and cannot wait for them to move to MS so we can see them much more often!) so when we do we are sure to smoother them with all kinds of love and affection

Charlie had fun getting to be the "big kid" for a change.

 

Melody had fun practicing her babysitting skills

 

I tried to get as much of a baby fix as possible.

 

After all, who can resist a precious baby smile like this!?

 

 

Jack realized how fun it was to boss around a 2yo who will do whatever he's told. What could be a better activity for a firstborn, type A child!?

 

And we tried to get a group shot.  Well, we got a group shot.  We tried to get a good one! Tried being the key word here...

 

 

Just a few more weeks and our CO cousins will be living in the south permanently!

One Fish...

two fish

 

red fish

 



blue fish

 



 

 

Whew! We had certainly had an exciting month!

Last week, while on vacation at Resort Mitchell, Uncle Andy took the kids catfish fishing.  We also got to visit with Aunt Bekah, Uncle Ben, cousin Holden, and meet new baby cousin Hayes.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg of a very busy month!

I have quite a bit to catch up on.  Not to mention that school starts in a week and I have yet to buy a singe supply.

 

Am I the only one that thinks summer vacation should be extended another month!?

Spring break!

Nothing like a little fun at Resort Mitchell during Spring break.  Which I, incidentially, called Summer vacation the. entire. time.  Apparently I am ready for summer fun!

 

Lost of outside fun time!

Along with a little gardening

 

 

And we topped it all off with the first jumping wall jump of the season!

 

Summer, hurry up and get here!

I'm petrified!

Ok, I'm not petrified, but this wood is! 
 
Last week, we took a little mini vacay to Resort Mitchell (aka my parents' house where my mom watches the kids while I eat oreo cupcakes.  Yes, you should be jealous...she's the best!)

While we were there, we went to the Petrified Forest!  This is the only petrified forest in the eastern US.  (Yes, that is how my 4yo responds when I pull out the camera.  Can anyone say "class clown"?)

 

We had a lot of fun learning about petrified wood, how wood becomes petrified, and enjoyed several hands-on activities as well...

 

We tried to move really heavy petrified logs.  This log weights 1685 pounds.  In case you're wondering, no, they could not move it.

 

 

We looked in all kind of holes for small animals.  Some of use didn't seem to understand in order for animals to come out of their hiding places, you have to be quiet. 

 

 

We climbed on petrified logs and pretended they were surfboards.

 

 

We climbed on a log that looked like a frog.

 

 

And thought about jumping off before we realized how far down it was. (It actually was quite a bit higher than it looks...I am standing uphill looking down.)

 

 

And best of all, we got some great Grammy time!