Gracie has been learning all about the wonderful state of Colorado in her 4th grade classroom!
Last week, they entertained the rest of the school and all of their families with a wonderful little "COLORADO" program. It was a fantastic little performance filled with songs, dances, and the recorder!
After the show, we went to her homeroom to see what she has been working on. Every child picked a famous person from Colorado History. Not only did they complete a little research paper on this person, but she also had to do a little power point presentation.... it was amazing!
We are so proud of our BIG girl,
it's so cool to see all of these things that she knows how to do!
(we were way in the back.... so sorry about the picture/video quality, it's still adorable though)
***I am trying to post a little video of the square dance, but I am having a hard time....***
The day after Christmas, we headed to Aspen to celebrate the holidays with John's Family!!! It was great to see everyone and enjoy some nice Colorado Snow!!! We stayed for a few days and got lots of skiing in....... it was a fantastic little mountain escape!
We went for a little sleigh ride in Redstone
with Grandpa & Meg!
Sleigh Ride Fun!!!
Thanks Grandpa!
Ski Day!!!
Gracie is a great skier!
Norah ripping it up.....
Jack is officially off of the harness and doing great!
He still LOVES getting pulled by a pole..... who wouldn't though?!?!
Having my entire family in Colorado for the Thanksgiving Holiday was so wonderful.
Besides celebrating Thanksgiving, we were able to celebrate my parents 37th wedding anniversary!!! We also traveled to Durango to board the Polar Express!!!! It was such a magical thing to do all together!!!
I feel so incredibly blessed to have my family.......
On Thursday, November 11th we picked the kids up and drove directly to the airport. They thought we were going out for dinner with Ben & Adrienne. Gracie was very upset with us because she was missing a basketball game at school. When we parked at the airport, the questions began...... "why are we at the airport?", "are we going on a trip?", "where are we going?"(17,000 times....) It was really funny ;0) We didn't have to check in any bags and headed directly to the gate. Luckily, we were in a spot that wasn't obvious of where we were headed. Gracie had it narrowed down to Omaha, St. Louis, or Orange County (but was acting like she really didn't think we could possibly be going where disneyland was). When they called for Orange County and we started walking towards the gate, Gracie knew exactly what was happening!!! She said "WE'RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND???", John and I looked at her with a big smile and nodded, all 3 of them began jumping up and down and were SOOOO excited!!!!
When we arrived in Orange County, we boarded the Disney Express and arrived at our hotel around 8:30pm. The kids fell asleep very quickly anxiously awaiting our first fun-filled day at DISNEYLAND!!!!
DAY #1
We woke up and went to Denny’s for Breakfast before heading to the park. Our first ride was SPACE MOUNTAIN!!!!!!! Everyone had such a great time ;0) We went on tons of rides and watched the “Holiday” parade, It was fantastic!!! We also met and took pictures with Mary Poppins & Bert, they were super nice! We concluded the day with “World of Color” at California Adventure. The show was absolutely spectacular!!! The music and water was incredible. After the show was over we walked back to the hotel and fell fast asleep!
DAY #2
We started the day with a wonderful “character breakfast” at Goofy’s Kitchen in the DisneyLand Hotel. We had a delicious breakfast and met Pluto, Goofy, Snow White, Alladin, & Chip. We headed to the park and went on lots of rides!!! Norah was able to meet Tinkerbell at Pixie Hollow and we all met Jack Skellington & Sally from “The Nightmare before Christmas”. Jack was super excited to see them! We left the park a little bit early and had a nice little pizza dinner at a restaurant next to our hotel. After dinner, the kids enjoyed a little swim with Daddy! Everyone fell asleep very quickly excited about more fun-filled days at DISNEY!!!
DAY #3
We were eligible for one “magic morning” and we redeemed it today!!! We arrived at DisneyLand at 7:00am! This hour was so awesome!!! We were able to do “Matterhorn Bobsleds” 3 times and “It’s a small world” all before the park technically opened!!!! We spent the whole day in the parks doing lots of rides and we watched the Pixar Parade (always fun). The kids all picked out their little “ear hats” and looked so adorable in them! We had a yummy dinner at the Rain Forrest Cafe. When dinner was over we decided to go back to DisneyLand to see the castle & “It’s a small world” all lit up. We were so glad we did.... it was absolutely stunning. We were able to hit more rides and see the fireworks! In fact, we were on “Matterhorn Bobsleds” when they started and it was so magical watching them while we were on the ride! We went on at least 30 rides throughout the day, it was AWESOME!!! We have such great kids who know how to have such a good time!!! We were all so exhausted at the end of the day and fell quickly asleep dreaming of everything disney..............
DAY #4
When we woke up this morning we were all a little sad knowing that this would be the last day of the trip. We packed the suitcase and backpacks and checked out of our hotel. We headed over to the parks and walked around Downtown Disney trying to take everything in.... The parks didn’t open until 10:00 so we had a little time to kill! We were one of the first people in line and got to be a part of the “countdown to opening”. It was pretty awesome to witness that...... As soon as the gates opened we had a plan of attack so we could hit everyones favorite rides one more time! We got on Matterhorn (One of Jack’s favorites) right away followed by “It’s a small world” (One of Norah’s favorites) & Big Thunder Mountain (One of Gracie’s favorites). We also went on Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, & Pirates! We went over to “Adventure” and went on “Toy Story’s Midway Mania (a family favorite) & “Tower of Terror”. We went back to DisneyLand and ended the trip with Space Mountain(a family favorite), “Big Thunder Mountain”, and “Matterhorn Bobsleds”. To remember the trip, we let the kids all pick out one item. Gracie chose an adorable “Stitch” stuffed animal, Norah chose a little “Baby Ariel”, and Jack chose a “Nightmare before Christmas” playset. They were all so excited! We couldn’t believe our DISNEY trip was coming to an end........ we walked back to our hotel and boarded the DisneyLand Express to the airport. We had a great flight home already missing DisneyLand!
What a wonderful family trip this was...... Hopefully the kids will always have fond memories of this little “surprise” adventure, I know we always will!
Oh my goodness, so sorry this has taken me this long to get this together...... like everyone I'm sure, we've had some crazy, hectic months since I last updated..........
The basement is as good as it's going to get right now and is AWESOME!!!!!
The guest room worked perfectly when my family was in town and the extra space has been incredible.
In fact, Jack is already sleeping in his new room and loving it!!!!
There is still quite a bit of work to do though...... doors, trim-work, carpet (we currently have duct-tape patchwork carpet, it's very classy), etc........ I am sure we'll get it done soon, but it's been nice to have a little time away from this project ;0)
