The Tree Hunt

We headed to Winter Park like usual to cut down our Christmas tree.  This year, however, we were lucky enough to get to go with both my parents AND Gary and his family.  It was so fun.  We were blessed with a gorgeous day and warm weather.  The kids all had fun tromping around in the snow looking for the perfect trees and sledding.  

My Dad and Miles

When we arrived, the bushes had this incredible frost on them.  I wished that I had taken more pictures of it because by the time we found our tree and I went back, it had melted.

Gary and Iris

 Zach

Dad

The boys on a log.  All were eating snow.  :)

Mom and Iris

The boys in front of our tree before cutting it down.

Brudders.

My parents' beautiful bushy tree.

Sledding!

Hot chocolate break.

Our boys were really wanting more sledding so we went into town (Winter Park) to the big sledding hill.  It was a bit nerve-wracking to watch them with so many sledders barreling down, but we only had tears once, and no injuries, so it was a success! It was hard to get them to leave!

A wonderful tradition!

Dinosaurs

For Thanksgiving my brother and his family came out for a visit.  They stayed with my parents, but we spent as much time with them as we could.  One of the fun things we did was go to Dinosaur Ridge in Morrison.  It is only half an hour from our house, but somehow we hadn't gotten there yet.  (ridiculous!) We took a tour bus that drove us up a road to see various dinosaur tracks.  It was actually pretty neat.

Touching dinosaur bone.

Zach had his camera and loved taking pictures of everything.

A dinosaur track (that they had colored in with charcoal to make more visible for visitors).

Zach's hand in the track of a giant ancient crocodile.

Lots of tracks.

Sand ripples. (now rock)

Cousins.  These guys had SO much fun together!

After seeing the dinosaurs, we headed over to Red Rocks Amphitheater, which was really close.  I (amazingly) hadn't been there before either.  I'd love to go to a concert there!  So cool.

At the back of the stage are these rocks that all the kids loved to climb on.

The best part was jumping all the way back down, of coarse.

A Little Hike

Austin and I went on a little hike not far from our house one nice morning in November.  We went about 2 miles and he did awesome.  

Austin in a good hand holder.  I will never ever tire of that sweet little hand reaching up to find mine. 

Now we just need more nice weather so we can go again!

First Grade Concert

In November Zach had a first grade concert.  It was fun to see him up there and hear what he has been learning.  He was a bit nervous and excited, and he was a tad on the wild side up there.  It was a little painful to watch.  Ah, Zach.  Oh well.   In reality he wasn't much different than a lot of the other first graders.

Messing around with his friends before the concert started.  They like to pretend to be dinosaurs, especially t-rex.

Catch up time

I'm not sure how time moves so fast these days.  Needless to say I have fallen behind on this blog.  Here are some random moments from the fall that I have finally gotten off of my phone.

Zach had a unit on families at school which ended with a show and tell kind of day where he was supposed to bring something that represented his family.  He chose to bring in his treasure jar of things he has collected when we have traveled.  He was excited to have Austin and I come in to see him.  

When the weather is nice enough we try to walk Zach home after school.  Seeing these pictures makes me long for nice weather and green grass!

Lego mania!

Trips to the "dinosaur museum" are always a favorite.

Zach's loving dinosaurs still, so fun.

At the start of November Cal went to Peru for work again for 11 days.  To help pass some of the time, the boys and I headed to Home Depot for one of their kids workshops.They made boats and it was great fun!

Just loving nice weather.

Austin finally being brave enough to practice on his pedal bike.

And Zach doing great on his big bike with gears and hand brakes.

Over Thanksgiving break my mom and I took the boys to the zoo on a GORGEOUS warm day.  It was wonderful.

Zach played football with the big boys/men on Thanksgiving morning.  He was so proud and had a great time.  Can you see him in the red coat?

Rescue bots.  Austin does such a good job playing by himself when I need him to.

These two love to wrestle.  So glad they have each other.

 And always, the sandbox.