Epic snow adventure

After christmas, we spent a few days at Black Butte ranch just a couple of hours from here in the mountains.  We have been there before over the holidays and it is a great place.  There's cross country skiing, it's close to the lifts, and there's an indoor pool and rec center.  Over the holidays, they have horse drawn carriage rides too which are a big hit!  This year, we LUCKED OUT.  Plenty of snow so cross country skiing out the back door was super easy.  When were there, the weather was partly sunny and minimal wind, great conditions for the little guys to get out and find their skiing mojos.  And that is exactly what they did. We spent one day at the lifts getting them acquainted there.  They did great. 

We had some super duper hang out time too.

Notice Bryce in the pictures which turns out is pretty special.  Hey Paul, you like that picture of my old man?  We are getting some pics of the bathroom soon  :-)
So then, we had a few days left and we decided that while we definitely want our kids to be comfortable downhill skiing, what we really want them to do is to cross country ski, so that was what we spend the rest of the time doing.

Lots of awesome cross country skiing.  Scott and I got to get out for some good fitness skis too.  While we were there, we celebrated this little guy's birthday.  But that's for the next post.

Horse drawn carriage ride.

Sledding on the way home.

 Felix was a trooper.  He goes along for the ride beautifully.  A very tolerant baby!

So adorable!

1st Annual Gingerbread House Making Party

We have been intending to have a gingerbread house party and finally, got around to it this year.  It was fun.  Hoping to continue the tradition....
Here's little Daphne so proud of her lovely house.  She did some great work on that thing!

 Missy, Andy, Evan and Ninkasi getting started.

 Kris and her family trying to get their house to stay together. 

 Lucia and Oscar so proud of their creations.

Solstice Walk

We celebrated the solstice by going for a walk after dinner with candles made by the kids at a winter festival.  A little sketchy but no one got hurt. 

The solstice fairies left a gift while we were out and the kids were delighted :-)