Evan's First Communion

This past year, Evan celebrated his First Communion at St. Williams Catholic Church. It was a big milestone, and we were so proud of him for doing the work to prepare for the big day.

Ready for the Mass

 St. Williams is one of the biggest churches in the parish so they do a special Mass on a Saturday morning for just the First Communion. Evan was one of the first kids to receive the Blessed Sacrament too!  (In case you were wondering, he opted to just receive the Body, not a big fa of red wine!).

So excited that all of our family could be there to celebrate.

Evan's best friend Alex Isaacson even came - which I know was a big thrill for Evan to have his support!

Family picture - or attempt at one!

Didn't he look so handsome! 

Evan with Father Dean

We are so proud of Evan. Ever since his First Communion, he has really taken to being more present in the Mass (listening more, following along in his new personalized Missal, wearing his suit!). It's great to see him be more engaged. After the service and a soccer game that afternoon, we had a little party for him at our house with friends. Thanks to everyone for being part of his special day!

Bluebonnets 2016

Finding time for Bluebonnet pictures this year was nearly impossible it felt like. The season was't nearly as good as last year but it wasn't as bad as I've seen it either. I did find time one weekend but it also wasn't the best time of day to be taking pictures (sun high up in the sky rather than either early morning or late evening!).  Oh well - you do what you can do, right? 

Here are the pictures from this year's session! Ryan was NOT the most cooperative!

Last day at Angelfire

Our last day at Angelfire, we took everyone to the tubing runs.  Ryan wasn't old enough so Bryce went first and then we swapped. It actually was pretty thrilling. It went fast and there were some bumps along the way to sort of throw you.  I was glad to only do it once :)

Ryan and Jacob watching the action

Caitlin riding the moving belt up to the top with her tube

My three at the bottom of the tube run

After lunch, we took the kids to a nearby playground for some more fun. The weather was gorgeous (although windy like every other day).

The dads really pushing those kids around!

All 6 of them!

That night, we went out to dinner and of course had to get some green beer since it was St. Patrick's Day!

And finally we drove back home to Austin the next day. It was a great trip and we had so much fun with our friends the Isaacsons!

Lunch stop on the way home was in Lubbock where they have a prairie dog park - it was fun to watch them popping up all over the place!

Angelfire #3

On Day 3 of our ski adventure, we spent the day with the kids. We put Ryan in the Ski Three program so that we could take the bigger kids out on the slopes. Bryce and I both switched to skis to make it easier to keep up with the littles. I haven't skied in probably 15-20 years but it was much easier than snowboarding. I don't think I fell once! I think I will probably take some ski lessons next time we go on a ski trip and switch permanently to skiing rather than snow boarding :)

Bryce and Travis took Evan and Alex all over the mountain. I took Ellie and Caitlin for the day (since Cassie had Jacob). We pretty much stayed on the bunny slope which was fine by me!

Waiting to go on the lift

French fry lipstick at lunch time

The girls chatting away on the lift ride up

Evan and Alex at the top of the mountain

The boys taking a rest at the top

A picture of all the kids on the slopes!

Another pic looking down the slope

Angelfire #2

I have to say that I am not as good a snow boarder as I used to be. I enjoyed myself, but I was SO SORE after the first day. All that getting up/down. Plus, this mountain had a lot of narrow traverses at the start of the run which were crowded and difficult for me on a snowboard. Turns out, that by the end of the trip, I actually fell one time so hard I broke my tailbone... no kidding! (I only discovered that a few weeks ago when I finally went to the Doctor. It doesn't bother me anytime except when I run so I suppose that's the good news. The bad news is that it may never heal or get better so my running days could be numbered.).

Anyway, back to the ski trip. 

A cool action shot of me before I got hurt!

Ready to ski!

After ski school on the second day, Bryce took Evan and Caitlin up the mountain to ski with them for a little bit while I got Ryan. Plus, we wanted to see if he could snowboard with them or if we should switch to skis.

Here's Ryan riding up the little escalator at his ski school time.

 

And here he is just in front of the instructor going down the hill!

 

Evan and Caitlin hung out with us to watch Ryan for a little bit.

 

 Family picture on the mountain!

And that was Day2 of skiing.  We did ski school for 2 days for the older kids, 3 days for Ryan. On the 3rd day, Bryce and I skied with the older 2. We swapped our snowboards for skis (one, because it was too hard to help them on a snowboard and two, after that last fall where I broke my tailbone, I did not want to snowboard!).  Stay tuned for the next installment of Spring Break.

Spring Break - Angelfire, NM

I've been wanting to take the kids skiing for years now and finally felt we were old enough. We went on vacation with our good friends the Isaacsons and rented a big townhome in Angelfire, NM!  Getting all the gear and making sure we Texans were prepared for the cold was quite an undertaking too. 

We left early on Sunday and had a pretty good drive to the mountain. We stopped for lunch at a playground...

And finally made it to New Mexico! 

The next morning, we were up bright and early for ski school. Even Ryan got to ski!  

Ryan's was mostly a day care, but as a 3 year old, he did get to go out and ski for an hour with an instructor. They would text us when he was going out so that we could try and come back to see him. They really do have a great ski school.

Here they are all geared up! As you can see, there was not a lot of snow. Unfortunately, we had a very warm winter so by Spring Break, they had a hard time keeping all the runs open. 

The other issue we ran into was the wind! We had some pretty high winds most days which meant that the main chair lift was closed. It really restricted the ski runs and made it more crowded (which is bad news for a mediocre ski boarder like me!).

 

Bryce and I at the top - ready to hit the slopes!

 

 

The 4 of us adults enjoying some kid free time.

Relaxing after a day on the slopes

 

Ryan was pretty tuckered out each day, especially with almost no nap at ski school!

More to come...