Ski Trip 2009

Here we are in Colorado! Yay!!

Hannah completed a day of ski school. Her instructor said she had a great attitude and just needs to work on the turns, but she can ski with us on greens tomorrow!

Chloe spent the afternoon playing in the condo with grandma. She enjoyed getting all "dressed up" in ski attire to go outside and play in the snow with mommy, uncle Mike, and Hannah. (Daddy was taking a nap).

Chloe and Hannah have been great travelers, singing songs and giggling all the way. So fun!!

Our great adventure yesterday is worth sharing...We rented a fifteen passenger van at the airport and got it stuck on a hill in the snow. It had no traction, no four-wheel drive, and no chains!! We ended up having to call a tow truck to come pull us out. Then, we finally were able to reach our condo (2 hrs late) and Steve locked the keys inside the condo while we were unloading groceries. We had to wait another 35 minutes for the property mgmt to bring up another key and let us in. It was quite hilarious and I'm sure we'll remember this trip (especially yesterday) for a long time!!

Graham Crackers

We had some fun over the weekend. We willingly submitted ourselves to a Graham Cracker House building contest...(we used graham crackers cause we are too cheap to use the real gingerbread.) Several young couples with kids from the church got together for a little Christmas competition. Hannah was so excited about the contest and Chloe was more interested in playing with Max's toys. We had a lot of fun and for all the hard work and perseverance... we came in second! It was a pretty fun night!




Also, Sunday night Hannah was in the "Miracle on Main Street" children's Christmas musical. She did great! Shelley made Steve move down to the front row so that we could get the best pictures... of course so did every other dad! She was wonderful and like usual knew all the words!

Last but certainly not least, the Spence's are providing to the staff at the church with our famous cinnamon rolls and Hannah is elbow deep in flour! She's learning young! Mimi, we are carrying on the tradition. (pictures coming later)

Chloe's birthday is Friday and Elmo is making an appearance! She is pretty excited... mainly about the birthday song. Friends are coming over and yes, pictures will be up this weekend. Have a great week!

Thanksgiving Trip

Thanksgiving was a wild adventure this year! We loaded up the truck and headed to Jacksonville, Florida to visit Steve's grandmothers. We drove a total of 26+ hours round trip over the course of four travel days---wow! One funny travel story: on our way through Mississippi, we mentioned stopping for dinner in Hattiesburg, MS. Chloe overheard this discussion and began talking about "cheeseburger dinner at Hattiesburg-er." Guess ya had to be there---She was too cute!

It was a really good visit with family. The girls LOVED playing with Mimi, Papa, and their cousins (Jacob and Hallie). We helped Nana by raking and bagging her leaves---the kids "jumped in" and helped too! :-)

We spent the night with Grandma. The four cousins had a slumber party in the living room! Chloe was the last one to fall asleep each night---go figure!

We watched the parade and saw Santa ride in---then we enjoyed a yummy Thanksgiving dinner. Mmmm!! The kids did art projects, played UNO and flew paper airplanes with Mimi and Papa---lots of giggles! Plus, we were able to take some "generational pictures" with Mimi, Nana, Papa, and Grandma with the kids and grandkids---pretty special!!

On "Black Friday," the boys (and Shelley) hit the mall at 5am to bag some bargains. Unfortunately, Papa didn't quite move fast enough to get his Sony Blue-Ray DVD player---but it was still fun (for the rest of us!?)

On the way home, we stopped for a night in Pensacola, Florida and spent the morning playing on the beach. Hannah ended up wet from head to toe---she REALLY enjoyed her time at the beach! Chloe even warmed up to the idea of barefeet on the sand and got in on the fun...

We've updated the slideshow to the right with pic's from Thanksgiving days, as well as pics from our quick beach detour on the way home. Enjoy!