February

Luke kicked off his birthday month with a morning at BrickUniverse, a Lego convention. Peepaw and Grandma Beth surprised him with birthday tickets and spending money and he was in his element. He brought his buddy, Tey, which made it even more fun.

The building challenge theme was "nature," and I was super impressed with the bull he created from random pieces.

Looking at the minifigures for sale was the highlight of his day.

Clapping for joy. :)

He loved walking The High Line in NYC last spring break and thought the Lego representation was awesome.

The single best way to end the morning for an almost 9 year old...lunch at McDonalds. :)

Luke played the part of a disciple in his class chapel program and did a great job delivering all of his lines.

We really enjoyed watching Caleb compete in his archery tournaments this year! He increased his score with each tournament and we look forward to next season.

Luke broke out the metal detector at the cabin. They spent hours looking for treasure...

Creed took not one, but two, ski trips to Colorado around the middle of the month. The first trip was to Aspen and Snowmass with some guys from work. 

And, a week and a half later, he skied Arapahoe Basin, on a quick, 24-hour trip.

Nerf gun wars occur on the daily at our house. There is always at least one Rival ball and/or one bullet on the floor in each of our rooms.

For Luke's birthday, he celebrated with his friends at Nerf Warriorz. They devoured 80 McDonalds chicken nuggets, two cookie cakes with ice cream, and then had Nerf battles for 1.5 hours. It was the perfect afternoon for a group of nine year olds. :)

Luke and his best friend Porter had some serious Bayblade battles...

Happy 9th Birthday, Lukey Babe!

His daddy took him to Sugar & Spice early that morning to get three dozen donuts- two dozen to share at school and a dozen to eat at home. 

Luke went to his elementary and middle school basketball banquet and was given the Mighty in Spirit award. The athletic director made a point that it is usually hard to give this particular award to the younger kids "but this young man made it easy this year." 

We could not be more proud.

January (and Steamboat!)

We were wheels up on January 2nd with a direct flight into Denver!

From Denver we had a three hour drive...

that included a sketchy drive over Rabbit Ears Pass. 

The boys and I hurried to rent our skis and then we made it to the hotel. This was our view of the village in Steamboat. Our hotel was literally steps from the gondola and we had the best time calling it home for the rest of Christmas break.

The boys found the perfect place to warm up while waiting on our table for dinner night one.

Creed left early by himself the next morning to hit some expert powder runs while we slept in a little bit.

It snowed most of our first skiing day, which made for awesome conditions.

The biggest brownie sundae is the best way to end the day. :)

Day two brought sunny skies, but because it had snowed overnight, it was another awesome day of skiing.

On day two we came back to the room and rested for an hour before heading back out. Steamboat has donuts and hot chocolate at the base each day at 3pm, so we were sure to make it for that. 

On our third day of skiing, Luke overcame some of his fear and skied lots of blue runs.

While Creed, Luke, and I skied a run, Caleb chilled at Taco Beast. Can you spot him with his phone? 

Taco Beast is half way up the mountain and was so fun, and so good. (We LOVED every meal we had while visiting Steamboat- it had the best food of any ski resort we have ever visited!)

On our last day, Luke also braved his first black diamond run. He was so proud!!!

The following day Creed skied until lunchtime while the boys and I packed. It was an easy drive back to Denver, but after midnight when we got back home. We were worn out...the best way to end a ski trip!

The following day, I did ski vacation laundry...which included 22 pairs of socks. :)

Jake lives two doors down from us and he and Luke are just the best of friends. Jake ended up staying with us for an entire weekend.

The first of many sleepovers, I'm sure!

Towards the end of the month, Luke came down with a crazy fever and (very) sore throat virus. He ended up missing 3 1/2 days of school and was on the couch for 5 days straight. He ate a lot of popcicles and we watched a lot of Disney movies...Disney+ came in handy, for sure.

One evening the boys fixed themselves a bowl of ice cream and hopped up on the counter to eat it. I took this picture and sent it to Creed, saying I just can't believe they are this big.