Epic Wedding

Meegan Addy- one of my best and oldest friends from college at the University of Montana....got married on Valentine's Day at the TOP of Loveland ski resort...with 99 other couples (25 newly married and 75 renewing their vows)!  It was exciting, hilarious, awesome, and insane.

Meegan, Adam, and Team DuRoss

Let me add that not only did all these people head to the top of the mt for the ceremony, but we joined them...all four of us, on skis, despite a 15 minute chair ride in 40 mph gusts, snow, and freezing temps.  Getting to the top was not my proudest parenting moment, however, once at the top, things went from a worst case scenario (missing the event because we were running late and/or freezing and traumatizing our two year olds) to a best case.  Thanks to some help and support from one of my other dear friends and old roommates (all four of us roommates were eventually together- you'll see), we made it in time, crammed into a jam packed lodge at the top to warm up, got to see Meegan and Adam before for some pictures, after to say congratulations, and at the end of their first run as a married couple!  The timing could not have been better.

Of course, also, like a story book, the wind stopped and the sun came out ONLY for our ski down.  Ruby skied all two miles by herself (mom behind her with the harness) with only a few falls, after which she laughed. Owen skied most of the run himself as well.  He likes to "hit jumps"...but then he falls and sometimes struggles to keep restarting. Chip picked him up and flew down a really choppy part, after which he also wanted to get down and ski it himself. It was fresh powder and somewhat bumpy conditions for two year old legs.  I couldn't believe how well they did and how much fun we all had being part of this epic wedding.

The Girls

And this was par for the course with this road trip.  We stopped in Steamboat to break up the trip and see Aunt Mindy on the way to, and back from, Denver.  Ruby and Owen got to run the halls of Mindy's gorgeous school and see where she is a teacher (which Owen says he wants to be...like his aunt Mindy).  We caught up with Mikey Amato for dinner and Mindy's roommate and friend from MT whom we also adore, Colleen.  Ruby and Owen loved playing on the playground and goofing around at home with Mindy.

Notice the open mouth

Hmmm...wonder where that open mouth mannerism comes from. :)

Owen, checking out the best lines at the resort.

In Denver we stayed with Jayne, Steven, and their son, Julian, who is only about 6 months younger than Ruby and Owen.  OT and Ru LOVED "Julian's House".  When we were out they asked to go back and they were sad when we had to leave for home.  They often pick up a play phone these days and call their new buddy.  His toys, his house, his mom and dad and Grammy and Papa...they loved all of it.  And, we did too!  We made and ate pizzas, had some hang out time, a lunch with just the Eddy Girls, and an evening kid free to celebrate with Meegan thanks to Jayne's AMAZING parents who watched all the kids (first time for us with a babysitter other than Oma or Nana and Papa)!  It was awesome.  The only rough part of the whole trip was getting the kids to bed.  It was nearly impossible and will limit our travel for a little while, but that being our biggest problem, we thought we were in a pretty good spot.

Amy joined the crew on Friday!

Steven did a little photo shoot with Ruby and Owen- got some really cute ones- thanks!  And, I love this shot because it just shows my little Shlavena (rascal in German) of a boy. :)

And here we are- The Eddy St Girls- together again!  We have done about 5 reunions since our college graduation, have attended three of our weddings in perfect attendance, and have added four children to the family.  I love these three people and everything we have all become.  It is my honor to still be connected to them.

The Eddy St Girls have a little game we like to play with the wedding couple as part of our toast...and then we couldn't resist doing a shot on the ski since skiing was the theme of this wedding!

Ruby and Julian enjoying a book on the couch.  Awww

Yeah, you!  Don't even think about taking some of our snack!

Amy left her own baby (Abraham- 4 months old) and brought our babies gifts!  She really is a special one.  Anyway, the boys got superman shirts and Ruby got a very stylish shirt as well.  These new duds were so fun and photogenic.  However, getting three toddlers to all look at the camera at the same time is a feat we did not accomplish.  

Just two superguys about to head out on their next mission.

Thanks everyone for welcoming our circus into your homes!  We are no small presence these days.  We love you all!

Winter in February

Ruby and, especially, Owen, are addicted to snowballs.  I regularly am convinced by them that they "need" a snowball to eat in the car and it seems that it is the first, and sometimes only, thing we do when we go outside to play.  They love books about snowmen (the ultimate snowball tower) too.  The only problem with all this is that the snow is usually too crumbly due to cold or low moisture to roll snowballs.  We got a day.  And we jumped on it to create our little friend below.  

 Owen loves hot food.  Not temperature hot, spicy hot.  Yes, this would be him sucking on a bottle of Sriracha.  He doesn't really drink it as it appears here, but he does like it on many of his foods.

 Some "snow cooking" in their new kitchen.  They loved it and request this activity often now.

 The time came...thanks to Chip.  We packaged up the binkies and "sent" them our friend, baby Samatha, Dave and Trina's adorable baby daughter who was recently over for dinner and Ruby and Owen loved.  She seemed like the perfect recipient for our plethora of used binkies. :)  The whole thing went over much better than I ever expected.  Thank goodness!  Chip called it, pushed it, and made it happen.  Dads are so important for these kinds of things.  I would have let them have their binkies until they were 15 if they wanted them!

 Owen finally was agreeable to getting his hair cut with clippers.  So, dad thought, "I have clippers at home.  How hard can this be?"  Well, let's just say that we were going to a wedding the following week and therefore we especially needed a trip to the local Great Clips after this experiment.  But, after the binkie victory, I couldn't blame him for trying. :)

 And finally, a few awesome pictures Chip got on a ski tour he did just a few minutes from the house.  Yes, that is a deer hoof sticking out of the snow.  Never know what you are going to find out there.  I am pretty sure he said he ran across seven moose (three different encounters) on this same tour too.  We love home.

Talking

They say the funniest things.  It is endless.  I want to record everything they are saying and doing right now, but you can't possibly be fastest enough with the video, plus it changes how they are. So, I will take some notes here in an effort to capture some of it.  Sorry about the length- can't help myself.

Owen-

OT is often found holding one or both of these two things- blanket, vacuum attachment.

"I'm pretendin"   Owen loves to "pretend".  In fact, I am sometimes able to avoid a tantrum by suggesting he pretend doing whatever it is he wants to do that he can't.  He pretend vacuums (his favorite thing to pretend doing), pretend cooks, and pretend sleeps.  These are all probably normal things for a 2 year old to do in pretend play...but it just makes me laugh that he is so aware that he IS pretending.  He also is pretty fixated on when something should be "real". He'll say, "Mommy, I want a real treat", or a "real snow ball".  Hilarious.

"I'm busy"   Whenever it is time to eat a meal or leave the house and Owen doesn't want to make the transition, he will say, "No, mommy, I'm busy!"

We had been talking about how the food they were eating was going to give them energy.  So, then we were trying to get settled for nap and Owen was SO fidgety.  He rolls over and says to me, "I have energy!"  I just can't get over the connections they are making.  While they still are great parrots, so many things are also spontaneous and original and incredible.

Owen can count to 11 or so and can say almost the whole alphabet (singing, of course- I think he just thinks it is a string of funny words.  Not sure he gets that they are letters)

"little bit" is one of his favorite phrases.  They love to play in the car when we get home from errands.  He will negotiate getting to do this as well as other things he wants to do that I have said no to, by pleading in the sweetest voice, "Mommy, just a little bit".  I usually can't resist.  He sounds so reasonable.  Might have a lawyer on my hands.

While Ruby continues to progress amazingly along the potty independence trajectory, Owen, such a typical boy when it comes to this thing, likes to tell me when he has gone poop.  He says, "I pooped in my diaper, it's okay."  I guess we have said this a few times to make sure he doesn't feel bad about not wanting to use the potty yet...and it stuck.

At Home Depot the other day, the lady checking us out was saying goodbye to the kids.  They just stared, so in an effort to help them practice some good social skills, I prompted them to say good bye.  Owen looks at the lady and says, "Have a nice weekend!".  As we pull away in the cart, he looks at me and says, "Mommy, I didn't want to say good bye."

When asked what Owen would like to bring to share to a party we were going to he said, "Salad and books.....and candy!"


Ruby-

Wearing the lucky goggles

Wearing a new scarf that Oma made...so we don't have to fight over the one anymore. :)

Wearing one of (the skirt) many adorable things that Aunt Mindy gets these two as well as some sassy boots handed down from Cousin Mercy.  Thanks everyone!

When Ruby was asked what she would like to bring to this same party she responded, "Cake and mushrooms....and candy!"

Ruby doesn't tell me she is pretending, she just does a lot of it.  Her favorite toys are little people and animals that she can make walk around, play, fly and talk.  Once I caught her circling up her stuffed animals telling them it was "circle time".  Owen came around the corner and she invited him to join circle time too.  Too stinkin cute.

She loves to sing.  She likes to make up songs too, especially with her toys and before bed.  She and I have jointly written a song called, "Set the Table".  Subject matter and most words by Ruby with some tune support by mom.

Ruby could be one of the most easy going 2 year olds I have ever met.  She has actually always been this way...and thank goodness!  Owen pretty much constantly takes her things.  50% of the time she just picks something else to play with.  Or, if Owen is fussing because I gave something he snatched out of her hands, back to her, she will walk over to him and say, "Here Owen, I'm done."  The other 50% of the time she gets mad and sad...which I can't blame her for.

"No peeky weeky!"  This phrase will set both Ruby and Owen into fits of laughter- something Ms Terri at daycare said around the holidays in connection to some game they played.  Must have been fun.

When Owen is upset, Ruby will often bring him a toy or a book and say, "Feel better, Owen."  Or, she will walk over and say, "Santa Claus!"...which I am not sure why, but makes them both explode into a fit of laughter again and helpfully derails whatever it was that Owen was crying
about.

We do this thing after bath where they talk to the mirror and tell their reflection things they like.  It is a mental health providers dream come true!  Ha!  Ruby isn't speaking as clearly in this video, but the end is so good that we have probably watched it 100 times.

https://vimeo.com/59378150

A script from a sweet conversation they had with dad's help-
Ruby is wearing a crown on her head and walks over to dad and Owen on the couch.

Dad- "Owen, do you like Ruby's crown?"
Owen- "I do like your crown!"
Dad- "Well, that was nice.  Ruby, do you want to give Owen a compliment?"
Ruby- "Owen, you are handsome."
Dad- "Oh wow, that was nice too.  Owen, do you have another compliment for Ruby?"
Owen- "Ruby, I like how you painted with your hands yesterday."

I am addicted to pictures of hugs and love, and dad likes to make them do funny and cute stuff in front of the camera, so this works out. ;)

Oh my gosh- too much!  I just can't get over the things that come out of their mouths most of the time! We have been talking about compliments and encourage them to off set the hitting and taking that goes on.  We'll see how it all works out.

Okay- ONE more and then I will stop!
So, they love to find the moon.  I never realized until Ruby and Owen were around, how often the moon is out during the day or evening before it gets dark.  Anyway, so I started calling it a crescent moon, half moon, or full moon, which they can now usually recognize on their own.  So, if there is a crescent moon, one of them will call it a "Kessler (sounds like crescent I guess) Moon" and again, giggles from both.  Is there any better sound?

Superman

I have suspected that I was married to superman for years.  Last Saturday, my suspicions were confirmed.  Chip had just worked a night shift on Friday and had one more to work Saturday night before he had some time off.  We were itching to get the kids out skiing again since we have been thwarted by illness and extremely cold temps for what seems like most of the winter!  So, we mentioned skiing on Saturday morning with the kids.  They latched onto this idea, which is so cute and hard to resist for us, but we weren't sure how much sleep Chip would get, so we tried not to talk about it too much.  Of course, Chip was up most of the night.  He came home on one, yes, 1,  hour of sleep.  And still he rallied to take the kids skiing at Park City for the morning.  How he mustered the energy, I will never know or understand.

So, we showed up only to realize that Park City was REALLY busy.  There were competitions taking place, it was a sunny beautiful Saturday morning, we weren't early or late enough to miss the crowds, etc.  All this equals NO parking.  Chip dropped Ruby, Owen, myself and all our gear off at the bottom of the hill....and then proceeds to drive around for 30 minutes trying to find parking and eventually ends up at the high school (overflow parking) at which point he then had to take a shuttle to finally meet us.

Getting two two year olds ready for skiing (helmets, gloves, harnesses, edgie wedgies, skis) has its challenges as well, but they were in good moods and I had a full night's sleep under my belt so it was at least manageable.  We were waiting so long that we even got a run in on our own!  Owen and Ruby were so patient and entertained by all the other kids on the hill.  My biggest concern was that they were a sitting duck for some out of control skier to hit while waiting for me to get back to them, but I hoped for the best, it worked out this time.

Chip finally made it to us with a smile on his face, if you can believe that, and we skied 7 laps on the magic carpet.  The kids did great and were left wanting to do it more. So, mission accomplished.  And, somehow, Chip managed to get us all home without falling asleep at the wheel.  Since then we have been to Deer Valley and Ruby and Owen have ridden on the chair lift too!

Skiing is something that has given me so much- confidence, joy, serenity, sanity, fitness, and friends.  In fact, pretty sure I wouldn't be married to Chip if it weren't for skiing at Alpine Valley back in high school.  To be able to do it with my kids is enthralling....brings smiles to my heart and face that do not fade easily.  I know that they could change their minds about the whole thing at any point, so I am just going to enjoy whatever they will give me for now.  :)

And, here is a video of Ruby and I skiing...

https://vimeo.com/58863500