Happy 60th, Papa!

Today my sweet dad turned 60! Can you believe it? I used to think that 60 was old…but now I think 60 is like the new 30 :) But seriously, my dad is rocking it! Still working out, hiking the Appalachian Trail, working his tail off, enjoying his grandkids, taking ski vacations….I think 60 sounds pretty darn good! 

Thanks, dad, for all that you have taught me. Thank you for teaching me about managing money, for letting me run with you in the mornings when I was young, for always making yourself available to listen to me when I call, for showing me how to do things right, for teaching me to work for what I want, for desiring to spend time with us even when we move across the country…..I love you so much and am so grateful to have you as my dad! You deserve the best day ever (and it sounds like you got it!). Glad we could FaceTime during your party. 

Throwback Sunday?

Yes, I have a throw back. Not quite a TBT, but kinda….

With the kids birthday party coming up tomorrow, I realized that I never finished publishing the pictures from their last party. Yes, that is right. I am thinking about a blog post from a year ago. Sometimes when we have such big fun things happen in our life, I get overwhelmed with the documentary side of things. I think that I will always have more time later to completely and thoroughly share the highlights of the event. Well, 335ish days later…that time has come at 1am. I felt like I couldn't share about their next party if I never finished this one. It was a fun day and a great time together with Grandma and her sister Beth…why has this not gotten accomplished yet? It has now! Enjoy a flashback and hopefully it won't take this long for our party tomorrow :)

Birthday Party Prep

Macy's 1st Birthday

Macklin's 3rd Birthday

Favorite Things Party 

Welcome Baby Elena!

Our first of three babies from our Down Valley Young Life leader team arrived last Thursday! Baby Alena was adored by my children as well as sweet little Aliyah (who is due to have a baby sister this summer and add to the YL babies). I just love Macy's face in this picture. Can't wait for the other two! 

Spring Weather Here to Stay?

We have been having picnics in the yard….

Beautiful mountain days to celebrate great friends….

Playing with chalk….

And then today went back to a Winter Storm Warning! 

I will not argue with a taste of spring though. We haven't had snow stick on the ground since the huge storms of February. I would welcome another snow or two before spring is here to stay! 

Two Sides of Macy

Within five minutes of playing with the dress up clothes, these were the two outfits that Macy had on today!

Birthday Party Prep

The kids are getting excited for their birthday party coming up! We have fun little goodies for our friends! Macklin wakes up each day and says, "Is it my birthday yet?"

Thanks to Mimi and Papa for finding some of these in MO at our friendly Target stores! 

Brummers - If you are reading out there…I get sad at the thought of not celebrating our kids birthdays together :(

New Bedroom Linens

Thanks to some help from my mom, we have new items on our bed!

I totaly love them and it is so cozy to lay next to Justin. 

2014 Track Season Underway

With new warm ups and new uniforms on the way, the track season for EVHS is underway. We are already in week four and have survived our first meet with 151 athletes on the team! It is by far our largest team that we have ever had…ever. We are figuring out how to manage and run meets with this many kids. My crew is awesome as normal. Just taking in the brisk morning sun after mile repeats on a Saturday workout. 

We did end up taking 120 athletes with us to Montrose last weekend. Both teams (guys and gals) killed it and scored over 600 points along the way (that is unheard of). They looked sharp and did a  great job in their first meet. This weekend we have to attend three separate meets to get everyone in. 

Favorite moment of the meet: Two football players that were out for the team for the first time as seniors were running the 100M Dash. One guy is about 5'10" and about 200lbs (but totally ripped) was starting with no blocks and in tennis shoes. Just so much of a boy in one crouched position. The other had spikes and blocks, but was squirmy. Gun goes off and they both take off. One other kid from our team in the same heat ends up false-starting and gets disqualified. They shoot the gun a second time meaning the race has been stopped but neither of those guys knows what it means. Each ran about 85M before catching on that something was weird. It gets better….They come back and the started gives them about 5 minutes to regroup and such. The bigger guy sees his buddy on the sidelines eating a burrito. So he goes over (while waiting for the restart) and eats a bite of his burrito. The starter calls them back to the line and our kid is still chewing. Now he is in his crouched position, with tennis shoes, and no blocks AND CHEWING his burrito. Gun goes off and I swear he has not swollowed yet. He makes it through the 100M race but both of them say the first start was much better than the second…funny kids! 

Racing shoes have are quite fancy these days! Very different from the ones I used in terms of style! 

Stretching in practice - just an action shot for ya. 

Mid March Events

What the kids do while Mommy is at her first track meet - a trip to Glenwood Mall! 

Movie Night - Macklin could do one every night. He LOVES movies. We watched Tangled for the first time. I think after seeing this (it was so cute!) that I need to go back and watch all of the Disney movies that I missed between my childhood and Macklin's. 

Enjoying her Duplos! 

Bluebird Day 

New swimsuits from Mema and Grandpa! Thanks! 

 

Macy's Hairdos - She is at the stage (this week at least)  where she will let me do her hair.

Basketball Season Complete

Justin with Coach Bair and Coach Sanchez

Justin had his end of the season basketball banquet earlier this week. Justin always does a nice job of being intentional with his banquet thoughts. He has done a variety of things to accomplish this over the years, but this year he wrote each guy a personal letter. I love that because they will get to keep that as a reminder of what Justin thought about them this season. Even thought the season was a hard one for Justin (three teams turned into two due to numbers and he kinda lost his team), he is always grateful for the relationships that have been built. 

Justin's group of guys (JV/Freshmen Team) 

Birthday Party for Karolina

Macklin and Macy had so much fun at Karolina's birthday party at the Rec Center. As we get ready to plan ours for next month, I am always observing parties! I loved theirs because they kept things simple and enjoyed the day. Karolina's mom said that she just had to get through this as she was 8.5 months pregnant at the party. Little did she know that she would go into labor that night and have their new son on Karolina's actual birthday the next day! Surprise for Karolina! 

Early March Happenings

Baby shower with friends for a fellow YL leader 

(we have 5 prego leaders in Vail Valley Young Life right now!) 

Macy sporting her Mizzou gear - Thanks Mema and Grandpa! 

Park Play Time - We have had multiple 50+ degree days this week. That makes mommy's happy! 

 Whose kids are these? Because I know mine are not this big yet!

 

Adding Florida sand to his sand box - Thanks to a high school friend! 

We got a special Save the Date in the mail today! Macklin is excited to "hold the rings!"

Beaver Creek Snowshoe 2014

I rallied up some of my cross country runners and we headed up to Beaver Creek for the final snowshoe race of 2014. After placing 2nd in my first two races, I was able to take the win in the final one. They have simplified things out in terms of prizes, so another medal seems insignificant compared to the satisfaction of a solid race. I was really encouraged by one of my athletes that I ran with a few days before the race. I love how inspiration can come from a variety of sources, including my JV runners! Another enjoyable year from BC. By far my favorite new sport since moving to Colorado. 

After two cold races, we were blessed with a beautiful day! 

Hardware tastes good! 

Teen Girls Age Group Winners

Teen Boys Age Group Winners

Missing Karley

Our sweet friend and fellow Young Life leader, Karley, moved back to New York to be with her family. It was refreshing to be around someone that deeply cares about all of the people that she encountered in her time in Gypsum. She moved here in May of 2013 to take a nanny position, so we have not known her all that long. She called our Area Director before she even got here and was a Young Life leader from the minute she arrived. She became a dear friend of everyone on the Down Valley team and many of the Up Valley leaders as well. She served the girls at Eagle Valley HS well, being available and intentional in their lives. We know the Lord has called her to love her family right now, but we will miss her around Vail Valley Young Life! Thanks for loving Jesus and others well.