Spring YMCA Soccer

Orion and Isabella are playing spring indoor soccer at the YMCA. This is Isabella's first time playing soccer and she seems to really like. I think better than basketball, but don't tell Brett I said that. Isabella scored her first goal during her second game. I didn't get a picture of her actually kicking her goal, but here she is kicking the ball in practice.
An action shot of Orion kicking for a goal.
Orion defending the goal.
An action shot of Isabella

Sweet Sabrina & the Aquarium

Sabrina has gotten really mobile in the past month. She loves to crawl around and she is actually crawling now - instead of the army low crawl that she did for two months.

Sabrina is quite proud that she can climb the stairs now. She does it well and often. I've tried to show her how to slide down on her belly, but she isn't really interested yet. I'm sure she'll be going everywhere soon enough.

The last day of spring break the kids and I met two of my college friends & their kids at the Denver Aquarium. We had a great time, but it was way too crowded; next time we will not go during spring break.

Nicola's kids panned for gems. My kids enjoyed watching which was nice because then I didn't have to pay for shiny rocks. Isabella is constantly bringing rocks into the house as it is. I didn't need ones that are "special" that I can't just throw out into the backyard.
Hunter watching the eel.
The gang of kids - the three moms have come along way since our days as Gamma pledges and in ROTC.

Easter in the beauty of God's creation

So about a year ago a good friend of our's emailed out a great plan to pull together a winter trip to one of the 10th Mountain Division Huts. He was making reservations for March 22 - 24. Brett and I enthusiastically committed ourselves to the trip. Our anniversary is March 20th. With the exception of last year (I was pregnant with Sabrina.) we have taken a trip without children every year around our anniversary. This hut trip was great timing, with good friends and different than our most recent trip. Who would have thought that it was Easter on March 23rd? When I figured this out, I had mixed feelings. Would my parents still be willing to watch the kids for us - even though it was Easter? Did I really want to miss being with my kids for Easter - both the fun of the Easter bunny and the joy of being in church as a family on Easter morning? Going on the hut trip was a really good choice. We had a great time with our friends, in nature, without kids and being together just the two of us.

Now about the trip ... we drove to Leadville to meet our friends who had flown in from LA. We stayed in Uncle Bud's Hut . The treck into the hut was 5.9 miles and climbed about 1800 feet in elevation. Brett (looking for a good work out) brought only skis. I snowshoed into the hut. The weather was fabulous - sunny, warm, little wind. There was another group of five folks also staying at the hut. Our two groups meshed well.

We shared a room with another couple. The picture is just of our half of the room. We have taken one other trip like this to a different hut. In the other hut the bedrooms were below the living area. I enjoyed the fact that in Uncle Bud's hut the bedrooms were above the living area because heat rises, so the bedrooms were plenty warm during the night.
Our "anniversary" picture
Uncle Bud's Hut. The little building to the left of the picture is the outhouse. There aren't flush toliets because there is no running water, but having an outhouse is really nice compared to nothing.
The view out the front of Uncle Bud's hut
I snowshoed into the hut, but my wonderful husband (who was looking for a good work out) carried my skis and boots on his pack. This meant that I could ski out. It was great fun to ski down the trail. It took me a little while to get used to the cross-country ski bindings (loose heals), but I caught on.Dan & Keri, Jennifer & Brett, Pat - back at our cars after skiing/showshoeing out.

Brett and I spent an extra day/night in Leadville. We figured since we had grandparents taking care of the kids, we needed to "milk" for all it is worth. ;-) We checked into our B & B, cleaned up after not showering for three days and hit the town of Leadville. For those of you who haven't ever been to Leadville, well ... it isn't very big. We enjoyed wondering around and then eating dinner in Rosie's Brewpub, the highest brewery in the US. We did come back to reality the next day and we were really glad to see our kids (and my parents & my grandma who had so generously watched our kids for four days.) Our anniversary trip was great fun this year, but I'm working on bigger plans for next year. After all, we'll be celebrating TEN years of wedded bliss.

Christ is Risen!

Easter morning at the Wilson household is a little crazy. (Okay, honestly, most mornings are a little nuts. It is hard to get four kids out of bed, dressed, fed breakfast and in the car in under 1.5 hours.) This Easter morning was probably a little crazier than normal because Grandma and Grandpa were in charge. (more on that in the next post.) The kids woke up and searched the house for eggs hidden by the Easter bunny and CANDY. Really, they were just interested in the candy, but found the eggs anyway.

Hunter with his basket of candy.
Isabella and Orion with their baskets.
Sabrina with her basket
In typical Colorado style - it snowed the night before Easter. So the kids wore their Easter spring outfits with sweaters and winter coats. Good thing I'm used to this crazy weather. (I'm convinced it snows EVERY Halloween and EVERY Easter. Why do you think God does this?)
A sort of semi-decent picture at church

April Fools (not April Fools' Day)

My Dad has always played April Fool's jokes. He loves them. I haven't gotten into the habit yet of playing these type jokes on my kids yet, but there is plenty of foolishness around out house. Kids can be goofy sometimes. Here are a few random snapshots of my kids being goofy!

Isabella is sitting in the infant backpack. She's a little big, but thinks it is very funny.

Sabrina was not feeling very good this night. (She had the stomach flu, a cold and five new teeth in the past two weeks.) So this night she was laying on her daddy's chest. This was quite a treat for Daddy because Sabrina is normally only a Mommy's girl. The funny part of this picture is the expression on Isabella's face. She was trying to be a goofball - somthing she does easily.
Orion wanted to show off his multi-colored ring pop - in the bathtub. He actually asked to have his picture taken with the ring pop in the tub.
This is my favorite picture of the bunch. For Valentine's Day I got each of the kids a goofy valentine. It was a gummi tongue on a big heart. Hunter wanted to stick his tongue out.
Orion is carrying Big Heavy Baby around in the baby backpack. (Big Heavy Baby is the baby doll's name. Initially I tried to help Isabella give the doll a "real" name, but Big Heavy Baby has stuck. Isabella's other dolls all have normal names - Sally, Brendan, etc.)
Hunter found my flight cap. He looks like a pirate.

Isabella potty trained Hunter

For the past two months I have been asking Hunter occasionally if he wanted to use the big potty. He emphatically always answered "NO!"

I haven't been too worried; after all he isn't three years old yet and warmer weather is coming. I thought I could just strip him down and stick him outside in the warmer weather, then things would just naturally happen.

Well, Isabella had a different plan. (What this means for Isabella's teenage years, I'm not sure.) Monday evening Isabella found the training seat that sits on a big toliet, but makes the seat smaller. She put the seat on the toliet and told Hunter to go pee in the potty. He did and Isabella continued to take him to the potty about every 15 minutes all evening long.

I decided to make the most of this opportunity, so I put Hunter in underwear Tuesday morning and we've not looked back. He has had a few accidents. On Day #4 (yesterday) he went pee in the potty all day without any pee accidents. Thanks to Isabella, Hunter seems to be getting the hang of this!

Hunter is very proud of his baseball underwear.
Hunter and his potty trainer, Isabella
What a cute trio of trouble!

Orion is six years old!!

Orion acolyted at church on his birthday. For the first time he walked up front with the candle lighter and lit the candle all by himself.
Orion decided on a bowling party for his birthday. He invited six friends. We had two lanes for bowling, pizza, brownies decorated with striped icing & sprinkles and lots of fun.
Orion, Johnny and Blake getting ready to throw some strikes.

Hunter and Christopher (our good friends' son) had a blast bowling ... until Hunter dropped a bowling ball on his toe and Christopher fell back in a chair and split his mouth. At least the picture was taken before their injuries.

Caleb, Isabella, Blake and Orion

Sabrina was her usual smiley happy self - even though the party was right in the middle of her nap. She just sits here on the table looking sweet.Orion is attempting to blow out the candles on his brownies.