I married a crazy person.

Last week a new Chik-fil-A opened across the street from Gilby's office. He camped outside of it for 24 hours.

The day started like this.

But quickly looked like this.

And progressed to this.

In the end he got 52 coupons, each for a free Chik-fil-A meal, and an experience he will not soon forget. I think my young-at-heart husband also got to feel youthful again, which isn't a bad thing.

Swinging

These are from a few weeks ago (before all of our April snowstorms!), but it was Ryker's first time swinging. We're excited for spring weather to return so we can get back to the park!

Weekend Fun

As winter turns to spring and the days get longer, the sun feels warmer, the grass is greener and the birds can once again be heard, I start to get itchy to trade lazy weekends bundled up on the couch for time in the backyard. Between the park, sidewalk chalk on the driveway, bare feet in the grass, and snacks in the playhouse this weekend, we had some special events on the calendar.

Disney on Ice
Sydney and I spent yesterday morning at a Disney on Ice show. It was a special mommy/daughter date, and she was so excited the morning of that she put on her princess dress and shoes first thing although I told her we weren't leaving for a few hours. She even asked me to put her "very soft bow" in her hair (she almost always refuses anything in her hair). Despite getting nervous just as we were getting ready to go, asking if we could stay home or if Myles and Ryker could come with us, and throwing one of her signature fits, we were all smiles by the time we got there and had lots of fun. Her favorite Disney movie right now is "Tangled," so I had built it up that we were going to see Rapunzel and Flynn, which unfortunately for her didn't happen until almost the very end. After every act she would ask, "Is Tangled coming next? What is Tangled doing right now?" She did sit with wide eyes for the other acts though and has asked me today if we can go again tomorrow.

Rockies Game
Daddy and Myles spent yesterday evening at the Rockies game. Gilby had been given tickets for really nice seats behind the dugout. He said they sat there all of a half an inning before Myles was too antsy to sit anymore. They spent the remainder of the two hours they were there walking the bleachers and waving to the other spectators. That's our Myles! Maybe someday he'll be interested in the actual game? 

Myles wanted everyone to be a little bit quieter. He even took to "shushing" the crowd.

Skiing
Today Gilby and I were able to go skiing for the whole day all by ourselves! What a treat. I haven't been skiing for five seasons (we've been a little busy those off years). It was much overdue and tons of fun once I got my ski legs back.

The kiddos had a great time at home with Will and Claire, two former high school youth group students, whom we love, that were willing to take a day away from their busy college schedules to hang out with our kids. When I walked in Myles immediately said, "No, Mom, no!" and pushed me out of the room so he could keep being silly with Will. They were exhausted from their busy day, so much so that Myles fell asleep for the night even before dinner.

And a picture of Ryker just because. He's around for all of this being as chill as can be.

So thankful for my family and the memories we are making.

Skiing!!

Last Saturday we took our two "big" kids skiing for the first time, which made for a pretty exciting day in our house. One of the many things Gilby and I love about Colorado is all the unique opportunities the mountains bring. Our first several winters here we skied quite a bit and loved it. Post kiddos it's been a lot different, but we have been looking forward to the day that they can join us.

Grandpa picked up Ryker in the morning, and we headed up to the mountains with Myles and Sydney. They were pretty excited and had been super well behaved while we were getting ready that morning, although I don't think they knew what we were really doing. I had shown them some videos on YouTube of other little kids skiing and we had gone to pick up their rental gear the night before, but that was pretty much it. Myles slept on the way, but Sydney was too excited. She gets giddy when something fun is coming up and talks nonstop. As we were driving she kept pointing out the window and asking, "Are those the big mountains?"

When we arrived a bit over an hour later the mood changed. I think they got nervous, but both kids, Myles especially, were resistant to getting their snow gear on. We headed from our parking spot to the shuttle bus with Gilby carrying four sets of skis and me carrying a screaming and crying Myles. Fun times. I thought that our day might be ending in about 15 minutes, but thankfully after the bus got going, both kids calmed down and did great the rest of the day.

We spent the morning on the itty bitty ski-school hill. The kids skied between our legs while we held onto the harnesses they were wearing. They are far from being independent, but it was our goal just to expose them to skiing this year. Both kids were willing to try and had fun coming down, but Sydney was admittedly better and more eager to keep going. She kept asking to go on the chair lift, so after we took a break for lunch we headed to the bunny hill. Sydney went down several times saying, "Can we go faster?" when we would get to the top, and "Now I can go again!" when we got to the bottom. Myles rode the chair lift and skied the bunny hill only once, but he liked both. He was just so tired by that point, and was content to stay at the bottom making snowmen. Considering last winter we could hardly get him to put a hat on, I'm so proud of him simply wearing snow gear and heavy ski boots all day with little complaining. It was a bonus that he was willing to try skiing, did fine with it, and actually enjoyed it! We look forward to hopefully many more ski days with our kiddos.

Easter

Whew, it's been a busy week in the Gilbert household and I'm just now getting the chance to sit down and write about our Easter celebration.

We woke Easter morning to find that the Easter Bunny had visited. I'm pretty sure he's about 6' 2" and willing to stay up to fill and hide plastic eggs when his wife is too tired to do so. He's pretty darn handsome to boot. We had gone to an Easter egg hunt the previous weekend, so the kids were pretty excited to do it again.

We didn't go to church Easter morning, which was unusual, but made for a leisurely morning, at least as leisurely as things get with our wild bunch. We love our church, but so do a lot of other people, so they had rented an event center in anticipation of having 12,000 people on Easter Sunday. That sounded a bit overwhelming for our little family, so we decided to opt out.

Gilby and I do, however, very much want our children to know why we celebrate Easter, and what it means for us. The day before, we had asked the kids if they knew what Easter is. Sydney piped up, "So I can get candy!" Oh boy. We talked with them about Jesus and the resurrection story and when we were finished, Sydney piped up again, "I want Jesus candy!" We've got some work to do.

After our activities at home, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house late morning for another egg hunt, brunch, and egg coloring. We enjoyed a sunny, mid-60s spring day, and a blessed Easter.