St. Patrick's Day and Fire Fighters

On St. Patrick's Day we were in Denver and decided to visit the Firefighters Museum. It was a very small museum and one of the best we've been to. There were lots of hands on displays Jakob and I could play with and learn on. The museum was in an old fire house and had several engines, antique fire boxes, communication boards, a pole for Jakob to slide down and lots of interactive games for hours of fun. We had such a great and educational time.

Jakob Lost a Tooth!!

For several months Jakob has had a tooth loose. It was only a tad loose and never changed from week to week. We waited and waited. We started to think he might have knocked it a little loose when he bite into a fork a few months back and it wasn't because of his adult tooth coming up. And then it happened. The tooth next to the kind of loose tooth became really loose. He played with it for weeks and eventually he could lay it flat onto his lip with his tongue. Eeewe!!

If you haven't heard already, George is a little paranoid about kid things. He gets himself a little worked up about infections and became infatuated with Jakob's tooth. One day he flipped the tooth down and could see the new tooth coming in. This had to be bad and the tooth had to come out. Jakob gave him one chance and George didn't get it out. So the tooth stayed. We skied with the worry the tooth might fall out in the snow. It didn't.

Our first night in the hotel in Denver with George working a conference, I convinced Jakob to let me try to pull the tooth out right before bed. If I didn't get it Jakob informed me I could have another chance when we got home. I think he was ready for the tooth to come out. I pulled quickly and .... no tooth. There was however blood.

The next morning at 6:30 a.m. Jakob asks if it is light outside. We said yes, but go back to sleep it's too early. At 6:31 a.m. Jakob screams he thinks he lost his tooth. George and I hop out of bed to find Jakob sitting up with his lips pierced and the tooth sticking out of his mouth. He had sucked in and the tooth had popped out. (I know I helped it with my pull the night before, right?)

He will not give this tooth to the Tooth Fairy because it is his first and he wants to keep it. He is hoping the next one will fall out soon.

Ice Skating

Last year we went to the Keystone Village for ice skating and I discovered I was not very good at this particular sport. So, this year I sat out and watched Jakob and George take a spin around the Keystone Lake.

Jakob started of with what we call the "geriatric" skating and quickly progressed to skating on his own. He'll be playing hockey in no time.

Tubing

If you have never gone tubing we would highly recommend it. What an absolute blast. We headed up to the top of Keystone and spent over an hour sliding down a super fast hill in fancy tubes. We went as singles, doubles and triples and were spun until we could tube no more.

Jakob's eyes on the first ride down were priceless and his exclamation "Can we do it again?" delightful.

Vacation in Colorado

Last week we were in Colorado for a skiing vacation. We left on Tuesday, March 11 and Jakob and I returned on Wednesday, March 19. We stayed at Keystone in a beautiful condo at the base of the mountain. We were in the same complex as last year, just a different condo.

We did a little better job this year scheduling our ski and play time. We took Wednesday to get acclimated to the time and place and didn't ski until Thursday and Friday. Much more relaxing than last year when we skied the day after we arrived. On our first ski day we headed up to the ski school slope to let Jakob take a few runs and get comfortable with skiing again. He still like to go fast and straight down the hill. That's my boy. Then it was on the gondola and up to the ski school run on top of the mountain. We had a great time and skied down a new hill with a chair lift up (Jakob's first chair lift) and were exhausted by the end of the day.

The next day we decided we had taught Jakob everything we could and were still not comfortable with him heading down a hill by himself. Off to ski school and a day of learning from someone else. Amazing what kids learn away from their parents. I thought George was having a harder time with Jakob being in school all day (10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. - the longest he has ever been away from us) until we dropped him off and said goodbye. I was so lost without him. George and I did rally and had a wonderful time skiing down greens and blues. We were surprised and saddened by how slow we went and how tired we were at the end. (Old age hits hard)

We checked on Jakob several times and he was happy to see us, but wanted only to wave and then get back to business. He was skiing down the hill in less than an hour and by 3:30 he was turning and stopping at will. Awesome!!

Clifford comes for a visit

Jakob's class has a pet. His name is Clifford and fortunately he is stuffed. Each child brings Clifford home for a weekend visit and returns with pictures and a journal of their adventures. Jakob brought Clifford home for the second time in early March. The following is our journal entry:

Clifford Spends the Weekend with Jakob

We were so excited to have Clifford with us again for another weekend. We had such a good time with Clifford last year we couldn't wait to show him other fun things we do. So here are a few of our weekend happenings.

On Friday, Clifford spent most of his time on our kitchen table watching us make dinner, race around the house like NASCAR and pass balloons back and forth in a balloon volleyball game.

On Saturday, Clifford spent most of his time with our dog, BJ. We weren’t used to having another dog and we forgot to take him with us when we went to get my haircut and run a few errands. We were glad we left him at home though because the wind was horrible. He might have blown away. We did include Clifford in our shamrock making craft that my Grandma sent. He helped with the beading and tying. We hung the finished art piece on our window.

On Sunday we went to church and almost no one was there for the 9 a.m. service because it was daylight savings day and I think everyone wanted to sleep in. In Sunday school we watched an Easter video and made a mobile. After church we met our friends at Cici’s Pizza. I was so excited that I forgot Clifford in the car. (Did you know they have macaroni and cheese pizza at Cici’s?) I did remember to bring Clifford a bouncy ball my friend Adam gave me from the arcade at Cici’s.
Clifford said he wasn’t angry with me for leaving him and he really liked the ball. After lunch it was home again for a game of monkey in the middle and packing for our ski trip to Colorado. Clifford was sad he didn’t get to go skiing with us, but he told us to have a good time and bring pictures of our trip.

We had a great time with Clifford and hope he brings as much joy to your home as he did to ours.