Summer? Then winter again!

 Well, Friday was summer, all day.  It was 75 degrees, maybe more.  we cooked out and the girls had ice cream for dessert.  The next day was 45 degrees and rainy......summer will return.  Someday, I'm sure.

 We got TX to a box at the Bisons' game on Thursday. Chris is in town from Alaska and the 4 of us went.  Kat got to meet and hug Buster Bison.  And he signed her Mariners hat, which is what she's showing us here!  SHe LOVES to hug mascots and people in costume for any reason. 

 Kat slept over at her cousins' a few week ago.  She doesn't travel light.....

And here with everyone's favorite Benji!!!!

Kat's first concert, some TKD, Easter, etc

Kat & her cousin Jessica on Easter.
Our Russian visitors...we always try to do a group shot and the dogs...well, we usually get their best sides.
Tonite at the Imagination Movers concert/show. She was waiting for the guy who's just stepping into the pic on the right. She was NOT going to be denied the chance to high five Smitty!!
I got this look today. She appears to think that she can give me a stern face and yell at me as I do her...... she's wrong, but the face made me laugh.


At the Vikings on Saturday. She LOVED the Easter bunny. She followed her around and wouldn't leave her alone.

This is Kat showing off her punch/knee combination. Her knee strikes are fearsome!

This is her fighting her way through the crowd of kids to get in there and high five Scott. Again, she would not be denied.

The pic for the last post

This pic was there, but now is gone. Anyway, this is the outfit that Boris brought for her.

Tae Kwon Do

We have Russian visitors this week. Boris brought this outfit for Kat and the other AM, when I wanted to sleep some more, I told her to go get dressed. And she did!!!


This is Kat doing her punch/kick combination at TKD.

Her TKD school is competing in a tournament in a month or more. So they are starting to work on the "presentation", what the contestants will say to the judges. I love how she needs a prompt for her name!!!!

Belt Testing at Tae Kwon Do

She had her belt test yesterday and moved up to a 'low yellow' belt. She looks more than a little proud in the video.

Diving.... No make that jumping!

We watched the class before us conclude with diving. And then Kat's class did the same. Except the girl in front of her took her time....and eventually settled on jumping instead. And then Kat jumped! I think she would have tried the dive, if not for the other girl chickening out. I was really excited to see (and record) it. Next time.

Summer.

Well, you can see who else is happy it's summer(like) out there. And, btw, I cut the grass today. It's been taking off with all of this crazy sunshine, so I had to cut it. I power washed the patio today ... We are ready!

Who needs spring?

Look who else thinks it's summer!!!

Well, I think we are in week two of summer! Spring...who needs it? I have the patio stuff out, the grill (used it twice already!), the shorts & flip flops are all out an in use! If, after this next warm week, spring does arrive with cold and rain, I might be crushed! I slid right into summer mode....we will see what the weather gods bring us....I know we are not the only ones enjoying pre-summer. Much of the country is, but the other side of the Rockies might not be. Dan talked to someone in Seattle recently and they had snow! While we had 70s or something crazy like that!

Summer?

Well, it sure felt like summer here today. It was 73 degrees when I went to pick Kat up! Then I decided that it was way too nice to go to swimming inside and we met Derek and the kids at the playground! Course I took the video at home before we left, so don't have any pics of the others.

The new improved DiningRoom....It's FINISHED!!!

This is the dining room when we moved in and up until January when I finally decided that I couldn't take it anymore. I know, it will be sad to not see that wallpaper anymore. And the light. Some poor blind schmuck burned some rubber to come and get it for free. And I got rid of the hideous curtain rods and posts (you can see the huge round things in the pic below) also. I don't know who would want those, but I have gotten rid of so much CRAP on craigslist (for free)! The only thing that I couldn't get rid of was all of the original molding from the DR & LR. I don't know who wouldn't want 45 year old molding, complete with nails and the original lead paint. Pansies!





And the AFTER pics..... all that's left is to put a few more pics up in the rails, as well as a small mirror of some sort and to paint a few wooden chairs to match something else in the room. And to try to find someone to cook some dinners......

The latest

Though she has one more ski lesson, they were awarded their medals last week. She is on the far right hand side.



She was having a great time making her hair even harder to comb out. She loves 'crazy hair'!

Here are the 3 stooges. Sadie (the boxer) is a loaner....I dogsit/walk her frequently. When Kat is counting off members of our family, she always counts Sadie along with her own doggies and squirmy Hermy. And today, somewhat related, I heard her tell Ben to stay away from her stuff like this 'Not your business Benji-Sue'. No idea where she heard that....... I say it to both of them. Frequently. And I don't know which one of them walks into more poles/doorways/trees and various other things that they don't see because they are minding someone else's business!

Family camping weekend

This long weekend we went to the YMCA family camp. When we signed up months ago, we thought it would be a good opportunity to get out and play in the snow and meet some new families. Last week, there was no snow and there were 2 other families signed up. We weren't too thrilled about going, as it was a big hassle and we were tired. And we had stuff we wanted to do here, etc. But we were committed, so we went.

We had a really good time. And we got some snow for the sledding. Kat slept (far) less than .75 of her usual sleep time (so did we) on the bunks that are too short for adults. I whacked my head repeatedly on the Kat's lower bunk and the ceiling above me.

We had a little snow when we got there, enough for sledding on Saturday. And then got a few more inches on Saturday. We didn't sled on Sunday, as one of us was being belligerent and mouthing off, so we watched everyone else go. But she got better and we sledded again today. And she tried snowboarding, see the video below.

All of the kids were girls (except the 7 month old). Kat, the 5 year old constantly sugared up ADHD kid (who had a good week at kindergarten this week and just MAY advance next year and took Irish dancing and was asked not to return (my new measurement of whether our kid is a spoiled single child---so far we have not been asked to vacate a class/premises, etc). Then there were 2 great girls, one 7 & the other 9 and they were super nice kids (we were hitting their parents up for parenting tips). And there was a just turned 3 year old. Kat had fun eating from the suitcase of sugary snacks and pop that the ADHD parent brought along (she also brought a dvd player and made liberal use of her mom's phone and kindle unless they were put out of her reach) and playing with that girl and often the 7 year old, then she would wind down a bit and play with the 3 year old (who she knew from our Y). As the parent of the super-nice kids said, Kat has some behaviors to unlearn. But we did have a lot of fun. I think that Dan spent all day yesterday reading.

They do family camps over Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. They have all sorts of fun stuff, horseback riding, swimming, canoeing, ropes course, climbing wall, etc. I am pretty sure we will return. Kat was sad to leave camp today, but we were all looking forward to our own beds!! And I'm off to mine shortly! Poor Dan is teaching tonite. I asked her when we were leaving what her favorite part of the weekend was. I swear she said 'my favorite part was misbehaving.' Then she said no, but I never got the rest of her answer and probably wouldn't remember it after the first statement. I can only hope that she really didn't mean that, else her road to adulthood will be very painful for all of us.

The videos:
Her best friend Sadie.
Writing her name in the snow.
The end of Tom & Dianne's wedding last weekend (Dan's bro)
Kat's first time on a snowboard....crap, she does pretty well, I hope she doesn't become one!!!

Pic from the dentist

You can't tell, but she's posing on a big stuffed bison. She had an excellent check up and enjoyed her visit.

Breaking a board

Kat is breaking boards at TKD. Last night it was by kicking and today it was with an elbow snap. She looked a little proud of her first attempt.

Kat and her weapon

Kat's tae Kwon do had parents' night tonite. And it was free for us, except the weapon I bought her on amazon. The theme was nerf wars. There were at least 60 kids there, they divided them into teams (ages), painted their faces, tied on colored headbands and they were off! I think they had a ridiculous amount of fun.

We had to practice at home, make sure that she knew how to use it. She loved it.

The beauty of being an American!!!

Skiing. and wrestling

The video is Kat going down hill for the first time ever. You can get a sense of her bewilderment. She looks behind her....no one there helping nor telling her what to do. Then she changes direction slightly, which I think is impressive and instinctive. And then she heads for the people at the bottom of the rope tow with her arms out. You have to watch thru the end.... And then again and again.

I'm sure it doesn't reflect well on me well in any regard whatsoever, but I watch this video over and over on the loop and laugh till I cry. The two instructors wiping out the other kid on the rope tow (and kind of Kat, after the rescue), just kills me!! And her poor baffled run down the hill, back to where she started. Why wouldn't one return to where they started?

The second video is from Tae Kwon Do today, They do SUCH fun stuff. She is always a sweaty mess after class! The camera is shaking a little, as I was cracking up the whole time. She is the hungry badger and the instructor is the crocodile guarding his egg. I realize he wasn't giving it his all, but was still really impressed that she could roll him over, twice, no less (these guys are all muscle). The ending of this video kills me too. She trips when she's almost there, BUT lands on the ball and rolls away from him. She may have a future as a receiver.

Winter has arrived

This is today's snowstorm. And the snow dogs were loving it.
We went to Cheyenne's hockey game. She was the goalie in the white jersey. She had never played goal before and I suspect may never play it again. She was a real trooper.
The little ham. Being still for just a brief moment. Drinking my pop.
This is our 82 year old neighbor and his new hip, snowblowing our driveway.

You might see a little ham in and out of these videos......

Kat's new kitties?

There was text with this when I emailed it..... Anyway, when Kat got home from school yesterday she saw this box and asked "is this my new kitty?". I guess you can't blame her. She's still a rookie in some regards and while every adult would recognize that this is a 40lb box of kitty litter from a warehouse store, she just saw kitties on the box and assumed (hoped) that it was a kitty. Because they come in boxes? And she's been told that we will get kittens after Hermy dies. So the day after that, when she saw Hermy, she said 'Hermy, you didn't die yet." Oops.

Kat's newly decorated bedroom

This was Kat's room this summer after we added her bunk beds. I told her we could paint her room and make it hers (it was a little kids' room when we moved in- yellow with a cutesy border). What color did she want? Blue. Green. Purple. And Pink. Really? Not all one color? No. This wall pink. That wall purple...etc. She knew exactly what she wanted. I was silly to question her.

However, I picked out the paint alone, except the green. Since she was a rookie to the whole process, I figured I could get away with the paint just showing up and getting itself on the wall. And I did. This time. I am sure that I won't be so lucky next time.


And I did most of the painting while she was at school. But I saved the purple wall for her to help me paint. And she did. The same spot, over and over and over. It's more of a textured surface. And at point, Dan had to come in to see, cause he heard me say "get your feet off of the paint on the wall!" Things I never thought I would say.
She now has a really cool art desk with all sorts of art supplies, a fun rug for playing with her cars, and lots of cubbies and storage all over the place.
She also picked out the curtain colors. But the blue one was a navy blue, so we wound up with 2 purple (lilac) curtains.

Kat's first skiing lesson

Skiing anyone? Despite the lack of snow, not to mention wintry weather, Kat had her first ski lesson yesterday. She had fun and it went well. These are pics of the area.... the ridiculously muddy parking lot, the non-running chair lift with no snow underneath, etc.
Here she is. They use hula hoops to get the kids used to being up on skis. The pull them around with them. And they also use them to capture escapees who start heading downhill. When Kat was getting dragged around, the instructor said her skis had been well waxed, maybe even with racing wax! Awesome!






Kat did great, and most importantly had fun. Of course we were talking to our friend Dave and Whistler came up. We are trying to figure out of we can put together a trip. It's still under discussion and we are still waiting for more info before we decide when and where. If at all.

So far, this is Kat's favorite way to get down the hill!