Toy Parade

Bryce has really been into lining up his cars and trucks on the fireplace and the couch lately. Sydney usually joins him and pretty soon they have everything out of the toy bin and onto the fireplace and couch. This is super fun (apparently) but the easy part of simply throwing it back into the boxes from whence it came is arduous (apparently) and is usually met with all kinds of groans. Well one day while I was at work Melissa just decided to be a fun cool mom and let them go nuts. Here are a few pictures from the toy "parade" which stretched all the way from our family room, through the kitchen, through the dining room, through the living room, and back to the family room, a good 60 to 70 feet. Somehow Melissa got them to pick it up because it was all gone when I got home but these pictures documented the event.

This is looking down the hallway to our front door.



This is looking down the same hallway but to our back patio door.



This is looking through our dining room to our living room. It appears they weren't done because they look like they're still hard at work. Basically Sydney just sends Bryce after toys and she lines them up. She's got a pretty good gig going with him.

Bryce's First Birthday

Ok, here are the final pictures from Bryce's first birthday. These were of the actual party we threw for him. We invited just the kids around his age (which for the most part is Sydney's friend's younger siblings).

Here are a couple shots of the party goers.




Once we brought out the cake Bryce sort of froze and then got a little crabby. Here is a nice shot of him rethinking the whole birthday thing.



Then his stomach got the better of him (which happens all the time) and he started digging into his cake. That made it ALLL better!



Here is Bryce and his friends. Hey Katie, we can still see you back there! :-)



Here is Bryce trying to open his presents with Sydney keeping a watchful eye and always eager to "help" him get everything open. I'm not sure who that nerd is with the video camera.



We took a quick family photo on his birthday after every one left and the kids were already in their PJs. Also note the little montage Melissa put together on the fireplace mantle for him. Awwww.



Yep, this is our goofy two year old. He thinks everything is pretty funny these days, especially when he's running away from us doing something he knows he is not supposed to do. This kid is all boy and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Jayne & Jerry's Visit for Bryce's Birthday

So just last weekend (I'm almost caught up!) Jayne and Jerry came out for Bryce's birthday. We also enjoyed watching the Super Bowl with them. Who would have thought the Giants would go all the way? I guess that just proves that the Packers are the #2 team in the nation because it took overtime for the Giants to win that game. If only it was warmer and Favre wouldn't have played like the bad Favre. Anyway, I digress. Here are the pictures.


Jayne and the grandkids. I'm not sure what kind of expression Sydney was making there.


A high stakes game of kids Sequence that Brian and Katie got Sydney for Christmas. She really enjoys the game and ropes us all into playing with her.


Bryce and Jayne blowing out the candles on their birthday cake. I think Jayne was even more excited than Bryce to blow out candles!


While it may look like Jayne was blowing out ALL the candles, she did let Bryce get a few (just kidding Jayne).


Whose crazy kids are these?


Bryce was quite capable of opening his presents but it was a constant struggle to get Sydney to let him. She was always trying to help "just a little bit" which annoyed us more than Bryce.


A restful afternoon with Jayne, Sydney, and Kozmo on the couch. Kozmo will pretty much snuggle up with anyone on the couch so be warned if you ever visit!

Opa and Oma's Visit for Bryce's Birthday

Bryce was pretty lucky this year because he had three separate birthday parties. First was back on Jan 18th when Opa and Oma came to visit. I posted earlier how Melissa and I took Sydney skiing at Loveland while there were here. We also had a party for Bryce where we took the following pictures.


This was actually earlier in the day. I think Oma was genuinely sleeping but I don't believe Sydney was.


Here is Bryce with his huge Safeway cake. He actually blew both candles out by himself so we were pretty impressed.


Of course blowing out candles is the boring part compared to chowing down on cake!


Bryce got a wooden train set from Opa and Oma which I dutifully put together. It's fun having a boy and getting to play with all that stuff again.


I really got into setting up that train set as you maybe can tell. Bryce was happy just to hold the train cars.


Of course Sydney suckered Oma into getting her a present too even though it was Bryce's birthday. Here she is proudly displaying her new Barbie.

Denver Stock Show

We attended the Denver Stock Show and actually went to the rodeo as well as the petting zoo. I thought it was pretty cool although Melissa didn't like the calf roping. We didn't realize how long it was going to be so we left before the bull riding at the end but we did get to see the mutton busting which was pretty hilarious. Here's a couple of pictures at the rodeo and the petting zoo.


We weren't sitting very close but we were right by the chutes for the bronco riding.


Bryce loved sitting on the John Deere tractors.


Sydney and Bryce got to feed the goats.


Some of the animals got a little excited when you had food in your hand.


We were standing in front of the grand prize winning long horn although I can't tell the difference between last and first place. Ironically we ate at McDonalds after the show.


Tourist alert! Nice camera bag around my neck.

Sydney's Haircut

We just got Sydney's haircut a week or so ago. Here are some before and after pictures:

Before:





After:





And here's just another goofy picture of our kids.

Skiing at Loveland

A few weeks ago when my parents were in town, Melissa and I took the opportunity to go skiing at Loveland with Sydney. It wasn't the best day to go because the wind was terrible and since it was a Saturday, so was the traffic. Once we got there Sydney was geared up to go. Here is a picture of her by the ski boot rack.



We got all geared up after a small incident getting skis (she wanted the red ones, not the blue ones) and headed outside. Here is a shot of her and I psyched to go skiing!



Of course those of you with kids (or those who know Sydney) are waiting for the twist and here it comes. She refused to go up the lift! We were a little stumped at what to do at that point since it's not much fun to ski without getting a little altitude (sorry cross country people but it's true). So I basically shuffled up the hill pushing her to gain some height. Then I'd ski backwards with her in front of me. It didn't take much of this before we were all ready to go in for lunch. Here is a picture of Sydney and I taking a break. Note the wind blown snow in the background.



Then during lunch Sydney mentioned that she wanted to take a lesson. We think she overheard Melissa telling me that one of her friends had a lesson and loved it. So I signed her up for $45 for a 2.5hr lesson. Of course then she completely threw a fit and would not go to the lesson. I basically dragged her over there and stayed with her while everyone (instructors included) tried to get her interested. Finally they brought out a stuffed penguin to help with the lesson and off she went. Melissa and I did a little skiing by ourselves and came back to find out she had a private lesson the whole time. Either there weren't that many kids or she was just annoying enough that they stuck one instructor on her. EIther way she learned quite a bit and last week when I took her we rode the lifts and had a great time.

One last picture of Melissa at the top of the Loveland Basin.