Sledding!

Look at the pure face of excitement!

hard to see, but an equally smiley face on this one too!

there they go!

and here they come!

Daddy's turn!

Leo usually needed some help back up

Sarah's turn!

taking a mid-hill rest

Jacob considering his next move

whoooosh

This is Leo as he literally slid right under my camera from atop the hill

Mer's turn!

and we're coming back up...again

Silly group shot!

Leo refused any more pictures

family shot...why oh why can't we all look happy at once?!  At least we're all together! :)

Thus far, the kids' sledding experiences have consisted of the very small bunny hill we create in our front yard onto the driveway.  It works for us and enables us to have fun without having to leave the house, which has been perfect lately since I wasn't about to go anywhere on the roads during a snow storm anyway!  But, we decided it was time to take on the big hill!  One of my favorite memories from when Charlie and I were dating was a night during a snow storm that we decided to head out and go sledding about 10:30 at night.  We had such a great time and it's fun to share that joy with the kids.

Charlie managed to find the last two sleds Toys R Us had to offer (we already had 2 saucers though) and the kids were thrilled to have inflatable tubes.  Leo's just happens to be the fastest darn tube I've ever seen.  That combined with the fact that he really is just a little guy (comparatively speaking) he flew, and I mean flew, down those hills.  He only had one major wipe out, that we thought would result in a black eye but luckily didn't.

Sophia is our little daredevil and didn't have one qualm about tackling any of those hills on any sled in any condition!  Once she caught sight of the even bigger hill (hard to believe, I know) she was all over it.  This hill was covered in moguls and she bounced her way down at top speeds.  The video of just her is on that hill...for some reason I couldn't seem to move it so it's floating in the middle of the post.

The other video is the same one I posted on FB but it shows just how fast and exciting sledding can be!  Charlie and I are already talking about which sleds we need to start looking at for next year! :)

Snow Time!

It snowed!  A lot of these I posted on Facebook, so they might be repeats for some of you, but they are too cute to not repeat!  I can't remember the last time we had this much snow and they kids are really having fun in it!  

We finally made it out of the house after a few days and headed over to Meredith's.  The kids enjoyed playing over there too!  Sarah and Jacob worked on building some snow forts while Sophia helped and Leo shoveled.  Plus Mer made some awesome chicken chili for lunch and it was nice to have a little adult interaction since my husband had to go to work every day! :(

Funville was Fun!

Sophia was an artist in the park! 

I was her subject and here's my portrait!

Choo Choo!

All Aboard!

The new free exhibit at Crown Center right now is called Funville.  It's a pretty cute community set up with lots of different jobs, including circus workers and the President!  Both my kids fit pretty well into the oval office if I do say so myself! Afterwards we lunched at Fritz's, one of our favorite spots!

A Visit from Zoe!

love this pic!

Charlie and Aunt Bess enjoying some Greek food!

Kids' table!

Zoe and Uncle Stacy

Snuggles at Andre's!

Leo's favorite part of lunch!

Huggy train!

Zoe came for a surprise visit for a few days!  We were very excited to see her and, as usual, her visit mostly revolved around eating at our favorite places! ;)  She and Aunt Bess were headed to Vegas to meet up with the rest of the Otis Clan and luckily they were able to find a flight out on Wednesday afternoon because they certainly would not have made it on their original flight on Thursday!  Can't wait to see her again in June...when she graduates HIGH SCHOOL!  AAACK!