Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Oh and look who can ski

The kids were in a nativity play at church. Mari was an angel and Owen was a sheep. They were so cute and did a great job standing in front of everyone.

Making cookies for Santa. Owen frosted himself more so than the cookies.

Christmas morning was so fun. They were loving all the gifts. Thanks to everyone we were blessed.

Santa brought Owen a train table.

Santa brought Mari her singing box she asked for.

Loving their new sleeping bags.

I love this picture. It makes me laugh every time I look at it. Thank you!

Since we live in a ski town the week after Christmas is crazy. I'm teaching 14 days this year. So I got 4 of those in this week. That means Mari got to go to ski school and Owen went to daycare. They both had fun being around other kids and playing, but were exhausted. Here is a video of Mari skiing all by herself. She rode the chair lift and skied her 1st green run. We are so excited and proud. Owen so badly wants to go skiing again as well.

Family Ski Day

We had our 1st family ski day and it was so much fun. I look forward to many more.

What a great day!!

Owen's 1st lift ride. He loved it. This is one of my favorite picture of the day.

Mari loves skiing and is going to do Bombers this winter. Bombers is a 7 week program and she gets to ski with the same teacher every Saturday. She is so excited. Owen thought it was pretty cool to be in boots like sissy. He loved skiing and did awesome.

Owen ripping down the hill with Daddy.

Aunt Emily and Mari

Nana and Grandpa Keating were here for a couple days as well. It was so fun to have them here and see the kids ski.

Owen skiing all by himself.

We are back to the snow.

We have made it back to snowy Colorado and have got all settled into our house. On our travel across the country we stopped in Columbia to see my parents new house and for a nice visit.

Liam and Mari playing finally. They have been so excited to see each other and unfortuanely Liam was very sick and in the hospital for a few days. Thankfully he is doing fine and we appreciate all your prayers.

We had a little birthday party for Mari.

An adorable outfit from the Peck family with a matching baby outfit.

We went to a pumpkin patch while we were there. There was a kids hay maze that the kids did a thousand times, lots of animals to pet and a hayride. We had a great time and were exhausted by the end.

Greg had to be back in Colorado for work so we stayed a few days longer.

The kids were obsessed with Pops cycle. Especially Owen, he climbed up it every chance he got.

I believe that the few people that read our blog have learned that Mari is not the easiest one to get dressed. She is very particular to say the least. So this day she chose to wear a leotard for the day. Then we decided to go fishing with Liam and Pops. Encouraging her to wear pants was not a success. So she opted for long socks. It is hard on me some days, but I loved this.

Pops and the kids!

My Dad planned on driving back with the kids and I on Wednesday morning, but there was a big snow storm that set us back until Thursday morning. Thank goodness because Sarah went into labor on Wednesday and we were able to meet the new baby.

Mari loved her new cousin. She wanted to hold her the whole time.

Meet Eliza Catherine Peck!

We were so excited that we were able to be there and meet her.

We got back before Halloween, so we got to enjoy the day with all our friends we had so greatly missed. Here they all are at morning play group.

Then that night we went trick or treating with everyone as well. Owen was an adorable lion and he kept saying roarrr. Mari was a fairly princess. It was very cold and once again she opted for not warm clothing.

Owen's 1st try at trick or treating. He kept giving the next house the candy he got at the one before.

Mari helping walk the dogs.

Here is our first time in the snow this year. I'm not as excited about the cold and snow, but they sure enjoyed it. I guess I better get ready we just got 6 inches the other morning.

Well, that about does it for what we have been up to. Now we are just adjusting to life back here and seeing all our friends. Mari is enjoying having all the kids to play with again.

On the road again

Well, we have officially left Michigan and don't know when we will be back. It was very hard and sad to leave, but we had such a great time and can't thank everyone for that. We packed everything up on Sunday and headed out yesterday morning to Missouri. We are now here in Missouri for a short visit and to see where my parents now live. Greg will be heading to snowy cold Colorado at the end of the week with the dogs. The kids and I are not sure when we will be leaving. Our plan was to see if Sarah's baby girl wanted to meet us all while we here. So we will wait and see what happens. We are also waiting to see Liam. He has been sick and ended up in the hospital last night with Kawasaki's disease. He more than likely will be there for 5-7 days as well. So please pray for him and a quick recovery and that the cousins can reunite. They are both bummed that they can' t play together.

I'll post next time from the snow. Yuck! Not so sure I am ready for that.

Getting it all in.

As summer is sadly coming to an end, we have been trying to fit everything in that we wanted to do. So this week Greg went up North fishing with his dad and friend Ben. So the kids and went to the zoo. It was a small zoo, but perfect for their age. We went through the whole thing and had lunch in about 2 1/2 hours.

We came up to this lady holding a furry animal. My 1st thought was how neat that they will get to pet an exotic animal. Wrong!! Just an everyday opossum.

Watching the bears. I don't have pictures, but we saw all kinds of monkey as well and they all were so active. The kids loved watching them jump and play.

We got to pet some cute goats. Mari enjoyed this and Owen did for a moment and then figured the dirt was more fun.

The snakes were my least favorite, but the kids sure seemed to enjoy it. Especially watching a black one slither in and out of the water.

We finished the day with a yummy ice cream cone.

Then the weekend came and we headed to a Michigan State football game.

We went with Nana, Grandpa, Uncle Brian, and Aunt MoMo. Even though it was during nap time they were so good and had such a great time.

After the game we tailgated and enjoyed some shade.

We stayed in a hotel and went to a Tigers game the next day. It was another warm napless day, but fun nonetheless.

On Sundays after the game, kids can go and run the bases. We of course waited in the long line and took the kids. Daddy wanted out there more than any of us. It was such a cool experience.

It was such a great and exhausting weekend. Thanks Nana and Grandpa for everything.

Sleeping Bear Dunes

Looking at this picture you may think wow they are on a beautiful Caribbean beach somewhere. Well, that is not the case. We are up north at Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan. That's right only 3 hours from where we are living and it was breathtaking. I would recommend this to anyone. We went there for the night with the kids and camped out.

We camped in the campground there and the kids loved it. Owen was thrilled about all the dirt and rocks and Mari was excited about the tent and wearing her swim suit.

I turned around to find Owen chomping down on some charred wood from the previous camp fire. Awesome!

Mari's 2 favorite parts of the trip.---swim suit and tent

We took a hike around the dunes. Ran down them and then hiked back up them, (if only you could hear the ugh in my voice about the up part).

Then we came back for some dinner. We enjoyed some fruit and roasting hot dogs. The kids loved it and were starving. I'm pretty sure Owen ate his in about 30 seconds. For those of you that know me, I despise hot dogs and would never eat one no matter the environment. So I brought left over spaghetti and warmed it over the fire. That is a good camping food, right? It was yummy!

I have noticed that he eats like this a lot. It makes me wonder if he thinks this way no one will steal his food.

Of course we had smores and yes I had no problem having one of those.

Then it was bed time. Needless to say it was not easy getting these 2 to calm down from the excitement. Nor was it easy to wrangle tornado man with no crib.

After Mari fell asleep then I layed Owen down figuring not much of a nap he would surely doze off soon. Wrong!! He came out a few times saying HI, with that cute smile and voice, but he finally gave in. They both actually slept really well.

Good Morning!

I loved that grin she had the whole time. Ahh the memories.

As always waiting for some food.

The water was so clear and brisk, but we had to go swimming. It was very refreshing.

We thought about making it a 2 night trip but decided we should end on a good note and still wanting more. We are still talking about how we slept in a tent.

On the way there and home we took the scenic routes and I even got to stop and buy peaches from the side of the road. That topped it off for me and they are yummy. It was such a great getaway and probably one of my favorite parts of our summer here in Michigan.