Northstar Tahoe weekend

For my birthday, Jude took me up to Tahoe for the weekend. We haven't been away just the two of us for a really long time- I think the last time was our 2 night cruise for Jude's graduation almost 4 years ago, and that was probably the only time since we've been married. I was nervous to leave the kids, but I knew Jamie could handle it, and turns out they had a fabulous time with her.

I decided to ski instead of snowboard because I never got good enough to like snowboarding, but I hadn't been skiing in almost 20 years! I did alright, I guess, until I landed on my face in the park the second to last run on Saturday. Other than that, it was a great weekend. After snowboarding on Friday in the pouring rain we came back to the Ritz and hung out in the hot tub in the pouring rain and sleet ( it didn't turn to snow until the next morning). Then we had massages in the hotel spa. We took the gondola from the hotel to the village where we ate dinner at Mikuni--so yummy! The village is so cute, but we couldn't really enjoy it since it was raining so hard. We were wet all day!

Saturday we woke up to a foot and a half of snow and skied again. I was pretty worn out so I came back and hung out in the hotel for a little while and then went back out in the afternoon. It was so awesome staying right there on the mountain. We could ski right up to the hotel where my friendly Australian mountain concierge was waiting for me with a bottle of water and help with my ski boots. Nice! After more skiing (and my face plant) we took the gondola down to the village for dinner at the Chocolate Bar. We got stuck on the gondola for 30 minutes. It was so cold! They were so nice though and met us at the bottom (after they finally got it working) with free lift tickets for our troubles. I guess it was worth it. We were so cold by then that we really didn't stay and hang out in the village. We ate dinner and headed home. It was such a fun weekend.

Grandma for Thanksgiving

We never do anything fun when my mom comes. I guess we are always just happy hanging around enjoying each others company, but this time I was determined to take her somewhere. We live in such an awesome place with so many things close by and she needed to see some of it so we took her to Stinson Beach and Muir Woods and of course the beautiful Muir Beach lookout point. It was super fun. We always like an excuse to head to the coast! It was supposed to be 70 and sunny and ended up more like 55 and cloudy so not ideal weather for the beach, but we still had a great time.

Here is Lane throwing a perfect spiral with the football. I swear this kid is awesome. Seriously he can throw a football better than Jude. Maybe every 5 year old can do that, I don't know, but we think he's amazing.

with Grandma at the Muir Beach lookout. So pretty!

Muir Woods and the giant redwoods

inside a tree

Grandma was here for Ivy's birthday, too. She has been asking for an itouch for a year now. so we finally caved. She wrote out a contract before her birthday saying that IF she were to get an itouch for her birthday that she promises to clean her room every time she is asked and that if she doesn't clean her room her parents can take away her itouch for as long as her parents decide to do so. Then she signed the bottom (on the line that had her name printed under it). She was so happy when she opened it, she started crying and kept saying, " thank you so much. thank you so much!" through her tears. It was really sweet.

Halloween

I know I'm a little behind, but I had to put some Halloween pics up. Lane wanted to be the red power ranger and ever since we started looking at costumes (many weeks before Halloween) Scarlett said she wanted to be a "hot pink power ranger". I showed her all of these cute princess costumes-Belle, Cinderella, you name it--and her response was always a very strong "No! Hot pink power ranger". She is so funny! Well anyway I couldn't find a pink power ranger her size but instead found this cute hot pink super girl. It took some time for her to warm up to the idea, but finally she was sold. Then she started saying, "Lane, blue super girl?" I guess she just wanted to be the girl version of whatever Lane was going to be. So cute. I love that she idolizes Lane.

Ivy and Lane had a Halloween parade at 8:00 sharp but we managed to get Scarlett mostly outfitted in her hot pink super girl for the occasion.


Ivy's costume was so cute this year--Taylor Swift. She played the part quite well, I thought. Too bad she couldn't carry around her piano because she can play a few Taylor Swift songs (and sing right along perfectly). So cute.

Trick or Treating was fun, too!

Marathon

Yay Jude! He ran the CIM this weekend in Sacramento. He was so dedicated to his training over the past couple of months and then hurt his knee three weeks ago. He was devastated! All that hard work! He didn't think he was going to be able to run it, but after a cortisone shot, getting his IT band stretched out, and resting for a week, he decided to go for it. He did awesome and was on pace to run it under 4 hours until mile 18 when his knee gave out. He pushed through the pain and finished strong at about 4:40. We are so proud of him! Good job Jude!

Deckers in CA

Jack

We took the kids to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Such a cool building. We had a blast.

The sand was a favorite. We could have stayed right there all day, I think.

The drums were Lane's favorite

Eeeewww!

Bubbles

Trolley ride

It was Edie's birthday while they were here, so Al and I took Ivy and Edie out to lunch. First we blindfolded Edie and took her to the salon to get feathers in her hair. Then we blindfolded her again and took her to Icing on the Cupcake and then the last stop was the Cheescake factory and a little bit of shopping at the mall--every 9 year old's dream. They had so much fun. Cute cousins!

They bought BFF owl necklaces. So cute!

When we got home Jude and Jonny had decorated the house with balloons and streamers and surprised Edie when she walked in the door.

I wish they could have stayed longer!

Bishop's Pumpkin Farm

Kindergarten field trip to Bishop's.

Lane and his 2 buddies: Will and Zachary.

Scarlett had a wonderful time