We have spent every weekend in January in the mountains as the kids started their four weekly ski lessons. Both Jude and Anna seem to be enjoying themselves and making progress. We hope to be able to take them skiing with us when their four weeks are up.

Last weekend I did something I had never done before – stay in a hotel with just me and the kids. Our condo was booked (or so we thought) and Marcy had class so I took the kids and we stayed at the Inn at Keystone, pretty close to the slopes. We all had a great time and the kids managed to get a good night’s sleep before they got to ski school bright and early on Saturday morning.

This weekend we went up to the condo and invited one of Jude’s school friends to come as well. We were having a nice evening and then Denise & Phil (our co-owners in the condo) showed up with their kids. They had invited some friends of theirs as well. So on Friday night we had eight adults and eight kids staying at the condo. That was pretty much at capacity. We had Jude and Anna sleeping on the floor of the master bedroom closet – something they didn’t really enjoy. Consequently, no one had a great sleep.

So, the kids had their weekly ski lesson that went well and Marcy and I have had the chance to ski together for the first time in many years. It has been great and we hope to have the kids ski with us after their lessons are done. They both seem to enjoy it which is the main thing.

But being in the mountains isn’t just about skiing. Today, we all went sledding. Jude had one of his friends from school staying at Keystone as well, so they joined us for some sledding in Frisco today. You can check out Jude’s style in the video here and below is a photo of Jude and his school friend hurtling down the hill (Jude is in front).

Jude has been progressing well in his swimming lessons. Both kids had weekly lessons for most of the last year and it shows. Jude can now pretty much do freestyle and he is even trying his hand at backstroke which he is doing in the photo here.

The other new activity the kids are doing these days is a creative movement class. These are kids only classes and Jude and Anna do it together along with two of their school friends. They both seem to like it and it fits in well with their schedule. They still both have plenty of free time with only doing half days at school. And we want to expose them to as many things as possible to see what grabs their interest.

To say it has been a busy last two weeks would be an understatement. It started off on Christmas Eve with our annual trip to the Denver Zoo to see the lights. As always they were spectacular and the kids enjoyed it as well.

Then Christmas Day finally arrived. Both Jude and Anna were very excited about Christmas this year. So excited that we were a bit concerned they make wake up in the middle of the night, or worse still, while Santa was delivering gifts and putting it under the Christmas tree. Fortunately though, Anna didn’t come to our room until 6:15, and waited patiently in bed with us for Jude to awake 25 minutes later.

One of the many gifts that Santa brought were some stilts. Jude thought it was pretty cool to walk around the house with them.

The kids didn’t get a lot of time to play with all their new presents because on December 27th it was off to Des Moines. Both kids were excited to be visiting their cousins and family there. With all the snow Des Moines had received there was plenty of snow for sledding the front yard and they went out a couple of different times to enjoy it.

As usual Jude loved seeing his cousin Lily and the feeling was mutual. Lily slept with Jude and Anna every night we were there except for one. And that was the night we tried to do a sleepover at Lily’s house, but that didn’t work out so well.

That was on New Year’s Eve. Jude and Anna said they wanted to sleep at Lily’s house but after we had put them to bed they both decided they wanted to be back at Baba’s house. This was a bit of a bummer because we had a game of cards planned for all the grownups but we never really got it going. Well at least we got a cute picture of the kids in their matching pajamas.

Marcy and I enjoyed a night away while we were in Des Moines. We just stayed at a hotel near the local mall so we could walk to dinner and a movie. We hadn’t seen a movie together since our last visit to Des Moines over the summer so it was a treat to have an entire afternoon and evening.

New Year’s Day was our last full day there and Baba made a delicious turkey dinner. But then it was time to say our goodbyes before our long drive back.

We arrived back after a smooth trip on Wednesday night and it was straight to Chipotle, the kids favorite restaurant. Then two days later it was up to the mountains for the start of ski school.

We were very curious to see how the kids would do and thankfully it went well. We booked them in Keystone ski school for the whole day – from 8:30am until 3pm. It is a long day for them both. It helped to have a schoolmate of theirs in class with them. Parents are encouraged not to hang around but we did sneak a peak halfway through the day to see how everyone was doing and thankfully they were both enjoying it. Here is a couple of videos I shot on the phone – one for Jude and one for Anna without them knowing I was there.

The great thing about having the kids in ski school for the day is that Marcy and I had the time to ourselves. We went back to our condo and read for a while before heading up the slopes for our first day of skiing together in many years.

We arrived back at ski school a little early and both kids were exhausted. Jude had had enough and just wanted to go and Anna was so tired her eyes were bloodshot. Afterwards, they were both in good spirits and wanted to do it again next week. Good thing, because it is every Saturday for the next four weeks.

Here is Jude at the end of the day posing with the ski school mascot.