We have discussed before Jude and his love of making things with popsicle sticks. Well in the last few weeks I would say that love has only increased. He plays with them every day making all kinds of dinosaurs, animals and insects. He will often make several in one scene and then the “meat eater” will eat the “prey” which Jude demonstrates by the breaking of the popsicle sticks in two. It is quite the process. Here he is with a giraffe he made earlier this week.

I have been in Sydney for much of the past two weeks so Marcy has been a single parent for most of that time. I missed Marcy and the kids terribly and it was great to see them when I flew in on Friday afternoon. They were waiting for me as I came off the train and I don’t know who was more excited, me or the kids. I have been a bit jet-lagged this weekend but the gorgeous weather here helped get me outside and feeling a bit better.

While I was away Marcy took the kids out to Dinosaur Ridge west of Denver where they have a bunch of dinosaur footprints as well as a small museum. Here is Jude sitting in the footprint of an Iguanadon.

This morning we went to the Butterfly Pavilion where Jude and Anna both got to hold Rosie the tarantula. Jude had done it a few times before but it was Anna’s first time so here he is showing Anna how to do it.

Spring in Colorado means great skiing as well as the beginning of the golf season. But first to skiing. The first week of April we spent up in Keystone. Here we achieved a family first – all four of us skiing together. After a day of lessons we took the kids up the gondola and practiced on the kids slopes. Then it was down Schoolmarm – at 3.5 miles the longest green run in Colorado.

Jude and Anna did great. While they fell down a few times they always got back up and when we got the bottom after 50 minutes they wanted to catch the gondola up and do it again. But we didn’t want to push our luck – that was a lot of work for a four and six year old. Here is a picture of Jude showing his style on the mountain.

Funnily enough, though, we didn’t actually get to skiing until Friday. Ice skating was what they really wanted to do every day. The main skating area was closed due to thin ice but they had a small rink at River Run that great for the kids. Because of the warm weather it stayed open only until around noon every day but we went there three mornings in a row.

Both kids progressed well during this time period and they were even a little reluctant to give up ice skating to go skiing. Jude, quite the competitive one (especially with Anna) wanted to make sure he could go fast. Here he is tearing down the ice on his third day.

After a two-week Spring break it was back to school this past week. Although Tuesday was a snow day and Jude was sick on Friday so it was a bit of a short week. Jude has been fighting some kind of GI illness for a few days now and he has been a bit lower on energy. But he was well enough to head to the golf course yesterday.

This week was Masters week and my favorite weekend of the year. I spent both afternoons this weekend glued to the TV and was delighted to see Adam Scott, a fellow Aussie, take his first green jacket. It was a very exciting finish and I had both kids on my lap as he sank the winning putt. What fun.