ROAD TRIP TO IDAHO

Wow, with Ryder trying desperately to give up his afternoon nap, I am finding it harder and harder to find time to write!!  But I am still here and I am still trying to write....

A few days after returning from Mom's and Christmas part 2, we decided to take a spontaneous road trip down to Idaho to surprise Shane for his 40th birthday! I was nervous about a Winter road trip as I know the roads can be sketchy and with two little ones, I hate to take crazy driving risks, but the weather was supposed to be good, so we decided to just go for it. The biggest challenge of the road trip (as long as the roads were safe) was going to be Payton. She is NOT a good traveler...yet! She loves to sit in her car seat and scream and cry and wail until finally the driver pulls over. As soon as we slide open the van door on her side, she looks up at us and smiles and giggles and coos....!!! Sooo frustrating! But if you've ever been in a car with a screaming baby, it is sooo heart breaking. You can only ignore it so long before your nerves are frayed!!! We did make it to Fernie (three hours from our house) with only one LONG hour of crying and screaming! We had arranged to stay on the ski hill and the place was perfect. We were hoping to get Ryder on the slopes the next day. By slopes, I mean on the magic carpet on the Bunny hill, for at least a few minutes. At this point, we just want to keep his skiing experiences positive.
There was soooo much snow! Perfect powder and perfect conditions for keeping a speed demon of a two year old slower and offering him a soft landing for his falls.

We actually started him on a little slope right outside our condo doors.

 Gearing up...

 We can't convince him to wear his goggles on his face yet....

 

 Excited to get going "fast!"

 Daddy and Ryder

 Marty would run beside him and try to get in front of him to catch him at the bottom of the small slope

 Ryder's private "magic carpet." LOL

 Eventually, we figured we should try a "real" hill and a "real" magic carpet. It was free for Ryder to practice here and free for Marty and I to be there in our boots helping him.

 

We talked to Ryder about making a "pizza" with his skiis and we could see him trying, but his muscles would get tired and eventually he'd just quit trying to "pizza" and go straight down, which he LOVED! He'd get mad at Marty for stopping him! His balance is awesome! Soon enough he'll learn to get control...I hope. :)

Payton is always an adorable cheer leader. She is such a great sport!

Staying in a condo on the hill was fantastic, but I'm not going to lie, sleeping was...challenging!  At least getting the kids to FALL asleep was challenging.   They were so excited, especially Ryder to all be sleeping in the same room. Actually getting him to sleep involved a lot of Marty and I sitting quietly in the dark, hoping Ryder would go to sleep!! LOL  Eventually, Marty had to go sit in the lobby and I had to have a nice long shower to give Ryder enough "alone" time so he could actually fall asleep.

 

After two nights on the hill, we continued on towards Idaho, towards Aimee's house! 

Ryder was sooo excited to see Max. The boys spent the afternoon running around, yelling, playing, arguing, laughing, and doing what little boys do!  We all had so much fun watching them!!

 Shane didn't know we were coming, so we got to surprise him when he came home from work! He walked into his house on his birthday weekend to be greeted by a bunch of Canadians!!

Saturday morning, Marty took Shane out skiing for the day, for his birthday, while Aimee and I spent the day hanging with the kids! It was sooo awesome to be with the boys, the lil girls and my sister. It had been way to long since we'd seen each other.  We made a lot of memories over the couple of days we spent in Idaho. I am so happy they have moved closer to us!  Here's to alot more memories guys!!

Shane and the girls!

 Kennedy and Payton. Adroable!

 I think the pink Carharts Payton got from Kennedy for Christmas are the cutest thing EVER!

 Ok, Max and Ryder in their matching Carharts might also be the cutest thing ever!!

 

Max has the greatest dirt pile just a short walk from his house. Ryder and Max had a great time playing there!

The boys, exhausted after having sooo much fun together!

 Saturday night was Shane's birthday. We really hope we had a hand in making it a memorable one.

 Matching mohawks were a lot of fun too!

 

Us girls made some memories too!!

 I love these girls!

 

I am so glad we got to have some time together..all of us!

Kiss your babies, count your blessings and go make memories with your Family!

CHRISTMAS 2014 PART TWO

We finally had Christmas at Mom's. It was over a week late, but it's amazing how it's possible to just shut the door, hide inside, surround yourself with Christmas decorations, baking and traditions and make it actually feel like it really is Christmas!!!
I love having Christmas at Mom's, the memories and tradtiions run so deep there! I walk in the door and know exactly what decorations will be hanging, what candies will be overflowing out of dishes and what goodies will be spread across the counters! I LOVE THAT!!!
We havn't seen Mom since October so it was great to soak up some big hugs and show off the kids!  Seeing Nic is always fun and at Christmas we both turn into big kids again, laughing, singing and dancing in the kitchen like we did when we were little!

And now that there are cell phone cameras we can capture all of our silliness in a shamless number of "selfies" LOL

 

"Christmas Eve," Marty went down to tuck Ryder in.  After a long time, I went downstairs to see what was taking so long and this is the heart warming scene I came upon. I didn't even wake them up with my camera flash. Adorable!!! They were both sound asleep!!!

 Ryder was up BRIGHT AND EARLY the next morning full of all the excitement I was hoping he would have on "Christmas morning." He clearly was not sick this time!! We got everyone out of bed, let Grammy feed the horses and then we started opening gifts.  Such fun!!!! Ryder got several trucks (just what he wanted) and Payton got lots of clothes (just what Mommy wanted.) :)

Here's Ryder playing with his new trucks in a bowl of snow in his new jammies. It was way too stinkin cold to be outside, but he insisted on having snow for his new trucks to get stuck in!

 Playing with new playdough stuff and Auntie

 Modeling some of her new clothes

 New "Farm clothes!" Loving both Ryder's new long johns and the awesome Carharts!!

 How cute is she????

 "Christmas" cuddles with Daddy

 "Christmas" cuddles with Grammy

It was "Christmas" afterall, so a big dinner was in order. We went untraditional with steak and Mom even busted out the deep fryer and we made real french fries! Real deep fried goodness!!! Heck, we even whipped up some beer batter and deep fried onion and chocolate too!! Yummmmy!

 Peanut didn't have steak, but she enjoyed some leftover chilli and peas!

It was January 4th, 2014, but it sure felt like December 25th!

Merry Christmas...again! :)

Kiss your babies, count your blessings and remember it isn't the date that makes it Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2013

This Christmas was the first one we ever had in our home.  We usually go to My Mom's or we head to the coast to be with Marty's Family.  This year, we stayed home and Marty's Dad and Trish (GG) joined us. 
As soon as Grampa and GGarrived on the 24th, Ryder put GG to work, making cookies for Santa! Turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg of the food that GG made during the holidays.  That woman loves to cook! She made some of everyone's favorites. Yummmy!

 Payton spent Christmas Eve just sitting around being cute in her festive, Christmas jumper!

 Before bed on Christmas Eve both kids got to open one gift. It was from Ernie (our Elf of a Shelf) he had left it before heading back to the North Pole.  Inside were Christmas jammies!

 Christmas hats and Christmas jammies.

 Ryder set out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.

 I think Payton is actually eating a reindeer carrot in this pic!

Just before the wee ones got tucked in for bed, Grampa read "T'was the Night Before Christmas"to everyone.

 One last hug to GG's dog, Angel and off to bed to wait for Santa!

 Christmas morning!

 Actually, Christmas morning wasn't at all what we were expecting.  Turns out overnight, Ryder caught a flu bug of some kind. He woke up sick, but we were all so excited, we didn't really notice. I did notice he wasn't as excited as I thought he would be and then, in the middle of gift opening, he came over and sat on my lap. He didn't want to open anyore of his presents (what??) and he didn't want to help me with mine (what??) Finally, he just looks up at me with tears in his eyes and says, "Mom I want to go for a nap in my car bed." What??? He never has morning naps anymore and we were in the middle of opening gifts!!! He looked so small and soo sad. I picked him up and realized he was burning up with fever. His first one ever!  Ryder spent the day in his bed or on the couch, watching Christmas TV, complaining that he couldn't breath, he was so stuffed up. Poor lil guy.

His fever came and went. He did manage to get dressed for the big turkey dinner GG made. But he couldn't muster a smile...

 Payton was pretty sick too (no fever though) but she manged to gift us with a bunch of beautiful smiles all day!

 Here she is in her Christmas dress (thank you, GG)

It was a rough night with Ryder's fever creeping back up again and Payton coughing herself awake every half hour, but Marty made the morning better by making us all personalized pancakes. Here is a picture of mine.(He got a pancake writer for Christmas)

 Boxing Day (Dec.26th) was another rough,low key day with both Ryder and Payton being super needy. We did venture out to the Zoo lights at night. It seemed like a risky decision when we made it, but we really all needed to get out of the house and try to forget how miserable Ryder was with his stuffed nose (he no longer had a fever.) The adventure started our promising with all of us being drawn to into the magic of the lights, but magic can only last so long. Eventually Ryder wanted out of the stroller. He wanted to push the stroller. It was way to crowded there to let a toddler who can't even see over the handles push a stroller. "no, not tonight." I told him....the screaming and wailing that ensued was equal in decibels to a jack hammer! The rolling around in the snow in the crowd was a spectacle that drew people's attention away from the lights. The image of three adults, 2 of them over 6 feet tall wrangling an angry, irrational two year old into a stroller, I'm sure gave witnesses something to talk about hours after the spectacle. Once we had him in the stroller, Marty's Dad took the handles and pushed that thing at top speed through the crowds towards the gates. Marty and I walked behind, pretending we were NOT associated with that crazy kid!!

Payton slept through the whole spectacle her brother put on.  Ha ha! I have no doubts that one day they will compete with one another for title of the loudest Wright!

Because the kids were so sick, we decided to abandon Plan A, which had been to go to my Mom's for the weekend to celebrate Christmas with her.  Instead we decided to stay home with the hopes of heading to Mom's the first weekend in January feeling much healthier.  Jim and Trish were also staying through the weekend, and they even "held down the fort" a couple of times so that Marty and I could get out together with Scout. We have not hung out, just the three of us, since before Ryder was born, so it was a nice treat!

Our first dog walk "sans kids" in almost three years!

Scout says, "Thank you, Grampa and GG"

By New Years Eve the kids were feeling better so we bundled everyone up to meet some friends at a sledding hill for some outdoor fun! 
Once we'd had our fill of sledding, we headed back to our good friend's home for food, drink, a mini sleep over (Ryder and Payton slept there until 11:30pm) lots of laughter and games! We left their house at 11:30 but were home in time to ring in the new year at midnight. (Ah, how New Year's Eve has changed for us now that we are parents! LOL)

The Dads racing down the hill on the kids' sleds.

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Kiss your babies, count your blessings and celebrate something as often as you can with people you love!