More January Fun

The first part of this month was so busy and fun that these last couple weeks of cold weather almost seem like a welcome break from life.  We've spent a little time outside playing in the snow and soaking up the random warmish days (high 40's seem pretty dang nice after subzero temps), but we've spent most of the time inside playing pretend games and hanging in our comfy clothes.

 I found Indie doing "Piggies" on her toes and telling the rhyme in her own way and had to document this cuteness.  

 A little mom-arratzi action here.

 Indie usually loves sitting in someone's lap and bouncing on the trampoline, but she wan't having it this day.  She's still working on her jumping skills, but was ready to jump right off the trampoline.  

 These poor girls get so much stuff falling on their trampoline, but just carry on like jumping on walnut seeds in socks is no big deal.  

Cousin Time

January might be my new favorite month, well, at least this year.  After our fun out-of-town adventures, we got a visit from Marie and Brynn!  It was only a long weekend, but we packed it full of fun activities.  We showed off all our big-city attractions during the day and spent the evening chatting and laughing. 

After spending the morning at the art museum, we left Indie with dad and took the older girls ice skating.  The littles started off pretty timid, but they ditched the push carts and graduated to hand holding.  As soon as Cora could make it a couple feet by herself, I noticed her trying to spin on the ice, so I'm pretty sure she's destined for the Olympics. 

Even though the weather was chilly, we couldn't let the Torlands visit Omaha without a trip to the zoo.  It was a great day spent walking around, Indie made it through an Imax movie, and we fulfilled Brynn's wishes of seeing every animal in the place.  (Maybe not every animal, but we gave it a solid try.)  

Thanks for coming to visit us, Marie and Brynn! 

Weekend Getaway

After our family trip, we got to go on a weekend getaway, and it was so perfect.  It was technically a work trip, but we didn't have any kids so it felt like a vacation to me.  First we drove to Torrington for a tour of the prison, where Dave was considering a job.  Torrington was a cute little town so we picked out our future house, then went to the tour, and decided it was definitely not for us. We were a little disappointed, but got over it quickly in Fort Collins.  We found a hotel on the way, enjoyed eating out, relaxing, touring Estes Park and hiking Lily Mountain.  Lily Mountain was a challenge since we're not exactly in the best shape, but we did feel better when we saw some 20-somethings struggling too.  The views at the top were totally worth the hike and we both felt accomplished when we were finished!  It was such a wonderful afternoon!

Sunday, we headed to Cheyenne and scored ourselves a job!  A really good job with a great dentist and amazing family!  We're pretty stoked so their will be a lot more hikes and mountain adventures in our future.  

New Smyrna Beach

While we were checking out new beaches, we came across New Smyrna Beach and it quickly became our favorite.  It's a vehicle accessible beach, which is super convenient for all our stuff, and it's a low key spot with a cute town.  It's also the sand shark bit capital of the world, but luckily that wasn't an issue for us.

  We had beautiful weather for our first visit so the older girls spent most of their time jumping waves while Indie chased seagulls.  The second time wasn't so warm, but we have some crazy girls that will swim in 60 degree weather, so it was still fun.  The girls also made up fun pretend games in the dunes and we ended our trip with a game of tag.  (I tagged them all, barely, Milan is getting quick.)  That second trip was the perfect end to our Florida vacation.  Until next time!