This weekend I took Julia up to the cabin and Breckenridge for some Daddy - daughter time. I needed to get away and Julia wanted some time alone with me. She definitely likes having one of us to herself. I've been watching a lot of Olympic skiing, so it inspired me to get on skis for the first time in probably twelve years.
We drove up to the cabin in my truck after work on Friday. The next morning we slept in and then took off for Breckenridge about nine in the morning. Everything went fine on the drive up. We decided to eat lunch in the lodge before renting our skis and heading outside. We skied from about noon to four, taking periodic breaks for the bathroom, snacks, and renting a sled.
Julia had a great time. She was in good spirits most of the day, but got tired towards the end and wanted to be pulled in the sled. I figured Nordic skiing would be a good place to start, since the terrain can be pretty flat, the skis light and loose, and the weather in the trees much nicer that on the mountain. She fell down a lot in the beginning, mostly backwards. However, towards the end of the day she started to figure it out and did really well as long as we were walking. Hills and turns will come later.
I had a great time and am thinking about the possibility of making this an outdoor winter hobby. I haven't done anything during the winter in years. It's great exercise and fun. At the end of the day I pulled Julia past Troll Forest, and down and around two "blacks" called Uff Da and Shock Hill. There are a couple of huge hills that were fun for Julia and me. The uphills on the route tired me out, especially because I had to pull Julia up them.
Afterwards Julia warmed up with a hot chocolate and a free s'more. On the ride home I tried to explain to Julia that 45 minutes left was like counting to 60, 45 times. Off she went. She counted to 60 about 35 times (the entire ride back), but stopped only because we reached the dirt road off the highway. The dirt road means she can take her seat belt off and stick her head out the window.
I have a great video of skiing too. Since videos take up a separate post and don't print out, I may start just providing the link instead.
Julia skiing video:
http://youtu.be/2fzJlwO9brw
Julia and Jonathan in their new gloves and hat, Jonathan relaxing and rocking his new boots at the metabolic clinic, Julia getting ready for her first dance class, and the kindergarten enrichment program letter we received from Julia's school.
This week we had two appointments for Jonathan. One was in Denver with another motility doctor, and, the other one, in town with a metabolic disorder clinic. The appointment in Denver didn't result in much, other than confirming that he's not showing any major signs that make the doctors think it's worth doing more invasive testing. We also talked about the idea of an intensive, two week feeding clinic back east as an option. The metabolic clinic was good, although the doctor doesn't expect much to show up on any tests. We'll still run several tests just to make sure. At this point we don't know much more other than he doesn't want to eat.
Julia signed up for a dance and ballet class that a few of her classmate friends already attend. On Wednesdays she will get picked up by Emma and Evie's mom after school and go to class. Eventually there will be a recital or two where we'll get more pictures and videos. She said that the first class was a lot of fun and had no problems going without us since she already had a few friends there.
On Friday we received Julia's report card. She is meeting or exceeding pretty much all of the standards. She had already been placed in an advanced reading group, but this next semester is also going to be participating in the enrichment program. Her teacher nominated her as a participant. It's kind of like the precursor to the talented and gifted program that starts in the third grade. Occasionally, she'll get pulled out her current class for "additional learning opportunities". She already knows what she needs to know for kindergarten, so this will keep her mind progressing and learning. This is another confirmation that she's in a good school and that she has a bright future ahead of her. It's no surprise to us.
Jonathan went number two in the toilet for the first time today! Hopefully we're on our way out of diapers. I told Stacey a while ago that I thought Jonathan was going to be the type who decides for himself when we wants to do it. The past day or two he's been wearing underwear and generally seems to have no problem with number one if he's not totally distracted.
Today he sneaked upstairs while we were getting lunch ready. After a few minutes it seemed much too quiet, so Stacey ran upstairs hoping he hadn't made a mess of himself. She found him in the bathroom, underwear off, just about to climb onto the toilet. Talk about independent. He told her to go back downstairs and that he would come down to get us when he was done. Sure enough, a few minutes later unclothed from the waist down, he appeared on the main level. We all ran upstairs to see. It was the real deal. He was very proud and received lots of hugs and praise.
Up to this point he seemed tentative to try number two. Afterwards he said that he likes using the toilet much better than going in his diaper. You think? That's what we've been trying to tell him this entire time.
Today is our ten year anniversary. The time has gone by really fast yet the details of certain things at the beginning of this journey seem like forever ago. Life is so different now from when we met in Spokane in 2003. We used to go to the park together during the summer, and take road trips, and go out to eat, and go for rides on my motorcycle. Sometimes we would just hang out - we had so much free time, relatively speaking.
I left Spokane around August or September 2003 for training in Texas, then back to Spokane for Thanksgiving to propose, then back to Texas to finish my course, then to Colorado for the wedding. The next year was spent in California and then two more years in Hawaii before returning to Colorado at the end of 2006. Even though we had Julia at the end of 2007, the first year here seemed relatively the same as before.
Jonathan came along and I took some time off from work in 2010. Then all his medical issues started. That's when things started to change. Not only did we have another child, but Julia was growing up and eventually started school. Now we both work, have two little dictators running the country and starting wars, bills, and a cat, in addition to being married. The vast majority of our energy, time, and money is spent on the kids with little room for much else, however planned. Our situation isn't that unique - in fact, it's pretty much the same as most everyone else.
The above paragraphs help explain why the average divorce happens sometime around year seven. So much change, so many demands, so many unprepared people. I think that the first ten years are easily the hardest. It would disingenuous of anyone to sit here and say nothing but great things about the first ten years. Just because they are hard, doesn't mean they are unhappy though. The point is, I think we've happily made it through the tough years. There will always be challenges to face, but they will be different kinds of challenges. The next ten years will be very different from the last ten, and hopefully somewhat easier. We're entering the real/critical family phase, the ages from adolescence to teenage years.
Why do I bring
all these facts up? As practical and boring as it sounds, this is the
married with children life. If you want the blessings that come with
being married and having children (which are numerous), you have to choose a teammate who
is willing and able to work through this life with you. To be
successful, the character of your mate is most important. They have to
be selfless, hard working, mature, willing to compromise, willing to let
the minor things go, not proud, with lots of grace on hand for when its
needed. Luckily, I have found that in Stacey, despite the imperfections
in both of us.
I've been lucky enough to find someone that has helped navigate life's challenges with, instead of someone who has created life challenges to overcome. There is a big difference between being married to a fellow firefighter and an arsonist. So in a practical, round about post, I'm saying I'm very thankful that I chose Stacey for these first ten years. We'll see how things pan out over the next ten years! All kidding aside (see, I can do that now that we've defied statistics), thank you Stacey. I love you and look forward to spending the rest of my life with you by my side.
This year we started a few new Christmas traditions. On Christmas Eve after church we all opened one present. That present was a new set of pajamas, popcorn, candy, and hot chocolate. We changed into our new pajamas, made our food, and then had a movie night in the basement together. This year we watched the Polar Express (side note: streaming in HD from Amazon on my Smart TV) before putting the kids to bed. In future years we may choose to watch a different show, maybe a classic, on Christmas Eve.
We started the present festivities at 6:30 in the morning. Including a quick break for breakfast, it took us about three hours to get through all of it. Most of the time was spent playing with what was just opened, but we also had several fun stocking gifts this year to get through as well. After the party was over we had a second one over at my parent's house for a few hours.
The second tradition we started (sort of continued from my parents) was to have cheese and chocolate fondue for Christmas dinner. It was very delicious and preparation and cleanup was a breeze. We even had leftovers for the next day, which we looked forward to that afternoon.
On to pictures. I rarely post this many, so you know that there are some good ones. I love the shots of the kids reactions to opening a gift. You can tell they are having so much fun.
