January - early March 2025

In January Marcus and Martha came up to visit us to see Tyler get ordained a Deacon. They arrived Friday night and stayed through Sacrament meeting on Sunday. On Saturday Martha and I took the kids to Urban Air. Here we are doing Go Karts and Climbing.

I had fun climbing and playing with them too. I just wish I could have had my shoes for the climbing obstacles. It is HARD to climb in just grip socks.

We all had a lot of fun on the balance challenge. Being up there at the top is scary! It's not quite as tall as the one we did at Cave of the Winds, but it's still pretty unnerving when you stand up on the final pillar. Once you jump off it's not as bad as you were expecting. Some part of your brain is unwilling to process that you're safely tethered until the safety mechanisms are actually triggered.`

We also liked this leap and grab challenge. 

Tyler enjoyed burying himself in the obstacle course ball pit. Allison and I did the ropes course and ziplining, and the three of us played laser tag. Oscar and Marcus joined us and we all went out to eat at Red Robin. Tyler liked the pac-man art made of Rubix cubes. 

The next morning we took some three generations pictures before going over for Tyler to be ordained.

A few days later Home Depot came to install our new counter tops. Oscar spent the next several weeks painting the cabinets, purchased a new microwave, and installed new lights. 

Allison had fun recreating the scene of baby shark brushing his teeth and going to bed from her book. 

I enjoyed some pretty views on my winter walk around Prospect lake.

We had lots of snow and cold weather, but it made for some fun game days.

Cute Nibbler stayed  busy being cute.

Tyler received an award at school for having a high GPA the day before I had a mid-urethral sling surgery. Oscar nearly passed out and they had to bring in a recliner and cold towels for him after he watched the nurse struggle to get in an IV in me.

It's a good thing I'd had my surgery on Friday since we were hit with a bunch of snow just a couple days later.

Tyler often gets up early to go running on the treadmill in the morning with Oscar. Oscar insulated his man cave so it's not so cold in the winter.

Here's a video of the other boys cheering on Tyler at Deacon's video game night activity. Allison kept herself busy building with her magnatiles and Legos.

Tyler and Oscar put together a Science night for one of the Deacons activites. They did Mentos with Soda and Elephant toothpaste. They also went on a Youth Temple Trip and Tyler was able to do baptisms for the dead for the first time.

On Valentine's Day Oscar took me out for lunch, a small hike, and pedicures. My ministering sister planned a fun Galentine's Day the next day where we made our own flower arrangements.

For our anniversary, we took a trip to the Garden of the Gods. We stopped at the visitor's center first to get some tasty fudge, pick up a Jr Ranger book for Tyler, and to watch the Geo-Trekker video.

From there we took a walk in the main area where it wasn't too snowy or muddy.

The kids did a little climbing

Tyler took pictures of Oscar and I kissing with the kissing camels.

We took a few more cute pics before heading out to the other side of the park to see balanced and steamboat rocks.

The kids had met their tolerance for sight seeing at that point, so just Oscar and I got out to get pictures.

Oscar surprised me with some heart rocks he'd bought at the visitor's center. We then went to lunch at Red Gravy and picked up dessert at Mary's Mountain Cookies.

Nibbler sat on Tyler's coat for something like 6 hours and Allison made a princess Wolverine.

In late February Tyler finally got his braces off. The main reason for the braces was that his canines were coming in slanted and would damage his front teeth if we didn't take steps to prevent it. The braces made space for the new canines to come in properly, but unfortunately only one of the baby canines had fallen out naturally. A few days after the braces were taken off, Tyler had the other baby canine pulled at the dentist's office. The dentist said he was a real trooper. It was even a bit more difficult than she was expecting, but he took it like a champ. She said her husband would have cried.

That same week Allison won Ticket to Ride against us for the first time. We took a picture of the board to commemorate her win.

A few days later I hiked the High Chaparral open space. It had eluded me the first time since it has several neighborhood entrances. You have to make sure to look up the parking lot, not just the open space.

Nibbler has recently started played "whack-a-ball" with foam balls we've picked up from the orthodontist's office.

On March 5th we celebrated my 43rd birthday. About a week later we sprang forward with the time change, and it was interesting to see Tyler walking to the bus stop with the sun rise behind him. The following Wednesday we gained back that same hour when we started the kids' spring break early with a trip to Southern California.