Schweitzer

Day #2 of family skiing under our belts!  I'll be honest, it's a little crazy to have such varying levels of skiers and only Nathan and I to keep track of them!  Obviously Hailee and Jace can't be left alone, but Eli is already way more advanced than them, but can't quite keep up with Bryson and Dallin... We came to an understanding with the 3 older boys that they're just going to have to take turns rotating being with Jace and each other if we all want to enjoy going skiing- it worked out well!

Schweitzer has a great pre-bunny hill that gave Hailee and Jace a lot more experience.  Hailee continues to be all about slow control, she's definitely not a dare devil!

Jace on the other hand grew tired of the 'pre' bunny hill... Nathan had taken Eli down the longer bunny hill so I had both Jace and Hailee... Hailee needed me much more to stay with her to help her on and off the magic carpet so I was sticking more closely with her.  I was just getting off the magic carpet with Hailee when I saw Jace's little red coat zipping past the magic carpet and down to the longer part of the bunny hill- the stinker!!  Hailee was ok waiting at the top of the hill, so I took off after Jace- he was so fast, I couldn't catch up to him!  He got to the bottom, hopped on the chairlift and rode back up to the top all by himself 😆

By the time I recovered from my panic, we determined that he could stick with Daddy and Eli on the longer bunny hill.

The view is just gorgeous from up there!

Eli at 11

Eli loves that he's the first birthday of the year in our family- it's kind of a badge of honor for him *grin*

This year, for his birthday, he wanted ski equipment with an accompanying ski trip- well, everyone in our family benefited from that birthday wish because we all got outfitted for skiing!  Lucky us!

  We went skiing for the first time as a family a few days before his birthday, so there was no surprise there 😉

He wanted waffles w/ heavenly syrup and an omelet for his birthday breakfast...

For dinner he wanted steak- Nathan's sister Sarah told me that very morning about how she makes her steak and it opened our eyes mouths to the amazing world of 'sous vide' cooking...  we had a.m.a.z.i.n.g. steak for dinner- 

Sheesh, Eli's birthday wishes have totally benefitted our whole family this year- Thanks Eli!!

Sweet gifts from his siblings:

Eli continues to be our fun loving boy.  He is very playful and energetic- he loves ALL sports and loves to be active.  He definitely doesn't like to miss out on anything 😉  He does very well in school and loves math and science.  Almost every Sunday he asks if we're going to anyone's house or if we can have another family over for dinner.  More than any of my kids, he is the one who asks if he can have a friend over or go to a friends house to play- he's so social!

Eli at 11-
Favorite color: blue
Favorite restaurant: D'Lish Hamburgers (so long as his burger doesn't have cheese...)
Favorite food: pancakes and heavenly syrup
Favorite drink: lemonade
Favorite thing to do: play sports
Best friend: Carter Munck
Favorite movie: Avengers Endgame
Favorite TV show: Angry Birds Pigtails
Favorite toy: Lego's
Favorite animal: a whale
Favorite book: Heroes of Olympus Series
What he wants to be when he grows up: an electrical engineer

Ski Bunnies!

The Vernons invited Bryson and Dallin to go skiing up at Schweitzer with them earlier this month, they loved it! 

Since Bryson and Dallin had been skiing several times, Eli was dying to go.  For his birthday he wanted ski gear, so we bit the bullet and outfitted us all for skiing and went up to 49° North the weekend before his birthday!

Neither Nathan or I had been skiing since before Bryson was born, but thankfully it all came back like riding a bike!  Eli didn't want to stay on the bunny hill, so we sent him with Bryson and Dallin with strict instructions to stick together, be patient and go on easy runs until Eli was ready for more.  I should have known that wouldn't happen, but Eli came through just fine *sigh*

It was so funny watching Hailee and Jace and their different approaches to skiing- Hailee was all controlled caution:

Jace threw caution to the wind and would go down the rope-pull bunny hill just as fast as he could (which wasn't very fast, but still)

We had such a great time, but it was exhausting!!

We're all excited for next time though!

Daddy Daughter Date

Rather than go to the Daddy Daughter Dance at the school, Hailee decided she just wanted to go on a date with Daddy (much to Daddy's relief 😀).  They got all dressed up and Hailee chose to go to Two Columns, a Greek restaurant- she is all about world culture!  She got lemon chicken and balaclava and it was SO good.

Ear Tubes AGAIN?!? *sigh*

After a string of ear infections, Dr. Leavitt recomended another set of tubes for Jace.  I truthfully can't even remember what # this is for him. 😔 He apparently has some very fond memories of past "so-joe-wees" because he was actually super excited about it all... well, beforehand at least...

Positively estatic in pre-op:

His enthusiasm was g.o.n.e. when he came out from anesthesia.  He was MAD!  He kept crying, "I HATE 'so-joe-wee!'"  Poor guy, he was so uncomfortable!  On the way home, he tearfully begged me to never make him have surgery again 😔

We made a quick stop at Amy's Doughnuts on the way home, but he didn't feel like eating there, so we took his doughnut to-go.  After a long nap, he was feeling much more the thing and devoured his doughnut:

He got to lay around and watch tv all day- Missy didn't get the memo about him needing rest- all she wanted ALL DAY was for him to throw her a shoe!

He has now decided that while "so-joe-wee" isn't fun, getting doughnuts and watching tv afterwards makes it ok😄

Labs

Because of her unstable eye alignment, Hailee's ophthalmologist wants to rule out a disorder that can have eye implications- we had to go to the children's hospital to have labs drawn- she played all along the way:

 

She did SO good during the blood draw- didn't cry or fight.  So we celebrated with Amy's Doughnuts afterwards- Yum!

Fortunately, I just found out, the labs all came back negative for myasthenia gravis, YAY!

Cirque Zuma Zuma

We bought tickets for the whole family for a fun show called Cirque Zuma Zuma a while back, but at the last minute, Bryson and Dallin went skiing, so Mimi and Papa took their tickets.  It was such a great show!

Acrobatics and amazing feats of strength and balance!

We were in awe the whole time!