Skiing Weekend

We celebrated MLK weekend with a fun ski trip to the Enchanted Circle. Saturday morning we drove to Angel Fire to meet Tess, Max, Milo, and Grif. We got a few photos, but the highlight was Aven doing two (short!) runs down the hill (Matt was holding her up, but at the end of the first run, she gave the sign language for “more”). We spent the night in Red River and then went to Enchanted Forest. Carrie gave some quick lessons to Max and then we had fun and did a little training for the Mt. Taylor Quad. Aven really took to the skis on day two at Enchanted Forest — she was fighting to go it alone without any help!







Here’s Aven and Torsten, ready to go:




Aven took a nice nap in the polk sled while giving Matt some extra training. Torsten definitely has the cross country style down!




Here’s Max leading the way, Matt with Aven, and Torsten, while Carrie snaps the photo as we take off on the trails:




Torsten then helpfully aided Matt in his training efforts:




We got one good happy family skiing photo:




We all enjoyed hanging out at the “lodge” at Enchanted Forest




and Aven found the perfect comfy chair:




Matt (and Aven) execute the black diamond descent with grace:

From 2011 MLK Weekend

Back Home

After a great visit to Lubbock, we had a fairly relaxing and low key week at home before 2011 really kicked into gear. There were several packages waiting us, so it was time to enjoy opening gifts again (thanks to all!!!)





Torsten LOVED his t-shirt (THANKS NANA!)




Both kids were excited for the pillow pets (is this the new kid-fad? Silly bands seem to be on the way out here…)




We were all happy to be relaxing at home — inspired by Gramps to get serious about fires in the fireplace and Matt enjoying his great mugs from Ben. HAPPY 2011 ALL!





Great Holidays, 2010

We had a fantastic holiday season. We went to Lubbock for Christmas and caught up with Matt’s family. It was really fun to see the cousins together in action:





We had the whole family together for just a few days, and the boys didn’t mind celebrating (opening gifts) a few days early since Uncle Ben & Aunt Gretchen (and Junior in the oven) flew out on the 24th.







Aven has really become a toddler and is developing a strong personality in the last few months — she got into the spirit of things!




We had fun picking out the perfect tree, playing piano, hanging out, reading w/ gramps, and cooking (and eating) lots of good food.










Thanks all for making the effort to get together, and thanks Grams and Gramps for hosting!!