Winter and Spring of 2014

Dear Friends,
     We are happy to say that if you were to visit, it no longer looks like this.  We are so very happy we got all the snow we did and now we are happy for warm, spring days.
     As you will see these last few months brought many fun and exciting adventures.  We hope you enjoy getting caught up on the Jackson clan.  We certainly love hearing from you.
     Love to you all during this glorious Spring season.  Perhaps we will see some of you soon if you come to visit this summer.  Summer tends to bring people to Colorado.  As always, you are welcome to stop through and see us.
     We have some exciting summer plans, so stay tuned.
Love from all of us to you.

     This was the day I bought a "new to me car."  I got stuck twice in our beloved Volvo and had enough crawling under the car in my work clothes to dig us out.  I decided it was high time to get a high clearance vehicle, so I up and bought a 2008 Toyota Highlander.  The picture below is the Volvo's last drive with the family.  Once I got it out of our driveway, I parked it down at the main road and put a "For Sale" sign on it.

     To get the Highlander, someone from the dealership came to pick me and the boys up and I met them down at the main road after pulling the kids down to meet them in the sled (shown above).  The storm was a doozy!

Kai lost his first tooth.  He was so very excited.  As I type this, he has his second loose tooth hanging on by a string.

                                                                       Lego Creations

                                                             Valentine's Breakfast
This year the boys and I made special Valentine cookies for their teachers.  As I was preparing the dough, I couldn't get it to stick together.  It just kept crumbling.  Kai said, "Ask God to help.  He always helps me find a lego when I can't find it.  Ask him Mama, He'll make it stick.  He will!"
Oh these boys!

                                                       So glad to call this place Home!

The boys and I visited my friend Vanessa and her family when they came to Colorado Springs to visit.  I took this picture as a proud new owner of the highlander, fitting 3 adults and 5 children (4 in carseats) to go to the zoo!  Impressive! If I wasn't sold yet, I was after this.

This year I participated in the Green is the New Black Fashion Show again and as you can see,  I had a blast.

Kai likes to dress up as much or more than I do !

A major highlight of our Spring Break was going to L.A. to visit Pasha.  We stayed with Vicki, across the street from Pasha, and the boys enjoyed taking rides with her on her scooter.

     Below are the faces of two boys who just spotted Legoland out their window!

We were lucky to get the chance to stay at the Lego Hotel.  An amazing adventure in itself. I was very amazed at all they thought of and created to make this an amazing experience for all. 

Fountain of legos where the kids can play while parents check in.  Also a lego motorcycle rider behind the reception desk.  Note how the tires are magnifying glasses that magnify the thousands of mini figures on the wall.  The motor cycle moves across the wall as you check in.  

Puzzle in room.  We chose the Adventure Themed room.  There are also Kingdom themed rooms and Pirate rooms.
A highlight of waiting for the elevator was this carpet whoopy Cushion.  Very funny and a HUGE hit with kids and adults.  The boys are trying to figure out where the sound comes from.

This is also in the waiting area as you check in.  Kids can play in this castle and build with a bagillion legos that surround it as a lego mote.  

Upon arrival, the kids were sent on a scavenger hunt to answer five questions.  Each answer was a number.  Once they had all answers, they had the combination to the treasure chest in our hotel room that had mini lego figures they had to put together and got to keep.

Pool at the hotel that had giant floating legos to build with.
My favorite was the elevator pictured here, to the right of the pool.  When you got in, plain ole' elevator music played, but once the doors closed, disco music and lights came on.  There was even a disco ball.  Totally FUN!

I have to say I was very impressed by the food.  Fresh veggies, quinoa, salad.  There was a lot to choose from and these were my choices.  The boys were in heaven because it was buffet and the kid's food was all on their level and that was super fun for them to choose what they wanted to eat.  I was proud of the choices they made.

Bath before bed.  Happy Boys. They loved the bunk beds.

 The public bathroom in the hotel.  When kids walked up to the sink to wash their hands, the figures sang a song to them to let them know how long to wash.  Below are the funny bathroom signs.

 A yummy buffet breakfast by a huge lego city window before heading out to the park.

 The biggest perk to staying in the hotel is that you get to enter into the park an hour before it opens to the rest of the public.  We rode 6 rides before the park opened and Mama studied up to see which rides would have the longest lines and we went on those first.  The rest of the day was filled with many other rides with little to no wait time.

 First roller coaster.  I wish I would have bought the picture they take.  It was great.  Isaac is a roller coaster loving fool.  Huge smiles on both their faces.

This was a ride that got them most excited.  They got to drive their very own jeeps.  After they each earned a Legoland driver's license.

Loving on Chewy!  Everything you see, I mean everything is made of legos.  Amazing and inspiring to see what can be created out of those little plastic bricks.

We took a boat tour around the world.

The weekend we were at Legoland, they had a special Star Wars, exhibit, so there were lego creations as well as real people.  Kai made friends with all the characters.

Isaac of course was drawn to Princess Leah (?)  He had just picked some flowers and brought them to her.  

This was a interactive water ride.  We did this one twice it was so fun.  You could shoot water at other boats and at people observing and walking by to other rides.  The observers also had access to water shooters located on the fences.  Very fun.

And that folks...was the most stimulating day either of my boys have ever had in their entire lives combined and most likely will remain to be the most stimulating day.  

Happy Lego boys snooze on the way home.  

Back in L.A., we visited the Santa Monica Pier, which was a huge hit and also very stimulating to two little country boys.  First time on a Ferris Wheel and what a beautiful ride it was.

We visited LACMA - Los Angeles County Museum of Arts and saw these cool yellow rubber strands that offered some fun times.

As well as this artistic display of street lights.

Souvenirs from the La Brea tar pits.  

And our most favorite was this room sized train and road set.  It is called Metropolis 2 and was really cool.  You can experience what it was like by clicking on this link.  www.youtube.com/watch?v=llacDdn5yIE

Having left Aspen in a snow storm, we enjoyed soaking up these lovely warm L.A. days.

And here I thought I was the only one who could pick my own nose with my tongue.

The very biggest fire truck we have ever seen.  They don't make them like this in Carbondale.

Kai is always collecting bones.  After visiting Pasha in L.A. and visiting the La Brea Tar Pits, one of the world's most famous fossil localities, Kai started putting bones together to see what creatures they were.  Anyone have guesses to what this might have been?

Enjoying a chocolate popsicle one warm day after school

Testing out what it might be like to have a mustache some day.

We love going to this little spot in Carbondale.  It is actually a very large dog park where I can take  the boys to tire them out.  They love riding their bikes around and stopping at the river and ponds to play.

Eater time is the time for eggs, the time for eggs is Easter time.  

We had a very lovely gathering at our house.  The boys loved hunting for eggs and playing with their friends.

And this, my friends, is a large Mountain Lion that came to visit us.  I was sitting at our table in the kitchen, talking with my sister.  I saw movement at the door and got up to open it to let Badger in, but to my very great surprise it was this guy poking his head through the screen door's dog door, touching its nose up to our glass door.  Jeff and the boys had enough time to run to the door to see it.  This guy was not scared in the least bit.  When I called the Division of Wildlife, they thought it must be a juvenile that hasn't yet leaned to be scared.  I had just cooked hamburgers and had the door open to air the kitchen out.  Yikes!

These two pictures belong up in the beginning when we went to Colorado Springs.  The zoo had an old plane to play in.  From Colorado Springs we went to Boulder to see our dear friends, the Gardners.