A Colorado Christmas

We were fortunate enough to be able to spend Christmas last week in Dillon, Colorado. Monte's parents met us there - we all left a day earlier than anticipated because of the Midwestern snow storm. While Grandma & Grandpa watched Ani during the day, Monte and I had fun skiing at 3 different resorts. The 1st day was Copper Mt, of course, since that is our go-to place to ski. The 2nd day, Gavin drove up to meet us at Keystone, which I had never been to and LOVED. Plus, how can you beat the wonderful surprise of seeing SWING CREW at the Last Lift Bar? And then the last day we skied at Loveland. It's very much a local place, much smaller and not "resorty" at all. 1st time for both of us. Beautiful blue bird day of skiing.

This was also a milestone marking Ani's 1st plane ride. She did pretty well. On the way out, the plane was full, so she had to remain on our laps, but on the way home, the plane was not as full and she had her own seat.

Hope everyone had a great holiday - and see you in 2010! So, will you say "twenty ten", or "two-thousand ten"?

Thank you, Crowne Plaza, for the use of your Christmas tree.

Grandma & Grandpa Dirks

Ani loves her new book.

Spent the day with Gavin at Keystone, then met his awesome girlfriend Meg later that night at Tolzmann's restaurant in Frisco.

Gotta love Dennis of Swing Crew.

Our last beautiful day of skiing at Loveland.

Ani studying the flight safety directions just in case. She looks so serious.

Merry Christmas!

Ani was having nothing to do with Santa unless I held her. Maybe next year she'll sit on his lap by herself!

Elmo, Yellow, Buh-Bye

Here you go, Amy! :)

Also, since she was too young last year, this is Ani's 1st real experience with "the white stuff". Don't let the photo fool you.... we were outside for all of 4 minutes that day before she wanted to go back inside.

Winter Escape

We found a new place to escape cabin fever this winter - the indoor play park at Edinborough. Ani and I went there earlier this week. Highly recommended. We spent most of the morning there and Ani didn't want to leave. They have a HUGE multi-purpose indoor play structure that you can (parents too!) climb all over, slide down, and bounce in. It's entirely padded and enclosed, so it's pretty safe. There's also a large open gym area with balls, and those fun chairs on wheels that we had from grade school. I'm sure they're a step up from back in those long ago days! Ha ha.

Anyhow, I recognized another little girl in the play structure from Ani's daycare. Paige is older, so she's in a different room, but most of the kids know each other. She recognized Ani right away and said, "We have that at school." It took me a moment, but I realized the "that" she was referring to was Ani.

Following Mommy's Footsteps

Sorry for the crink in your neck that you'll probably get from watching this sideways!

Thanksgiving in Pictures

Thanksgiving last weekend was spent in Iowa with my family. We did a lot in the 36 hours we were there!

Ani & Meggie

Look at all those blue eyes - 2nd cousins Ella & Avery

Marcy with baby Preston

Jingle Cross Race in Iowa City. Monte was going to ride in it but had been sick the week before. We saw a lot of MN bikers, which was neat. One word can describe the experience pretty well - muddy!

Crazy Jingle Cross hill

Crazy daughter

Being silly with Papa

3 generations

Gage & Kennedy stopped by

Out at Hoot Owl Hill

Jami hooked up the Belgian horses and took us for a ride

On the hayrack ride

Doggie Treat

Our household was treated with the presence of Bailey earlier this week. We dogsat for Brent & Eryn. Ani loved it. She and Bailey chased each other around the house and she learned to pet with "gentle touches".

A Year And A Half

It's coming up on 18 months with little An-Bon! It seems like there's something new with her every day. She is good at trying to repeat what we say, such as simple one- or two-syllable words like apple, bubble, and turtle. She tries to do the song motions with me to "Itsy Bitsy Spider". She can point out most of her body parts if we ask "where's your nose? ears? eyes? hair?" A couple of times she has put a shoe on by herself. Even though they're velcro, I was pretty impressed! More teeth are popping through too, so she has 7 or 8 now.

The word "no" still hasn't quite sunk in, depending on what we are telling her not to do. Although she does mock me sometimes when I say no. She'll crinkle her nose, squint her eyes, and point her finger at me while saying "no" in as deep of a voice as a toddler can have. It actually made me laugh the first time, but then I started to wonder if I looked like that in her eyes when I said no. Now I try to look nicer :)

Many of our friends have just had babies and to see their photos and hear their stories makes it seem like so long ago that we did all that with Ani. Hours may drag on during the day, especially with a newborn, who basically eats, sleeps, and poops. But the days and weeks fly by. I don't miss getting up in the middle of the night to feed, that is for sure, but most times I enjoyed it even though the sleep deprivation about made it impossible to haul myself out of bed and walk to her room. Such tender moments - their little bodies all snuggled up against you. Maybe this is why I still sometimes rock her to sleep!

JB's quick, but nice visit!

Coloring in the "big girl" chair. Every once in awhile, it's a struggle to get her to sit in her high chair.

CX Championships

MN State Championships in Crystal, MN - Saturday, Nov 14

7th in category

7th overall

Monte and Hagen raced while Amy played photographer. Hagen was told there was a prize for last place (DFL) so he was shooting for that, but I believe he ended up 2nd to last.

Nice work on this one, Amy - a great motion shot! Aaron is in total focus and the background is blurred. I need to use this mode for the next race!

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GP Zac Daap CX in Crystal, MN - Sunday, Nov 15

12th in category

14th overall

Basically same race course but different day and not the championships.

And another CX season we can close the book on. They go so fast and are a lot of fun. This weekend, we'll be sitting around wondering what to do with ourselves. :)

DC, Baby!

For our 4th wedding anniversary, we spent last weekend in Washington, DC. Loved it there! Beautiful weather, beautiful city (even better than our expectations). So much history and architecture. And so much walking around. We stayed north of the National Mall in Dupont Circle, which was always hoppin' at night.

On Sunday, we ended up walking behind Nancy Pelosi the morning after the House passed the health care bill. She apparently lives on the Potomac River just south of Georgetown where Monte and I happened to be walking. I was being the typical tourist just snapping away on the camera when Monte noticed 2 secret service guys (the ear pieces and constant looking around are dead giveaways) and then noticed Pelosi. I did get a photo from behind but you can hardly tell it's her. A little brush with the government is not so unusual in DC, I suppose.

We could have had one more day in DC - so much to do! We loved our trip. And my parents came up to stay w/ Ani, and of course loved that.

this gives you an idea how huge the Jefferson Memorial is

Halloween & CX Weekend

Our little cow.... We had a couple Halloween celebrations last week - a childbirth class party at Kara & Morgan's, a pumpkin carving party at her school, and of course her first time trick-or-treating around the neighborhood (which really meant gathering candy for Mom & Dad, although we did give her 2 small Reese's to eat once we returned home!) It was fun for Monte & I as well, as we were able to meet more of our neighbors and it was just a nice feeling to see everyone out that night.

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Red Barn CX in Taylors Falls, MN - Saturday, Oct 31

10th in category

10th overall

Coldest one yet. Monte didn't feel the best going into it. We had to sit in the car to watch the last 2 laps - reason #1: it was freezing; reason #2: Ani threw a fit and was on "constant whine" mode. In the car she was fine!

Crossinacs Fridley Fall Back in Fridley, MN - Sunday, Nov 1

8th in category

8th overall

This course mostly wrapped around the grounds of the middle school.

A Day At The Park

On Monday, Ani and I enjoyed a walk to the neighborhood park and lots of play once we got there! She loves to swing and go down the slide. Thankfully she wasn't too interested in the sand and kept her mittens on, so she didn't get very dirty. All was good!