One Wintery Week

We love visitors.  We love every aspect and welcome everyone at anytime.  However, with both little ones, visiting and having visitors throws them a bit out of routine in different ways so we spent this past week trying to find our groove.  (Though truthfully maybe its me that is most affected.  Maybe *I* get used to the extra hands to play trains, hold babies while I'm in the kitchen, buckle seat belts and put on mittens.)  Either way, I wouldn't say this past week has been "normal" by any means but it certainly has been good!  Last weekend James and I took our year overdue cross-country skiing date.  The weather was gorgeous and the skies blue so we headed up into the Bridgers:

Unfortunately, when we got up there we found out that we had the wrong day!  The ski festival was actually Sunday.  Womp. Womp.  Luckily we were able to get our sitter to come back Sunday and we headed up the next day.  While cross-country skiing seems pretty basic, the lesson was invaluable for some tips on doing it efficiently and specifically some coached practice on going downhill without having to worry about kids on backs or kids in tow. 

The proof is in the ski poles!  

And James showing off his mad skillz.  All in all it was a crazy affordable chance to practice for us and build up some confidence before we head out again with the kiddos (hopefully soon!)  

 Meanwhile, the kids spent the week being goobers.  Matthew got some new footie pajamas from Mas and Pas and a big boy haircut he likes to show off:

 He had refused to wear footie pajamas for the longest time so it's bittersweet to see him in little boy pajamas again.  Also bittersweet because when we wears them they feed into some of his regressive behaviors like baby-talk and wanting everything done for him.

The joy of three is that the very next night he was in his big boy pajamas insisting he does the buttons all by himself (even if it takes 15 minutes).

And doing his new weird, very boy, sound effect, martial art dance-like maneuvers.  It has been below zero here for the past few days and with a toddler who hates both cold hands and mittens, we've been getting out a lot of energy with some indoor horseplay.  I was originally trying to use my remote to take pictures of the kids mid-air as I threw them on the couch, but the remote was too interesting for them:

 And here you can see where horseplay turns to frustration for Catherine when I won't let her have the remote:

 Catherine has all 4 of her canine teeth coming in which are preventing her from getting a good nights sleep which is combined with the 18 month old stage where she feels she needs to throw super dramatic tantrums about the unjustness of the world.

This weekend marked the arrival of Buddy the Dinosaur (from PBS's Dinosaur Train for those uninitiated) at Museum of the Rockies.  This is a crazy popular event at the Museum, requiring pre-ordered tickets (that sold out within a few hours I heard) to get to visit Buddy.  I ordered the tickets before Christmas but didn't tell Matthew about it for fear that it would blow his little mind.  Sure enough we went to the Museum to visit on Tuesday and had to stop to check out the Dinosaur Train swag that had been moved to a prominent place in the gift shop (well done, MOR, well done.)  With 4 "sleeps" left and an insane number of Dinosaur Train toys staring us down, I decided it was time to tell Matthew about meeting Buddy.  As expected the anticipation was intense, as well as the questions, which included, but were not limited to: "Is Mrs. Pteranadon coming?  Is Tiny coming? (Me: No. Just Buddy.) Is he going to ride the dinosaur train? (Me: Probably.)  But then Mr. Conductor will come too (Touche, kid, touche.) Will his eyes move? Will he talk? Will his mouth move?"  Matthew has a love-hate relationship with people in big costumes so these were fair, if not weird questions.   The anticipation of these things kept Matthew from many a nap in the 4 days leading up to Buddy's arrival.  When we got there, his excitement made it almost worth it.  Matthew was apprehensive and wouldn't get too close (to be fair Buddy is maybe even weirder "in person" than other characters because his proportions are weird) but did give him a high two:

 We then hit up the rest of the museum and got our tickets stamped around the dino exhibits:

 And went fishing in "Yellowstone" where the geysers were on but Matthew was "very brave".

The highlight as usual was the "Yellowstone River" and some acrobatics:

 Catherine was pretty proud of herself for walking to the top and then liked to either run and fall down the slope:

 Or roll:

 Where Matthew has been both physically and socially reserved, Catherine tends to be the opposite.  When Matthew sees a 4 year old boy do something "daring" he very cautiously imitates while Catherine approaches the issue head-on (sometimes literally!)  

Besides the museum we stayed at home with a fire roaring and football on all weekend.  While the kids probably got a little stir crazy toward the end, it was a great chance for them to dig into some more Christmas fun.  They have quite the fun with their new marble set from Mas and Pas (though they spend a lot of time yelling at the cats to leave the marbles alone too).  

It appears both kiddos have the open mouth, concentration face when they are working hard:

Speaking of crazy, here's some pictures from during more horseplay:

 Matthew loves getting hugs, or maybe he loves bossing Catherine into giving hugs.  Either way its cute:

 And because they have been big on wrestling with each other quickly turns into this:

And that's been most of our week.  Lots of horseplay, lots of stories, lots of football and lots of kiddos demonstrating the beauty of the ups and downs of a relationship because for every "Awww, I love you Catherine" we hear, we know a "No, no Caffrin" is just around the corner, and vice versa.