Tell Me the Story of Jesus

Both of the kids like to sing, and they both sing well! It pleases me to no end to listen to them. Here, Jonathan entertained me with a medley of songs sung into his new microphone from Mollie's birthday party.

If you remember, last November we went home to my parents and Jonathan got to ride in a combine with a young man named Dean. The first song is about combining with Dean. "He combines corn. He combines soybeans and wheat. And Grandma O grinds up the wheat in her grinding machine." Then he segues into "We have party whistles for doing this..." And, finally, a pretty rocking version of "Tell Me the Story of Jesus"! {Ahem}, this is not how we sing it in meeting!

A Trip to the Park...with Chet!

Renee and I planned a trip to the park...a month ago. I know, I know, I really need to get better about posting more currently...blah, blah, blah!!

So, anyways, we met at the park. It was chilly at home so I had the kids dressed in long sleeves and pants. We got there and it warmed up quickly. You can tell in the later pics by the kids red cheeks!

Chet is on a mission!

Jonathan thinks Chet is pretty cool...and I think Chet feels the same way!

We are ALL having fun here. Even beautiful Renee in the background!

Then some other mommies came with their kids and they all played together.

Jonathan was busy showing the girls some ants...doesn't he look so grown up in this pose? I am not sure how I feel about that...:-?

Then they all piled in the fish/plane thingy.

And a good time was had by all...

Jonathan's gymnastics class

While Mom and Dad were here, we brought them to Jonathan's gymnastics class. He has a 45 minute class every Friday. He really likes it. Enjoy the video.

Odds and Ends...

Jonathan and Annisia like to sing. Here's another song...This one's Sing a Song of Sixpence.



One Saturday, Uncle Bret showed up on his motorcycle. You ought to have seen how quickly Jonathan moved to get a jacket and his helmet on! He was ready to ride!



My Mom and Dad came to visit in April. We did a lot of relaxing and the kids got positively spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa O reading to them! Annisia got to take a nap with Grandma O every afternoon! And they brought their wheat grinding machine and some wheat from their farm with them. So we ground wheat one afternoon. The kids thought that was cool! I did too...now I have some wheat flour from my parents farm!

Then we get yet another cheesy grin from Jonathan!

Back to Red Lodge for more skiing

My husband and son, the skiing junkies! They went back up to Red Lodge again on April 4th. We had a snowstorm come through here on the 3rd. It was a doozy! The roads were nasty. As of that night, they weren't sure about going. But we got on Accuweather.com and looked all around us. Michael knew Red Lodge was getting some good snow and he was so excited! But the I-90 corridor was nasty. I reminded Michael about the alternate route thru Basin (which I have never been on, but he mentioned recently). And that's what they ended up taking. At 4:30am Saturday, April 4, Michael roused Jonathan, got him into the truck, went and picked up Uncle Bret, and they headed west over Hwy 16 up the pass and over to the other side. It was a blustery drive going up the pass...they were making fresh tracks most of the way, then hit a big snowdrift and poof! They were covered in snow. Michael slammed on the brakes and they thought they were done for...in the ditch. But, when the snow cleared, they saw they were in the middle of the road having blasted through a big drift. After that, things progressively got better and soon they were on dry roads for the rest of the drive. Once they turned north again to go up to Red Lodge, they hit the snow again, but only for about 50 miles. The road up to the mountain was packed, with snow and cars; and when they got to the parking lot there was about 4 feet of snow all around. They were salivating! Lift lines couldn't open until about 10am because of all the snow. This is what they saw riding the lifts...compare it to the last trip there and you'll see the change in snow.

Jonathan is ready!

This is the north side of the mountain...the Palisades. This side hasn't been open the past 3 years due to lack of snow. Well, this year it was open, I think, the last 3 weekends. It has all expert slopes except for one intermediate slope. Jonathan still talks about skiing in the Palisades!

Powder hound busily skiiing...

Did I happen to mention Red Lodge got a bit of snow?! This is the midway lodge...The snow is nearly up to the top of the doorway.

One excited boy at the end of a good weekend!

A break from skiing...

Annisia decided to see what the fuss was all about with Jonathan's ski helmet and goggles. Yep! They're pretty cool! But, oh, Jonathan didn't like that. Nope. Not one bit. "Annisia! Those are mine! Take them off!" Don't tell him I said this, but she's just as cute in them as he is! (heehee!)

Jonathan asked for a bowl when he went outside. Hmmm. I should have given him a haircut along with that! He has Annisia's sunglasses wrapped around it...unfortunately, I have forgotten exactly what he was doing. I think he was wearing a hard hat, but didn't want to wear the real one he has for some reason. Crazy kids! He has the hiking poles attached to the motorcycle...being a skidsteer?

Do you see the drift of snow up against the deck railing? This was nice sunny day and the snow was compacting. Compare it to this pic taken approximately a week earlier. Jonathan is standing on the deck which is about 6inches off the ground...the drift was about 3 feet tall!

Red Lodge, March 27-29, 2009

On Friday, March 27, Michael and Jonathan headed off to Red Lodge around 8:30am. It's a 3 1/2 hour drive, so they stopped in Billings to get lift tickets at Costco. (a great savings trick, btw. $70 for a pair ($35 ea) full day lift tickets compared to $47 full day/$37 half-day on the mountain) They got there in time for a half day Friday. The skiing was great! This first pic is of the snow on the lift line.

Jonathan already having a great time! Isn't he cute?!

Powder hound!

Then they took a few rides on the Magic Carpet.

That evening, Uncles Bret and Jon arrived. And the next day was a blast with them...as usual! Here's a taste of the fun they had. Bret and Jon were on snowboards. Check out this great wipe out by Bret. At :10, Bret says, "Did you get it?" Haha! I think it's great he wanted to make sure Michael got the video of the fall! At :27, Jon snowboards up to Jonathan, "Braack" (like a chicken) and says, "come on, get up!"



Jonathan was ready for the next step...an intermediate (blue) slope. Here are Uncle Jon, Jonathan, and Michael at the top of the Lazy M, a fun intermediate run.

Here's the video again of Jon messing around and Jonathan giggling about it.



And this one shows again how far up the spectrum Jonathan has come. At :25, Jon says, "What?!" And Jonathan says he's going to take a rest. "Oh, come on..." And Jonathan responds, "It's OK!" So cute!

Riding up the lift with Uncle Jon.

Cruising...

Uncle Jon, in his perfect ski form, (I mean, look at his parallel skis! beautiful!) demonstrating "post and turn" to Jonathan. Jonathan says Uncle Jon is saying, "Pokey turn!" because he pokes his pole into the snow when he turns.

Middle of the Lazy M. Isn't it beautiful?

That white ridge below is Miami Beach.

3/29 Jon left the night before, but Uncle Bret stayed on. More snow was blowing and falling! Jonathan was getting used to powder. At :45, he says, "Uncle Bret, I like the powder!" He kept going over to the side of the run where it wasn't groomed.



This is a sweet pic of Jonathan resting his skis on Daddy's snowboard while riding the lift. Michael is so proud of Jonathan coming up the curve so fast. He feels comfortable snowboarding while J skis. Just need to watch out getting on and off lifts. Once we had a big pile-up.
Finally, lunch at Midway Lodge! They always knew when Jonathan was hungry. He started getting whiney and not listening on the slopes (a dangerous thing, you know!). Jonathan really likes the waffle fries there! Looks like he had a corn dog too.