Soccer in Vancouver

Kelby made his first international trip this weekend. Unfortunately, they don't stamp your passport! :( (Yes, we know he didn't NEED the passport, but thought it'd be fun for him to have!)

We went to Vancouver, BC, Canada for a long weekend to watch the semi-final and final games of the Olympic Qualification Tournament for Women's Soccer for North America, Central America and the Caribbean. (The top two teams from the tournament qualify for the Olympics)

Kelby had a great time at both games! He made friends with the people around us, watched everything going on, and even paid attention to the game for bits of time!

The semi-final was Friday night (USA beat Costa Rica 3-0) and the final was on Sunday night (USA beat Canada 4-0). So, we had some extra time to hang out and tour around Vancouver.

The hotel had a basket of kids things that they let Kelby pick something from. He picked this raccoon and immediately gave it a kiss and then kissed him all weekend. It's the first time he's been interested in a stuffed animal!

 

Chris found us an awesome place for breakfast on Saturday. Somehow, we timed it just right, as this was the line of people waiting and it hadn't even opened! We got the second to last table and there was a huge crowd of people waiting when we left. We were going to go back on Sunday since it was so good, but ended up sleeping later and not being able to get there early.

We took the Aquabus (a small ferrry/boat) over to Granville Island to explore the market. Found lots of little shops and some awesome smoothies. Chris "shared" his with Kelby, but really that turned into Kelby drinking the whole thing! :)

They had a kids market (which I don't think you'd want to take older kids to because I think you'd be out lots of money with all the different toy and costume shops!). Kelby had the most fun walking up and down the ramp next to these cars and then getting in and out of the cars.

We made the cars go and clearly he wasn't interested in that! Phew! Now we won't have to try that again! :D (Because surely he won't change at any point!)

We found the sea planes down on the waterfront and hit it just right to see 1 landing and 3 take-off!

We also checked out the science center, but I didn't get any pictures. Despite the chilly and mostly rainy weather, we had a great time relaxing and exploring and seeing a new place!

Dryer Duty

I now have a dryer inspector! He can somehow get himself in and out of the dryer!

But, even better, he's starting to figure out how to do the laundry! How long does this last before they decided it's a chore and not fun? :D

Ice Storm & Power Outage

So after the day of snow, came the day of freezing rain(?) and created a layer of ice over everything!

It sure looked cool, but wasn't pretty for the trees and power lines!

Our poor Christmas tree (that is now planted outside) was covered in ice and leaning over. The boys got as much ice off her as they could and thankfully, after the ice melted, she popped right back up and is fine!

We even had icicles!

We ended with 8" of snow and ice and snow.

The power went out right as I was starting to make lunch. I was "forced!" to finish it on the bar-b-que! :D

Poached eggs and bacon on toast (well, bread!) and peppermint hot chocolate.

As evening came, we set-up the tent in case the power didn't come back on before bedtime! We were going to have a camp-out in front of the fire to stay warm!

Luckily, shortly after the tent was up, the power came back on! We were so lucky to only be out for 4 hours! Lots of people were out of power for days!

The boys (Chris!) built this awesome ferry dock out of blocks and the ferry boat they got for Christmas.

Our bedroom window was pelted with the freezing rain all day and once the power went out, the room became freezing and the rain started freezing to the window! It was pretty neat looking.

Snow Day!

We got home from Wisconsin just in time for the second round of snow at our house! (We missed the first, but saw it's remains when we got here!) So far we've had about 6" of snow - we'll see if anymore comes tonight! We had so much fun playing in it this morning and again this afternoon!

 Kelby thought it was SO funny when we'd try and catch snowflakes on our tounge!

 Kelby got to a sled tour from daddy.

The Snold's (the Sn(ow) (Arn)old family) came back for a visit. We haven't seen them since our old house before Kelby was born! (You can't really see, but Big Anthony Snold is also here in the front left!) We were getting a little cold, so we didn't get a chance to give them arms or faces!! :)

 Sledding around with Daddy!

Kelby got to try out the sleds we got him for Christmas! He seemed to have a great time, except he didn't like tipping over!

Riding with Daddy!

He got a few trips by himself!

 

Graduating to the bigger hill!

We learned that we really have a great piece of property (as if we didn't love it already!) Perfect for short or long sledding trips, beautiful when it snows, bright and springy as the new leaves come out in spring, soon to be a great spot for gardening in the spring and summer, and a good variety of trees to see the colors change in the fall!

Knock with Head

The Train

The first day Kelby was scared of the train. The next day he was a little intrigued. The day after that he at least wanted to sit with Chris. By the 4th day, he was carrying the remote to anyone around to turn on the train! He even found the little button on the top of the train that you have to press to activate it and would push it after you had the remote. Train is being shipped home - I know Chris is eagerly awaiting its arrival. Kelby probably is too, he just doesn't know it! :D

I love this video. One of my favorite parts is the Kelby keeps turning the speed up all the way and Chris keeps turning it down! 

I asked Chris if I could drive the train....I was told I needed proper training...here it is...

(The funniest part of it all is I derailed the train the first time I drove it!)

Sledding Day Two

We hit the slopes for a second day of sledding. It was light out this time, so I could get some video.

First Sled Ride

It snowed while we were at Grammie and GramBob's and Kelby got to go on his first sled ride!

Daddy pulled Kelby all the way to the park and back!

Third Second Christmas

Kelby got his third (and final!) second Christmas at Grammie and GramBob's. After a very rough and sick flight there, he somehow bounced back to open his gifts and have a good time!

Yes, this pile is ALL Kelby's! He was a very spoiled this Christmas!

But, of course, he found the remote and was more excited about that!

Just SOME of the gifts:

The holy grail of gifts: a train set!

Littlest Sous Chef

It all started one night when I was making dinner and he pushed a chair over to the counter and DEMANDED to get up on it! He has been on a chair every night since! A "safe" chair/stool option with sides is in the mail on its way here. :)

Same thing happened the next night, so I tried giving him some peas to eat while I was preparing...however, you can see the dog helped himself up on the chair, so you can imagine what happened to the peas! I added a third chair for "safety" (he can push the safety walls away) and to keep the dog off...

 

Last night, I was making some dessert for tonight and this is what happened! (All guests have been warned of the risk they will be taking when eating the dessert!)

(And yes, I will acknowledge that the step stool is the least safest option pictured. But, as you can see, the graham crackers were keeping him parked there! And, there was a fight over the step stool when we were in the pantry and clearly he won! :D)