Rafting on the Upper Colorado

Our family went on a rafting trip on the Upper Colorado River.  It was the first time white water rafting for the kids and Camille.  The kids loved it!  They were really excited for all the rapids.  It was a beginner trip with class II - III rapids. Perfect for the kids!  I (Camille) was pretty nervous at first but it turned out to be really fun and not too scary!  Since we went in the afternoon, of course, it rained the whole time.  The kids and I had rain coats, so we stayed pretty warm until the end.     When it came time for pictures, our raft decided to do one excited pose and one Surfing pose, which was Avalon's idea!  Check on the surfing pose below!  Unfortunately, we didn't get Archer in on the actions, but we have a few other pics with him below as well!

Afterwards, when asked "What was your favorite part?"  Avalon said "the alligator rapids," which is where we purposely spun 3 or 4 times while riding through the rapids!  Super Fun!  Archer said "when he got bumped into the middle of the boat, two times!"  Luckily he got bumped into the boat and not out of it!





Before: Excited and a little nervous!

During: Having Fun!

This is when we stopped to take a swim.  Only one guy on the whole trip decided to swim and he jumped 30 fee off "Jump Rock" into the water.  I think if it had been warmer, Jarad may have done it!

The kids also had a choice to jump 10 feet off "Punk Rock, " which Avalon was interested in doing but decided she didn't want to get any colder!

After:  Still Smiling!  Our guide Ashley was awesome!  She is originally from Minnesota and attended college at St. Could State University.

Star Wars Hats

Mummi has made some really fun Star Wars knit hats for the kids!!  R2D2, R5, and BB8!

Thanks Mummi, the kids love them and Daddy too!!



PS.  We were just about to go swimming when we received Archer's hat in the mail.

Would you like to dance with me? - Play by Avalon and Archer

Avalon and Archer wrote, directed, made the props and starred in their first play!  It was really delightful!!  Take a look...I definitely want the soundtrack! :)  I love our kids perception of life right now...dance, fall in love, propose, kiss, wedding, treats, happiness, buy an ipad, buy a phone, and live happily ever after!  So Sweet!

You also get a behind the scenes look at what happens at intermission!





We also received tickets/programs to the play and autographs afterward!  It was lots of fun!!

Space Legos

Avalon bought the large space shuttle with money she received for Christmas and she built the entire shuttle in two days!  Pretty awesome!!

100th day of School - February 2016

Archie has now been in school for over 100 days!  Here is his 100 day hat!  Archer had to bring in a collection of 100 things and he chose to bring in 100 pokeman cards!




Check out this post to see Avalon's 100th day of Kindergarten.

 http://babyniemi.blogspot.com/2014/02/100th-day-of-school.html

Wacky Wednesday

In celebration of Dr. Suess's birthday, Archer's class had Wacky Wednesday on March 1st!  Archer usually doesn't really get into dressing up, but he had fun with this one!

Archer - Movie night

While Avalon was at her first sleepover, Archer had a movie night with a good friend while mom and dad played games upstairs!



They were still going strong about 9:00 pm!  Well maybe they were getting tired!

Avalon's first sleepover

Avalon attended her first sleepover birthday party in March and she had a blast!!  The next day when I asked her about the party, she said the only part she didn't like was that they wouldn't turn the lights out until 9:15 pm!  Apparently she asked to turn the lights out at 8:45 pm.  She also asked for a clock in case she woke up, she wanted to know if it was time to get up yet.  At home, she knows that she cannot get up until her clock says 7:00.  Avalon did have a really busy day with a piano recital and another birthday party at Success gymnastics, so I guess she was pretty tired by the end of the day!



She was still looking pretty good the next morning!

Archer's books

Archer has been really into writing books this year!  He wrote several books at the beginning of Kindergarten where he would color the picture and then ask Mom or Dad to write the words!   And now he has really gotten into it again and he is writing the words himself!  He brought home 3 books he wrote and illustrated this week!  Here is one of them!  In Kindergarten, they encourage the kids to spell words phonetically by sounding them out, so I have also added a translation of what he wrote!  Avalon was also really into writing books in Kindergarten!  Kudos to their teacher for getting them into it!  She really sparked an interest in both of them!  I will try to locate one of Avalon's kindergarten books as well to post in the future!

Page 1: The Tunnel of Death

Page 2:  They saw two ghosts.

Page 3: They saw gold.

Page 4: Look at this scary stuff.

Page 5:  Woooo (...bomb!)

Space Pod

Avalon received a build it yourself Space Pod from Santa this Christmas!  And the kids and Daddy had a great time building it!!  Avalon has been sleeping on the floor in her Space Pod ever since they finished building it!  Pretty cool!!

Science!!

The kids received science kits for Christmas this year and had a great time doing experiments with Daddy on his birthday!  Avalon made a magic wand and wizard hat!  And Archer made so water bubble and change colors and some jewels!

Avalon's Style

Love this girl's sense of style!  Too cute!

Bedroom forts

Avalon and Archer have 2 favorite things when staying with Grandma and Grandpa.  First, they get mini chocolate chips and whipped cream on their waffles every morning!  And second, bedroom forts!!  They love to sleep in their forts!  Avalon likes to read by herself with a flashlight before bed!

Avalon's bedroom fort!



Archer's bedroom fort!

Dog Sledding

We received the most amazing adventure for Christmas this year from Mummi and Ukki!  They took us all dog sledding!  We got to do it all...well, Jarad and Libby did anyway!  They helped put harnesses on the dogs, and hook them up to the dog sled rope!  We all got to ride in the sled's, which was a blast, albeit scary at times!  Camille fell off the dog sled and was hit in the arm by the sled as it went by, which wasn't too bad compared to the musher who was dragged along on her belly for another 500 yards! Clay really enjoyed riding with his dad! Jarad and Libby both got to try their hand at mushing, which turned out to be much harder than it looked!

 Mummi took three grandkids, Avalon, Archer, and Taylor, on the sled while Libby helped as a co-musher!  Libby had to get off several times to help get the dogs to listen and help them go the right direction.  Then, then were taken out to the lake, where the musher mumbled under his breath about how he hadn't been on this part of the lake before so he wasn't sure how solid it would be!  Yikes!     After we returned, the kids got to feed the dogs some treats!

All in all, we had a really great time!  Thanks again Mummi and Ukki for the wonderful gift!

Snow Forts

Avalon and Grandpa had fun building a really cool snow fort!!  Avalon was outside with Grandpa playing on this snow hill and building a fort for almost 2 hours!  And then she went back out for more fun the next day too!



Check out the cool grass couch on the inside!  Avalon also made her own snow tablet to play with too! :)