Calories

I was going to take advantage of Haden sleeping and spend time with Regan. I asked her is she wanted to make a treat together. She asked if it "had a lot of calories in it?" Now I admit, we talk about eating healthfully on a regular basis, but seriously? Apparently a show on PBS, The Big Green Rabbit, had an episode about calories which Regan obviously paid close attention to. Upon further questioning, she didn't really understand what calories did, but that we got them from our food. So, never underestimate how much three year olds can absorb. (We did make a treat, but then I felt guilty eating all those calories!)

Question of the Day

Every morning in preschool Regan has to answer a question of the day. The other day the question was "How many sisters do you have?" The preschool teacher helping Regan was rather confused when Regan tried to put her name under the one. Regan tried to explain to her teacher that her sister was in heaven. Since Regan is a little difficult to understand, I'm not sure what the teacher understood. Luckily, I was still there and could explain. Regan has been begging for a sister for some time now. She was and still is continually praying for her sister to come down from heaven. She once told Clint that her baby sister was "growing right here" as she patted my stomach. In an effort to appease Regan, I offered her any one of my sisters that she wanted. (I have seven.) She quickly selected her favorites and I thought the sister in heaven would be forgotten. I was wrong. Regan tries to buy extra toys for her sister in heaven, sets aside treats for her, and will even bring me her outgrown clothes and tell me to save them for her sister in heaven. She will be a wonderful big sister, but what do I do if our next baby is a boy??

California

We spent last week in southern California with my sister. She is a travel nurse and is temporarily living on the beach just outside of Los Angeles. She offered us a free place to stay and cheap tickets to Disneyland. Who could pass up an offer like that? Regan was so excited--she could talk of little else the days before we left. We drove there and the kids were awesome, well, if you don't count Regan asking repeatedly if we were there yet before we were even out of Denver! We left Friday after work and made it to Green River, UT (Clint and I once broke down there on a trip back from Texas with a trailer full of antique furniture and miniature cows and donkeys--it's a long story!) Saturday we had planned on hiking in Zion National Park, however since it was raining, we continued on to Vegas. We haven't been there for several years, and they have really cleaned it up from what I remember. Neither of the kids enjoyed the volcano in front of the Mirage, okay that's an understatement. At the first boom they both started crying and didn't stop until the show was over. Regan did like the fountains at Bellagio and was mesmerized by the circus performers at Circus Circus. I think we'll wait until they are much older before we go back...

Both kids loved running on the beach. Regan, thankfully, did not inherit my motion sickness and was nearly fearless on the rides at Disneyland. After getting off Thunder Mountain, she told Clint that she was trying to be brave, but wanted to stick to riding the teacups! Despite her excitement to meet all the princesses at Ariel's Grotto, she was very bashful and adamently refused to talk or even look at them when they came to our table. She was much more willing to be friendly when we ran into them at the park. I think Haden was a little annoyed that he got left with the princesses while Clint and Andrea rode Space Mountain.

The days that we weren't at the theme park, we spent hiking through Topanga State Park and exploring the tidepools by Point Vicente lighthouse. I love lighthouses, there is just something mysterious about them. The legend goes that a woman lost her lover at sea, so she threw herself off the cliffs by the lighthouse and now her ghost haunts the area as she searches for her love.

I think one of Regan's favorite parts of the trip was visiting the grocery store. They had the little baskets just her size. She and Haden took turns pushing it around the store and adding groceries and then she checked us out using the the self check out. She scanned the groceries by herself, pushed the appropriate buttons and scanned the credit card. She is way too capable with the credit card for a three year old! I'm afraid the children's museum grocery store will no longer be exciting!

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. Clint got to hike, Regan got to go to Disneyland, and Haden got to play on the beach. Although Regan is already asking to return, Clint insists he won't go back to Disneyland for several more years.

Ice Skating

We have been wanting to go ice skating at Evergreen Lake since we first went up there last summer, and yesterday it finally looked like we were going to be able to go. Clint had scout obligations all morning, but we made it up there around 3:00. The weather had been so warm that the first layer of ice was slush, thus making it incredibly difficult for novice skaters like me to be very successful. Regan was looking forward to skating; she had been watching the US Figure Skating Championship while we were waiting for Clint to come home. I'm pretty sure it wasn't what she expected at all. She gave two half hearted attempts at trying to skate before settling into the sled behind Haden. Good thing we invested in skates for her.... Despite the lousy ice, we had fun. The hot chocolate was wonderful, the scenery beautiful, and the herd of elk grazing on the hillside above the lake completed the perfect afternoon!

Chilly Cheeks

Clint competed in his first Duathlon, Chilly Cheeks, last Saturday. It was held at Cherry Creek State Park. He did very well, considering he hasn't had much of a chance to either run or ride his bike since it is dark by the time he gets home from work. Regan was always so excited to see him when he came in to switch (there were 4 different transitions) and then confused when he took off again. The weather was beautiful and the kids had fun making footprints in the snow and watching all the competitors.

Happy Birthday, Clint!

We celebrated Clint's birthday on January 12. He spent the evening shoveling snow with Regan-they both loved it. Of course, Regan threw her share of snowballs. He doesn't like frosting, so I used chocolate pudding to frost his cake--not quite as aesthetically pleasing, but very tasty, with even fewer calories!

Little Ballerina

Regan started ballet classes this year. She has been SOOOO excited! It all started when we checked the Barbie Nutcracker DVD out from the library some time last fall. She knows how to turn on her "ballet music" and will dance around the living room. (One time Clint was getting ready for a run and was wearing his technical running pants. Regan saw that he was wearing tights and therefore, must be getting ready to ballet dance. She was so disappointed when Clint explained that his tights weren't for dancing, but for running.) Regan absolutely LOVES her ballet class and will demonstrate everything that Miss Holly teaches her when we get home. It was definitely money well spent!

Idaho, again?

This was the first Christmas season that Clint and I haven't spent with some combination of family. So, since work was slow for Clint, the Saturday after Christmas we took off on yet another long road trip to Idaho. We stopped for the first time at the McDonald's in Evanston, WY (the kids are thankfully getting very good at travelling without too much complaining!). We were very surprised to see little saddles instead of benches for the kids to sit on while they ate their french fries and chicken nuggets! Regan loved it--almost as much as she loved the My Little Pony she got with her Happy Meal! Our families didn't know we were coming and were rather confused when we showed up. It was fun to see everyone again. We went swimming at the swimming pool in Blackfoot with my family and had a sledding party with Clint's family. Clint was the only one of us that went sledding-it was too windy for Regan and too cold for either me or Haden, but we had fun staying inside, drinking hot chocolate and playing games.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas morning arrived way too early, especially since Clint and I were up way past midnight building a picnic table! I think this was the first year that Regan was more excited to open her presents than we were to give them to her. We locked the babygate at the top of the stairs as a precaution to make sure she wouldn't start without us. It was so fun to watch Regan begin pulling the presents out from under the tree and passing them out. She gave all the ones with "H"s on them to Haden, Clint got the ones with a "C" , and she tried to keep all the ones that had an "R". When she realized that some were for me, she generously insisted on helping me open them, because it was "so hard"! The kid-sized picnic table was a hit, as were the trunk full of dress up clothes and the Little Tykes car.

Sledding

We went on a spur of the moment sledding adventure on Christmas Eve. We didn't have a sled, but we did have several tubes we used years ago to float down the river in Lava Hot Springs, ID. Tubes and sleds are the same thing, right? Since there was no snow down here, we headed south on 285. Apparently someone had told Clint about the "perfect sledding hill" at Meyer Ranch Open Space. It was a perfect hill, but lots of use had made it very slick. We opted for a smaller hill further up. The end of this run had a few weeds sticking up out of the snow. After a couple of runs down, Clint noticed that there was significantly less air in the tube...One of the weeds had ripped a hole in our tube. We were too lazy and the kids weren't interested enough to justify hiking down the hill to retrieve the other tube from the trunk. So, we went for a hike instead. Regan absolutely loves throwing snowballs at her dad. He is always very good about providing her with the appropriate reaction to encourage her behavior. Depite our popped tube, we had a lot of fun. Needless to say, we purchased a sled soon after!