January 2015

We kicked off 2015 with a trip to the children's museum:

It was probably not the best choice on a holiday, but despite the crowds we had fun with the Richards and Kearls. We grabbed dinner and went to the Kearls afterwards so the boys could watch some sporting event.

The following Monday, Alta and Ellie started school and gymnastics again and it was back to our regular schedule. Olive was showing me this face one morning:

 And she takes pointing very seriously:

She also likes to play in the girls' room while they're gone. She discovered she could climb the ladder:

 When I attempt to make dinner at night I have Alta help give Olive a snack, usually yogurt. Alta let her feed herself one night:

Since Olive was nursing less and less, I realized we could actually start going on dates without her and be gone for more than an hour! We celebrated by getting a babysitter for four hours! We went downtown and ate at Gourmandise and then went to the Body Worlds exhibit at the Leonardo (no pictures allowed, and I didn't get one in front of the sign). I have always wanted to see Body Worlds and it was so worth it. We talked about it for days afterwards.

Dan and Mark had a race at Snow Basin, where Mark won first in his age group and Dan won first overall.

Dan went to another race later in the month in Jackson Hole where he won again. I'm hoping the girls and I can make it to one race this year so Alta and Ellie can watch.

Olive loves anything that goes on her head. She always finds headbands and hats and puts them on.

We had a few unseasonably warm days in January so we went to the park. Olive still doesn't like swinging very much.

Alta and Ellie are still skiing once a week. They love having Daddy-daughter time, and they are both improving. Ellie has gotten good enough to keep up with Alta on the easier runs, and they have so much fun skiing down together.

Dan has also let them ride the lift together by themselves a few times. I was not thrilled when he texted me this picture:

Olive discovering more things to put on her head:

 Ellie eating a candy necklace and carrot at the same time:

More hats! This time she found Ellie's:

 The weekend before Olive's birthday was busy. At least it seemed so for us, we are kind of home-bodies! We went to a dinner with our friends the Hogans on Friday night, where we were served a five-course meal by a woman who has competed in food competitions all over, including Chopped. A very interesting night!

On Saturday night we had our couples book club at our house. We read Okay For Now, one of my favorite books, and it was fun discussing it. I made two cheesecakes (this and this one from Mel's Kitchen Cafe) and only took one picture of one after I had started to cut it.

And then on Sunday we had Mark and Lorna, and Kevin, Malorie, and Beck over for a birthday dinner for Olive. More on Olive's birthday later.

The last weekend in January some of Dan's friends from Lockheed Martin came out for a ski trip. Dan met up with them a few times for lunch or to ski. On Friday afternoon he took Alta with him to Solitude for a couple of hours. She didn't talk to any of his friends, but she did ski down Sunshine Bowl twice!

Ellie felt a little left out so we made sugar cookies together:

And next I'll do a post on Olive turning ONE!