Denver Finale

Before we left the motherland, we had 2 more good events...

we were able to visit Grandpa Bart a couple times! They fed us a great dinner I haven't had in years! I had forgotten about how great ham and pea soup with potatoes is, and topped off with chocolate pudding. I couldn't ask for more! We don't get to see Grandpa Bart very often, so it was really nice for the boys to spend some time there and play with blocks, crawl around and play bears, watch some football, eat some food, have a HUGE pillowfight (I hope the truck has been repaired, dad!) Thanks for the great time!

We were also able to celebrate Kent's 31st birthday! HOORAY! Over the weekend, Grandpa and Grandma Madsen took us out for a nice birthday dinner to celebrate a little early! The big day came on Monday. He actually worked an extra long day- he left at 6 am and didn't get back home until 7:30.

After a yummy dinner, we treated him to his gifts. The boys went all out for dad this year...

A set of car cup holders and a carton of Egg Nog!

Grandma and Grandpa Cox, Grandma Ruth, and Mom pooled resources to get something fun...

a new camera lens! I love the look on his face when he saw my wrap job (pictured left)

We have yet to actually get the lens, but we are excited to get it- or whatever he decides to trade it for!

Kent has taken a liking to Boston Cream Pie, so we fancied one up just for him!

Happy Birthday Kent!

Colorado Trip- Olympic Training Center

One day we went down to Kent's work site in CO Springs. After he was done, we headed over to the Olympic Training Center. I had never been to this specific site before- I went to one of the centers when I was little, but it was a lot different than this one- this was much cooler!

Some of our highlights:

We formed our own bobsled team. We are ready to compete! This is an actual US team bobsleigh used at the Salt Lake games. The boys loved the fact that it wasn't screwed into the floor...Ollie does all the grunt work for our family!

I also learned that Muhammad Ali wasn't his real name... in the hall of champions, his real name is listed- Cassius Clay, JR. It was very cool to see all the art dedicated to these athletes and their sports!

We went on a tour after watching a video that got us all psyched up for the olympics! We were so glad we were able to go on an Olympic year so our spirit wasn't wasted- it just increased!

Our tour guide was a little (big) african american olympic weightlifter. I call her little because she was shorter than I am, and looked totally skinny, but she's a weightlifter, so... not so little, I guess.

The grounds were really cool! They had all these statues of athletes playing all the olympic sports with life size tracks,. goals, etc. The boys had a go at the 100 meter dash...They only made it about 25 meters before they were too tired to keep going. I didn't break it to them that they only made it a quarter of the way.The boys loved looking through the rings at me!

And of course we had to give the podium a go...

As we were leaving, we saw the countdown clock that really got us excited!
I can't believe the olympics are finally happening! Hooray!

Colorado Sledding

While we were in CO we were able to do some really fun things! The day after Christmas, Grandpa took us all sledding at the park by his house.

Grandpa had a sled big enough for all 3 boys to go together. I love their faces!

Ollie and Emitt had the life... they got a tow rope all the way to the park AND back up the hill after sledding!

Tyse's 2 favorite parts of the day were: eating snowand crashing!Even Grandpa got in on the action!

After about 2 hours, everyone was ready to relax- they just weren't ready to warm up!

Thanks for the great morning, Grandpa!