Angel Fire - Summer 2016

I was looking back at last year, and apparently I made THREE whole post about our trip to Angel Fire, and this year I barely have enough pictures for one post. Ooops

In case you want to see last year: One, Two, Three

 

Well this year, we had a smaller group. Mom and Dad spent nearly a month at Angel Fire towards the end of the summer.

 

I had asked Leslie if one of the boys wanted to ride with us out there early on Friday since she was coming from San Antonio late on Saturday. Well, I figured Noah would because he loves special time with his Ampa, but she let Zay choose and he said he wanted to go with us.

I was a little nervous he would be bored with us, and I think he was. LOL

 

We got there Friday evening and watched the Opening Ceremony of the Rio Olympics.

I just love the Olympics and this particular year I was super excited and we watched a lot of it!

Mom cooked a delicious German meal. Unfortunately, I was pretty sick and couldn't eat.

But Cecil loved it!

 

Saturday, we hung out at the condo to get 'acclimated' to the higher altitude and again - I'm sure Zay was super bored with just us adults and Connor.

 

Ampa loves to pick on Connor everyone and it was sweet because Zay was super protective of Connor and would 'team up' with him against Ampa. At one point Ampa had Connor in the chair and Zay was using a mirror to shine the sunlight on Ampa from the couch.

That Zay - he is so clever!

 

Ampa picked up Angel Fired Pizza for dinner Saturday and then

Leslie, Noah and (surprise!) Riley arrived! Yay!

 

We watched some more Olympics and played lots of Guess Who and Backgammon.

 

Sunday morning we spent lots of time playing outside.

The boys played catch with the Frisbee and Football,

Zay and Riley played pretend campfire, and Grams came up with a game of

getting a rock to stay on top of the tree trunk you see below.

It was actually pretty fun and competitive. ;)

 

I also used this time to take some 18 month of pictures of Connor.

I had planned to take great pictures of him with the beautiful scenery in the background,

but it just didn't happen. I just felt so sick.

 

We went to a little Farmer's Market they had set up. It was super cute.

There was face painting and lots of cotton candy.

The weather was beautiful and it was just nice to be outside with the gorgeous views.

 

We tried to get Connor to be the fourth ninja turtle, but after one swipe of orange to his face - he was NOT having it! So Leslie completed the squad.

 

 

Cecil, Mom, and Leslie took the boys to fish. I'm guessing the boys are waiting on Cecil here.

That's how I feel too when I have to wait on Cecil. ;)

 

 

 

These two god brothers play so well together. They are both so imaginative and creative.

 

 

And apparently very brave!

 

They caught a few crawdads.

 

 

Connor and I had to go home to nap. Please excuse the horrible picture of me.

But I wanted to remember how he fell asleep with his blanket in his mouth. LOL

 

Finally after he was in a deep sleep, I was able to turn over off my hurting hip,

and try to take a little rest myself.

Please note his attempted turtle mask. :)

 

Connor is very finicky with Ampa. Sometimes he is happy to snuggle. Sometimes he is NOT.

 

Monday, Cecil and Dad played golf while Leslie and I took the boys to the park,

and to play tennis. Grams stayed home with Connor while he napped.

 

We spent the afternoon at the condo. Mom, Leslie, and the boys played outside in the

trees behind the condo.

Connor joined them after I got super sick. Then, after a little while I was feeling better and joined them too. They had a big blanket set up and it was so nice to enjoy the outdoors.

 

After a nice dinner at the country club, we tried to beat daylight and headed

back to the park to play again. This time, Connor was able to play too.

The boys played for about an hour. They started with Cecil pushing

them on the merry-go-round. Connor loved the slides.

 

All the adults left except Cecil and I because it was so cold.

I really wish we could have brought the weather back home with us!!

 

Tuesday morning, we got up bright and early and headed home.

Connor rocked himself on the footrest a few times while we were there and he was especially sleepy Tuesday morning. Noah covered him with his blanket - so sweet.

 

And with that - AF Summer 2016 was a wrap!

Being sick just makes everything harder, but I'm glad we got some

nice quality family time in cooler weather.

 

 

 

 

 



Angel Fire - Winter 2015 III

ANGEL FIRE

TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN

I didn't ski because I stayed in the condo with Connor, but I wanted to share a few pictures from the 'top of the mountain'

 

Dad took this one before we all got to the Angel Fire. Zay had a day in ski school and Noah and Dad were skiing alone. Dad could not rave enough about what a great skier Noah is.

 

Leslie took this picture on Monday. She said Zay improved so much this year.

 

Mom wasn't sure she would be strong enough, but she went skiing this year and ended up really enjoying it. Of course she had to get some new snow gear because her goggles that she brought from the 1980s were literally disintegrating.

 

Leslie skied two days and hurt her arm. :(  Dad said even last year that the way Leslie skis reminds him of how Mom skis. Funny.

 

Our ski pro! Apparently there were a couple times he skied down a couple blues by himself!

 

Angel Fire - Winter 2015 II

Monday evening Leslie offered to sleep with Connor in the chair downstairs and I didn't realize how relieved I was until I found myself running up the stairs to go to bed. She said he did much better and only woke up once for a bottle. I'm not sure I believe her.....

 

Tuesday morning Dad, Noah, Cecil, and Austin hit the slopes and we got Zay, Liam, and Connor ready to go sledding at the Country Club. Connor wasn't feeling great (swollen, runny eye and nose), but I wanted to at least get a couple pictures of him in the snow so we pulled on his snow gear and went. While I finished getting myself ready Aunt T fed him a bottle. He really loves his Aunt T.

 

 We drove to the Country club and he was not too happy. I really don't know if it was the cold or the multiple layers of clothes.

 

You can see how swollen his eye is here. :(

Leslie tried to get a good picture of Connor and me. I love how his arms are so stiff with his little mittens on. His boots were too big, His bibs were too short. He was a mess.

 

We watched Grams push Zay down the big hill. (Grams is in the yellow jacket).

 

 

 

 Do you see that tiny black speck at the very very bottom?? That's Liam. He went further than anybody else! And you can see Tammi in the white jacket on the right running after him. 

 

Zay rode down again on another sled. He crashed into the inflatable wall at least twice.

 

 
But isn't it beautiful!?!?

As the boys wrapped up sledding, I took Connor over to TRY to get a picture of him with the mountains in the background. As you can imagine....he was not thrilled. 

 

Can we pretend like his is playing in the snow here and not screaming for me to pick him up? Ok? Thanks! 

 We hurried home and got in the warm condo. I took Connor's boots and gloves off, but tried for a happy picture in his (too small) 6 month old bibs and coat.
#nailedit

 

Look at these cheeks!

 

And this face! This face reminds me so much of Noah as a baby.

Silly boy 

Three generation picture! 

One ski lift wasn't open or something so all the skiers and snowboarders came back early. I caught Connor and Cecil playing catch. Connor loves this game. And he loves climbing those stairs!!! I was OK with him going up the first two to the tile ledge, but towards the end of the visit he got really brave and wanted to continue on up.

 

**one of my favorite pictures of the trip. This is so Connor at this age**

Noah decided he wanted to be in the picture. hahahaha 

What a silly boy. 

 

 

 

 

Leslie made a delicious quiche for lunch and Tammi, Liam, and Austin left around noon so that they could make Austin's volleyball practice Wednesday morning. Leslie left shortly after lunch so that she could......go home and clean. hahaha

Grams, Ampa, Cecil, Noah, Zay, Connor and I had one last night in the condo. We packed up, played a lot of backgammon, and rested. Cecil thought he had broken a rib on Monday, but he was determined to go out and snowboard again on Tuesday. I think he was starting to feel the pain Tuesday evening.

 

 

After Connor woke up from his evening nap his eye was sealed shut! Poor guy.  

 

Connor really perfected 'the point' on this trip. He would point to anyone coming down the stairs and anytime he saw Dad he would point. Dad did it back to him and it was kind of their thing to just touch fingers. It was pretty cute.

 

Tuesday night Connor slept in bed with me again, but I put him on his boppy and he did so much better. He woke up once and needed a bottle and then twice I was able to nurse him back to sleep. It was so. much. better. I'm not sure if he was getting used to the new surroundings or just exhausted.

 

We said goodbye to Angel Fire and headed home around 8:30. We stopped in Eagle's Nest with Mom, Dad, and the boys for breakfast at a quaint old hotel.

 

 

We stopped for a diaper change and Connor would NOT lay down so I got a few booty shots.

 

 

We made a couple stops for me to move from the front/back. We decided he sleeps better when he is in the back by himself. We stopped in Childress for dinner at Arby's then made it home around 9. It took everyone else 9-10 hours, but us a solid 11. That's ok. Connor was only fussy for about 30 minutes and Cecil put him to sleep by rolling down his window.

 

It's not easy to travel with Connor right now, but all the quality time spent with family and seeing how happy Cecil is in the mountains makes it worth it. :)