The Riley Show!

Singing Riley

How to Ski with a Toddler...

1. Rent super small boots and borrow lots of cold weather gear from friends with older children.

2. Tell toddler about the magic carpet and her special super-fast snow shoes.

3. Take toddler up the gondola to the top of the mountain.

4. Wear your second baby bundled in a bjorn on your chest.

5. Send your husband off to ski a blue with his buddy.

6. Have toddler melt down in the middle of the mountain.

7. Offer lunch and snacks and think about trying again with husband present.

8. Eat.

9. Re-bundle toddler and attempt to put skis back on her feet.

10. Watch sobbing child writhe in the snow.

11. Return to the gondola and travel down the mountain.

12. Take more pictures of toddler, now in a state of miserable calm.

13. Head to Starbucks for hot chocolate with a now happy toddler wearing shoes and upside down sunglasses.

14. Enjoy THIS aspect of skiing immensely.

15. Nod your head when toddler tells you she wants to try skiing again, but this time she promises she won't cry.

16. Esteem your daughter's resilience and plan to try again next year.

Yes, I'm a little behind with this post. I have a few major updates coming, but I wanted to make sure I posted about this experience. And get ready for some fun videos as soon as I figure out how to fix the orientation.

What a Weekend!

On Wednesday, Allison came to town!

On Thursday, my parents arrived.

On Friday, CE came flew in, too.

Our house was packed, our days were full, and I could not have asked for a better weekend!

It was awesome having my family in town to celebrate Riley's birthday. Yeah, we put them to work around the yard, too, but we traded labor for milkshakes. It all worked out! Mom, Dad, Alli, and CE - thank you for all of your help and love! We had such a wonderful time and hope you did, too!

Here are some highlights of the trip!

1. Tour of the parks - we hit spinny park (where everything spins) on Thursday night for a picnic dinner. Hampstead Park on Friday for Riley's party with her school friends. And fish park on Saturday for a rousing game of whiffle ball and some playground play.

2. Riley's party. This year, Riley wanted a dino and lizards party - and, she wanted to invite her school friends. We had a great get-together with four of her class friends, played three awesome games, ate lots of cake and pizza and dino food (grapes, pretzels, and candy), and had a ball. Alli made an awesome dino cake, we had a dino egg hunt, played ring toss around the stegosaurus spikes, and popped balloons to find the little lizard and dino. So much fun. I think the adults had just as much fun as the kids. Good times.

3. Yard work. We filled 31 bags of leaves and piled sticks and branches taller than Riley. Our front yard and back yard look so much cleaner now. Shawn and I still have a lot of work to do, but, wow, the yard is looking good!

4. More Catan. Yes. Of course. We played Catan every night! I even won a game!!

Enjoy the pictures!

Happy Birthday, Riley!!

I cannot believe my sweet, sweet girl is 3 today. More to come...

Trade a wood for a sheep?

My new favorite/least favorite game: Settlers of Catan.

Shawn received this game as a Christmas present. You need at least three people to play, so we cannot just play by ourselves. We played a lot of the holidays, and we played a TON in Colorado. The game is simplistic and strategic, always changing, interactive, and completely entertaining. One round takes about an hour. The goal is to attain 10 victory points. You get build settlements and cities and roads. You can trade or choose not to trade. You can rob your friends and block off their resources. Oh, so much fun!

But, I am horrible! Seriously, I won once the entire week! I would love to retire and never play again, but I can't give it up. On my life list, I need to add "Become an Ultimate Settler of Catan," which would entail winning much, much more frequently.

The thing is, the game depends on dice rolling, and the probability gods HATE me. I think. That's the best explanation I can come up with at this point. I mean seriously...I position myself on 6 and 8...11 and 3 are rolled. I go for 5 and 4...and the game is all about 9 and 10. Grrrrr.

If you haven't played, you should! As far as strategy goes, I recommend Sheep land (position yourself to only receive sheep and then trade it in at the sheep port). This tactic has worked against me more than I care to admit (Thanks, Clay!).

Videos from CO

Enjoy these little moments of Riley at her best. Not sure why they are sideways, and not sure how to fix it. Good thing Riley is adorable at any angle. Love, love her pirate-ness!

First, an explanation and pictures...

Instead of one massive post about our adventures in Colorado, I'm going to tackle our trip in mini-series form. I'll start with pictures here, and then I will post about different aspects of the trip. Get ready for posts on Settlers of Catan, D&D, skiing with a toddler, and more! I'm excited to break it down. Hopefully, I will get through everything in time for Riley's third birthday, which is coming up on Thursday!

I will say we had a great time!! Riley and Adrian matured so much after a week of hanging out with older kids, and we all had a blast. Clay and Krista, thank you for everything! Connor and Amara, thanks for being so entertaining and helpful and cute! We miss you all already.