Snow, Pirates and Ducks....OH MY!

We had the pleasure of having lots of company last week!!  My Nana and Pops Smidt flew down from CdA, Idaho and stayed 6 whole days!  My parents and my brother Jesse flew down from Boise, Idaho and stayed over a week!  It was SO awesome!  I really love having a house full.  I also loved that I didn't have to do any dishes, sweeping, or clearing the table.  I didn't have to do the whole bedtime routine because all of those types of things were taken care of with Nana and Mom around!  I also got out of playing dolls or dress-up with Liv, she was the puppet master for all the company and they did whatever they were commanded to do.  I'd sneak some of those pictures in, but promised that I wouldn't post those dress up pictures.  But just know that Pops Smidt looks great in funny fake teeth, pink blankets and red ladies sunglasses!  ha!  

We were able to cram a lot of fun things in to this one short week, but I will just highlight a few of our favorites or this blog will take me all afternoon!  

There were a couple of reasons we planned this trip.  One being that my little brother Jess will be leaving on a mission for church soon and will be down in Brazil serving others for 2 years.  He wanted to come and spend some time with the kids before he left.  I am so glad he came.  The kids were literally in heaven all week.  There is never a dull moment with Jess around.  I've never met anyone who has the gift to be able to play with kids so well!  (he will be an awesome dad someday) They all slept in one room together (on non-school nights), they played Nintendo, football, snowball fights, carved pumpkins, watched super-hero movies, and now that Jess is gone, our house seems so BORING!  KJ cried when we dropped him off at the airport, it was a sad day for him.  They are great friends and Jess is a great example to my little ones and I really appreciate that!  I hope they can grow up to be as good a person as he is.  And he looks great in 6 inch stiletto heels.  HA!

            

         

         

         

 

    

The second reason for this trip is that the Oregon Ducks were down here playing!  All the guys went to the game while the girls went Christmas Shopping.  Shopping with girls is always a fun time!

                                         

      

 We also had a big Sunday dinner with everyone and Britt, Shawn and Lucy came!  It was nice to have so many people that I love under one roof!  

On Monday we had a very exciting day!  We found real pirate treasure!!  ;)  My parents and Jess brought a cool old box filled with 'pirate treasure' and my dad and Jess buried it and made a cool map.  So, we went up to Horsetooth Reservoir for FHE and a BBQ picnic dinner.  We went on a nice hike where KJ found a glass bottle buried in the sand.  He couldn't believe his discovery!  He opened the bottle to find this old pirate treasure map.  He was squealing with excitement.  He kept saying things like, "someone pinch me, I must be dreaming" and "I think I'll be on the news because this is the greatest discovery of my time."  This kid always says the funniest phrases.  So, we all followed the map, and eventually found the treasure.  As we were looking through the treasures he was saying that he couldn't wait to tell his class and then after he realized that the $ in the treasure box really was old REAL money he decided that he better keep it a secret or someone may come and try to steal it.  :)  Jack was excited that he found the Chaos Emerald Diamond (I think it's from a nintendo game?) And Liv loves her new pirate necklace and eye patch! All the kids divvied up the goodies and have them hidden in their rooms so that someday they can be RICH!  This was definitely the kids highlight of the week.  It was magical.  Thanks to Dad for the idea!  It will be something they will never forget.  

(I tried to scan the map but it was way too big.  But you can see part of it.   It really does look old with the burned edges)


Just going on an every day type of hike, or so they think!








Then KJ found the map!


Here is where they discovered the box buried under rocks and dirt.





The unveiling!


This picture is great because it captures KJ's excitement!  He was thrilled!






Happy Happy Kiddos!

The Monday we had the hike it was 84* and we were all HOT!  Then by Wednesday we had a huge swing in temperature and it was in the 30's and we woke up to a foot of snow!  It was nuts.  The kids stayed home from school and they played in the snow for hours and hours.  Snow is always more fun with Jess around too.  He helped them build a snow fort!  

 Liv caught this snow ball right in the face!  Nice shot Jack!

And Dan's 3 highlights of the week were: 1. His St.Louis Cardinals won the world series!   2. The McRib is back at McDonalds!  3. The Ducks won! 

A good week was had by all!  Please come back to visit soon!  We miss you already!