March 2023

Spring soccer kicked off with a pre-season tournament.

Sometimes you're a sweaty soccer player...

...and sometimes you go right from your soccer game to a dance.

Annika and her besties from school at a girl's only night at church.

Sarah getting her medal -- her team pulled off second in their division at the tournament.

It was a great confidence boost after a tough fall season.

This was an entirely non-posed photo of Naomi driving for the first time. The gas pedal was not touched. It was in the parking lot of Collison Brewery. Naomi later pointed out that maybe not a good omen to learn to drive in a place named Collision.

Lock in at the ballet studio which was especially meaningful since it was the last one in the studio where Naomi has danced for over a decade.

Happy 15th! 

I asked Naomi what she thought of her first experience at the DMV and this is what I got. I'm pretty sure the woman who helped us was a nice version of Selma from The Simpsons.

But it worked! She got her permit and off she goes.

For her birthday night we got dressed up and went to go watch a ballet company out of Fort Collins put on 1984.

We had just finished reading the book together.

It was an incredible performance -- probably as much modern dance as ballet.

Celebration with the family

These girls were up all night making a scrapbook for the fourth friend in their crew who is moving away at the end of the school year.

Annika's added violin lessons to her week, because we need one more thing.

When Naomi asked for a Barbie themed birthday party (don't ask), this is the cake that most moms might consider making for their firstborn.

This is what she got. (No Barbies were irreversibly harmed in the making of this cake.)

I was probably a little too proud of myself for this one.

At her request, we also made a pink charcuterie board.

As it turned out, a Barbie party was just supposed to be about a lot of pink.

So they all came in pink.

And then, and I didn't know this was happening, they all busted out their own American Girl dolls for a group photo. It was weird and really awesome. I love these crazy friends who were completely entertained by this idea.

Breakfast for dinner!

And the octo-Barbie cake that Naomi didn't know was coming.

Sarah and Annika wanted to be super safe when riding with Naomi for the first time.

Naomi and her friends on the last day in their old studio. So many memories at this place.

For her birthday Naomi got her ears double pierced.

We spent part of Spring Break skiing with the Parsons at Winter Park.

I mean, they skied. I stayed cozy with this view.

Asher followed by Annika followed by Sarah on a snowy day one.

They like to hang with Steve who will go through trees with them

Hot tubs + snowy cold = Happiness

Part of the crew setting out on day 2.

Sarah and Asher at the top of Parsen Bowl.

Sarah was lost for about 40 minutes at the end of day two. She just never showed up at the bottom. The lifts were closed so Ski Patrol was notified. Turns out, she got separated from the group in the trees, and instead of continuing down, she decided to hoof it back up because of course she assumed she must've just been faster than the others.  When you start hiking back up a mountain at the end of a day, you might draw the attention of a very nice group of 20-somethings who will offer to ski down with you to find your friends. Unlike me she was mostly unphased.

Naomi and Amelia do their own thing.

They both agree that the best part of skiing is the waffle shack at the top.

Or maybe hot chocolate in the hot tub at the end of the day.

We had a birthday celebration for Naomi one evening.

Back at it day 3.

We did snow angels and then got back in the hot tub as quicky as possible.

Except for Annika who wanted to see if she could last one minute sitting in the snow.

We finished up the month seeing Mary Poppins at Boulder High because Annika's youth group leader was Mary Poppins. She was pretty starstruck. Also, how amazingly talented are high schoolers?