Sunny Ski Day at Tahoe

I went up with the kids for the last ski day of the year on Saturday. It was about 80+ in Folsom and about 57 up at the ski resort. I felt overdressed withwhat I was wearing and it felt good to get into shorts and flip flops at the car.

Blake and Cece had a really good first year snow skiing. Blake is able to go down the bunny hill himself, he didn't want me to help him at all. Cece still needs some help, but I think she had enough fun to continue next year. At the end of the day, my friend, Scott, and I took the kids out early and went on the chair lift. It was such a thrill to them and they made their dad proud as they got on and off without incident.

Unfortunately, I am reminded each year that I am getting older and more out of shape. After a couple of bumps, my knees and back hurt and I am ready for the blues again.

Cecilee's Birthday Party

We are very grateful to you for sending Cece birthday greetings. Here you will see her very willing to pose for the camera in her "Birthday Girl" shirt. I think she has had that shirt for over 6 months. I don't know where Mom hid it, but it has managed to stay clean. We celebrated her and her cousin's (Tyler) birthdays yesterday at our house. She had fun opening up all her girl presents, while Tyler was just happy getting CASH. It was a beautiful day, about 77 outside, so the kids mostly played out front.

It seems we have a new Petersen family birthday tradition involving a pinata. We didn't want to break the trend, so we hung it out front on our underdeveloped tree. It worked fine, but we realize that with the next pinata we will need to blindfold the older boys as they are starting to play baseball and getting pretty destructive with the bat.

Afterwards, Rebecca had a lot of fun with a fun game of musical chairs. It was fun to see the kids dancing around the chairs as they waited for the music to stop. We had a few tears as some found themselves without a chair, but then they got their goodie bags and it didn't take long to recover.



Here you can see that Mom (and Dad) treated Cece to a manicure and pedi for her birthday. She picked a lovely shade of pink and got a flower on her big toes and thumbs. She was obviously pretty excited.

I didn't have a birthday party shot of Jesse, but this was a cute one. Jesse was pretty involved during the birthday party. He was very excited to take his turn whacking (tapping) the pinata with a stick. The happiness turned into a stomping, ragging bull when Mom tried to move him out of the way. Mom was able to restore order with a sucker. Jesse is also getting to the right height to just see over the top of the table to see what is going on. You can just see a couple of eyes peering over and then a little hand reaches up to retrieve some frosting.

As I mentioned, Blake is starting T-ball for the first time this year. He is on the Blue Jays. At first he wasn't very excited about the idea, but he warmed up to the idea after I told him I would be his assistant coach. On Saturday he had his first training in drills. He may have been more excited about the donut and candy bar, but he has been very excited about practicing every night that we are home. He has his first "unofficial" official practice in one of the parents backyards tomorrow. The coach has played college ball and has taught summer camp to youth, so I look forward to learning from him. I am just glad Blake is enjoying playing and having fun with the kids on the team.

Monster Trucks

When my kids kept talking about the Monster Truck they saw on the way to school, I knew that I needed to find a way to educate my kids about what a real Monster Truck looked (and sounded) like. We got the opportunity on January 26 to go. I suckered in 27 other people to come with us to the event held were we go to see Kings games. Needless to say, there wasn't much room for them to showcase their skills, but it was my kids first time (and mine) to a real live Monster Truck event. I would like to go again if I can find a venue where they have more room to maneuvur. Plus, I have to get Jesse out next time.

Afterwards, we went to the nicest McDonald's I have ever been. They had corian counters, hand scooped Breyer's ice cream, crown moulding, metal work, and real flowers in bud vases. You might think that we were in a posh area, but it was closer to being in the hood.


This truck could show up to your Birthday party for the right price! If only they would let you drive it!


Bulldozer won the freestyle competition. Here he is getting some good air.

The crowd favorite was Grave Digger. He beats Arachnaphobia here in the head to head. He was tearing it up on the freestyle, but ended rolling over. It looked a little planned, but the crowd loved it.

Week at Tahoe

We decided it was time for a good winter getaway over the Martin Luther King weekend. It was a busy time outside of Glenbrook up at Tahoe, but for the most part, we had a peaceful week. We ran into some friends while we were up there and got to catch up at least a little bit. I took Blake and Cecilee skiing for the first time. I felt like the worst Dad ever when I got them to the mountain because it was 5 degrees when we got there, with a wind chill of -15. I was even too cold and stayed in the lodge the whole time reading up on my insurance literature. I would go out to take some photos/videos, but I could hardly hold the camera still. Luckily, the kids were taken in and out of their lodge often so they stayed warmer than me for the most part.

I was very impressed with their program. By the middle of the first day, Blake and Cece were going down the very gentle slope solo. They think Blake may be ready for chair lift at the middle of the next lesson. I am glad they are having fun. The second time there, Blake specifically asked that he not get a helmet. I guess he felt like a sissy for wearing one.

I took them again on Monday with my friend Scott. Cecilee couldn't join us because she started with a fever. It was a much better day skiing and I enjoyed skiing on parabolics for the first time. It was like getting 10 years younger.

Jesse enjoyed going out into the snow with the other kids. He came back as cold as a cucumber, but he was still mad that he had to come inside. He gets cabin fever worse than his daddy!

Blake also found a new past time while at the Lake, ice throwing. We got a good stick to break up the ice near the lake and then he would throw it. He would be lucky to get a foot or two, but he could do it for hours. Too bad we ran out of ice. It was even more of a bummer that the golf cart ran out of power on the way back and I had to push it uphill. I never thought it was that heavy of a cart, but I guess 8 car batteries gets a little heavy.

Christmas

We continued the tradition of Christmas Eve at Gigi's (Grandma) house. The children were willing participants in this years Nativity. Jesse was not so much, but we still stripped him down into a swaddling diaper as the baby Jesus. He would make an appereance now and then, usually off cue, and decided it was a better use of his time to scavenger for cookies while there was no competition and little supervision. Hey, at least he was quiet.

Santa paid a visit to the children before making his big nightly run. Blake and Cece got new lightsabers (spring loaded so they shoot up on their own) and Jesse got a Slinky Dog (which has a spring in it too, I sense a theme... not really).

Well, after they party, Santa found our house. There was some question whether he would make it since the kids had forgetten that they had to be nice:)

Rebecca found a new love in checking out Christmas lights this year. We had fun except for the problem she and I have in climate control. I have it too cold, she too hot. If only I could drive the car from the outside that would be something. Or perhaps with the next car we will get seat heaters!

As you can see, Jesse was his normal, smiley self. BTW, Dad is very happy he is now officially nursery age. I can finally go and hear a lesson.



Jesse still hasn't learned the ropes when it comes to this present opening thing. Big Sis and Bro Bro were happy to help show him the way. I have a feeling next year he will not be as willing to receive the help.


This picture looked easier than it was. Jesse isn't one for standing still for long. It was new act of speed and entertainment for the parents to get this shot.

Blake and Cece were very happy to get there Leapster game systems. Dad when out and bought a recharger kit since Blake blew through the first set of batteries in a little over 24 hours.


Cece was very pleased to see she got her Arial bike. She wanted to know what those things were on the side of the handlebars.

A couple of hours later she was showing the excitement had not worn off.

Darth Jesse

Rebecca had to call me at work to ask what it is with boys and their sticks and swords. She said Jesse was busy carrying around two lightsabers most of the day. When I got home, he would hand me one of them and want to have saber fights.

The other kids get into it as well. As you can tell, Cece gets into it as well, guess it is not just for boys. As in any game, "...there has to be a winner and a loser." - ACE Ventura.

Looks like Cece was the loser this time. I think Blake caught her with a fake to the head and moved in for a body slash.

Christmas Lights

Some friends told us about a block of houses in Rocklin (another town like Folsom on the other side of Sacramento) where pretty much everybody on the block does lights and most of them go the extra mile. One of my favorites, one that I forgot to get a picture, was Santa getting arrested by CSI Rocklin because he was drinking too much Cocoa and ran into their roof. There is a lot of Disney themed homes as you can see from the pictures below which may it really fun for the kids to walk around. It is getting a little cold here in No Cal (in comparison to So Cal) with balmy temperatures tonight at 40 degrees, so the kids were a little bundled up. There is a steady supply of traffic pretty much every night with buses and at one point we saw five limos driving through. We talked with some home owners that say that when you sell a house there you have to disclose the amount of traffic you get during the holidays.
Here is Blake in front of one of Rebecca's favorite nativity scenes.

Here is Cece in with her favorite Princess, Arial!

I think Cecilee wants to be a model for new cars, she does this so naturally here!

Here is Rebecca's favorite. This display was placed inside the owner's third car garage and they had little lights with stars twinkling. The owner can just close the garage at night to keep it safe.

Blake is next to his alter ego, Dash.

Little J Man was mezmorized by the Santa display, but was very glad that he was safely located on Daddy's back.