Denver Zoo Lights and The Children's Museum

Our Holiday Fun continues with trips to the Denver Zoo for Zoo Lights and the Children's Museum. The Zoo Lights was a lot of fun, lots and lots of lights. It was a bit cold after a mild day so Julia has a nice fleece now to remember the visit (One to match Aaron's 6 flags sweatshirt) The kids enjoyed the museum. Mara thought that there would be children there to go see... the mind of a two year old, I think she was happily surprised to find more than children there. Mara really enjoyed being a Vet and playing on the fire truck. Megan like crawling around in the infant room. Anthony really like the fire truck also, as well as shopping in the grocery store.

Hanukkah

Eight crazy nights were celebrated by the Anton Family. The girls enjoyed every night, filled with lots of latkes, dreidel games, lighting candles and singing prayers and presents of course. Mara did very well this year, singing along and reciting almost every word correctly. Megan was in awe by the eighth night, hopefully next year she can sing with us. She also received an extra special present this year, on the eighth night she popped her first tooth!!!

Christmas

Christmas at the Schauer's was fun and festive for all. The whole family was together for the first time in a long time. This time around we had kids to add to the mix. Uncle Matt had a great time enjoying his nieces and nephew until of course it was time to sleep, suddenly the basement seemed like a great place to be. Christiana and Nick are enjoying an extended vacation in Colorado along with Anthony, who loves playing with his cousins. We have an exciting week planned with lots of food, fun and family. We hope this holiday season was warm and bright for all.

Cousin Keegan

Our First visit with Cousin Keegan! After surviving the plane trip to Florida (middle seat with an 8.5 month old in my lap and two random people beside me... yeah fun...) we met the newest member of the Anton family. The new Mom and Dad are also doing well and we all had a wonderful time seeing all the kids together. It's going to be a blast when they are all old enough to run around together. Keegan is quite the content little guy (unless of course his diaper is being changed, but who likes that anyway?) His Nursery is adorable all decked out in airplanes and bears. The girls celebrated Hanukkah early and Ming-Ming the singing and Dancing Wonder Pet was a big hit with both the girls. Mr. bobbly Penguin is a close second. We enjoyed the bit of warm weather before we headed back to Denver where it is frigid cold(-5 degrees)!!

Festival of Lights

Snow Globe

The Family took a trip to Cherry Creek Mall to see the 20 ft Snow globe display. It was snowing in the snow globe decorated with scenes from the Polar Express. Mara enjoyed blowing the train's whistle as well as playing in the 'Engine room' Megan liked the falling 'snow'.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a nice Thanksgiving at Grandpa Ed's and Mormor's Home. Megan slept through dinner, but woke up in time for pie of course! Black Friday was attended by Grandpa Ed and Julia. We braved the cold and crowds and stood in line at Best Buy and went to a few other stores too. We hope you all had a wonderful Holiday!

Moving Up!

Megan is moving along and moving up! She is starting to pull up to standing! Megan smiled away and babbled with delight at her new found skill.

SNOW!

Nana came to town to visit the girls and see some snow! We all went for a snowy mountain drive to Breckenridge and Keystone.

Election Day

Election day was exciting and full of anticipation for a day now marked for the history books. Mara "voted" with her dad and even enjoyed a Krispy Kreme doughnut for her efforts. She celebrated with the rest of us as Obama was elected the next President of the United States, and then tuckered out after all the excitement.

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween! Mara, Megan, Julia and Aaron had a spooktacular time trick or treating. Mara was Amelia Earhart, Megan was Ming-Ming from the Wonderpets (also a fellow aviator), Aaron was Johnny Cash and Julia was a pumpkin princess. Grandpa Mitch handed out candy to all the ghosts and gobblins. The weather was a perfect crisp relatively-warm autumn night. Our house was one of the scary houses in the neighborhood, mostly due to our flashing strobe light, spider webs and creepy Halloween sounds coming from our house! Mara also enjoyed carving the pumpkins we picked from the patch.

The Great Pumpkin Search

Our Search for pumpkins led us north to Broomfield to experience the largest pumpkin patch anyone has every seen at Rock Creek Farms! There were thousands of pumpkins as far as the eye could see. the Flatirons created a wonderful backdrop for the beautiful fall day. Mara searched and searched through three of the many patches to find her perfect 'little pumpkin.' Aaron assisted in removing the pumpkin from its vine. After finding our pumpkins we headed over to the farm area to enjoy the yummiest caramel apple ever! Mara also enjoyed the hay area, where she could run and jump from hay bales into the piles of hay all around. Megan enjoyed the animals on the farm, a cow, lamb, pigs, pygmy goats, and ponies. Grandpa Ed and Mormor also were very amazed at the size of the pumpkin patch. We hope to return next year for our annual great pumpkin search.

FAMILY SNAPSHOTS

These are some pictures of the family just hanging out and doing what we love to do. Megan has hit another milestone, she is crawling!

Megan's First Haircut

Megan had her first haircut! She was just shy of 7 months and she did very well. Her grandmothers were both there to help, Nana trimmed her locks and Mor-Mor kept Megan happy and content.

Katie and Jeff's Baby Shower

We headed down to the Farm to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Jeff and Katie's baby boy! It was great to get the family together and especially to see all the little cousins play together.

SUMMER 08

These are various pictures from the summer from Mor-Mor's camera. Some are from Fathers Day, the summer and Winter Park. Enjoy!

Corn Maze

Fall has officially arrived in Colorado! The girls and Grandpa Mitch enjoyed the changing season by visiting the Denver Botanical Gardens satellite location in Chatfield area. We braved the corn maze and let Mara lead us to the exit most of the way (eventually mom took over after circling a few times!) Mara also enjoyed a horse ride on Peanut.

Apples and Honey and Aspen Gold

Happy New year! For Rosh Hashannah we attended an Adventure Rabbi retreat in Winter Park Colorado. We had a wonderful time, reflecting on the past year and welcoming in the new year surrounded by serene beauty of the mountains in the fall. The Aspen trees were all glowing gold and the air was crisp and fresh.

Mara Driving

Labor Day

The Girls had an exciting weekend camping in Illinois at Lake Ladonna for Labor Day weekend. We stayed in Christiana and Nicks Trailer and also tented for three nights. Nono, Bestamor, Mormor, Grandpa Ed, Oma Sue and Opa Ray and of course Christiana, Nick and Anthony attended the campout. Aunt Cheryl, Uncle John and Jeanine were also right next door, making for a wonderful family get-together. The kids had an amazing time getting to play all day and almost all night long. They collected acorns, went on many wagon rides, walks, played at the park and also enjoyed some good old fashioned running around! The 2 year olds became very creative in their requests for wagon rides. They would climb in, buckle up then yell that they were stuck! A wagon ride was the only remedy! The beach was also a hot spot and we all enjoyed soaking up some sun, building sandcastles and wading in the lake to keep cool. Megan was able to enjoy the cool breeze with Bestamor in the shade of the acorn trees. Mara convinced mom to slide down the water slide with her, and Aunt Cheryl to push her on the water swing, which Mara really enjoyed. Mara and Anthony also enjoyed floating in the lake on rafts. The nights were spent wrapped in blankets and sweatshirts taking in the spectacular starry skies and enjoying the warm (or cold for some!) campfire. A band of the Milky way, shooting stars and many constellations twinkled in the night. We roasted marshmellows and made some smores as we took in the outdoors. On the last night we all enjoyed the lighted golf cart parade, and Mara attended her first concert. Mara was the life of the party dancing and singing! The girls had a great time and look forward to some more camping!

Milestones

We have had a busy weekend and wonderful start to our week. Many milestones have been accomplished. Megan is perfecting her roll and scootching. She is also moving on to veggies and fruit and is really enjoying eatting real food! Megan is also sleeping through the night in long stretches, she slept 8 hours last night! Mara is practicing her guitar playing and was singing a wonderful rendition of 'twinkle twinkle.'

Rocking and Rolling

It's official! Megan is mobile and rolling! She is even starting to scootch after things too! It won't be long before we have two kids running around after each other. Megan performed her first roll about a week ago, but now is consistently rolling and has the happiest smile on her face when she completes her new trick!

Guitar

Aaron has finally started on his mission to learn to play the guitar. Right now he is borrowing his friends guitar to get a feel for it. He is doing pretty well for being self taught at the moment. Soon he will be singing and strumming 'Rocky Mountain High' among other songs. Mara has also shown some interest in the guitar although that seems to change daily.

Eldorado Canyon

Our latest Adventure takes us north of Denver to the quaint town of Eldorado Springs, just outside of Boulder. We had a fun filled day of picnicking and hiking in Eldorado Canyon. The hot days of summer had finally subsided and cool mountain air welcomed us on our first venture as a family in the mountains of Colorado.We found a lovely spot for a picnic along South Boulder Creek. We could view the water rushing by as well as the rock climbers scaling the towering walls of the canyon. The bees unfortunately cut our lunch a little shorter than we would have liked. We made our way with the girls strapped into our stroller to Fowler trail. There we encountered a snake just at the trailhead. A little nervous of what this creature might do Julia hesitated passing by it. Aaron bravely walked past and soon discovered it was just a bronze cast and was nothing to worry about. Julia felt a little foolish and much relieved to discover there was nothing to worry about! The Hike was along a path that offered breathtaking views of the canyon below. We could hear the rushing of the creek below as well as calls from the birds flying along the canyon wall. While enjoying the beauty of the canyon sides, we could spot various rock climbers making their way up the walls...it was quite a spectacular site. Next, we packed the girls into backpacks and hiked up Rattlesnake Gulch Trail. It was quite a bit more rocky and rugged of a trail and the sun started to beat down on us. Since we wanted to keep the girls safe from the sun we headed back to the car. It was a lot of fun to finally venture out into the wilderness of Colorado. We can't wait to share our next adventure!

Vegas!

Aaron and Julia spent a night in Vegas after Julia followed Aaron on one of his trips. Julia learned that flying was a bit more exhausting than she thought it would be, but enjoyed all the scenery flying into Salt lake City, San Jose, and Las Vegas. They enjoyed the fountain show at the Bellagio and Aaron tried his luck at the blackjack tables at Paris (and did very well!).

Purple Mountains Majesty

Over the past two months we have been busy unpacking, organizing, arranging, and rearranging trying to make our house our home. One of my favorite parts of our home is the mountain view. The sunset views are quite amazing. Every evening around dinnertime the sun starts to cast magical colors in the sky with the purple mountains in a silhouette. It's a wonderful way for us to enjoy the beauty Colorado offers and to take some moments to pause in our busy day.

Megan's first bite!

Megan started her first bites of food! She isn't that thrilled about it yet, but thinks her mom is pretty funny for making all sorts of obnoxious chewing faces at her.