Jacob and Natalie go Skiing

I have to justify the title of this post just a little.  ALL of the pictures are of Jacob and I, and we skied a lot.   

Jacob joined the local ski team for a season and loved skiing every Saturday with them.  I was the designated driver, as Dave was either working, or home healing.  (Maren was off skiing with the High school ski club most weekends, and Spencer was home healing, or um, playing his nintendo switch all day.  He did also do a lot of lego building, and eating of everything in sight in the house;)  

Mostly I would drop Jacob off in the morning and enjoy a beautiful day cross country skiing on top of the Mesa until he was ready for me to pick him up in the afternoon.   Sometimes I would come back to eat lunch with him, and a few times I stuck around to help with the teams race.  But mostly it was just me and the beautiful snow on the mesa.  I loved it.  I often would put on a book on my headphones and just go for a couple of hours.  I highly recommend this, it is very theraputic.  After lunch I would switch from my skate ski's to my classic ski's, and go our again.  It was lovely, and I was exhausted at the end of these ski's/

I did convince some friends to join me once or twice.  

It is always a beautiful place to share with friends.

Jacob loved the few days he got to ski with his buddy Paxton, these were not ski team days, but other days, and he loved having free reign of the mountain.  And I loved that someone else was willing to keep up with him.

In the end he really loved ski racing, He placed well enough to go to "state" in the Buddy Warner program.  He got to ski at Sunlight for that event, and did well enough to medal.  He loves to go fast, and is developing pretty good control.  He also loves to jump, and do all sorts of tricks.

You will notice in the picture below, that Jacob and I are not on ski's but snow shoes.  Jacob's class went snow shoeing on the Mesa for a field trip.  This is my favorite field trip that the school does for the 1st and 4th graders.  And this is our last year.  But it was a good one.

The weather was perfect.  Warm enough to take off jackets for lunch at the end, and perfect snow for romping around in the woods.  Jacob won his class race down the hill in snow shoes.  This is so funny to watch, as running in snow shoes is not easy, and the kids usually end up tripping themsleves up and falling over one another.  But Jacob knew this was coming, and has had lots of practice over the years of running in snow shoes, so he was ready, and was happy to be the first down the hill.  The highlight for me, was helping the little lady that made it to the bottom of the hill, but without her snowshoes...or her boots.  Poor thing didn't even realize she was only in socks!

We will take a brief moment to interrupt this post with a picture of Skai.  He was a good pal to Spencer all winter long, and only wished i took him along to ski with me every weekend.  (I did a few times!)

Jacob's class also did a fun field trip to the fish hatchery, to learn about the fish native to our section of the CO river, and what mitigation efforts are being done to protect them.

Jacob was also in his school's play the Lion King this winter.  He was a gazelle, and in the chorus, and did a great job.  He was disappointed he didn't get a bigger part.  I was not.  He was too busy as it was.

These friends had a great time, and the play turned out so good for a bunch of 4th and 5th graders.

I got to teach Jacobs class about Michelango for Art this year.  To mimic his sisteen chapel and other ceiling fresco's I had the kids draw pictures lying on their backs with their paper taped under their tables.  They loved this and thought it was so fun to try.

His class also did a fun Colorado Heritage night, and he got to tell us all about Kit Karson, whom he had researched, and done a presentation board on.  They combined this with their music program, and we learned some fun folk dances along with the kids at the end.  It was so fun and a great way to celebrate learning along with the kids.

Jacob won an award for fundraising, I think because we donated too much, but it was for a good cause, and it put a big smile on his face, and gave me an excuse to take another picture.

One last activiy to sqooze in this winter, was a fun little team called Mad Minds with Destination Imagination.  It was such a great program, and I really wanted to love it, as it taught so many great things that these kids will need, like creative thinking, teamwork, and personal responsibility.  And Jacob really did like it, but with too many differing personalities that struggled to click, this was a hard process. I helped coach, and these kids struggled every week to come together and figure out what they were wanting to do, and be, and to not just goof off.  In the end they did do a fun play, and they learned a few things, and mostly just had fun.  Which I guess is most of what needed.  And Jacob learned that he was committed to more than he wanted, and that itself is a good lesson.

My favorite picture of them all. 

"Don't grow up, It's a Trap"

I am so glad i had this winter to hang out with the cute kid so much.  We had a lot of fun, and I got to learn about what makes him tick, and you know what? I am pretty blessed to be his mom.