My Valentine

Nathan knows me so well. :)

Rather than making a big deal out of Valentine's Day, which I don't really like anyhow...and rather than flowers or candy (okay, I may have asked him to get me some chocolates earlier this week but that was unrelated, lol)...Nathan took me to our favorite local shoe store (that happened to be having a big sale this weekend...yay!) and encouraged me to bring home these lovely shoes:

(It's hard to tell from the picture, but they're a lovely olive-y green...a shade I don't already have in shoes/boots.) 

Yup. That's my kind of (early) Valentine. :) 

Just so you know...

...in case I go missing for awhile here, don't worry. I spent the weekend (7am-8:30pm on Saturday and then 7am-3:30pm on Sunday) helping at the boys' JOAD tournament. (The tournament went pretty well, though the boys didn't shoot great...having not really had enough practice over the last two weeks since we've had house guests.) Then I got to spend the evening enjoying the Super Bowl with my guys...WOOHOOOOO BRONCOS!! Then I pretty much crashed. ;)

So. Today I'm finally starting on my catching up from our 1.5ish weeks of having parents here. (Nathan's parents flew out Saturday morning.) Tomorrow, I'm "supposed" to start our homeschooling back up, though I've yet to prep stuff for that (but I really should start back up since we just took two weeks off). I also had to reschedule our appointment with our accountant that was set for today, since we didn't finish getting our tax information pulled together last week. (Well, my part is pulled together...but we need to get the business stuff in order.) 

So, I may be a bit quiet here this week while I get things back on track. ;) 

Indoor Skydiving

In our efforts to focus on experiences rather than things, one of our Christmas gifts to the boys this year was a family package at iFly in Denver. We finally made it down there to make good on that on Sunday. It was a pretty awesome experience. :) 

After we'd checked in and all, we watched other people in the wind tunnel for a bit before our training session. Then we got suited up:

With our package, we each got two one minute flights. The first one helped to just get a feel for it all, and during the second one we added the "high flight" option where the instructor spun/jumped/took us up the wind tunnel and back down again a few times. It was fantastic (and not as scary or motion-sick-y as I worried!). (Micah did decide at the last minute that the high flight was more than he could handle so got spun around down low, which still looked pretty dang fun.)

Anyhow, our package came with videos of one of our flights (our pick). I then also bought these pictures (which were quite reasonably priced!)...

First up was Nathan...

...then Noah...

...and Micah...

...and me...

...and Asher...

Not to brag or anything, but I was totally the best flyer of the five of us. ;) Honest! The boys will even agree with me, and our instructor (Preston...who was fabulous!) told me so when he handed out flight certificates. Regardless, we all had a fantastic time...yay!

After all that, Nathan's parents (who had fun watching us all) and the five of us grabbed some lunch and hit IKEA before heading home just ahead of the storm.

PSA: If you go and if you have long hair, I HIGHLY recommend braiding it or otherwise securing it in some way. It took a good bit to detangle my hair afterwards and I lost a lot of hair in the process, lol. Fortunately, I have a lot of hair and it grows fast. ;)

Nana

My mom came for Asher's black belt promotion and was able to visit with us for a few days. :) After she arrived, my brother and his family came up from Longmont and we all went out to dinner. The next day, while Noah was in school, the younger two, mom and I enjoyed the sunshine in Old Town...with some shopping and browsing and lunch...

That afternoon we all went to watch Kung Fu Panda 3. (It was fun!) That night, Nathan's parents flew in while mom, Noah and I were getting the younger two to demo team practice and then having some dinner and pina colada cake. Once we were all home again, there was a good bit of visiting and catching up...then to bed for our big day on Saturday...

We managed to finish all our errands and get Asher to his promotion and enjoy that for pretty much the rest of the day...

Back home again, I finally remembered to get a picture with mom during the daylight hours, lol.

That night, mom headed south with Zach, Marcy and Kenna for the remainder of her visit. Thankfully, she was able to make it out of the Denver airport this afternoon. :) (We had a bit of a winter storm yesterday/today. Lots of cancelled and delayed flights. Pretty much all of the boys' activities (and Noah's classes) were cancelled, though we still went to the archery range and to karate.)

In any case, so glad she was able to make it out to share in Asher's promotion and that we were able to spend some time together! 

BLACK BELT

So. On Saturday, Asher officially promoted to black belt! It was a pretty awesome day...with family and friends to help celebrate (thanks to you all...you know who you are!). We had an exhibition of skills by the two new black belts, performances by the demo team, cake, food and visiting and congratulating Asher and Jonathan. After all that at Karate West, we headed home and continued the celebration into the night. Whew. :)

I haven't made it through all the pictures I took for editing and such, but here's a decent sample:

Here's Asher before everything got started...goofing around trying to avoid people congratulating him...

Demonstrating some of the forms...

...and combinations...

...and sparring...

(As I said, there was plenty more. I have pictures. I'm not going to wait to post until I have them all sorted, so this will have to do, lol.)

And then new uniforms and belts were presented...

Yes, we were aware that Asher's uniform would be too big. :) We did that on purpose, actually, as the uniforms have a history of shrinking more than normal. For the record, I washed it today and the jacket sleeves no longer need to be rolled.

This is one of my favorite pictures...of Asher with Mrs Yee, who runs the demo team (and the school)...

...and this one, with Mr Yee. The Yees have encouraged and trained and laughed with and helped Asher for the past 5.5 years, and we are so grateful!

And now Asher begins the next leg of his karate journey...building on this black belt and working toward a second degree black belt. It'll take a few years... ;)

Many thanks to all of the people who helped along the way...instructors who had a hand in Asher's training, friends who showed interest in his activities, fellow karate members who made it fun, family who congratulated him along the way...everyone.