row row row your boat.....

We may go under down here...OMG it has RAINED STRAIGHT....pure moisture and gray skies for three straight days...people are literally going nuts as we DO NOT have weather like this....and worst of all,Nancy and Mark happen to be in Vero this week visiting friends! We got to see them at our home Tuesday night...I will post pictures soon...need to get them off my phone and we had a wonderful visit and got to share a piece of our little Florida life here with them, despite this horrendous rain!! It is just WET outside at all times but supposedly it is supposed to move out of here by tomorrow however temps are supposed to dip again to cooler for the weekend...we literally froze to death last weekend and early this week and then the past few days temps soared into the 70's and 80's again (I will take that despite the fact that we all look and feel like wet dogs) but tomorrow cooler temps return for the weekend....we are spoiled here and not used to this!!! This weekend SB and I are going to a kids play Saturday am with some friends and their daughters, and Saturday night we have a family progressive dinner planned between our house and some friend's houses with kids and parents and then Sunday we will go to mass (have been lazy about that lately) and then dare I say it...KINDERGARTEN OPEN HOUSE....at our little catholic school...Sissy is both excited and nervous as this big milestone ahead in just a few short months looms. She is enjoying her last few months of pre-school and thoroughly enjoys her alternations of "school days" and "stay home days" with Miss Ann....they work on numbers, letters, and writing and counting on the days she is home and she is such a little lounger in the mornings she does not have school...we are IN TROUBLE with this girl next year, I don't even want to think about it!!! Tonight the big dilemma that brought tears was that "everyone else in my class is already 5"...not true but many of them are! I told her not to rush it and to enjoy the last bit of being 4:) Besides battling the weather and rushing life to lose teeth (Jackson finally has his second loose tooth) and to turn 8 and 5....they both have late birthdays and can barely stand it...we are excitedly starting to plan for Spring Break and our western caribbean cruise coming up via Royal Caribbean! Last year Jon and I got to go alone but this year the cruise fell over spring break week so we are taking the kids along too and we will visit the Bahamas, Jamaica and Haiti via Fort Lauderdale. We will be home the Saturday before Easter in time to celebrate Easter at home and to experience the Moorings Easter Carnival fun! Looking forward to March already! We are going into my favorite months here in Florida with season upon us and cooler temps, no bugs, sun (hopefully soon again) and lots of spring time visitors!!!

Chilly but sunny weekend at home to celebrate Jon's 36th birthday

We've spent a chilly but very bright and sunny weekend at home getting more January projects completed around the house...still cleaning out cabinets, and finished my closet...HUGE job done, phew! We had a new babysitter babysit last night, recommended by one of our neighbors and she was great. Jon and I had a nice dinner and then got a text from a group of friends that were getting together for an impromptu gathering at one of their homes so we joined them after dinner and took advantage of their new fire pit for a VERY cold night with temps down in the 30's!! THAT IS COLD FOR FLORIDA and because of our humidity it is a damp cold so I am not kidding that it actually feels colder. We got to see the super moon rise over the beach on the way to dinner and that was cool too! Not a bad day for Jon all in all. Our pool is being remodeled and re-surfaced so the back yard is torn up and we are putting a new counter top on our outdoor kitchen that will hold up better in the Florida sun and rains...and of course that prompted the fact that we need a new patio set....spring cleaning is in full force around here! To take a break from our projects yesterday and today and to take advantage of the cooler temps (feels like November in Ohio and smells like it too outside with this bright bright sun and deep blue skies and everyone has their fire places going so you can smell the wood smell outside...we took a bike ride in the neighborhood, first time we could do this, me and both Jackson and SB as she rode her big girl bike from Santa and I could actually ride my bike....did not have to carry hers half way through and could really pedal! We are turning a milestone here and before I know it we will have her riding without training wheels!!! Speaking of milestones, next weekend we kick off Catholic School's week and Sunday we will go through the open house at the kid's school after mass and visit the Kindergarten classrooms..did I just type that??!! I can hardly believe Sarabeth will be in school all day next year with her brother!!! She is ready though and even just this past week has started to give up her naps (say it isn't so)!!!!! Here are some pictures of the kids assisting Jon with opening his birthday presents on Saturday morning:)

January January

January....I remembered what I don't like about this month these past few weeks....post holiday slump/let down it seems many people have been in but we are nearly through that, and after a few weeks after our trip out west we have settled fairly well into the third quarter of second grade for Jackson and that routine, and we have settled back into our pre-school and work/home/ life. We've had an unusual amount of rain here this month and after a record warm December, we've had a few weeks of cooler winterish weather! We don't have a great forecast ahead but are preparing for a rather low key birthday weekend for Jon. Rain/wind/cold is on the forecast so no idea what tomorrow will hold but at least we will all be home and it's not a work day! We were at the lake last weekend for the long MLK day weekend with friends and has some colder weather and rain then too in between some gorgeous sunny days. I guess it is just that time of year!!! We did spring cleaning at home two weekends ago, and spring cleaning at the lake last weekend...both of our garages and homes including all closets and cupboards now look like show pieces...just wish it would stay that way!!! I am going one more round with my closet this coming weekend at home....too much stuff that I never use or wear...time to clear it out! Jon and I will go out to dinner tomorrow night to celebrate his 36th b-day in style at our favorite local restaurant the Ocean Grill but other than that....its a home-bound, quiet birthday weekend ahead! Sounds good to me after a wildly busy week...weeks that start with a Monday on a holiday always turn out like this, as we still have to do the same 5 days worth of work in 4 days...TGIF, pictures this weekend of the birthday boy and our family celebrations for him.

Ski videos coming tomorrow night and other posts!!

I have finally updated our blog and updated from Thanksgiving to the present time, woo hoo! It has been a crazy busy but fun filled 6 weeks! Please scroll down to review the posts and click previous posts all the way back to Thanksgiving to get up to speed with our crazy lives over this past holiday season:) Tomorrow night Jon will post some videos of all of us skiing...we have run out of steam for tonight!!

Winter Park, Colorado Ski Trip!!!

We capped off the holiday season by enjoying the week between Christmas and New Year's skiing in Winter Park Colorado! We frantically took down our live Christmas tree the morning of the 26th and got out house under as much control as possible to be gone a week following a major holiday and departed for the vet to drop the dogs to board and then the Orlando airport to kick off our vacation in Peshke style with a stay at the Orlando airport Hyatt complete with a runway view room and balcony the night before our early morning flight out to Colorado on the 27th! We've done quite a bit of traveling with the kids in the past few years but we've made relatively easy trips on cruises to the Caribbean that depart nearly from our backyard since we live in Florida, and most recently we took an international flight to Turks and Caicos...still an easy 1.5 hour flight from Miami's airport. This trip was like no other in that it was a TRUE ADVENTURE...Jon and I have never been out west to this part of the country and it was truly exciting for all four of us. This was the kid's first time seeing snow and remembering it for both of them and both of their first time on skis and our first time for all four of us skiing in real ski country in Colorado!!! We had a direct flight out of Orlando to Denver on Frontier Airlines (great airline by the way) and departed 85 degree temps (with SB the only person to board the plane to Colorado in December in flip flops...to arrive to temps in the teens.....SB quickly donned her coat and ugg boots...forget the socks it was freezing when we landed and got acclimated with our bags at the airport. After a bit of a hiatus to get the rental car...we were off and driving for the 1.5-2 hour drive INTO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS to Winter Park! This was JUST AWESOME but I was thanking my lucky stars as the four of us were packed into a Jeep Cherokee (best rental car we could get our hands on this time of the year but felt quite small compared to the larger SUVS we drive at home) and we went careening down the steep inclines and declines...runaway truck ramps and all, and even a tunnel under the mountains at one point. We passed some cool sleepy mountain mine towns...Idaho Springs...one of the towns of the great gold rush...Jack was fascinated and then we began our ascent into the real mountains...this was like nothing we had ever seen.....and all of the sudden the snow was just unreal, thank GOD again it was not actually snowing on this day but was instead by the grace of God clear, with bright clear sunny blue skies!! We needed sun glasses it was so bright the reflection off all of the snow in what truly looked like a winter wonderland!!! It is hard to say you do not believe in God when you see a place like this!!! The beauty was amazing all around us!! I was worried with the hair pin turns Jackson would get car sick but he was so busy watching the road and all of the amazement around of us of the new terrain, he was just fine!! We arrived at the Winter Park Mountain Lodge resort just about 4:30 that day, Mountain Time, so we had had a long day by this point and checked into our rooms and were so excited for our first day of skiing the next day. Our rooms and lodge were across the street from the ski resort and village (next year if we get our act together and plan in advance we are getting a ski in ski out condo in the village steps from the slopes but this year was a learning experience and still fun)!!! We had a mountain view from our room so could see the skiers and Jackson was so excited, as soon as the car was parked, unzipped coat, no gloves or hat...like a Florida child unaccustomed to winter he literally leeped from the car and jumped into a 6 foot snow bank...only to come out saying owwww!!! He had no idea the cold snow would sting and burn his ungloved hands, OMG!! Jon and I just laughed and threw him some gloves...he did not make that mistake again. We were there from Sunday the 27th through Friday the 1st when we made the trek back to Denver. We skied four days and that was plenty skiing that week Mon-Thurs. and we got to check out some fun restaurants and pubs, we tried lots of neat Colorado food and microbrews, we even went to a cool restaurant with gourmet wood fire grilled pizzas and a yuppy mini bowling alley one night!! The kids did great and both really learned to ski. Jackson really excelled and did not mind the cold...Sissy did not at all like the cold and at one point told me "mom, this cold is really starting to annoy me...I have all of this gear on, how is it still getting in and making me cold??!!" HAHA, she is definitely related to me and like me prefers a warm climate and warm vacation but this was a really fun vacation for this time of the year!!! On our last day we returned to Denver and spent the night there at the Westin at the airport as we had a VERY EARLY 6:45 am flight the next morning to make the trek back to Florida. While in Denver we explored and visited the Denver aquarium on New Year's day, and also drove past the Denver Broncos stadium. Amazingly, if you turn one way in Denver you see the rocky mountains in the distance and it is amazing...if you turn the other way I swear to God it looks like Columbus Ohio! Even Jackson said it looked like Ohio all on his own when we first were driving in Denver toward the mountains. The houses, and terrain (less the angle towards the rockies) really did look just like we were driving on 75 in Toldeo, no joke!!! Amazing. One of the things we will all take away from this trip was how well we did getting out of our comfort zones, the bonding time we had, and the amazingly nice and friendly people we met out west. People are truly NICE out there. That also reminded us of the midwest. I think we will make this a traditional trek going forward...Aunt Megan and Erik already want to join us next year!!!