Wii are Having Fun Now

We finally decided to join the modern generation and get a Wii. I've never been a big video game fan, but I am loving it. Love the physical aspect of it, love that all of us can play, love the competition part of it. What? Me? Competitive? Oh, just a tiny bit. And Morgan, well she is kicking our butt at bowling. She's quite the natural. Her overall favorite thing about the Wii? Changing her outfit on her Mii each day, of course. Have I mentioned that she's a girlie-girl?

Mark used some of his birthday money to buy the Active Life Outdoor Challenge. This thing is a blast.

You use a mat, which comes with the game, and a controller for a whole body experience. There are games like jump rope, whack a mole, roller skating, mine carts and so much more. You can play alone (training, free play, or courses) or with others (competition where you each take turns, or head to head where you are both doing it at the same time, as well as cooperative play). We played for an hour last night and I am sore! Morgan was in bed while we were playing so she didn't get to try out, but I think she's going to be able to play several of these games.

There are only two things I have an issue with. The first is that the mat slides around. We put my yoga mat down and then the Wii mat on top. This cut down on the sliding, but we still needed to adjust the mat every so often. The second is that the mat buttons are pretty close together for head to head play. It would be fine for two kids, but two adults are practically on top of each other. This does make it easy to "accidently" bump into your partner, breaking their stride and enabling you to sprint to the finish line - but I would never do that.

Overall, I really like this game and I think it's going to provide us with hours and hours of entertainment.

Capturing Moments

During Morgan's first year I filled up not one, but two photo albums with pictures. I captured every moment of every day no matter how mundane. I would take dozens of pictures of her sleeping. They all looked the same, but that didn't matter to me at the time.

Now that she is older, my picture taking has dramatically decreased. I might be able to blame it on my inability (and my cameras) to capture a toddler zooming around at lightening speed. As she got older, I might even blame the lack of photos on my subject matter for consonantly hiding behind her hands or turning her back at just a glimpse of a camera coming out. But really I have no good excuses for the empty photo albums I now have on our shelves. I need to get better. I need to capture these times. Especially now that she's growing so quickly and changing so much, coming into her personality more and more. If I don't, I know I will look back and regret it.

This weekend we went hiking at Red Rocks. She's turned into quite the hiker with minimum complaints - a HUGE difference from years past where she asked to be carried every few feet. She was happy to walk along while waving around a stick, combating unseen evil forces. Lost in her own imagination. Holes in rocks were actually caves where scary mosters live. Steps were an opportunity to jump up and down. Rocks were obstacles to climb and conquer. What a wonderful day we had.

And I don't have one, not one single picture that captured this special day. Yes, I must get better.

Better Late Then Never

I'm finally posting pictures from our latest trip to Green Bay. As you could tell by my post from yesterday, I haven't been exactly on the ball lately.

This toboggan is over 30 years old!

Because going down forwards is not thrilling enough

Gigi showing off the earrings Morgan got her for her birthday (only one is in at this point)

Breaking Ice in the street

Exploring at the Wildlife Sanctuary
Feeding deer

In the desert dome at the Three Domes in Milwaukee

Me and my Mom

Legoland in the Domes

Christmas in February

First, I must say that we did take down our Christmas decoration right before New Years, so I thought I was on the ball. Last night we were eating dinner and Morgan looked up at the top of our cabinets.

Morgan: Mom

Me: Yes?

Morgan: You should probably take Santa down. Christmas was over a loooong time ago.

I look up to see that we still have our Santa in an airplane still sitting on top of the cabinet. Guess it's time to take it down when a four year old is criticizing your outdated decorating.

To my defense, I'm really short so I hardly look all the way up there. Hopefully I remember to take it down tonight.

Valentine's Day Assembly Line

I appreciate the fact that Morgan wants to be involved in getting the Valentine's ready for her class. Really. I do. It's great that she wants to take the time and effort to make things special for her friends. I just wish she could do it a little faster.

We spent around TWO hours last night getting 26 valentines made. First, I had to read off the classmate's name and then she would deliberate on which design was bested suited for each person. She waffled between Belle and Cinderella several times. She wasn't nearly as picky picking out the boys' Teenage Mutant Nijia Turtle designs. I would then write the friend's name on the To line and she would write her name on the From line. Boy, did she get a lot of practice writing her name. Then, she wanted to pick out which sucker would go into the valentine, bunch out the pre-cut holes and weave the sucker stick through. Just when I thought we were all done, she wanted to do ones for kids who aren't in her class but she knows, as well as almost all the teachers at her school.

At least she is very thoughtful! And hopefully next year, she will have the skills to do this a little faster.

We Survived

We had a wonderful visit to Green Bay. Surprisingly, the weather wasn't so bad. There was actually this shining bright light in the sky for two out of the four days we were there. The temperatures were a balmy 30-40 degrees. The heat wave had people out jogging in shorts and short sleeves. We even saw a family sitting outside on their patio sans-jackets, soaking up the heat. Ah, yes. It is a different world. I've obviously gotten soft being away, because to me, it was still freaking cold!

We all had a great time visiting. Morgan's favorite thing was taking turns with a bucket of bouncy balls, dumping them down the stairs, then trying to find them all, thanks to Baba's great idea. It still doesn't take much to entertain her. We were able to do some sledding on my childhood toboggan and we walking around at the Wildlife Sanctuary. It still amazes me that the Wildlife Sanctuary is free, especially after they have added a pretty neat indoor exhibit area. We also spent some time at the Three Domes in Milwaukee before our flight out. The time sure went by fast.

As for the flight, I was pleasantly surprised by the airline (United) to see that the $15 (yes, each way) charge for extra luggage did not include car seats. Also exempt are wheelchairs and strollers. Nice to see that they aren't making it too much of a burden for families. Morgan did great on both legs of the flight. Mark and I figured out that this was her 11th flight in her four and a half years. She has become quiet the professional traveller and does better at the security checks then most adults.

I'll post pictures in the next couple days. Meanwhile, we are trying to get back into the grind of our regular life.

A Journey to the Arctic Circle

Tomorrow we leave for the Arctic Circle. OK, maybe it's not REALLY the Arctic, but being as the highs have been in single digits lately, it might as well be!

We are headed to Green Bay this weekend. I know. We are crazy. Going to Green Bay in early Feb. But my parents have been needing some help around the house for a while now and it's time we got out there. I was hoping we could avoid the airlines luggage fee by doing all carry on. Seeing as one suitcase will be full with just jackets, snow pants, boots, mittens, and hats, it looks like the airline will get us for another $15. Oh, and then there's the car seat - that's another $15. This flying thing is getting ridiculous!

The good news (besides the obvious of seeing my folks - hi mom and dad!) is that we will be eating some delicious cheese curds and butter burgers at Kroll's. YUM!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. We'll be back late Monday night, as long as we don't get stuck frozen in some snowbank Shining-style.

Super Bowl Weekend

During gymnastics, they have different themes days. This weekend they were supposed to wear a football uniform or dress as a cheerleader. This is what Morgan wanted to wear. Sorry Matt and Mark, but I bet Baba and Gigi are thrilled.

She also wore this when we went to our friend's house for the Super Bowl. The outfit was complete with matching Green Bay Phoenix Pom-Poms. While we were getting ready to go, I heard her in the loft practicing her cheers. "Go Broncos! Go Packers! Go Steelers!" Then there was silence, followed by a quiet "That's all the teams I know..."

On Monday, she once again wanted to wear her cheerleader outfit. Being as it was two days dirty, I had to tell her no. She might have a new favorite outfit.

Mulan Interpretation

Morgan's take on the theme song from the Disney cartoon Mulan.

The words are: "When will my reflection show, Who I am inside?"

Morgan's ponder: "Well that would just show her bones and blood."