From sand to snow...and everything in between!

Man, it seems like we've got a lot going on!  And yes, I know I am super late...trust me I've received threatening e-mails about getting this posted!  But to make up for it, get ready for picture palooza!

In late January, Dylan and I went to Puerto Rico with Grandma and NiNi for our annual trip.  We had a GREAT time!!  It's so fun to get to spend such quality time with two of our favorite people.  And Dylan eats up the attention...pretty sure he convinced Grandma that since we were on vacation, he needed ice cream every night!  I'll let the pics do most of the talking! 

D loves maps, just like his daddy!  Here Grandma is showing him where we are going :)

Ice cream #1 :)

D clearly got the Harsch gene when it comes to dancing ;)

Outdoor pool tables?  D was in heaven!

Let's go fly a kite!!

Ice cream # 2!

The second place we stayed was amazing!  It had a funicular to get down the cliff!

Driving the boat to the private island!


Nicki wanted me to get closer...but that's as close to the giant lizard as I was willing to get!





Giant crab!











They had a scavenger hunt all over the hotel property (including the private island).  D loved going to collect all the colored bracelets (rubber bands).

What hotel doesn't have an arcade :)  Seriously, this place was made for Dylan!

Ice cream #3!

We headed to hotel's water park for the day...it was empty and we had a GREAT time!  D loved going down all the slides! 

This slide was for grownups only...Nicki and I went on it a few times!  I have to admit it was a bit scary!

Not pictured...me throwing Dylan :)

Goodbye at the airport!

A huge thanks to Grandma Toni and Aunt NiNi for coordinating the trip!!  It means so much to us to get to take this trip every year!  It's always so much fun and just what I need!

We also celebrated Maggie's 3rd birthday in mid-February!  Maggie continues to amaze me every day!  She is one of the smartest little kiddos I've ever seen.  She will quietly observe something, once, and then will know how to do it perfectly!  She loves playing with babies and her older sister and cousin.  I love making her laugh and watching her do everything on her own terms!  Happy birthday, Maggie!  I can't wait to see what year 4 brings for you!!

We had Maggie's birthday at the zoo!  It was a bit cold, but we had a great time!! 

D enjoying the trampoline Maggie got for her birthday :)

For those of you tracking...KC has had a TON of snow the last few weeks!  The first big snowstorm hit the Thursday before we left to go skiing in Colorado.  Namma came to KC a day early so she'd be here on Friday to drive out with Papa.  Dylan and I stayed the night at my parent's on Wednesday night, so my dad could watch him on Thursday while I worked from their house. 

Luckily, our flight was on time and both the Morris fam and my parents drove safely to Colorado!

We had a great time skiing!!  On Saturday, we took the kiddos to Keystone to ride on the gondolas and to play in the snow castle.  They also enjoyed being in a parade!  Ella and Dylan also went to ski school!  They both did great!  Ella was definitely MVP of her class...the only kiddo they let go down the training hill without the instructor.  Dylan, once again, looked very comfortable on his skis...however, he didn't quite understand why he should slow down/stop.  I think he had a bit of a hard time mastering the pizza wedge (snowplow), so he decided there was no need to use it :)  I'm guessing by next year, he will be an expert! 

D's favorite part of the trip...lots of hot chocolate :)

I love this picture...Dylan's instructor asked him why he didn't slow down...and he looked up at him like, why would I?  Did you see how far I went??

Maggie even tried skiing!

Andrea and I had told Dylan and Ella that we would take them up the ski lift the day after their lessons!  D and I did really well on the ski lift...a couple of workers helped him get on and then I just carried him off.  After that, it wasn't quite as smooth!  In fact, I was telling some people at work this week how our first 30 minutes could have been an instructional video on why not to try to teach your kids to ski.  After we got off the lift, Dylan and I immediately started having issues...part of the problem was they set his skis to come off really easily (which is good for safety), so his skis kept coming off.  This might not sound like a big deal, but when you have a frustrated mama and almost 4 year old it gets old really quickly!  The biggest problem was I was worried Dylan would get going too fast and either fall off a cliff or fall and hurt himself very badly.  So, at the beginning, I was trying to ski with him between my legs and we kept getting crossed up.  After a LONG time (and some tears from D about wanting to quit), I decided that him "learning" from me was unnecessary...I put his skis between mine, held him under the arms and we just went "fast"!  He had a great time, and we even went up the chairlift again (this was impressive considering 5 minutes in he didn't want to ever ski again!)  The good news is, he now remembers it fondly and is excited for ski lessons again next year!

Ella and Andrea making it look easy!

The Three Musketeers :)

KC got hit with another snow storm the day we were supposed to fly home!  Our flight got cancelled, so we ended up driving home with my parents!  D did AWESOME in the car.  In fact, he was much less antsy than I was (which for some reason doesn't surprise most people)!  We were a bit worried that we wouldn't be able to make it to KC, but we were able to! 

Lunch at McDonalds!

Thank goodness for the leap pad!

D loves breakfast for dinner!  So he was thrilled when we stopped at Denny's in Topeka :)

I promise to get back to posting weekly...we have lots of fun stuff coming up including Dylan turning 4!!