Holiday Happenings: In Pictures

January 14, 2015 By

I know we’re well into January but I realized I barely touched upon the holidays. I had my doubts about staying in Denver but we ended up having the perfect mix of playtime and downtime. Here are a few of my favorite things:

The kids’ piano recital. Hadley played “Away in a Manger” while Bode Rocked around the Christmas Tree. As usual, Hadley made me pray for a Christmas miracle because she could barely make it through the song during practice but it finally clicked a few days prior and they both did great!

My solo afterward was the hallelujah shout.

Our ward party is always a blast filled with awesome friends, delicious food, Santa and a live band that featured…Elvis?

Who says Mormons don’t know how to party?!!!!

One night, we opted to watch The Hobbit downtown so we could see the Christmas lights and stroll through the charming Denver Christkindl Market.

Christkindl Photobomb!

I thought the STIHL-sponsored photobooth with the chainsaw cutting off Bode’s head was a particularly nice touch.

We also discovered quite possibly the best present ever: The “NO” pen. Click the link below for our quick video to watch my demonstration.

IMG_5111

It has since gone missing. I suspect The Children may have had something to do with it.

I had a blast appearing on 9News’ ugly sweater segment.

And an even bigger blast when about 50 friends showed up for our sledding party!

On another day, we skated Evergreen Lake, followed by Country Road Cafe.

We did a lot of baking and played a lot of games…

Making cinnamon rolls

…in our PJs.

We made a point to do some service and volunteered at the Santa House to distribute gifts to low-income kiddos. My good friend Sam was about 45 weeks pregnant so we invited her three young kids over for the afternoon for “Elf Camp” with games and snacks. Hadley and her friend Alex were the entertainment committee and they did marvelously…until it came time to change Zoe’s diaper. It would appear we have some work to do before they’re ready to start babysitting.

Though New Year’s Eve day was a bust with our ski trip,we had a fun New Year’s Eve ringing in 2015 with our friends, the Carrolls.

Though they may not say the same thing.

I’ll likely be banned from bringing silly string in the future.

On New Year’s Day, we were invited over to the Huntleys for a PJ/Ebelskiver party!
We didn’t even bother getting dressed for our fondue dinner that night. Things got a bit blurry…


Because of this wild ‘n crazy Martinelli’s kid.

But nothing says Welcome to 2015 quite like lazy gluttony.

It’s gonna be a good year.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, holidays, Humor

When the children become the mother

January 8, 2015 By

Sometimes I really wonder if I’m getting through to my kids. Will they remember to say please and thank you? Are they learning to work hard? Are they grateful?

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen visions of myself through my children.

I am anti-procrastination and if there’s a project, I get it done right away so it’s not hanging over my head. When I do laundry, I do everything–washing, drying, folding, putting away–on the same day. I try to respond to emails within an hour of receiving them (you people who rarely check their inbox drive. Me. Nuts). And when I have a writing project, I always finish well before the deadline.

Bode had a project at school that was due mid-December. In essence, they were creating a mini-marketplace where they had to create at least 15 items to buy and sell with fake money. His teacher notified us a few weeks ago but in a rare move, I put it on the backburner because I assumed she would mention it again before the due date. She didn’t and I forgot about it.

So, Bode came home from school freaking out, “My project is due tomorrow, we have to get it done!”

He decided to make little monster page corner bookmarks like these. Fortunately, the only crafty one in the family was home sick from school that day so Hadley valiantly volunteered to cut out the paper triangles and once Bode got home from school, he could tape everything together and draw faces on them. The problem was she wasn’t feeling well (remember the sick thing?) so after about an hour, she brought them into the office for me to finish.

Here’s the thing the kids don’t understand about parents who work from home: we actually work. I was in the middle of finalizing some projects so told her I’d try to finish them off but never got to them. So Bode arrived home, finished his homework and after dinner I announced we’d start on the project. I began cutting out the triangles but we were way behind and Hadley let me know it. Over and over and over again.

“Well, if MOM did what I asked her to we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“Don’t ask me what MOM was doing all day. I told her to take of this.”

It was like she was looking through a magnifying glass and seeing my life with them every single day.

The roles were reserved the week before that. Hadley had her final volleyball game while Bode and I had Cub Scouts. We arrived home about 20 minutes earlier so I had Bode help me with a quick dinner. He grilled the sandwiches, warmed the ravioli and apparently it was a lot of work . Because the moment Hadley and Jamie walked in the door, he exasperatingly announced:

“I’ve been cooking for you people and the least you can do is set the table.”

They’re gonna be the best moms ever.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor

Mastering reading but not quite a master

January 7, 2015 By

We’ve had our share of ups and downs with Hadley’s teacher this year but we’re hopeful 2015 will be on the upswing.

She has made some real advances lately. An area she has vastly improved upon is reading, which tickles me to no end. When she missed those weeks of school due to pneumonia, she made a concerted effort to read their classroom book The Hobbit and was delighted when she was able to stay ahead of the class.

On the last day of school before Christmas break, she brought home her report card and it was one of her best ever. They are graded on a scale of 1 to 4. A 1 means beginning, 2 means approaching grade level, 3 means proficient/grade-level mastery and a 4 means advanced/exceeds expectations.

“Mom, I got a 4 in reading!”

“Really? For what?”

“I got a 4 in reading com…compru…compre…I don’t know what this says.”

I looked at the report card. “It stays ‘reading comprehension,’ Hadley.”

“Oh. Reading comprehension. What does that mean?”

“It means you understand what you’re reading.”

Filed Under: Hadley, Humor

A sledding party!

December 31, 2014 By

On Christmas, we received a glorious dump of snow. That night, I emailed a bunch of friends from church to see who wanted to go sledding the next day and almost all of them came–40+ people. Chalk that up to how you know you have the coolest friends ever!

My friend Eva suggested we sled at the hill behind her school, which was perfect because we had it entirely to ourselves.  I brought hot chocolate to warm everyone up and we played for hours.

Bode photobombing the Phillips

Snowman photobomb

Sledding train!

The lowlight: Some of the dads were egging me on to tube down the hill at warp speeds. It was early in the day so the fluffy snow was not yet compacted. I took a running leap onto the tube, it completely stuck to the snow while I flew forward, face-planting in the powder. Jon took a picture and after years to exploiting everyone else’s humiliations, I totally deserved it.

The highlight: Earlier that day when I crawled up the ladder in our garage to retrieve our sled from the overhead storage, I asked Bode if he’d catch me if I fell.

“No way, Mom. You weigh like 100 pounds!”

Filed Under: Bode, Colorado, Hadley, Humor, LDS, outdoors

Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2014 By

If you read my blog, our annual holiday newsletter is old news to you. But I assure you, Fat Kitty has never looked better.

Merry Christmas!

If 2014 could be summed up quickly, it would be non-stop travels for the first six months and the other six were spent recovering with little/no travels. We’re so grateful for both and most importantly that we have had minimal health crises this year and no hospital visits (wood is currently being knocked).

Our year was unprecedented for travel and will likely never be repeated but what a blast we had! I attended a media event in Denver for the Maui Convention & Visitor’s Bureau and was thrilled when I won a trip for two! The coincidence? The only other time I’ve been to Hawaii was when my dad won a trip for two to Hawaii through work. Fortunately for my siblings and our kids, we let them tag along and truly fell in love with that island paradise as it was our favorite trip ever (see all the fun here)and I’m now moderately obsessed with buying a cabin there someday.

Just as we were recovering from Maui, I was asked to attend the Disney Social Media Moms, an invite-only, highly-sought-after conference at Disneyland so we decided to splurge. And Disneyland isn’t the same without family so we surprised the kids by waking them up the morning of our departure. For once, they did not complain about being woken up early.

One of our favorite ways to play is skiing and this past year we’ve been to Breckenridge, Steamboat Springs, Crested Butte, Copper Mountain and Park City Mountain Resort...and have many more ski trips planned for 2015. One of our favorite experiences was dog sledding for the first time in Breck!

And, of course, the kids and I spent our month-long vacation in Canada and the Western United States. Jamie joined us for a week at the lake with my family in Vernon, B.C. and we had a fantastic time boating. Usually our Canadian adventures are a reprieve from Denver’s searing heat so we won’t comment how it was actually cooler in Denver during our lake retreat.

Now, onto family matters.

Hadley (age 10, fifth grade)

Hadley grew leaps and bounds this year…literally. Her huge growth spurt over the summer launched her to the top of the class in height and continues to send us scrambling to replace all her clothes, which is challenging because she hates 99% of what she sees in the store. She has a wicked sense of humor and a large group of friends at church and school. She hates math and piano and enjoys handwork, travel, art, violin, pumpkin growing (hers weighed 401 pounds), Minecraft and crafts. Her favorite class trip ever was a three-day class camping trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park where she was the second-fastest kid to summit the highest dune in North America (a bit perplexing because she’s always the first-slowest when it comes to leaving the house). For volleyball, we bumped her up to play with the 6-8 graders and she has had no problems keeping up the big girls. She’s a mountain goat hiker and is ready to be challenged on the big peaks (we just need to get our act together to take her), is moderately obsessed with bouldering and is constantly heckling the rest of us to keep up with her during her crazy traverses. She’s a great skier, is learning to tackle the moguls and we had a fabulous mother-daughter trip to the slopes in February during her school break. She loves the water and, despite her protests to try wakeboarding, popped up on her first try and now does it like a champ. Though she and Bode would never admit it, they’re besties and play wonderfully together 93 percent of the time; no comment on the other 7 percent nor who is the instigator for the fall-outs.

Bode (age 8, 3rd grade)

Bode’s big news is he got baptized in August surrounded by both sets of grandparents. He’s a happy, kind and thoughtful kid who has two emotions: joyful (most of the time) and sensitive (usually during the aforementioned fall-outs). He’s a whiz at math and a regular receiver of “Star Awards” at school yet has barely legible handwriting. He is recovering from an addiction to Calvin and Hobbes and Clash of Clans and he thrives on being responsible–he even sets his alarm early for school so he can be “extra-prepared.” For his eighth birthday, we threw him a surprise party where we hired Rolling Video Games Denver to come to the house and we invited all his friends for a two-hour video game marathon that was deemed “the best party ever.” He’s intrinsically more cautious than his sister but battled his fears and did an awesome job wakeboarding, cross-country skiing and a high-ropes course for the first time. Named after Bode Miller, he continues to rock the ski slopes and went on one of his first mogul run last week. When I asked him it was terrifying, he confessed, “A little bit,” and I can’t blame him because I sometimes feel the same way. He plays the piano non-stop, enjoyed growing his 325-pound pumpkin, loves Cub Scouts and is gearing up for his first Pinewood Derby where it will be revealed just how competitive his father really is. Bode went on his first six-day overnight camp to Camp Chief Ouray with Hadley last summer and had the time of his life. As smart as he is, he still puts his shirt on backwards but loves to snuggle up so I’m relieved he’s not growing up too fast, even if he sometimes acts like a responsible 40-year-old man in an 8-year-old body.

Jamie

The Pumpkin Man had his his worst pumpkin-growing year ever and lost both of his plants to yellow vine disease in August. Despite that setback, he was able to preserve one of them long enough to make it to the scale and it topped 500 pounds. We were sad we wouldn’t have a real giant pumpkin to display so rescued his buddy Joe’s from being axed and it just happened to be the biggest grown in Colorado this year. Jamie had a blast taking the pumpkins around to the area schools and had a ton of media interviews–he was even featured front page on The Denver Post’s YourHub. But his most memorable pumpkin moment was when he decided it would be fun to dress up as The Pumpkin Man, hide inside the pumpkin, and terrorize trick-or-treaters on Halloween. Fortunately no law suits were filed and we only had one casualty when he made Spiderman cry (watch the hilarious video here). His web development business continues to add more people to the team and we’re grateful business is growing (unfortunately so do his stress levels). At church, he’s the Stake Technology Clerk and the Priest’s Quorum Adviser but most importantly, a wonderful husband, father and mortal enemy to superheroes.

Amber

As for me, I continue to juggle trips, kid’s activities and working from home. I’ve taken over the business/advertising side of Mile High Mamas, which has confirmed I’d much rather be writing. And traveling. And hiking or skiing. But unfortunately, I haven’t figured out how to make much money from those exploits so in the interim I’ll just dream of more playtime. I’ve become more of a regular contributor on 9News and have done segments on everything from travel tips to Halloween treats to their ugly sweater Christmas party on Friday. I was released as the Primary pianist at church and am on my way out the door for Public Affairs as I’ve been called as an Akela of the Cub Scout Bear Den. I am also an aspiring dodgeball player and if this writing gig doesn’t work out, I hope to go pro in the future.

Fat Kitty

Fat Kitty is the only serious one in the family. In addition to napping for 23 hours a day, he enjoys decapitating the occasional mouse, eating grass until he pukes and annoying Jamie. He also decided to get in shape this year and his favorite exercise is a cross between a lunch and a crunch.

Some people call it lunch.

Christmas Wishes

This time of year, we’re especially grateful for our many friends, family and for our our Savior. Have the happiest of Christmases is our Christmas wish and gift to you!

 

Love,

The Johnsons

Filed Under: Bode, Canada, Colorado, Family, Family travel, Favorite Posts, Hadley, Humor, Jamie, LDS, Marriage, outdoors, pumpkins, travel, Utah

How (not) to compliment a woman

November 25, 2014 By

Sure, I enjoy occasionally getting gussied up but the majority of the time, this tomboy prefers to be low-maintenance.

Last week with my mom in town, I had a lesson in high-maintenance. Not only does she put on her make-up the moment she wakes up, she is always dressed to the nines. Despite the fact she has trouble walking, we shopped non-stop all week…until I could barely walk.

Mom gets her hair done weekly and I knew she’d feel much better if we went to the salon (my visits are, shall we say, not as regular). After my haircut, I told the stylist to blow my hair out straight for something different.

Lo, I didn’t know it would get such a reaction. As we were driving home, Mom commented, “Jamie is going to love it!”

“No, he won’t. When we were first married, he said he would never ever comment on my hair or a new cut. It’s his way of saving himself from being an unobservant husband.”

True to form, he didn’t say a word. When I called him out on it, his defense, “Oh, I noticed but remember my promise to you?”

When I picked Bode up from school, I had forgotten all about my hair. I saw him pause at the doorway before racing over to me and demanding, “Why do you look like that?”

Followed by: “Seriously, WHAT HAPPENED?”

Maybe he should have kept his mouth shut like his father.

Then, we had Hadley’s carpool friends. When I walked up to them, Hadley shouted, “WOWOWOOWOW,” followed by these comments from the peanut gallery.

“It looks so much better.” -Bryan

“Keep it like that.” -Morgan.”

“No, go back to being fuzzy.” -Hadley

Maybe I’ll just shave my hair to spare myself the drama next time.

 

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor

Leaf It To Us

November 13, 2014 By

What do you do when there’s a 40-foot pile of leaves from your town’s leaf recycling drive near your house?

You don’t listen to Bode who cautions you to stay away. ‪

He got over it.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley

Halloween in Denver and the skeleton’s slow, painful death

November 5, 2014 By

I shudder to think of the day when these kids of mine are too big to enjoy Halloween’s revelries. Then again, I’m practically ancient and whenever October rolls around, I’m like a kid again.

With gorgeous weather and many adventures, we had an absolute blast this October.

We had a “ball” at Heritage Square’s “Bootown.”


The zipline was fun but the kids deemed their new Rocky Mountain Ropes Course not-so fun.

American Ninja Warrior contenders they are not.

We spent an entire day at Elitch Gardens’ Fright Fest and took both kids to the scary haunted houses for the first time.

Fun fact from their marketing department: At least one creepy zombie “actor” gets punched every day from freaked-out patrons.

My good friend Jennie and her husband have been staying with us as they finalize their move to Colorado. Not only did they help us with the Giant Gourd of Horror as Jamie scared trick-or-treaters all night, Jennie did a bang-up job on Bode’s skeleton make-up. He was delighted no one recognized him!

Hadley went as the White Lady from The Hobbit and the kids had a blast hanging out with friends.

 

My favorite moment of the night (apart from The Pumpkin Man traumatizing the neighbors) was during the parade. Our neighborhood fire station generously hosts a party with loads of treas and a fire-truck-led parade.  Last year, Bode raced off with his friends but found himself alone at the end of it.

The kid has serious abandonment issues so you can imagine how well that turned out despite the fact he easily found his way home.

This year, I cautioned him to stay close to us but despite our best attempts, we couldn’t track down any of his buddies.

Enter: Witch Ashlee. I suspect she has had a crush on Bode since kindergarten because she positively melts when he’s around. She glommed onto him during the parade and would not let him leave her side.

I could tell he was dying inside to be walking next to a girl during the parade but being the nice guy that he is, he didn’t ditch her. I knew the moment that parade was over, he’d be outta there like a skeleton out of the closet.

As we were parting, Ashlee took a bold approach. Instead of going to Bode (which would have resulted in a blatant rejection), she very sweetly asked ME if he wanted to go trick-or-treating with her.

I gently turned her down by saying he’d rather die a slow, painful death he was already going with his friends.

But you’d better believe when he’s 16, I won’t be so nice.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, holidays, Humor, pumpkins

The Halloween Party of Death

October 28, 2014 By

When the kids were younger, I threw blowout Halloween parties. Just look at these cuties back in 2006 (Hadley is the Broncos cheerleader, bottom right).

And yes, she’d DIE now to ever be dressed as one of those “silly girls.”

My kids loved those parties but since we implemented the Giant Pumpkin Party four years ago, I disbanded those Halloween bashes because there was no way I was going to throw two of them in October.

So, what’s the first thing my opportunistic kids begged me to do when the Pumpkin Party was canceled?

See below.

The coolest hosts ever (before we lost our minds)

Hanging doughnuts (30 doughnuts were eaten in 30 seconds flat)

Bode’s make-up artist, Alex. Pumpkin Man photobomb.

I knew we were in trouble during the invitation stage. I didn’t want anyone to feel left out but when people started asking if siblings could come, I kindly told them “yes” if the parent would come help. A couple did, most didn’t and I ended up with waaaaaaaay too many kids. They are all well-behaved, awesome kids but the sheer number (25 of ‘em) about did us in.



We had plenty of fun games to keep them occupied, like a candy corn relay I made up. Essentially, they had to put a spoon in their mouth, scoop up candy corn with it and race to the other side of the yard and deposit the candy into a jar. On the way back, they had to do silly challenges like  “Pretend you are Elsa and sing ‘Let it Go’ at the top of your lungs as you skate back.”

As you can imagine, there was a whole lotta silliness.

The excessive amounts of sugar certainly helped.

My friend Julie outdid herself by making “Poison Punch” and personalizing a cup for each kid.

She is what I call a “Pinterest Overachiever” and the kids loved it!

Out of everyone, I am most indebted to my friend “Witch Terry” who made a surprise appearance halfway through the party. I had asked her to pull together some magical science experiments and we got together during the week to practice.

Overachiever that she is (it runs in my circles), she went above-and-beyond with some awesome tricks but the mere chaos almost sent us to our graves. Fortunately, the kids were AWED by every single one.

Fun with dry ice

Witch Terry in her element

Baking soda+vinegar+balloons+water bottle= an awesome Fizz Inflator

This is my favorite picture of the evening: seeing the children’s awed faces at our successful dry ice crystal ball! (Find out how to make it here; our ghostly screaming balloons were another hit).

As kids were arriving at the party, we had our disco light swirling and fog making machine chugging. And the fire alarm going off.

It started with chaos, it ended with chaos, and according to the party goers, it was “the best Halloween party ever.”

At least someone had a good time. Remind me of this post the next time they beg me for an over-the-top party.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, holidays

Going “professional” at the Arvada Scarecrow Festival

October 23, 2014 By

If the giant pumpkin growers were poorly received at the Jared’s Nursery weigh-off, they were treated like royalty at the Arvada Scarecrow Festival. Jamie’s buddy Joe grew the biggest pumpkin in Colorado this year (1,292 pounds) and instead of putting it on display after the weigh-off, he merely cuts it up. I asked his wife if they could donate the pumpkin for a great cause (us!) and they were kind to give us their pumpkin.

When we arrived at the festival, we were literally mobbed and two hours later, were barely able to pull away because so many people were taking pictures. Now I know what the Beatles felt like.

Just imagine how much more popular they would have been if they grew giant pumpkins.

Side note: I just realized as I posted this picture that someone put their dog to pose with Lucille the giant pumpkin. Just when I thought I had seen everything.

Hadley was still feeling crummy from pneumonia so laid low. Bode, on the other hand? He was a Proud Pumpkin Papa.
As I was was tending to Hadley’s needs, I looked up to see Bode mingling with the crowd answering questions about his pumpkin.

I should probably start calling him Pumpkin Man Jr. (apologies to his future wife).

Hadley and Bode won the children’s division and I was thrilled to see a kid from our neighborhood grinning ear-to-ear about his pumpkin. I’d talked to him a few weeks prior and encouraged him to enter and was so glad to see him there!

The children’s competition (neighbor on the left)

Despite the fact that “Lucille” stopping growing mid-August when he cut her off the vine, Jamie still won the adult division and is always awesome with giving advice, encouragement and seeds to aspiring pumpkin growers.

We had a great time at our hometown festival but I had to chuckle at the end. Hadley, Bode and Jamie had the three biggest pumpkins at the weigh-off, causing a disgruntled member of the Arvada Gardners to mutter that “they should have their own professional division.”

Please shoot me if they ever go “professional.”

See the write-up about the competition: Giant pumpkins rule in Olde Town Arvada.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor, Jamie, pumpkins
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