People. Go to Durango. Now.

Oh, the fun.

We are back.  We are sleeping hard.  And it is hot.

Let me start with some highlights:

Our favorite mountain man turned 31! I would wish him another happy birthday or something about this being the best year yet, but I’m pretty sure mountain men don’t read blogs.  Or maybe just this blog.  Or maybe just that particular mountain man.  His wife (who I would never describe as a mountain woman) made the coolest cake anyone in the world has ever seen.  Seriously. 

Lil’O ate cat food.  Repeatedly.  And fed it to a baby. A toothless 6 month old who was laying down. 

S-Man got over his fear of dogs! He went from crying the first time he saw Dutch, to whimpering and running from Dutch, to petting and playing catch with Dutch over the course of the week.  At times S-Man would choose to stay outside by himself so he could continue playing with Dutchie.  Super impressive. 

Dead animals are cool.  We went to a wildlife museum, with lots of taxidermy.  S-Man talked about dead animals for the rest of the week.

Both my kids ate tons! And not just cat food!  I was thinking it was probably the mountain air, but then who am I kidding?  They loved Pearl’s cooking.  Jon also lamented our boring breakfasts when home.  Oatmeal is hard to go back to after eating meat every morning.   

We loved playing in really cold water.

We got to dance in the mountains.

And Lil'O got hand me down Christmas PJ's. (From this point on Lil'O will only be referred to as, "The Littlest Elf".)

Now let’s move on to some lessons learned.

Lesson #1:
You should dance when cleaning up.  (Note to the world: Pearl does not actually do this.)  However, she is the most joyful mom I have been around in many moons.  She has the patience of …..  a mother bird? the Trinity? a master surgeon? (it turns out there are not good comparisons to be made when talking about patience) and is pretty upbeat about opinionated kiddos.
 

Lesson #2:

Praise your kids when they get in their siblings face, rather than scold. 

Situation: Brother A is being way annoying and getting right in the way of Brother B.                                                                                   

Temptation: You say, “Brother A! Watch out!  Please move over, Brother B is trying to walk, eat, play, sleep, you name it.  Hey! You are not listening.  I said move.  He doesn’t like it.”  (This rant just goes on and on, because no one ever moves.)                                                                                                     

Solution: You bite your tongue and say, “Awww look!  Brother A loves you so much he just wants to be near you!  He wants to do everything you are doing because he loves you so much!”                                                                                              

Seriously people, I have seen the light.  After learning from a master, I have employed this technique for approximately 5 days and we have had 100% fewer timeouts in the above situations and 100% more spontaneous brotherly hugs and kisses.  “Awwww” for real!

Lesson #3:

Lil’O can, in fact wait for dinner and does not need a snack at 4:45. Therefore never eating dinner. 

Lesson #4:
Watching Curious George via Netflix with your best buds is a great way to start any day. 

Lesson #5:
Don't ever say your kids are good travelers. They will throw up.