Raising a daughter

I came to a realization "the other day" (my favorite phrase that could mean this morning or a month ago) that I've put a lot of time and effort into raising my boys but virtually no planning for how I want to intentionally raise my daughter!

So, check back later on the plans that I put together to that end.

Backwards party!

Our boy is very creative! He turned 6 this month and asked for a party at home. When my wife brainstormed party ideas with him, they ended up with a theme of a backwards party.

So, we sent out an invitation that you had to read in a mirror, we all turned our clothes around and played fun games like pin the donkey on the tail, silent chairs, a reverse obstacle course, etc. I tried to talk him into giving all of his friends presents instead of them giving him presents but he didn't buy into that one! We had about 15-20 kids running around our house today and it was a blast but boy are we tired!

Financial freedom!

We're debt free!! Except for our house payment, as of this afternoon we have no other debts -- no credit card balance, no car loans, no student loans, no home equity loans!! Zip, zilch, nada!! Can you tell I'm a little excited.

We've been working hard at this for over a year and finally made it happen -- thank the Lord!

Skiing and Dogsledding

Well it's Spring Break and we are loading up the minivan and heading to Colorado! When my wife and I were young with no kids in tow, we used to drive straight through but now we generally stop in Amarillo or Dumas. The kids love the hotel and we get a break and split up the travel time. I respect my parents even more knowing that we did road trips without a portable DVD player.

My mom lives in Denver and we spent some time hanging out with her. We got to see my sister play volleyball since she was here for a tournament and it was great to be able to support her. We went to the best brunch ever at the Brown Palace in downtown Denver.

After spending some good time in the city we went up to the mountains. Mom bought into a great time share house near Breckenridge. The timeshare is with an individual that she knows not a huge corporation. The house is totally great -- 4 big bedrooms, large couches, and several foutons (sp?) so it sleeps lots of people. It's literally on the mountain but not ski-in and ski-out. Breckenridge is a great town to with lots of shops, restaurants, and fun. The skiing was really good with a huge mountain with all types of terrain. My oldest boy did well skiing once he got his confidence up but my youngest boy wasn't that into it but he went up a few times.

It my youngest boy's birthday so the last full day we were in the mountains my mom planned a special event for him -- dog sledding! Who knew that dog sledding would be his thing and not skiing! It was so fun! My little girl could not go since she is too young so Coop picked me to go along with him and Mommy to stay back with sister. The place we went furnished a body suit for all of us and helmets for the kids. We went out and met the dogs which were so sweet. Most were huskies but one was a normal dog (a mutt that looked kind of like a hound and spaniel mix). The other neat thing about the dogs was that they belonged to a lady that was in the military and was deployed to Iraq. During her deployment, she loaned the dogs to the place we went and asked them to keep the dogs running and happy.

We walked through the basics of driving -- say "hike" to go and hit the brake to stop since they don't really want to stop. The "brake" is basically a flat piece of metal that you step on and it digs into the snow and the dogs feel the resistance. You have to stay on the brake when you switch drivers or the dogs will take off they are so eager to get moving. The sled was like you would expect but they had padding in the "cargo" area and one rider sat there during each driver's turn. The guide was on a snowmobile that was pulling a sleigh with bench seats for the other members of the group. There were four from our family (my mom, two boys, and me) and one other lady along with us. We went through really cool trails through the trees and thick snow and a few more open areas (that's when the boys would drive most). The kids did great and loved it. Coop was really in his element. He was hilarious sitting in the passenger area of the sled eating snow (not the yellow kind) with his legs crossed and his cool sunglasses on. Everytime we would stop he would get snow for the dogs to eat and they loved it.

The most intense moment was the time when I was driving with both boys in the sled and I flew off the back and went head first into a snow drift. Yep, visualize a cartoon where one side of the sled hits a rock hidden in the snow and it throws me (think "arms flapping and feet barely touching the snow") into the snow bank on the other side of the trail. My legs were sticking out up in the air and it took me a few seconds to dig out and run after the sled. Literally a few seconds because I was worried about the boys -- they were on the sled by themselves and the dogs were running fast! I was really afraid that the sled had tipped over and the dogs kept running pulling the sled over the top of them. Blessedly, what actually happened was the rock threw me off, but the weight of the boys kept it steady and it fell back in place. In our training, the guide said that if the driver fell off for the passenger to stick your feet out the sides and dig your heels into the snow and act like a break for the dogs to slow down. My oldest boy did exactly that and performed great in a scary moment under pressure. After we realized that everyone was okay and I thanked God that there wasn't a tree where I landed, off we went again and got some good hot chocolate for everyone!