Aloha, Maui!

My, oh, my ... oh, MAUI! Where to begin?! Our family just returned from the trip of a lifetime to Hawaii. We enjoyed 5 days on the beautiful island of Maui. We've always wanted to go to Hawaii so we decided to seize the opportunity by tagging a family vacation onto the end of a work trip for Scott. He hopped a quick flight after his conference in Oahu to meet us in Maui. Jami, the 3 boys, Papa, and his friend Kathy took a 7 hour flight direct from Denver to Maui. A little man-to-man defense worked wonders to have 3 adults to entertain the 3 boys on the flight! Our Hawaiian adventures began on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. Aloha, Maui!

We stayed on the northwestern part of the island known as Kapalua, which translates to "arms embracing the sea." This region is less commercialized and truly showcases all the natural beauty of the surroundings. Case in point ... as we walked into our condo at the Kapalua Villas, we could hardly believe the stunning 180 degree views from our windows... Well, hello, Paradise!

 

Every morning, we anxiously awaited the sunrise so we could see that beautiful blue ocean, the palm trees, and another island off in the distance. What a sight!

Morning coffee + this view from our kitchen window! 

Does it get any better than this?! 

 All smiles for Maui!

A quick pic before a family dinner!

Good morning, Maui! Sunrise just after 6 a.m.

"I enjoy long walks on the beach...

and eating my pancakes on the lanai."

Vacationing Visitors

One of our favorite messages to land in the ol' inbox begins like this, "We're coming to Colorado..." We love to catch up with friends who are vacationing in our grand state. Our most recent visitors ... Theta friend & college roomie Judy, Mike & Christy. What better way to spend the day than with a fine lunch of Borriello Brothers pizza, followed by sledding at Toboggan Hill! Darling Christy & the Leahy brothers enjoyed sledding at our favorite winter recreation spot (and even the grown-ups took a turn or two with a run down the hill!) Thanks, friends, for a fabulous day. So good to see you!

 Grant, Jami & Judy

The Pint-Sized Sledders.

(This was after sledding. It ended up being a super

warm day so they were ready to 

shed the gloves and warm gear.

At least they humored us and took a pic!)

Walk-n-Roll

Just a few days shy of turning 13 months, Grant took his first steps today! With an audience of Mom, Dad & his older brothers cheering him on, Grant was full of smiles, hugs & big steps. Watch out, world! He's ready to WALK-n-roll!

Will Work 4 Food

So ... here's a little confession. And it's about why the blog sometimes goes long spurts in between updates. Here's the scoop...

Sometimes the greatest opportunities come to you when you are not even looking. This is a story that has been in the works since February 2010. (Yes, two years ago!) I was not really looking for a "job." After all, taking care of our boys is Job #1. But it just so happened that another little side gig came along that almost seemed too good to be true, in terms of time, flexibility, and opportunity.

In the beginning, a connection from a fundraiser committee ended up turning into a meeting for some graphic design work. The client -- a locally owned restaurant group. They happen to own several restaurants here in the area, and interestingly enough, one of the restaurants has been our family favorite since moving here -- Salsa Brava. Freelance graphic design. Working from home with flexible hours. Marketing amazing restaurants. Count me in! Enter Job #2.

Over the past 2 years, I've had the opportunity to work with some wonderful people and on some exciting projects. Table tents. Print ads. Shopping cart ads (cartvertising, if you want to get fancy!) Menus. Holiday promotions. On-hold message scripts. PR for a new restaurant grand opening. Website redesign. Mass email blasts. Facebook & QR code promotions.The list continues, and each week brings a fun, new challenge. This journey into the restaurant marketing world has been full of some great opportunities to learn more in my field & expand my skills ... can't wait to see what's in store for the year ahead!

So what's my schedule? I support the marketing efforts of 5 restaurants (4 in Colorado Springs & 1 in Denver) and typically work 6-8 hours a week from home, allowing the flexibility to work around the boys' schedules. The marketing magic happens in the early morning hours, while the older boys are at school & Grant is napping, or after little toes are tucked in at night. My projects are usually short-term and quick-turnaround. The restaurant world is very fast-paced, and I love the ever-changing variety of projects.

If I could have hand-picked a job while staying home with our 3 boys, a more perfect fit could not have been found! If you are interested, check out our website: www.rockymtnrg.com.

Be Mine, Valentine!

Happy Valentine's Day! The Leahy lads would like to share their valentine cards with you. We had quite a chuckle taking these photos. Thank you to Pinterest for the idea. For the boys' school valentines, each card also featured an adhesive mustache. Who needs candy when you can have a fun faux mustache!?

Move over, Burt Reynolds.

Grant can rival your mustache.

To accompany G's sad face,

the small print says,

"If not, I'll be soooo sad."

Not even a mustache can hide that big smile!

Reid got to practice his handwriting

& sign his own valentines!

Oh, and we're pretty sure Reid's mustache

was on upside down!

 Luke had a variety of funny faces,

but he liked this one the best.

What a crack-up!

Hello there, SNOW!

When you think of Colorado in the winter, snow usually comes to mind. Except we haven't really had much snow since before Christmas! While we do enjoy mild winter days in the 50s and 60s, we also appreciate our winter climate & the beauty of the snow. After much waiting, we finally got our first big snowstorm of 2012 (which happened to coincide with the groundhog's prediction for 6 more weeks of winter!) For almost 36 hours, it snowed ... and snowed some more. When Mama Nature finally called it quits, about 14 inches blanketed our neighborhood (and 0 inches covered our driveway, thanks to 3 snowshoveling adventures). We wrapped up our snowy weekend with a sledding excursion to Toboggan Hill.

 Our polar bear cub in his sled.

Grant didn't make a peep the whole time

we were sledding. He LOVES the snow

and being outdoors. Yay for our little mountain man!

 Luke chose the path with the jumps ... of course!

 Trudging back up the hill...

 Catching some air! Woohoo!

 All smiles for sledding!

 I can't wait until I'm big enough to go down the hill

instead of just watching from the bottom!

 Two on the trail.

Our Sledding Crew

Celebrating Theta

Founders Day Celebration

with the Colorado Springs Alumnae Chapter

Honoring 142 Years of Kappa Alpha Theta!

It's fun to swim at the Y-M-C-A!

Swim-n-gym. Pool-then-PJs. Y-on-Wednesdays.

All code names for our fun new Wednesday night routine of swimming at the YMCA! 

Previously, Reid was a reserved swimmer, never risking that his face touch the water nor his lovely golden locks get wet. But tonight was different. Equipped with some mega goggles and his usual spunk, he decided that he would swim. Under water. Holding his breath. Getting his face wet. And his hair. 

When Reid makes his mind up to do something, he does it 110%. Full speed ahead. He is focused and determined and courageous. On this same night when he went underwater for the first time, he also decided to jump off the side of the pool and do a cannonball. And it was AWESOME!

Enjoy this video of our little fish splashing around.

GR8

The grand finale for our January birthdays was a GR8 one with Luke's birthday today! He kicked off the day with 8 candles in his cinnamon roll (which just might be the maximum number of candles according to fire code for a pastry). He celebrated with his class at school, and then we treated him to a birthday dinner at his favorite restaurant Salsa Brava! At the great age of 8, he loves sports of all kinds especially basketball and baseball, enjoys reading & writing stories, and is the model big brother. Luke, we are so proud of who you are today. Your character is developing into such a respectful young man, and we love watching how enthusiastic and positive you are. Your name is derived from ancient Greek meaning "light" and that couldn't fit you more perfectly. Thank you for shining your bright little spirit on all those around you!

ONE!

Our little Grant celebrated his FIRST BIRTHDAY! What a blessing this past year has been for our family! Transitioning to a family of 5 has been more fun than we could have ever imagined! Grant's personality is so happy, and he's always quick to smile and show off his 6 teeth. Because he's been a good sleeper since the early days, we feel like we've gotten to really enjoy all the moments & milestones of his first year ... because we weren't sleep deprived! Grant is curious, funny, observant, determined & super social. He loves to be in the center of the action (which usually means whatever Luke & Reid are doing) and watch it all unfold. He absolutely hates socks & shoes and prefers to remove them immediately after being buckled into his carseat. As a Colorado baby, he loves the Great Outdoors, especially when it involves riding in the backpack for hiking or snowshoe treks. He has not used a pacifier but prefers his thumb (now only at bedtime). He is tall for his age (75% percentile height) and a lean mean crawling machine (25% percentile weight). 

This sweet boy is quite the cause for celebration, so we greeted Birthday #1 with an owl cupcake party!

Whoooo's turning one?

Tablescape

Family Photo for Grant's 1st Birthday

Mom & Dad with their littlest owl

 Cupcakes & the invitation

 More cupcakes & his birth announcement

 Scott & Grant with our friends sweet Sarah & Drew

Papa & Grant

Our January Birthday Crew

Oh, boy! Are they singing to me?

One candle on the cupcake!

Click on this photo above to see him

demolish his cupcake!

Let Him Eat Cake!

What's the best thing about a 1st birthday party? Watching the birthday boy eat cake!

And the 2nd best thing? Watching him eat cake in super speed fast motion! Enjoy the video below. 

Zip to It

1 birthday. 2 birthdays. 3 birthdays. All in a row within just a few days of each other. This weekend is one big celebration after another to celebrate the special days of Jami, Grant & Luke! We are switching up the boys' birthday celebrations just a bit to a fun new "system." On odd number birthdays, they will have a party; on even number birthdays, they can choose an "adventure" or "experience" to try. With Luke turning 8, he decided he wanted to go to an indoor ziplining facility in Denver called Mid-Air Adventures. For this early celebration, we invited his buddy Gavin to join us for the evening of ziplining and a sleepover in honor of Luke's 8 great years! What an absolute blast the boys had!

Reid takes the plunge off the platform!

Gavin runs the zipline back to the starting point.

Luke gets geared up and ready to go.

(This shows how several ziplines are operating at once.)

Tall Luke

They also had a rock climbing wall.

Fearless Reid at the top ready to rappel down.

Spiderman

Gavin & Luke fly tandem

Wheeeeee!

"I can't wait until I'm big enough to try this.

It looks like so much fun!"

Mama & the boys

In the video below, Luke and Gavin zip across on the
far back zipline. Then Reid demonstrates his best
Spiderman moves (if you've ever seen the movie,
Reid does a very good impression of how the
superhero swings in between buildings.)

Redecorating

Today called for a little sprucing up of our home decor! We framed some new family photos (thanks to the fabulous work of Jamie Smith Photography once again) and added a few other elements to this accent wall in our dining room. This wall is immediately visible when you walk in the front door, so it's a fun way to showcase our latest and greatest family photos.

Within 2 hours of this wall being finished, another element of home "decor" was added to our dining room. A while back, Scott mentioned how awesome it would be to put a basketball goal on this closet door and scoot our dining room table back so the boys could play hoops on the long wood floor of our dining room. Well, the dream became a reality when Luke received a basketball hoop as a gift from the Goffs. Check it out!

Now when people come over for dinner, we can treat them to an after-dinner game of hoops!

grAntics

The littlest Leahy has been up to all kinds of new tricks on the eve of his first birthday. His personality shines through more and more each day, and we love his funny little "grAntics." Enjoy the video!

Good Morning

One of our favorite morning routines.

Just like some old guys in the coffee shop, 

sitting around chatting...

Racing into Twenty Twelve

There is no better way to kick start the new year than a 5K run with friends. Wearing sparkle tights & crazy socks. Sporting shiny tiaras and colorful necklaces. Laughing our way into 2012. We ventured out and about on New Year's Day to stride it out in the Rescue Run, which benefits El Paso Search & Rescue. (For those of you who don't live in mountainous regions, this group helps to save hikers and climbers who get stranded or injured while enjoying our Great Outdoors.)

 Ready for the race to begin!

Thanks to my friend Melissa for capturing

this photo of my "running spirit."

Cheers to 2012!

T-Rex Attack!

It is clear that Luke & Reid are much more
courageous when meeting a T-Rex than their
scared-out-of-their-wits parents. And then there's Grant
who's completely unphased by the giant dino.
"Oh, is there something behind me? I hadn't noticed."

Fun at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science!