Aspen's 2nd Birthday and Learning to Ski !!

Aspen had quite the adventurous 2nd birthday! We flew to Utah a couple days before she turned 2, and celebrated her special day with lots of family and had great fun in the snow!! [If you want to see more photos, look on the left side of the screen where it says More Photos and click on "Shutterfly photos" and it will take you to a new page with more photos and videos.]

Aspen was a bit scared of take off and landing. She thought the jet engines sounded like Lions and her little heart was racing as fast as it could. She held on tight to my hand and she shut her eyes tight. Every time we'd land, she clap her hands and cheer!
We sang Happy Birthday to her with cousins.
She loved her cake which was decorated like a dog, her favorite animal.
She loves books and was thrilled to get more for her birthday from cousins and also a cute little necklace.

For Aspen's birthday, she had her first ski lesson!! It was designed to introduce her to the sport we all love as a family so much and to help her enjoy and get a flavor for the thrill and fun with skiing. She had an expert ski instructor, "Matt Matt" (as Aspen called him) who was amazing with her. After her first lesson Matt said Aspen has such a great attitude for skiing. She was laughing and smiling the whole time. He said she's not quite ready to ski on her own as she gets so distracted....catching falling snowflakes, watching passing birds, trying to catch up to other little kids.... She loved the ski lifts and kept telling Matt "Up, up, faster". Her little skis and boots were so tiny....Here is a short video of Aspen skiing.
Claire was so delighted to watch her learn and we are all looking forward to skiing again next year as a family.

While Aspen was skiing, Claire decided to build the world's largest snowball, and she is convinced she achieved her goal!

After Aspen finished her ski lesson, we got in the car and she promptly fell asleep. We stopped a short while later to go shopping, and she stayed asleep even after I took her out of her car seat and laid her down in the cart-she slept for 2 more hours like that...tired little baby!!

Claire and David also took more ski lessons, and Claire was quite thrilled to master parallel turning and stopping. She thinks it is so cool now when she skis and powder snow flies up all around her. Her instructor "Paul" was also fabulous. She has lots of fun skiing through trees as well. David was excited about the new skills he learned and worked on his technique the whole week. Me, I just ski around taking photos and trying not to fall in the process. You'd think I wasn't on vacation with them as I'm rarely in the photos.

One day Claire's 2 cousins her age came and slept over one night and went swimming and had stayed up late watching movies, then they both joined her on the slopes the next morning and they had such a great time skiing together.

David and I even got to ski one run together (for the first time in 10 years!) while the kids skied with Aunt and Uncle.

Another day was spent tubing with Brenda's family, which was once again a hit and loads of fun. Even better, no one got hurt! Aspen especially enjoyed playing in the tubes and snow toys.
Claire also got to drive a snowmobile which she was thrilled about!
Aspen is talking alot now and she is also learning sign language, which she is quite good at. Aunt Diana is proficient at sign was teaching her the colors while we were there. Her favorite color sign is "yellow", which is very similar to the "hang loose" sign. Her most favorite sign is the one for "friends", "milk" and "baby".

Claire cannot wait to turn 10 in a couple weeks. She is quite a beautiful girl. She is such a sweet big sister and she loves to read to Aspen.