March 2015

A month of March Madness for the Ernest Family!

With it being in the 90s for most of March, you never would of remembered it actually rained a bit in the early days of the month.  Maria took Madden out to jump in puddles.

Celebrating Dr. Suess' Birthday at school.

Thursday Play dates at Avaria Park with Skylar and her classmates.

Lunch at Fidel's.

Cruising the neighborhood looking for sprinklers to run though.

A Madden and Maria beach morning.

Skylar started swim lessons again.  

Legoland Date with Daniel

More beach trips with Maria.

Celebrating St. Patricks Day.

More beach time.

We ended the month of madness with a family movie date at cinepolis!

Bressi Easter Event

This weekend, us ladies from the Bressi Ranch Social Committee put on our first event of 2015.  It was time to ring in Spring and throw the neighborhood Easter social.  We had a wonderful Easter bunny who couldn't of been sweeter.  The kids had crafts to do and games to play to win prizes.  

Madden had another rough go with the Easter Bunny.  This was probably his worst experience with any holiday character to date.  With him getting bigger and more physical I thought he was going to hurt her.

I had such mothers guilt after that.  It was as if I was torturing him and CPS should of been called on me.  It put him in such a sad mood for the beginning of the event. 

Skylar, of course, all smiles!  

Sophie, Skylar, Mila, and Abigail!

The kids got to make bunny hats and decorate eggs ornaments.

Madden slowly starting to have fun.

Love these two bunny besties!

Thought it was best to leave Madden out of the family bunny photo.  

Skylar and her love Daniel.  She says she is going to marry Daniel.

Back to 100% and playing ball with Dad.

Playing games to win stuffed eggs, bunny whistles, and Bressi beach balls.

Skylar hanging out with the Kurisu brothers, Nathan and Dylan.

Skylar and her great friend Ellie.  Ellie is in her dance class and goes to the same school.  And pretty recently we discovered we live in the same neighborhood and are only a couple houses away.  They have become the sweetest little friends that Skylar spend the last hour of the event just running around with Ellie.

After taking pictures with tons of kids the Bunny got up and did a conga line and played games with the kids.  They wouldn't leave her alone.  I was amazed she was able to sneak away at the end of the event.

It was the perfect way to kick off Easter for the whole community.  We received a ton of positive feedback and it looked like all the kids had a great time, which is all that matters in the end.

Skylar's First Progess Report

Couldn't be more proud of our girl!

Mammoth 2015

Snow or slush...what were we going to get?!?!  We were up in Mammoth a week ago and all I wanted was to see some snow fall.  Last year we had the best luck ever and it ended up dumping tons of fresh powder the night before we arrived, but the days leading up to this trip it was looking like mostly slush for us.  It had been 80 degrees here and 50 and sunny up there so we were starting to get a little bummed out that the snow wasn't going to be the best.  The kids did amazing on the long car ride up and couldn't of been more thrilled to be staying at my parents old Mammoth condo.  The condo has bunk beds and I'm pretty sure they were the highlight of the trip for both kids.  

Jake and my Dad swam and relaxed at the hot springs while the kids napped after we arrived.

The next morning we all headed up to the mountain to check Skylar into ski school.  We were so blessed this trip with Madden.  He was a real struggle last year with refusing to put on his jackets, gloves or anything that would keep him warm.  Even walking on his own wasn't an option.  This year there wasn't any fight and he actually walked all on his own this trip.

Skylar did great in ski school this year.  Her instructor was very impressed with her and by the end of the day had her turning all the way down the little slope and was one of the last kids to leave the mountain.   I'm hoping next year we will get to take her up on the slopes with us for a couple runs. 

I may of spoke a little too soon.  Madden was much better this trip, but he did have his moments.  The only way we were able to keep him on the mountain with us while Skylar skied was to have him under his jacket watching YouTube on my Dad's iPad.  I think my Dad had to shout for me a handful of times as I watch Skylar ski to come attend to Madden and his YouTube selections, but at least he stayed with us until nap time.

The next day Jake, Jeremy and I got to hit the slopes.  I didn't ski last year, so I was really glad I did this trip.  Lucky for us after weeks of no new snow a storm was rolling in that day and we could definitely feel it on mountain...it was COLD!  The mountain was pretty empty and we were probably some of the first people on it, which was awesome.  I skied up until lunch time and called it a day.  It was getting way to cold for me.  Jake and Jeremy hit up a few more runs before it started snowing and the winds really started to kick up.  

Me before heading down a black diamond run in some white out conditions.

That night we all took the bus into town and had dinner.  It was snowing and a lot of fun to be walking around town in.

It had snowed all night so we woke up to about 3 inches of fresh snow.  The kids found this massive icicle hanging from our porch which they ate with their breakfast.

We were really hoping Skylar would be up for ski school again, but she didn't feel like it and wanted to sled.  We were able to walk right across the street where there was a ton of fresh snow.

Madden was a lot of talk that morning.  He was carrying around his sled saying how much he wanted to go, but he only last 5 minutes and raced back to the condo.

Skylar had a blast.

Making snow angels!

She even built a snowman which she named Madden.

She ended up crashing into Madden and made Dad and cousin Jeremy rebuilt him.

Later on we went up to the lodge and hung out while Madden napped.  It was so beautiful and sunny up there with all the fresh snow.

Every Saturday in the Mammoth Village they put on the Woolly Parade.  Well, its really not a parade, it was more like a conga line, but hey, the kids loved it.  They got to watch Woolly and his friends dance and sing on stage.  Madden liked Woolly so much (well from distance), Woolly wanted to give Madden a high five, but Madden completely dissed him, but I did end up buying him a Woolly lovie which he loved.

I know it looks like they aren't having fun, but they really did enjoy the Woolly show. We caught the bus again to dinner and called it a night.  We had a long drive home the next morning.  We really had a great time and don't think we could of asked for a better trip.  Madden made great strides this trip and we are hoping he will be up for ski school next year.  Skylar made us proud again at ski school and can't wait to see how much more she improves next year.

Until next winter!