Cancer update from Andrew

In case you haven't read it yet, please go here to read my brother's recent blog post about his latest scan and his new treatment plan. He checks into the hospital this Wednesday at 8am for his first cycle on the new chemo drug. Please remember him this week!

our sweet 4 1/2 month old

snow bunny

Riley has a new love: skiing! We have been pretty excited to take her skiing for a while now and finally made it happen a few weekends back. We had pretty low expectations and our main goal was to get her up to the mountain and try and make it as fun as possible. We fully expected tears, lots of snack breaks and her maybe lasting 20 minutes. She definitely proved us wrong. She had so much fun and at several different points she was laughing and even asked to go faster. We were up there for about 3 hours, including a few snack breaks and lunch in the lodge. I bundled Sonja up and strapped her on me and we stood by and cheered Riley on the whole time, minus a nursing break in the car. It truly was so much fun to watch Riley try something new and take part in her excitement for it. Tyler took her up again the following weekend while Sonja and I enjoyed the peace and quiet at home (as a sidenote: nobody ever told me that 3 year olds NEVER STOP TALKING ALL DAY LONG). Tyler plans to get her up 3 or 4 more times before the season ends this year. Riley's goal is to be able to ride the chairlift, which she spotted while eating lunch in the lodge and pointed at it and said, "I want to go on that". Tyler said she can ride when she learns to make her pie and stop...she practices her pie random moments throughout the day. It's adorable.

Tyler told me that it's been quite an emotional journey for him, teaching Riley how to ski. Tyler's father taught him to ski at age 3 and their family of 4 spent countless weekends and vacations skiing together, usually accompanied with good friends and family. It's what his family loved to do and Tyler's mom, brother and himself still love the sport. Lots of good family memories are recalled when Tyler's at the mountain that leaves him aching for his Dad.

Dave, we wish you could see your granddaughter ski...you would be so proud.

We really are excited to start skiing together as a family. We still have several years ahead of us before Tyler and I will actually get to ski, but we hope to carry the tradition on and use skiing as a way to spend time together with the ones we love, exercising and breathing the awesome mountain air. For now Tyler will mostly take Riley up by himself and Sonja and I will get to have some down time together at home. In a few years we'll be able to get Sonja up there and Tyler jokes by then Riley will be 10x better than me. Tyler is trying hard to not impose his dreams of having a sponsored Olympic downhill skier for a daughter...no pressure Riley!

Moritz Family Photos

For Christmas this year I got my Mom a photo session with all of us kids. Last time we had a family portrait done was for our church directory back in the early 90's. Man I wish we still had that picture because we were all wearing denim. Awesome! Anyhow, we went to the UW campus to take the photos the weekend before Christmas and we were blessed with a break from the rain. We even got to go inside Hec Ed, where Andrew used to play basketball, and got some cool shots in there. Since Sarah is a senior this year she took some senior shots, and we all ended up getting some self portraits. Oh, and yes, Riley did pick out her outfit and it was so fitting. We are very pleased with how they turned out. We will surely treasure them for a long time to come.