Category: Uncategorized (Page 20 of 201)

She has been anxiously awaiting her turn to get to go to school for months and months… and today was the day!

Chloe & I walked her into her classroom and helped her hang up her backpack and find her name, and then I whispered, “Ok, Maddie, I’m going to go now.  Ok?”  And without even looking up or any hesitation, she said, “Ok, Mom!  Bye!”

As I was walking back to the car with Chloe–noticing that no other parents were even remotely close to leaving their child, I expressed my concern that maybe we should have stayed longer.  She simply said, “No Mom.  She was SO ready.  She won’t even notice you’re gone.”

Truth.

Part Two:  (Monday)

Monday morning we decided to go on a hike up the mountain near our condo called McCullough Gulch.  Up here in the mountains it is quite chilly in the early morning (35 degrees at 6:00 am) so we wanted to be on our way up the trail by 7:00.  The full trail was around 2 miles to complete the lower part of the trail (called McCullough Gulch lower), and then of course, 2 miles back…  We started off all together as a big group.

As the hike continued, and got more intense small groups decided to turn around and head back.  There were only a handful of people that made it all the way up and back.  The altitude change proved to be quite challenging.  Stephanie did buy a can of oxygen to help those who just couldn’t catch their breath.  Chloe turned back first with Grandma Patsy, then I came back with Allison and Kailynn, then Stephanie came back with Logan, Josiah and Jennifer, and Kieren, Kristen, Jeremy and Ryan made it to the top.  (Tim, Maddie, Levi and Earl stayed back home)

I was really impressed with Josiah.  He made it a lot further than I expected him to.  I was nervous he might overdo it because he so desperately wanted to keep up with the big boys, but he actually did it!

After everyone made it back from the hike we cleaned up and made our way into Breckenridge again to ride the Gondala up the mountain.  It was a 13 min ride to the top–with 2 stops where you could get off if you wanted to along the way.  We rode it to the top and got off to look around for a bit then hopped back on and rode it back down.  Tim was worried that Levi would cry but he actually seemed to enjoy it!  For the most part it stayed pretty close to the ground so it wasn’t crazy scary.

After the Gondala we broke into smaller groups to do different things.  We made our way back to the Condo to get the Littles down for naps and others went to lunch while others shopped again.  At the Condo the kids enjoyed having a heated pool in the building so we made a point to try and get down there every day–it was the absolute highlight of Maddie and Levi’s day.

We just got back from our 10 day trip out to Breckenridge, Colorado.  It was so much fun. I actually had the foresight to write about each day that night, so these are all posts from last week explaining what we did while we were there.  We decided to wait until we got home (or pretty close to being home) to post any pictures on Facebook–we didn’t want to advertise that we were away from home just to be safe.  We had an ABUNDANCE of pictures from the trip, so I’m going to make a photo book of the trip later.  For now I’m going to simply touch on a the highlights of the trip.

PART ONE: (Friday & Saturday)

We left from home just after lunch on Friday and made the drive out to South Dakota.  It was a nice short jaunt (well, short compared to the whole trip… 5 hours) out to Grandma Patsy’s house.  We had a delicious dinner and then went over to Great-Grandma Zeeb’s house to sleep.  The kids had a REALLY hard time falling asleep.  All of that anticipation of leaving and then being cooped up in a van for 5 hours did not bode well for any of them.

We were up bright and early and on the road by 7:00 Saturday morning.  It was going to be a long drive (10 hours) so we wanted to get moving in case we hit unexpected traffic or other things.  The trip out, as a whole, went actually a lot better than I had expected.  We did a lot of reading, playing with toys, snacking and even watched a couple of movies.  Maddie had the hardest time.  Although Levi did tell us calmly that he was tired of being in the car and wanted to be done.  He didn’t cry or scream at all, which was fantastic.  Maddie on the other hand, did not do well with being overly tired.  She whined and cried about almost everything.  At one point she was crying because she wanted me to snuggle her.  Poor girl.  🙁

Ryan, Stephanie, Jennifer and Allison all flew out to Denver instead of driving.  They flew in late Saturday morning and then hung out in Denver doing a few fun things before heading out to Breckenridge (where our Condo was located).  The mountains didn’t actually start until we hit Denver, so our drive up to that point was pretty normal—with the exception of a very hilly and windy stretch in Nebraska that felt like a roller coaster.   At one point Levi and Maddie had their hands up in the air giggling, saying “that was a tummy tickler!”  The drive from Denver to Breckenridge was intense.  I can confidently say that I am not a fan of mountain driving.  The steep inclines and then sudden drops made me anxious.  Not my cup of tea.  So, while the scenery is GORGEOUS, I don’t think I’m destined to live in the mountains anytime soon.  We did make it to our destination:  Lodge By The Blue.  Our condo was a living room/kitchen and then two bedrooms and three bathrooms.  Plenty of space for our family.

The front sign!

This is the view from our balcony

And this is the whole lodge. Our room was on the 1st floor.

Jen and Kristen were kind enough to take Maddie and Levi out for a walk to burn off some energy before bed.  Our Condo is right on a few trails you can hike up the mountain.  They had a good time exploring.

Sunday morning we enjoyed a lazy morning of just getting acclimated to the time change and altitude change (10,000 feet above sea level) and then we loaded up and made our way into Breckenridge to do some shopping.  Every Sunday they have an open air market set up in an area of town, so we started off there and then continued on to do some window shopping.  Breckenridge is a big time tourist town with a massive main street you can walk down and shop at dozens of touristy shops.  It’s super cute, but a bit spendy.   Josiah’s highlight of the day was getting to eat at a pizza shop called Luigi’s.  He thought it was the greatest thing ever.

After we shopped for a bit we split up into a few groups:  Tim went home with the Littles so they could nap, Josiah and a few of the boys went on a hike and most of the girls went shopping for a while longer.  We weaved in and out of shops window shopping and eventually stopped to get some ice cream…

Random interesting tidbit = The pressure changes of the mountain driving caused some bags of chips in Patsy and Earl’s truck to pop!  Here’s a picture of a bag of chips that didn’t quite pop, but it’s getting tight!

This week (Friday) we leave on our trip to Colorado!  I’m very aware of how much I have n my to-do list… and it’s stressing me out.  Eeeks!

But, I never did update you on our date last week to the fancy restaurant:  we went to The Capitol Grill and it was AMAZING.  For appetizer I had the English clam chowder soup (num!) and then for my entree I ordered the pan seared salmon and it was seriously the best salmon I’ve ever had.  It was soft and buttery when I ate it.  I know that sounds super weird, but it wasn’t.  It was fantastic.  They also gave us a side of mashed potatoes and green beans to share at our table and those were also.  Ah.mazing. Then, for dessert I ordered the flourless chocolate cake which was teeny tiny on the plate, but so rich it was like eating cheesecake of pure chocolate.  It kind of makes my mouth water thinking back on it.  Ha!  So, all in all, it was soooo good.  I’m not sure we would venture to go there again on any normal day (we went on restaurant week where they offer discounted meals to help promote different venues and encourage those who wouldn’t normally eat there to try it out–like us) because it’s FAR too pricey.  But it sure was fun to try it out!

In other news Chloe started her french horn lessons this past week.  It’s been a slow process of learning how to get her sound to hold steady on a a note… and there have been tears and frustration sprinkled in there.  But I’m happy to report that she is making slow progress.  She has a lesson every Tuesday night for the next 6 weeks, so it will be a great jump start before she is with all the other kids in band class in the Fall.

Josiah had his Birthday party on Friday (8 years old!) and I have a bunch of pictures that I’ll post tomorrow.  It was INSANELY hot that day.  The temp was something like 96 but it felt like 120 degrees out.  Yikes!

We had our driveway resealed this week–first time since we’ve lived here.  And boy was it starting to show… I didn’t realize just how dingy it was starting to look until the fresh coat went on.  It’s so black now!  The kids are super excited and can’t wait to draw chalk all over it.  😀

It was our 16th Anniversary this past Friday.  We didn’t do much–although we did exchange gifts.  Well, technically he didn’t get to open anything since his gift is still on it’s way… so really it was just me opening gifts.  Ha!  But it was still fun!  He gave me a lovely set of wind chimes (nice and low sounding–high ones drive me crazy) and a new tablet!  I’ve never had my own tablet, so that was quite a surprise.  I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do with a tablet, but my first thought was how excited I was to use it to cook.  When I look up recipes on my phone the screen is so tiny to read the directions.  So, I’m very excited to use it for that.  And, like almost every other gift that I’m not so sure I’ll use, I end up loving and using all the time.  TIm is an excellent gift buyer and knows me better than I usually know myself.  🙂

(I can’t share what his gift is just yet.  It should be arriving in the next day or two.  I’m excited to give it to him.  He says he’s not sure what it is… but I don’t believe him.  He’s very clever and usually guesses my gifts… )

We are going out to a fancy restaurant on Wednesday as a double date with our friends (the ones who’s dogs we were watching coincidentally) so I’m calling that our Anniversary date.  It wasn’t practical to go out on a date on Friday and then again on Wednesday…

In random other news:  I made homemade oatmeal creme pies for the very first time.  They were AMAZING.  And I’m thrilled because I learned how to make scrumptious butter creme frosting which I plan on making again to frost Josiah’s cake.

I love frosting. In preparation for making Josiah’s cake this week I have watched WAY too many videos on how to make the perfect frosting.  I’m so excited to try out some recipes!!!

Aren’t they gorgeous!?

Our friends are visiting Chicago this week and asked us if we would watch their beagle for them.  She’s a sweet, older, dog (either 11 or 13 years old, I forget which) and we were happy to help them out.

The kids are OVER. THE. MOON. EXCITED.

She is a beagle, mind you, so my house is now quite a bit cleaner since she has routed out every tiny morsel of food that had been left of pushed under things.  Ha!  And she also howls (or do I call it bae? Did I spell that right?)  once in a while, which the kids were not so keen on.

We took her for a walk this morning and you would have thought we were going to Disneyworld.  They were so excited to take turns holding the leash.

The kids have made it very well know that they want a dog, and while I’m not against the idea, having her here had made it clear that we are not quite ready yet.  Levi is so independent and mobile and yet not very self-aware.  He tends to leave gates and doors wide open.  He also drops his food all the time.  And I forgot about having to pick up poop in the yard again… And the front door poses as a problem with students coming and going and the possibility of accidentally letting the dog out.

BUT.  In our future I do think we’ll get another dog.  Just not quite yet.