Hello! I'm back after a quick trip for Spring Break. Did you go anywhere?
Anyway, let's get this show on the road...
1. Has anyone else been watching Designated Survivor? I really don't watch much TV. At all. This show is my one exception. (Except when Project Runway is going.) I love it! Two weeks was ago the show ending was such an awesome twist that it totally kept me engaged because I about to quit watching. Now, I can't wait for it to come on Wednesday night! Who is behind the attach? Who is leading it? I can't wait to find out! (P.S. I totally do not think it's Aaron. I think he was set up.)
2. This was a very productive weekend at our house. I managed to do about 15 loads of laundry - NOT exaggerating. We also managed to clean the entire house - top to bottom. I literally created chore charts and gave everyone their own list. I got so into it that as I was dusting the bookshelf in my office, I ended up picking out over 25 books to take to Goodwill. And you know what? It feels so good! Of course I kept about the same number of books so my shelves aren't empty. But they can breath now and I love it! I also cleaned out an old scrapbook tote that I had kept for years meaning to create more pages. Well, that is not happening. So most of that stuff went into storage. I feel liberated. Not guilty in the least!
We also had the usual - two soccer games, two piano lessons, guitar lessons, swim practice, and work (for #1). But it was all good!
3. Now that #1 is swimming for high school and not practicing with her club team, we get her for dinner. It is AWESOME! It means we are all able to sit down and eat as a family at least twice a week. (The middles have soccer the other two nights. And who knows who is home on Friday night!?) The two nights we do get are completely free nights which means we can eat leisurely and stay at the table and just hang out. I live for those nights!
was demonstrating something from gym class, I think.
4. I tried working on the chair I'm reupholstering. It was not good. First, my staples were too long so I bought new, shorter staples. Well, the wood is so hard the staples won't go in. That means I have to get out my pneumatic staple gun which means I have to use the compressor which is just so darn LOUD. Ugh. Next, I tried sewing the pillow cover for the back pillow. It is awful. The pillow is not square - it has rounded corners on top which is just freaking impossible to sew. I finally realized I am going to have to outsource that part. I can do the rest of the chair, but I just cannot do the back pillow. So if you know anyone who would just sew two pillow covers, PLEASE LET ME KNOW AND THANK YOU!! I really, really want to get these chairs finished and I realized sometimes you just have to cry uncle and ask for help. I'm there.
5. I put together a killer meal plan for the week. (I say killer because it has not one, but TWO crockpot recipes for our busy nights!) Want to know what it is? Well, here you go!
Sunday: Steak salad
Monday: Chicken Bourbon Sammies with Apple Slaw (already made the sauce - it's in the fridge) + roasted sweet potatoes
Tuesday: Baked Honey Cilantro Lime Salmon + roasted broccoli
Wednesday: Crockpot Breakfast Casserole (sausage is already cooked - it's in the fridge) + roasted asparagus
Thursday: Lentil tacos + fruit salad (yummy, yummy - Name that song!)
Friday: Homemade pizza (dough is made and in the freezer) + salad
6. Of course I wanted to recap our quick ski trip to Breckenridge. I saved it for last in case you have no interest, you can just be done reading:) If not, here you go...
Let me start by saying, I think this was one of our most favorite trips out to Colorado even though it was short. (We left on Thursday and drove back on Monday.) I think it that is because of the kids' ages - 7 to 16. They are so fun to travel with and hang out with and laugh with that they made it a BLAST! #4 says the most quirky things and we all just laugh. The best part is half the time she doesn't really even know she is being funny but she laughs with us anyway! And all four of them were truly so excited to ski/snowboard. It just feels like all those years of being a sherpa, putting up with the tears, and the temper tantrums - it was all worth it. So very worth the hard years to get to here. All that to say, if you have small kids - hang in there. It gets so much easier and even more fun!
Anyway, we left on Thursday morning at 5am, per usual. (We have this trip down to a science.) The hubby drove the first shift. We traded at some point. Then we stopped and played at the truck stop in Colby, KS called the Oasis on the Plains. It has a cute little playground and a Starbucks.
After our 30 minutes hiatus, we got back in the car and drove another three hours or so until we hit Idaho Springs where we stopped at Beau Jo's for pizza. Driving out on a Thursday definitely had its perks because there was no wait for pizza! That has NEVER happened before. After pizza, it's only about 45 minutes or so until Breckenridge. Easy peasy.
This year we stopped in town and rented skis and snowboards right away. While the hubby was dealing with that, I got a few groceries. Then we headed to our cabin in Alma, which is about 15 miles outside of Breckenridge. It was seriously in the mountains - 11,000 feet up high. We literally drove over the Continental divide to get to our cabin. It was so adorable!
Sunrise from our deck.
We got going early Friday morning so we could get all the kids checked in to ski and ride school. (Plus also, we had to buy ski pants for #3 because they were mysteriously left at home. Of course they were!) The bigs went to ride school and the littles did ski school. It was so awesome because that meant the hubby and I had a day to ourselves on the mountain! We skied the hell out of Breckenridge - so fun!
When we picked the kiddos up the big girls were too exhausted to go for another run but the littles were PUMPED! So I took them up for another ride down the mountain where they got to show me the "fun" trails.
Even though we didn't stay at our condo, we were still able to park there and use the pool. You know we spent much time in the hot tub!
It was still so much fun even though we had to drive 30 minutes back to the cabin.
Saturday morning we went sledding outside the cabin. The snow was SO DEEP!
We all went at least once. The hubby, #1, and I all had to crawl. We were too heavy to stay on top of the snow and it was so deep! Just look at that picture. See the top of the car? Yep, it was literally buried in the snow!
We spent the afternoon in town. We had ice cream for lunch, shopped, ate Linner (Lunch + Dinner) at Empire Burger, and even had time to see Beauty and the Beast. (So, so good!) Of course we had movie night every single night back at the cabin. The basement had a big, huge screen for movies. So cool!
Sunday we skied one more day. I skied with the Littles in the morning, and then we all met for lunch and took a run together.
#1 wasn't quite done so we went up for a few more runs while the hubby skied everyone else back to the condo for more hot tubbing. I have to step back for a minute and say how proud I was of all the girls. There was no fighting at all. And since we parked the car at the condo, there were only blue runs to get to the green runs. #4 handled them like a champ! She was slow and deliberate but there was not one complaint out of her on our way over to the green runs. (And let me tell you, she used to be so WHINEY!! Well, there was none of that on vacation. She was just so excited to get to ski!)
I took #1 up the T-bar and over to the Imperial Lift. We had so much fun!
Before we rolled out of town we were able to purchase three season passes for next year at three different price points: Adult, Teen, and Child. Each ticket comes with six $49 buddy passes. (To put that into perspective, a one day adult lift ticket was $171 this year. Outrageous!!!) The deal part was because they allowed us to apply one of our single day lift tickets against the price of next season's pass. It was really too good of an opportunity to pass up. Truly. So we are pumped to go next year for a full week. And hopefully we'll get to stay at our condo, too.
And there you go! I think we are all caught up now. I hope you had (or are having) a fabulous spring break. See you next Sunday!
