12/31 - We had a pretty lazy day. We slept in some, we all got showers and headed to lunch. In the afternoon the kids played together on xbox most of the afternoon - they don't get to do that often and don't often get along. Kasey also set up her school room with her play school kit that Santa brought her. She has chalk board, a calendar, she made name plates for kids, used drawers we used to use for her kitchen to store all of supplies. Its cute except that she has a bell and whistle that she uses often :)
I worked on piles of laundry from the trip and even watched a few Christmas movies I had waiting for me. Greg was watching football then he made Brazilian cheese bread to take to New Years party. We got ready and headed to the Solis' for New Years party. We started out with Vieux Carre cocktail then moved to wine. Our little group brought our own wine that we kept in decanter away from others. We had some Del Dotto Pinot, Cakebread Dancing bear, and Nickel and Nickel. We left early to get the kids home. We got out champagne glasses at home, with some cherry 7up and I had vodka Ha!. We brought in the new year New York time and got the kids to bed. We stayed up to welcome in Dallas New Years to start 2018.
12/30 - Today we headed home. We slept in some, cooked some breakfast and tried to use up as much or our food as possible. We all got showered, packed and ready to go. We headed down to the store to see if the kids wanted anything. Landon got a sign with elevation on it, and sticker to start a collection for places he's skied. I got a magnet. Kasey still wanted the unicorn and was super upset that we wouldn't let her get it. Greg finally let her get the unicorn after she signed a sheet of paper saying she would give up 10 pets in return :)
We had some more cheese, crackers and meat for lunch with Doug and hung out til it was time to check out. We had a car ride pick us up about noon and take us to the airport in Gunnison. Not quite as much snow on the ground as the day we arrived, but still pretty.
We got checked into the small airport and walked upstairs to our gate. Good flight home and it almost felt cooler in the Dallas than in Colorado :)
Grammy and Gramps were nice to bring our car to the airport. We gave them hugs and headed to get Patch. On the way home we stopped to get Mi Cocina that we picked up and took home. Always my favorite to have mexican food when coming home from a trip.
12/29 - We've been getting up at 7 all week but today we slept in some. We got Landon a light breakfast and just chilled out. He got dressed and ready to go. I took Landon to camp and he was saying that he would have rather taken skiing than snowboarding because he's not sure when he'll snowboard again. Which is what we were telling him yesterday, but it was a little late. When he first got there they put him with some younger kids, but then changed instructors. Hopefully he has fun and is safe.
Kasey, Greg and I slowly got ready for the day. We went down to the store to see if there was anything we wanted. We found a Christmas ornament, Greg found a shirt and Kasey found a unicorn that we didn't let her get.
We then headed upstairs to be the first ones in Route 66 bar and cafe to watch the Aggies play in the bowl game against West Virginia. Doug had gone skiing for the morning and met us there. Kasey didn't really want to watch the game, but watched Barbie and Lego friends videos on YouTube instead.
The Aggies lost unfortunately. After that Doug went back to ski and we went to see how Landon was doing since his lesson would be over at 3:30pm. We got to the area we thought he was and they yelled at us from the lift. We got to see Landon come down Peachtree on the snowboard. He lucked out and had a private lesson all day with Josh from Denver. Landon says he liked skiing and snowboarding equally which is fun. He achieved level 4 skiing and did almost all of the green trails on the mountain. In snowboarding he got to level 3 and did well for 1 day.
Our ski instructor Didi said that Kasey was a level 3 skiing since she was doing well turning both ways.
We came back to the room, did some packing, got Landon showered, and Greg cooked burgers for all of us. Probably a good thing that was the plan since it was so hard to find a restaurant the night before. We also had a few drinks and watched some football.
12/28 - We had breakfast in the room again and then went out for our last ski lesson. We went to little slope again. Landon got bored fast and I didn't want to slow him down so Greg, Kasey and I stayed on the little slope and the instructor took Landon up into the Mountain. Greg and I did stuff for a while then our feet started hurting pretty bad so we stopped. Kasey kept going and going til we told her it was time for lunch right before noon.
We went down and met Doug, Landon and our instructor Didi. Landon did well. He's at a level 4 and can ski most of the greens. He even went on part of a blue. I think he fell once but still enjoyed it.
All of us went to our room to have cheese, crackers and meat for lunch. Doug wanted to do some more of his skiing but we asked him to take the kids once on Peachtree. Kasey wanted to try again as well. So they went. Landon did fine, but Kasey got going to fast and didn't turn so she fell at the end. bumped her head and shoulder and it scared her. After that I took her back to the main area and I went to get her some hot chocolate and got mine and Greg's ski gear. I brought it down and let Kasey have her hot chocolate then returned our stuff before the lines got to long. Kasey's head was hurting and she just wanted to go see teddy in the room. We talked with her about doing ski school the next day to keep getting better, but she decided not to. Kasey went to the room and I returned her Ski stuff. I got her some ibuprofen and then let her relax in the afternoon.
Landon was going on a few paths that we were ok with him skiing himself. Of course he got bored. He decided to wait and see if Doug would take him up one more time. He was very nice and took him on 1 more run. We tried to talk Landon into taking Ski school Friday instead of snowboarding but he still wanted to try snowboarding. Greg and Landon had to wait in long lines to change out Landon's ski gear for snowboard gear, but they got it done. It was so crazy he just brought the snowboard to the room.
We all go afternoon showers and got ready to head into town. We tried getting into a few restaurants and they were booked all weekend already. We found a Mediterranean place that we barely got a table but we did. We had dinner then the kids and I came back to the room for ice cream with oreos on top. The boys stayed and had some more beers and watched football.
12/27 - Greg made eggs and bacon for breakfast. I wanted to get to the rental place at 8 when they open to see if they could do anything to help make my skis hurt my feet less. The balls of my feet really hurt in the boots. They basically said there wasn't much they could do. I didn't wear toe warmers and wore thinner socks to give it a try.
We went back out for morning ski class. We were on the little slope for a while all working on turns and a few other things. Greg, Kasey and Landon were ready to go on a lift and go skiing. I stayed on the little slope working on my turns. I went up and down another 8-10 times then went to rest and wait for everyone else.
They went on lift, which was a bit tricky and came down a few greens. Landon did great, Kasey did well too until they got to the end and she decided she didn't like it (its pretty steep at the end). Greg had a tough time and got pretty tired from going doing. When you don't think you are doing it right you tense up and use more energy than needed.
We all met back at the room. We ate cheese, crackers and meat for lunch which was good. Everyone rested some. Doug offered to take Landon out some in the afternoon. Landon was so excited. They went on 5 runs and he had a great time trying new things. He came down the mountain and had a huge smile on his face.
Kasey and I hung out in the room. Kasey colored and watched videos. I read some and just relaxed - I don't get to do that much.
We all took showers and got ready for dinner. We had reservations at Elk at 5:45pm. We took the bus and got there a little early. We walked around trying to find some sprite, no place had any soft drinks without caffeine. Kind of weird.
Anyway, dinner was pretty good except my steak was over cooked. We bought Doug dinner since he nicely took Landon out all afternoon.
We came home and had a drink with football on. The kids were entertaining us with silly talk until they went to bed. We didn't got to bed quite as early as the day before but were still getting in bed around 10ish.
12/26 - We didn't get our food delivery yet so we went to hotel restaurant for breakfast. $60 later we had buffet breakfast.
Then we headed out for lessons. We stayed on the small area and learned how to move on our skis, turn some, stop, side step. and basically practiced that for 3 hours. Landon was doing great, Kasey was starting to get the hang of it, and Greg was doing well but wasn't to sure. I was doing ok, but wasn't great at turning.
We went to restaurant called Avalanche for lunch which was ok. Kasey and I headed back to hotel and the boys went back out to the small hill in the afternoon. They were pretty tired. We all had afternoon showers and then we met Doug for dinner at Avalanche - their menu expands at dinner :) The kids and Doug had fajitas and Greg and I had sandwiches because they were out of wings.
We came back to the room for a drink, but we were all pretty tired. I think Greg and I were in bed before 9pm which never happens for me. Of course on our roll out couch we weren't sleeping well either.
12/25 - Merry Christmas. Today we started out with kids opening presents from Santa and us at home. The kids enjoyed this and then it was time to get ready to go on our trip. We were headed to Crested Butte for the rest of the week for our first crack at skiing.
We left our house about 9:30am. Took Patch and her food to Grandma and Pops house, and then we met Grammy and Gramps at the airport so they could take our car back. We headed in, Greg's backpack with dominoes got stopped at security. The kids and I picked up some pretzel bites and Pretzel dogs for lunch. We had a quiet flight and enjoyed seeing some snow as we came in. The area we were going had not gotten much snow, but on Christmas Eve they got like 9 inches which is good.
We got into town, had a share ride from the airport. We checked in and had to put our bags in Doug's room because ours wasn't ready. After that we headed down to get our lift tickets, confirm lessons and to get fitted for boots, skis and helmets. We took our boots and helmet to our rooms and were getting hungry so we decided to head to town and try to find some dinner. The kids wanted pizza. A local on the bus gave us recommendation for best pizza place and a few of his favorites. We went to a place called Secret Stash. Good pizza, some beer and we had fries called crack fries.
After that we took a dark bus back to the hotel. Greg and Doug went to grab a drink and the kids just wanted to play outside in the snow. They made snow balls, snow angels. tried burring their heads in the snow, and they both were covered in snow. They loved it!
We went back to the room to get them in dry clothes and got them to bed. Somehow the kids got the comfy king bed and Greg and I are sleeping on the pull out sofa. We'll see how long this lasts :)
12/24 - Today was our Christmas with family since we are going skiing the week of Christmas. We got up and got ready. We headed out to have breakfast with the Myers family and the pecan pie spilled all over his clothes and the car so we had to go home so he could change.
We had a really nice breakfast with egg casserole, fruit and sweet rolls with the Myers family, opened presents and hung out for a while. We forgot Patch's food so she got to share with the meal as well.
After that we headed to Grammy and Gramps house to celebrate with them. Gramps made a fun punch that the kids and I liked. We had our traditional tacos for lunch which is super yummy. We had brownie/cookies and some runny but yummy pecan pie for dessert. We also opened presents. Landon played with his new remote control car, we played the game Grammy and Gramps got the kids, and watch part of the Cowboys game.
Fun day with family then back to packing for our trip.
12/23 - we were supposed to pack and get ready for our trip. We didn't really do that much, but we did go visit Nanny. We gave her her calendar with family pictures, and walked her down to dinner.
12/22 - Today Landon and I finally got to go see Star Wars: The last Jedi. Then the kids and I went to lunch at Wendy's followed by Landon's hair cut and some shopping at Kohls.
12/21 - I went to Landon's class party today. I was in charge of the super size jenga and kids had fun with that. It was very loud. The kids got to do jenga, blow up twister, karaoke, arts and craft and they created their own table for bottle flip :(
After school Kasey and I went to get her hair cut. We had tamales for dinner and then all went to Landon's soccer game. The other team had to forfeit so they ended up just playing for fun. Landon and a few boys played on the other team with pennies. They had a blast just messing with each other.
12/20 - Today was Kasey's class party. In 3rd grade they make gingerbread house - in this case they got to decorate graham crackers on mild buckets with all kinds of candies. Kasey had a lot of fun decorating and eating candy for the party.
12/17 - Today we slept in a little, then ended up the kids and I went to see Justice League. Landon and I really wanted to go, and Kasey later revealed the she went to spend some time with me :)
After that we grabbed a quick lunch at Canes and ate in the car. We actually met up with Greg and he sat with us while we ate. Then the kids and I went to Girl Scout skating with Santa event. Both kids got to skate. We had 4 girls from the troop there and they got their picture with Santa which is always fun - plus they get treats, reindeer food for Christmas eve and a candy cane.
I think both kids had fun and a few of us moms got to watch and chat for a while which is fun.
12/16 - Kasey and I went to get our nails done for Christmas. One of the ladies put snowmen on Kasey's fingernails and snowflakes on her toes - she was so excited.
Landon went to his first basketball game. Greg kept score and our boys won the game.
We went home so the boys could get ready. Kasey had a fun friend birthday party - a sleep under - food, crafts, presents and a movie - they had fun.
Greg, Landon and I went to dinner at a friends house. We all brought food, good wine and drinks and good company. Fun times!
12/13 - I had a Dr appointment so I worked from home in the morning, had lunch with the kids before going to work. That night Chip brought the 12 days of socks to the kids - Star Wars for Landon and animals for Kasey.
12/10 - Kasey unfortunately got sick early in the morning. She wasn't feeling well, then got better and came and got in bed with me. We watched some more Christmas movies. Later we got up and Kasey decorated her gingerbread house - she did it all by herself except putting icing in the bag and a little help putting the house itself together. She had fun with it and even put icicles on the edge of the roof
That afternoon the boys got home and had a little time to shower and rest. Then we headed to the Christmas piano recital. Its fun because several friends take from the same teacher. Both kids did well. At the end the kids did a duet that wasn't on the program. Though they fought most of the time practicing it was for the grandparents and I think everyone enjoyed it.
12/9 - I got to sleep in a little bit. Then met Grammy to get Kasey. Kasey and I started out with a little shopping for our ski trip, got some Cane's for lunch, and then headed to girl scout event. We went down to a ministry to do some volunteering. The girls got to help them do many things like create candy treat bags, create holiday treat bags with hot chocolate, tea and hershey kisses, they sorted through clothes donations, and made cards for clients of the ministry. It was a neat experience and the girls also got to make a swap for themselves and for the clients.
The boys got to run around the Lexington, do a scavenger hunt and Landon got to participate in the flag ceremony which was cool.
Kasey and I had dinner at Pei Wei and enjoyed some time at home with patch watching some Christmas movies.
12/8 - I went to work today, got to leave a little early to head to dinner with a friend then we went to see Lady Gaga. The concert says it starts at 7:30pm, but apparently she doesn't go on until 9. We ended up meeting a friend from work for a drink while we waited. Very fun concert.
Landon and Greg left to head to San Antonio on the way to Corpus for a Scout weekend to the Lexington.
Kasey went to spend the night with Grammy and Gramps overnight.
12/7 - We started indoor soccer tonight. FC Knights shut out the other team and won big. They really enjoy just playing together.
12/6 - Landon started taking private lessons for french horn today. His lesson is at the middle school with one of the brass band directors. He was pretty excited. We could tell he was excited about French horn because he went upstairs to practice like 4 times that night :)
12/4 - Landon found out today that he was switching to French Horn from Trumpet. He was really excited and that day went to turn in his rented Trumpet. We will now rent the french horn from the school.
12/3 - We slept in a little, but then needed to get up to go to Landon's soccer game. The boys played really hard, but ended up losing in the 2nd half It was a tough team.
Landon went to lunch and ice cream with the team. Kasey and I went to Pei Wei because we didn't have to much time. After that we came home to get ready. Kasey and I were going to the Allen parade with the girl scout troop.
For the parade, the girls wore matching outfits, santa hats and matching bell bracelets. Instead of walking we had made 2 banners to put on the side of a truck and the girls rode in the back. They did a good job waving, saying Merry Christmas, and waving flag that said cookies are almost here. It was cute and they had fun. 3 of us moms walked behind the truck with santa hats on :)
Greg had driven us to the parade and watched us walk around.
12/2 - Very crazy day. We started with 8am soccer game all the way in Lewisville. Kasey and I had to leave a little early, go pick up 3 other girl scouts and head to south dallas for a fun workshop. It was at whispering cedars. The girls started out at cooking. They made girl scout cookie truffels, girl scout cookie pizza. They really enjoyed this part - I think it was their favorite. After that we went into a different area and the girls made signs. 2 of the girls made potatoes which is a fun joke for the troop, one of the girls did all kinds of things, and one of them did a simple but very nice design. They ALL used lots of glitter.
After that we ate lunch on blankets on the grass. We had finished the activities a bit early so we had some extra time. I had the girls take care of some girl scout "homework" they needed to do. The girls then played some on their own outside. Then we started the afternoon. There was a part on troop to troop where they did some geography and wrote and colored thank you notes to troops. Then the last activity was to complete a story of a girl by determining what she would sell to help earn money for her family and who she would sell it to. It was cute.
Last thing we got to try what the girl made and did surveys. I took the girls back to Legacy and Tollway, and then Kasey and I went to Landon's 4pm soccer game. We go there right after they started.
The boys won all 3 games today and had shut outs for all of them so they will play Sunday. After the games we came home with William, orders some wings, the kids took showers. Then the boys got to go see a movie on TV that someone they know was in. Landon really enjoyed it especially hearing the back stories about what happened during creation of the movie.
Fun day!
12/1 - Today was the first day of December. We have started a very busy weekend. I got home just in time to grab some food, make a drink and head to the neighborhood party. They had a food truck, a huge snow globe that you could go in and take pictures, some food, fun hot chocolate and adult drinks, and don't forget Santa with pictures. The kids had fun eating, hanging with friends, getting pictures with friends in the snow globe. And the adults had a few drinks and got to talk with friends. Fun times had by all.