Three Sisters

 The second annual Sisters Weekend in Park Rapids was a success. We did some of the same and some new things too. 

Jaima surprised me at the Denver airport on Thursday afternoon so we were able to fly together - yay! Jacki picked us up and we hung at Jacki's on that night. We left around 10:00 on Friday morning, grabbed coffee and booze and headed up north. 

There was a bit of snow on the ground, but not much and the weather was very mild. We walked this year instead of snowshoed. We went to the Brewery for pizza and trivia on Friday night vs. lunch in town on Saturday. We still did puzzles, played games (I actually won this year!) and did some home remodeling plans. We talked, laughed and just enjoyed each other's company. Thankful to have this time with two special women in my life that I am lucky to call my friends and sisters. 

Special thanks to Jacki for driving, sharing her cabin with us and doing all the planning. Jacki made a delicious soup called "3 Sisters" - so perfect and yummy! 

This is 2-0

Even though Drake is a few days shy of 20, we did a bit more celebrating before he leaves. On Wednesday, Marshall arrived home from Washington around 6:00 and Drake got home from Vail not long before that. Tanner had to head out to work around 5:30 so he was unfortunately unable to join us. 

Drake decided on sushi after some cheese, olives, crackers and catching up at home. We could not remember the last time we had been to Hana so it was nice to get out and support the sushi place up the street. 

We turned on some basketball and Marshall made frosting for the cake I had baked Drake earlier. We sang happy birthday and hopefully made him feel special. 

We were all still awake when Tanner came home and the night ended with both boys chilling in our bedroom bit a bit. My heart was certainly full to have us all together just like so many times in the past. I'm so thankful for the home we have built together as a family of four. I know not everyone is as fortunate. I hope our boys realize that too. 

And the picture I took of him and his cake didn't turn out.....just got a knee it appears..... but there was cake and candles! 

A Night In

A rare night in the last couple of weeks with both boys home (unfortuanly, Marshall wasn't home). We watched Nebraska basketball. I hemmed and hawed about dinner, but whipped up a pretty good meal. I brought home Crumbl Cookie. We played some pool. I soaked it all in. 

10 of 11 Days

 Skiing with fam, water ski team and fraternity brothers. Winter Park. Copper. Winter Park. And throw in Vail day trip by himeself for good measure. Pretty good couple of weeks. 

Eagle Wind in WP

President's List

What a nice Monday morning surprise when a friend reached out to to mention a shout out to Drake in the Daily Camer. So nice that Miami sent it to the newspaper and that they printed it! 

Super proud of Drake's work in the classroom this semester with his 18 credit course load. Way to go son. Keep working hard. 

Forever and Ever

 A fun birthday surprise night for our friend Lisa on Friday night. Yummy drinks and food at Por and then singing away the night at Pitch. Most folks were into the singing and Marshall played along. So fortunate to have such good friends right up the street! 

At the end, Lisa chose the song, Forevet and Ever, Amen by Randy Travis as this was a song Steve sang to her at a Kareoke bar on their 2nd date. Love! 

Runza Road Trip

 I took Drake up to Fort Collins on Friday so he could see Hadley, catch a CSU basketball game and then head to Winter Park with one of his fraternity brothers (meeting several other fraternity up there). This is his third ski trip in a week - MLK with the Marshall family, Copper with some water ski team friends and now WP with Sigma Chi friends. He's making good use of that ski pass! 

We made a quick stop at Runza which was a treat. We talked about how he has done while back on break. It's certainly been a break jam packed with a variety of activities. It's gonna get quiet around here real quick......but, I'm very happy he's been around so long and had a great break. 

Including a couple pictures of one of the many puzzles we have done. The Miami one will not be done again! 

2024 Vision Board

The Women@Snapdocs employee resource group is a great group of women and has a leader that is active and plans nice activities for the group. We meet virtually once a quarter and participate in a variety of activities. The most recent activity was building a vision board for 2024. We used the Canva platform which is a pretty robust platform. There were lots of templates and inspirations so that helped with to provide a creative backbone to my board. As I have chosen the word "build" for 2024, I built (haha) my vision board off of that theme. During 2024, I want to build many things - memories, knowledge, traditions, relationships, build up my family and my build a strong body. I also want to continue to build adventure (big and small) into my every day life. And the biggest "building" I hope to do is build some new spaces at our home for all of us. We had a contractor come out yesterday to provide an estimate which is HUGE for us. Here's to a great year ahead building many things. 

 

The Drive

Dear Colorado, 

You've got to figure out the mountain winter traffic. Eight hours from Winter Park is just too much. We had some pretty views coming up through Hot Sulphur Springs. But, there has to be a better solution. 

Winter Park with the Marshall Family

The weather certainly put a wrinkle in the MLK ski weekend, but everyone skied, we braved the elements and everyone flexed their patience and adaptability muscles this weekend. 

We also enjoyed the hot tub, watched football, played games and made due with the food the Peavys procured. Jacki, Ari, Drake and I ventured out to the village on Saturday night to check out the scene, have a drink and grab the pizza. Everyone skied on Sunday even though viability was limited. Troopers! 

Monday was cold and still snowy and much of the mountain was closed for the morning, but several of us went and had a good couple of hours before coming back for hot tubbing and games - the snow finally stopped and we could see the runs from the condo. 

Unbelievably, the pass was still closed on Tuesday which made planning more challenging. We got a late checkout and some kids jumped in the hot tub and then some of us got on the mountain for a few runs. It was cold, but gorgeous and empty. 

As we sit on the road not to Silverthorne yet, it would be an understatement to say that this travel day is not what any of us expected. But, there is nothing we can do about it so I will practice gratitude for a ski weekend with my sister and her family and an amazing Peavy family who has also been wonderful the entire weekend. Here's to embracing snow, family time and flexibility. 

So. Much. Snow.

Drake in the Tuesday powder

Getting Kate into the tracks 

Can't see the ski hill 

Sean testing the powder - deep! 

Look at the grill now 

I suppose winter vacations always have an element of risk. And yet, over the years we have been pretty lucky. We have had LONG trips to our destination, We have been turned around on I70. We have some harrowing drives up Vail pass in the minivan. However, we can't remember having Berthpid Pass closed for 2 days (and counting) and require driving all the way around to get home. 

On the positive side, Drake didn't have to drive down to pick up his water skiing team today, we had the mountain to ourselves yesterday and today with crazy snow and our travel up on Saturday was super easy. The Marshall kids had a good time on the mountain today in the short time on the slopes which is great and the boys and I enjoyed a few runs before we headed out on this LONG journey. And without all this snow, there is no great skiing or snowpack for water in the summer. 

We are still on the road and in the spirit of trying to focus on the positive, we had some incredible views on our drive from Winter Park..... 

And...... we are still not yet to Silverthorne and have been on the road almost 4 hours...... Marshall family no better off even leaving 2 hours before us - already booked flight for tomorrow. I cannot imagine how there is this much delay on Tuesday evening when folks going the other way can make it up the hill in 2 hours..... anyway gonna enjoy the sunset because there is nothing I can do at this point.  Breathe. Patience. Gratitude for a great weekend. Final arrival in Louisville at 9:40 - 8 hours after leaving WP.