Sunday, February 28, 2021

February

Monday, February 1st - Monday and a new month came in with a bang. Both Ms. Soper and Mr. Ebert were out sick, so Kevin had to manage to teach ALL the band classes. So very tough! I worked half a shift this day too.
Wednesday, February 3rd - Kellen lost another tooth!
Thursday, February 4th - We were surprised to wake up to this much snow! And, no snow day even though it was as much or more snow than when we had a snow day the week before. But, the sun was out and that makes a big difference. Much of it was melted by the afternoon.
Thankful for Thursday night dinner this week - Kellen needed math homework help and Papa came to the rescue!
Sunday, February 7th - Thankful to enjoy some rest after 30 hours in the NICU and another 7 hours with my consulting job this week. And, some rest for Kevin too after another tough week for him. We enjoyed this snacky feast and the Super Bowl. It was a fun family time!

Wednesday, February 10th - Valentine's Day party at school. Kellen made his own Valentine box - super cool! And, it was wear red day (his favorite color)! So, he got to wear his red khakis and his Firestorm shirt instead of uniform!
Tuesday, February 16th - Back to reality after a wonderful break and time in Estes Park. I never get tired of this view on the way to work.
Thursday, February 18th - Snow Day/At-Home-Learning Day. It was nice to sleep in a bit. And, it was nice that Jenna's PE assignment was to shovel the driveway!

Thursday Night Dinner - The kids made up a contest of who could jump off the fireplace hearth and make the least amount of noise during their landing. Kevin measured the noise level with his decibel reader app. Papa even got into the action! So fun and funny!
Wednesday, February 24th - Kevin got a tour of the new band/choir/weight/wrestling rooms at TCA. It's going to be really nice.
Thursday, February 25th - Another Thursday/Snow Day/At-Home-Learning Day. And, another PE assignment to shovel the driveway!

We were happy to have enough snow and that Jenna was able to get her school work done in time for us to go sledding!





So much fun!

Friday night, February 26th and Saturday, February 27th - Jenna participated in the CU Honor Band. This is an audition only band and quite an honor. It was too bad that the weekend was entirely on zoom, but I think they did a pretty good job of making it the best it could be. The students were able to have a session with the composer of the piece they played, so that was really cool.
Saturday, February 27th - While Jenna was having her zoom CU Honor Band, Papa took Kellen and Grant to City Rock to climb. Kellen made it to the top! After Jenna's long (9am to 4pm) day, Kevin and I treated her to Olive Garden for dinner.

Sunday, February 28th - Online church. Then, Kellen suggested we should go hiking. But, it was COLD! Jenna had an idea that we could make a Dude Perfect type video of Hiking Stereotypes. So, we braved the cold and went out to Santa Fe Trail for a bit. It was a fun afternoon!

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Monday, February 15, 2021

Estes Park

Thursday, February 11th - Monday February 15th - We enjoyed a 5 day weekend! It was very much needed! Thursday, Jenna enjoyed rock climbing with Madilyn for her birthday, then both kids had their piano lessons early so we could go out of town, then we had Madilyn's birthday dinner. Friday, we started the day with dentist appointments, then Papa and Mima's for lunch, then we hit the road!
Friday, February 12th - Estes Park, CO! First stop, the Rocky Mountain National Park visitors center (Kellen got his Junior Ranger Badge) and a drive through the National Park. 
Jenna and I climbed up this cool rock formation.

Jenna climbed up higher and took these cool pictures.
We saw some elk!
Then, it was time that we could check in. Once again, we enjoyed staying at Fawn Valley Inn. Thankful for their stay two nights, get the third free special! We unloaded and then headed to Safeway. They had an 8 piece fried chicken, salad, 12 rolls, and 2 liter soda special for $5!! We got that for dinner Friday and some other easy frozen dinners for the next two nights.
After dinner, we tried to start a fire, but we didn't have enough kindling. We watched the latest episode of Wanda Vision and an X-Men movie that Kellen had been wanting to watch but we didn't have access to before. Fawn Valley Inn has over 1,000 videos available to check out and they had the X-Men movie Kellen wanted!
Madilyn took good care of Cosmo while we were gone.
Saturday, February 13th - We slept late and woke up to this beautiful view and fresh snow that had fallen through the night.
We enjoyed a game of Avengers Monopoly after breakfast, then had wonton soup and spring rolls for lunch.
After lunch, we borrowed snow shoes from Fawn Valley Inn and headed to a snow shoe trail (Bear Lake Loop) in the National Park. We saw this group of elk on the way. But, Kellen started feeling car sick, so we had to head back to the inn.

By the time we got back to the inn, Kellen was feeling better. So, we snow shoed along the river behind our building. It was so cold (14 degrees plus wind chill) that we only lasted 10 minutes or so. But, it was so much fun! I'm so thankful for the free snow shoes from the inn and the chance to try snow shoeing - something I've always wanted to do! Next time, I hope to try it on the trail that we heard about in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Happy snow shoers!
Looking forward to trying again someday!

Back inside, we successfully started a fire and enjoyed watching it and the snow falling. A cup of hot chocolate, Kansas basketball game, and then a good book - perfect afternoon!
When we were picking out dinner for tonight at Safeway, we couldn't decide between chicken enchiladas and orange chicken - so we got both! And ate both! On vacation, so why not?!

We watched Back to the Future 2 & 3! And, we boiled some water and enjoyed watching it turn to snow as we threw it in the air. Fun!
Sunday, February 14th - Online church, Michigan basketball game, and leftovers for lunch. Then another drive through Rocky Mountain National Park and then into the town of Estes Park. Another COLD day! We walked through the town and ducked into stores to warm up. We purchased some treats, then headed back to the inn.
Another warming fire and chicken pot pies for dinner.
Skip Bo, the evens of Phase 10, and Parent Trap (1998) to round out the night.
Monday, February 15th - Check out at 10:00 am, then lunch at Parry's Pizza in Denver. Then, some games at Boondock's. And, a run through IKEA in search of a new living room lamp, but we didn't find one. Home, laundry, and back to reality. So, thankful for this great time away!

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