Olive is a happy camper when it snows

It was a pretty quiet week on the home front. We had two snowstorms, only 3-4 inches each so no snow days for the kids which disappointed them.

This weekend we did work around the house. We cleaned out some of the things in our garage, Marcy was very active on Nextdoor selling things and giving some away. And we did a couple of donation trips as well.

Anna played with the neighbor kids today, Jude and I went for a run and watched some of the football and that was about the extent of our excitement this weekend.

Anna’s cheerleading team is called Flurry Cats (she is third from the right, back row)

This weekend I had a work thing in Boulder all day Saturday and then Sunday we had Anna’s first cheerleading competition in Colorado Springs. This is something she has been working up to for over a year and she was both nervous and excited about it.

We left home at 10:45am and arrived at the arena a bit over an hour later. Anna needed to get there early to help one of her teammates with her makeup. Marcy, Jude and I went to have lunch and watch some of the football while we waited for Anna’s timeslot of 1:50pm.

During their routine (Anna is second from the right)

Her whole team did great. I watched them practice on Thursday night and they were a little rough. But today, when it mattered they nailed everything. In fact, the judges scored them 100 out of 100, a perfect score. This meant they won their category and also won the “Golden Ticket” for the best score. Anna was thrilled.

Here is a video of their full routine:

Anna with the ball at a home basketball game

Anna has been playing basketball this season and she really enjoys it. Her team, by her own admission, is not very good and she wasn’t super keen on having us come and watch,. But I finally got to see her play this week and it was great. They were outplayed by bigger and stronger girls but they tried hard. I was impressed by how Anna was running at full speed the entire game. She even hit a 3-pointer to open the scoring.

This weekend, Saturday was a quiet day at home, with Marcy leading an attempt to pull our house back together now that the basement project is finally nearing its end. Today, Jude and I went skiing after he couldn’t come up last weekend because he was sick. We went to Keystone for the day and it was a great day. They hadn’t had much fresh snow but in the trees on the Outback the snow was excellent.

At the top of the Outback Express lift with Breckenridge and the Gore Range in the background

Jude started off a little slow with his new skis that were 15cm longer than what he skied on last year (he has grown a lot) and it took him a while to get used to them. But by the end of the day he was as fast as ever, even down the bump runs.

We ended the day as we often do at Jude’s favorite restaurant, Chimayo, for dinner, where we were able to watch an exciting end to the Cowboys-49ers game.

A snowy day at Vail as we head to the back bowls

This past week was a challenging one. Jude and Anna were both supposed to be back at school on Tuesday but Jude was not feeling well and Anna needed a negative covid test to attend school and her result didn’t come in until Tuesday night. So, she went back Wednesday. Jude, unfortunately, felt crappy all week. He had a covid test on Wednesday but the results didn’t come back until Saturday night.

This meant he couldn’t come skiing with Anna and me so he stayed home with Marcy. We headed up on Friday night and skied Vail on Saturday. This was my first day at Vail in almost 20 years and Anna’s first day ever. It was cold, snowy and a bit windy but the snow was great. I took Anna to the back bowls for a few runs and visibility was terrible. But it cleared up around 3pm and we had one of the best runs I have had in years. Nothing beats powder on the back bowls of Vail.

Saturday was our first food group in more than six months and the first one we have had at Kevin & Brigid’s house in Vail. They live in a beautiful home right at the base of Vail, literally less than 200 yards from the gondola. It was a bummer Jude and Marcy couldn’t go but we had a lovely night.

Sunny day in Keystone skiing the Outback

Today, we skied in the morning at Keystone. It was a beautiful sunny day but very cold. We could only ski in the morning because Anna had to get back for cheerleading practice.

When we got home Jude was feeling much better and back to his usual self which was great to see. He was really bummed to not get to ski Vail and go to food group. I said I would take him skiing next weekend.

Setting off confetti bombs on new year’s eve

We spent the week between Christmas and New Year in Iowa, as we have done every year for the past 15 years (except last year because of covid). The kids looked forward to spending time with cousins as they hadn’t seen them since the summer.

The kids all played this game a lot, keeping the ball in the air

There were a lot of games, cards, football watching and just hanging out. Lily is 16 now and has a full drivers license, so for the first time, she drove Jude and Anna to the movies where they saw the new Spiderman movie. I was asleep before they get home.

Jude enjoyed chowing on the leg of ham, caveman style

It was a cold week, so there was not a lot of outside time. I took Jude out to play soccer once but we spent most of the week indoors. Anna decided that she wanted to spend the week staying at the Dahlens house so she left us every night.

We watched quite a bit of college football, particularly on New Year’s Eve and New Years Day. And every evening we would join Jude’s grandpa and watch one of his British detective shows. Yesterday, we also played a family game of bingo with all 11 of us with prizes for the winners.

Kids champagne toasts for New Year’s

On New Year’s Eve we started with confetti party poppers, then a countdown with kids champagne, and finally a balloon drop. This was all over before 7:30 pm because the twins don’t like to stay up (and really, neither do any of the grown-ups). Jude and Anna both wanted to make it to midnight but since Anna was staying down at the Dahlens she stayed up by herself watching YouTube. Jude and I watched the ball drop in New York and then part of a James Bond movie. We saw the clock hit midnight, wished Anna a Happy New Year and then went to bed.

It was all over too quickly and today we made the big drive back and were home right at 6pm.