Sylvan Lake Cabin Trip

Over our mid-winter break from school, we took advantage of time off with daddy and rented a cabin at Sylvan Lake for a night. It was a great break from the norm and the kids really enjoyed it! 

The Cabin

Ours had one large room. 

Daniel and his girls (along with their aunt) came along and they rented one with a separate sleeping room, but making the eating space a little smaller. Both worked great for each family. 

Sledding 

Playing on the Frozen Sylvan Lake 

Another group had shoveled off the ice (for an appeared ice skating rink) so we enjoyed playing on it! 

Nordic Skiing on the Lake 

The whole trip was awesome...except my wipe out! I feel trying to help Macklin with his skis and hit my lower back pretty darn hard. The damage is kinda unknown at this point, but I am for sure not doing anything active until further notice. I still skied with Mack for the rest of the afternoon, but I am still in quite a bit of pain at times. Boo to injuries. 

Finding a Snow Cave! 

Cabin Play Time 

 

Grandpa's Retirement Party

We hopped on a plane last week and flew out to see Grandpa and Mema for Grandpa's birthday and retirement party! It was a whirlwind of a weekend but totally worth it to be with them for the special celebration! 

Macy was excited for her own seat on the plane! 

Family Time 

The Speeches 

Justin gave a wonderful speech on his dad in front of many friends and family members. He did a great job honoring Don and used character words to describe his dad as 

-Generous

-Consistent

-Positive

-Patient 

-Present

-Encouraging 

It was a fun afternoon, seeing all of the people that have come into Don's life in one way or another and honoring his career in banking. Emma did a great job in setting up the event at the White Mule Winery and inviting a slew of guests! 

Macy gave Grandpa huge hugs! 

Don's brother, Jim, also had some kind words to share about Don. 

 

Kathy's brother Charlie also shared about Don. 

More Pictures of Guests for Grandpa to See 

Presents and Sleepover at the White Mule 

(Favorite new picture of Grandpa and Macklin.) 

Missouri got so much snow while we were there! So fun! 

Toasts to Grandpa! 

Macy helping Grandpa open his gifts. 

Here is a typical picture of my kids to leave on...Macklin shooting something, Macy with her Taggie and fingers in her mouth...just saying. 

Games, Games, Games

We are in a new phase of life around the Brandt home - family game time! The kids are loving games and are actually doing a great job learning new rules, taking turns and celebrating the winners. We had some toddler games last year that the kids enjoyed, but now we have a little more complicated preschool/early school aged games. Here are some of our favorites for a 4-year old (and 2-year old sister who joins in):  

Old Maid

Go Fish

Headbandz (above)

The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game (awesome one!)

Hungry Hungry Hippos

Hi-Ho Cheerio

Candy Land

Memory (of any kind)

Zingo (good one too!)

Boom Boom Balloon (kinda scary when you pop the balloon though) 

Qwirkle (awesome adult game that Macklin is figuring out) 

Ready for Florida

Macy got one of her new swimsuits in the mail today! We got it from UVSkinz.com. It is a great company that has high quality, UV-protectant swimwear that does not tear up easily. With two weeks in Florida this summer, I am looking forward to less sunscreen with this outfit! I am trying to get as many things done before baby as possible...swimwear for Florida is now a check! 

Valentine's Day 2015

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

School Valentine's

Since we are in our only year of preschool, this is Macklin's first experience with class valentine cards. We started work on ours about three weeks ago because I knew it would take a while to get his name written on each one (and he only wrote "Mack"). He seemed to like preparing them though. But, he liked the bags at school even more that began to fill up over the course of the week! Since kids go to school different days of the week, most of the goodies were in there from Wednesday on. I am not sure how his teachers keep those cute little hands out of the bags all week. Needless to say he was excited to bring it home, dump it out, and show off his goods! Macy enjoyed the process as well! 

Openning Valentine's From Mommy and Daddy and Grandparents

They were so excited to get little cards and gifts from everyone! Macy was jealous of Macklin's school sack of valentines, so we made sacks for everyone in the family! 

MOPS and POPS Dinner Party 

My wonderful MOPS group put on a really fun night on the 13th! We called it MOPS and POPS and it was a dinner date for parents. Kids got to play in the normal childcare while parents had a date night of Moe's BBQ and a little marriage enrichment. The four couples below were invited to play a "Newlywed Game" in front of the 80-person crowd. I will say that Team Brandt went 6 for 6 on the questions and took home the win! It was very cute and funny. After the game, our director's husband gave a great talk on marriage and serving each other better. I really hope that we make this an annual night for couples! 

2015 World Championships

Last Friday, Macy and I trekked up to Beaver Creek for the 2015 World Championship ski races. Our valley has been hosting these incredible championships for the past two weeks, but I hadn't gotten the courage to take the kids up. 

I promised myself I would go while they were here because 

1. It is a World Championship - for real! 

2. It was free! 

3. How could I miss out on this?

We weren't able to make any of the awesome nightly concerts or post-race hoopla due to our basketball schedule and recent travels, but one day at the races made me wish I had gone sooner! It was actually a lot of fun. We sat at the bottom of the hill by the finish. But with the jumbo-trons and the course in front of us, we actually got to see some racing! We also sat next to the Austrian super fans - that was fun! 

As an athlete myself, I can definitely appreciate other athletes that are at the top of their game. So whether I know nothing about ski racing nor have I ever actually finished reading an article that prints in the Vail Daily, I really enjoyed watching these Olympians. 

We stayed through the first round of races (about 2 hours) and then left before the next round. I was pumped to see the next day that American Ted Ligety ended up winning that race. Macy did a great job hanging with her buddy Trevan, and then we hiked down the mountain (we took the bus up) and were on our way. I might even go to another ski race next winter because this one was so much fun! 

Great job to the Vail Valley for hosting such a great event and thanks to the over 2,000 volunteers it took to put it together.