Madeline and Easton have been best friends most of the school year. We try to get those two together every Friday for a fun playdate and we rotate houses every week. I love how well they play together and how gentle Easton is with her. They usually like playing the same kinds of things which is awesome. Their favorite things to play with are Magna Tiles and Duplos. They also love playing chase and usually rope either Mike or myself into chasing them around the house. This month Easton's grandma took both of them to McDonalds to eat dinner as a special treat. Now they ask all of the time if they can go to McDonalds. What silly kids!

​It was a rather slow month of exercise for me. With several weeks of feeling under the weather I just had to exercise during the good moments. Most of my workouts this month, though, were on the Peloton doing some easy rides followed by some light strength training. I managed to get a few runs in outside and a bike ride outside through Cordera and along the Cottonwood creek trail with Mike. After our bike ride we came home to some homemade bread and fresh honey from our friends. It was a remarkable treat after our 20 mile bike ride.

​The boys have been studying really hard this semester, so it was a nice surprise when we got photos of them skiing over the weekend. I am so glad that they were able to sneak away from studying life to have a little bit of fun. Peter’s friend Julian drove them all to Park City to go skiing. Even though it was still February, the weather was quite warm which was nice but also meant that the snow was just ok. All in all, the boys still had a great time on the slopes together. 

​Madeline was so excited to participate in her class valentines party at school. Madeline looked so cute in her little red dress. She and I had fun putting together her paper donut valentines with fun pencils for each of her classmates. I stopped in the classroom just in time for the exchange of valentines. Her teacher was super organized and had each table take turns passing out their valentines. I loved watching her excitement as she passed her valentines out to her friends. 
 

​Ever since I have been under the weather we really haven’t done that much as a family on the weekends. We decided it would be fun to try and go bowling since I was feeling decent. First, we ventured over to The Summit, but it was so full of people and the wait was too long. Then, we decided to drive over to the AFA and try the bowling alley on base. There was hardly anyone there and it was way cheaper to bowl and eat there. The girls had such a great time bowling. Even Madeline was able to get into it. Halfway through our bowling session the neon lights came on and we bowled under the coolest lights. I half to say that this family bowling night at AFA might become something we do more often in the future.  

Peter went skiing with some of his buddies from college. Julian drove them all to Alta to ski. They all had a great time on the mountain.

Mike and Emma spent a beautiful Sunday afternoon walking around the Painted Mines. 

​We had a nice quiet birthday celebration for Emma for her 16th birthday. Her letter jacket was her main gift but there was a delay with that being finished so she opened the rest of her gifts from us. Her favorite gift that she opened was her Japanese learning books. Emma is all about learning Japanese these days. Emma loves pretty much anything about Japan, the language, the culture, and the anime. Since I was still sick Mike took care of getting a chocolate cake and he made a traditional Japanese dinner of katsu over rice with cabbage, gyoza, sushi and Ramune to drink. It was the perfect little birthday celebration for our sweet 16th year old Emma! 

This month started out so well with my running, biking, and swimming. I was determined to make this my best year ever and be more consistent not only with my cardio but also with strength training and core exercises. I ran on the Santa Fe trail with the Striders and then another day with Dionne and Caryn, I ran the loop at the Pineries, I did a track workout at the CC track, a bike ride up and around Garden of the Gods, a swim at Flying Horse and ran in the 2nd race during the Winter Series. Then I started getting signs of passing a kidney stone. The next week I took it easy and didn’t run much. The following weekend I thought I was better so I did High Drive with Caryn and although I had such a good time, this run was almost more than my body could handle. I got sick after that and couldn’t exercise at all. 

Today was our last ski day and we lucked out with good weather again today. It was already 20F when we got on the lift and although the sun was hiding behind the clouds, it peaked its way out after our first run down the Paradise Bowl. We did the Paradise Bowl a few times with Abby and Madeline while the boys took Emma down the black Crystal run. Then we met up with Emma so that the boys could hike up to the top of Headwall and ski down that double black run. They had so much fun hiking up and being able to put their skis on their awesome backpacks and then killing it down the powder steepness. The rest of us skied down Paradise to Yellow Brick Road and down the blue Upper Park run to Lower Twister. Then we took the Silver Queen Express back to the top and skied all the way down to the Paradise hut for lunch. After lunch we ran into some friends (some of the Richin kids) and showed them the runs on the East River Express lift. The oldest two kids (Lizzy and Andrew) went with the Andrew, Peter, Emma, and I down Double Top Glades while the youngest (Sarah) hung with Abby, Madeline, and Mike. We spent an hour over there before heading back to the Paradise lift where we did another run before heading back down the mountain. Later that night we had some the Borg family over to the cabin for some dessert and games. It was a fun way to end our ski trip at Crested Butte.

​Today was an epic day on the mountain with the kids. Everyone except the boys left around 9:30am and walked over to the Red Lady Express lift. We decided to start the day with an easy green run. We headed down Peanut to Lower Twister. After that almost too easy run headed up the Silver Queen Express lift and took the catwalk to the Paradise Bowl. The boys met us there and we skied down the Paradise Bowl to Lower Forest Queen to the bottom of the Paradise Express lift. The snow was awesome, so we decided to do that run a couple of more times before heading over to the East River Express Lift. Once at the top of the East River Express lift the boys and Emma went down the black Double Top Glades tree and mogul run while Mike, Abby, Madeline, and I went down the ungroomed blue Black Eagle run. We didn’t realize the run wasn’t groomed until we came to some moguls. It wasn’t the most ideal run for Madeline, but I just had her follow my line through the moguls and she got down without any problems. When I asked her what she thought of moguls she said she liked them. I can’t believe this little girl doesn’t have any fear. After meeting the boys and Emma back up at the top, I separated from Mike and the younger girls and went off with the boys and Emma down the Double Top Glades run. I loved the first part of this run which was a ton of powder through the trees. Once out of the trees we dropped right onto the main part of the run which was covered with rather deep moguls. I am not the best at deep moguls, but I did my best to get down. Then it was back in some trees to the bottom. This was probably my favorite run so far this season. We all met up and headed back to the Paradise hut for lunch. After lunch we skied down the Paradise bowl runs for the rest of the afternoon and then headed down the mountain to the Painter Boy lift and did a blue on the other side and then headed to the bottom to end our fun day. Back at the house we snacked, relaxed, ate dinner, watched a movie, and started a 1000-piece puzzle together. It was a fabulous day!

We woke up to amazingly cold temperatures and no water running in the house. Apparently, the pipes froze overnight and the gasket on the water meter outside burst. After calling the emergency maintenance line, we just chilled in our warm cabin and waited for the repair men to come out and fix it. Luckily, it was a rather easy fix and water was soon running in the cabin. Hallelujah! We ate lunch at the cabin and then got our ski gear on to hit a few afternoon runs. The weather had finally warmed up to the teens and the sun was shining so we knew we would be ok. The walk down to the lifts wasn’t that long and we all managed just fine. We headed up on the Red Lady Express Lift and headed toward the Lower Ruby Chief run. We went up the Paradise Lift and skied down the Paradise Bowl. The snow was a bit chopped up already, but Madeline seemed to manage just fine over the “bumps” on the once groomed runs. We didn’t love that run so we decided to skip the Paradise Express Lift and skied down the Middle and Lower Gallowich run to the East River Express lift. The snow was much better on this side of the mountain, so we decided to head up the lift and do the Lower Treasury run twice. Then we made our way back to the Paradise Bowl and took the lift to the top so we could head down Houston’s access to the bottom of the resort. It was a rather short day on the slopes, but we still had some fun and spent time getting reacquainted with this ski resort. Back at the cabin we all spent time outside the cabin playing in the snow. Andrew carved out a nice little sled hill and we used cardboard boxes we already had to make little sleds. It’s amazing how the kids can have just as much fun sledding and playing in the snow as they do skiing on the mountain. 
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​After staying up way past midnight we all slept in and then packed for our Crested Butte ski trip. We divided all the stuff between two cars again and headed out in the snow for our long drive. The road conditions weren’t that great, but we all made it to the cabin in Crested Butte without too many problems. As we entered the town of Crested Butte the sun was still shining but the temperature was dropping fast. It’s a good thing we could pull both cars into the garage to unpack all our gear. It’s nice to have big kids to help with that part. The cabin we are staying at this year is quite spacious and really cool inside. Since we bought all our food ahead of time we threw in a quick dinner and enjoyed relaxing and being together. 

​Emma had 2 winter concerts two days in a row. The first concert was her orchestra concert. They all sounded so good. It was fun to watch her perform. The next day she played in the Jazz Band concert where she soloed several times throughout the concert. I was blown away by her talent on the saxophone. 

​We survived the most powerful windstorm to ever come through Colorado Springs in the 8 years we have lived here. It was so powerful and lasted most of the day. By the end of the storm both of our fences were damaged. One side actually fell over. 

​We gifted Abby a couple of private swim lessons with one of the upper-level coaches to help her with her form. She loved it!

I spent a good deal of time this month biking on the Peloton and running the Striders workouts on my own. After recovering from being sick after Thanksgiving, I decided to just have fun with my workouts this month. In conjunction with biking and running, I started a 4-week core workout program and made sure to do lots of stretching on the Peloton app after my bike and run workouts. The weather was a lot colder this month and I had to pull out all my winter gear to run outside. My favorite runs of the month were two of the coldest runs I did. The first was a fun run in 12F but the sun was shining, and I was in the zone. My second favorite workout was another fun run but this time in the Garden with Dionne. It was also freezing that morning, but the views were outstanding, and the conversation was unbeatable. My hope going into the new year is to continue being consistent not only in my running and biking but all the other supplemental stuff like core and stretching which will help me become a stronger athlete! 

​I usually never get to exercise on Christmas Eve but this year I went out and did a track workout and some last-minute grocery shopping all in the morning before I started cooking our Christmas dinner. Peter and Emma went and delivered a few gifts while I started on the dinner. Mike was awesome at peeling and chopping and keeping the kitchen clean for me. We spent most of the day cooking, eating, laughing, playing music, playing games, and decorating sugar cookies to give to Santa. Mike had the older kids read his outline for the book he is writing, and the kids had some awesome pointers to give him. I loved listening to each of the older kid’s opinions on his story. It was fascinating to listen that conversation. I loved watching everyone enjoy being together on Christmas Eve. We were even blessed with an afternoon snow shower!! With how little snow we have gotten this fall, it made us all jump for joy! Instead of dressing up for our dinner, I gave everyone their Christmas pjs and we ate dinner in our pajamas this year. That was a ton of fun. Then we read from Luke, said our family prayer, and everyone played a card game while I made the cinnamon rolls for the next morning. We had all anticipated watching a movie after putting Madeline to bed, but we were all so exhausted. The big kids were banished to their rooms while Mike and I set up the stockings and gifts from Santa. Madeline’s bakery was a little tricky to put together (thanks Santa for not putting it together for us). Mike and I didn’t end up going to bed until 11:30pm. Although most of our kids are older, I still had a hard time falling asleep with good anticipation for the next morning. I just love Christmas. 

​Today we decided that since the Northwoods run was so much fun the day before, we wanted to go down that one again. While Andrew and Peter took Emma on a black tree run, Mike and I took Abby and Madeline down Northwoods. Madeline did an even better job than she did the day before. It was nice to do that run first since there weren’t a ton of people on the mountain yet. The second time I took Madeline down the catwalk and flapjack while Mike and Abby went down Northwoods. Madeline flew down the entire run, and I clocked her going 24mph. I had to work to keep up with her. We all met at the bottom at the Northwoods Express Lift. The third time I went down Northwoods by myself while Mike, Abby and Madeline went down the catwalk and Flapjack. I had so much fun flying down that run. Mike was so amazed at how fast Madeline was skiing today. The line was so long at Northwoods Express Lift, so we decided to wait for the older kids at the top. We headed over to grab a quick snack at the Buffalo hut. Once we met up with the older kids, we headed down the catwalk and did a run down the Sourdough Lift before heading to lunch. After lunch we knew the lines at Northwoods Express lift would be crazy, so we only did flapjack to the bottom once and then we headed over to do the Swingsville and the Cappuccino run. Cappuccino was a little steeper and icy in some sections but overall wasn’t a bad run. We did Hunky Dory twice and then headed back down the gondola. 

​Day 2 of skiing at Vail was just as much fun as the first day. The weather was beautiful with sunny skies and warmer temps. We were surprised that the groomed runs were still soft and not crunchy or icy. Instead of taking Madeline down the Timberline catwalk for the first run we decided to head down the steeper blue Northwoods run with her. At first Madeline looked down the run and wasn’t too sure she wanted to do it but I told her I would lead and so she followed me. She destroyed that run and went down it with amazing control. Then we went and did more of the same runs we did the day before. We ate lunch at Two Elk Lodge again, and then skied for just a little bit longer since the lines were crazy long at the Northwoods Express lift and the Mountain Top Express Lift after lunch. With only so many lifts open we ended up waiting at least 20 min every time we wanted to go up those lifts. Andrew, Peter, and Emma decided they wanted to ski down the entire mountain to the bottom instead of taking the gondola, so we parted ways with them. Abby wasn’t quite done yet, so I went down Hunky Dory with her twice while Mike took Madeline back down the mountain on the gondola.