January 1 - New Year's Day
Everyone slept in after a slightly later than usual night. (Except me and I enjoyed 5 hours of uninterrupted time by myself). I wrote a blog post and posted something from my journal
In the afternoon, we went sledding at Staring Lake (Lauren, Natalie and Jamie). The hill conditions weren't exactly ideal (very bumpy) but the sunshine was great!
For dinner, Gloria and I made potstickers for the first time and they were SUPER good. Gloria is great at making them, too (no photo, unfortunately).
After dinner, we watched Shrek 2 since we watched Shrek last night!
It was a great, relaxing New Year's Day
Saturday, Jan 2
Lauren and I worked at the Bird House Inn together. She's a good worker and we always have a few laughs together when we're there. It was chore day at home and I was glad for all the help to get our own house clean! Also, it was grocery day (Aldi!) and Lauren went to her friend Anna'a house. There were a few rounds of the games Juliana brought over and some monopoly playing today. After dinner, Lauren and I also tried out one of the new games we got for Christmas, too.
Sun Jan 3
We went to church this morning - Jim taught in Sunday school and I was on the worship team as a singer for the first time, which was incredibly FUN! We took Natalie and Jamie to Power Hill Park for a little bit of sledding and then enjoyed the last quiet Sunday afternoon before back to school tomorrow.
Mon Jan 4
Back to school! We had a few technical difficulties but ended up with a productive day anyway, made better by starting a big, collaborative Lego project. In the evening, I had a planning meeting for the Women's retreat. Katie worked yesterday and today and has a bunch more shifts planned this week; bookings are slow at the Bird House Inn so Lauren and I have no shifts scheduled this week.
Tues Jan 5
Another regular school day and work day for Katie and Jim. I woke up without an alarm again today (very surprising for me - I guess I got enough sleep last week during break) and I got treated to this nice sunrise.
In school, we worked on an outline for the book of Luke, learned about Nebuchadnezzar, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, a Baroque piece called the Prince of Denmark's March by Jeremiah Clarke, organs, trumpets, potential energy and did some reading aloud with more Legos. We're currently reading The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, Book II.
Lauren is back to GTCYS tonight and I have Bible Study at Mills Church.
Wed Jan 6
We took off for a 2-day mini vacation (the kids' "big" Christmas present) to Taylor's Falls. Katie had to work so she met us at the State Park. We started at Interstate Park, where we went tromping around in the "pothole" area. The weather was perfect, and it was actually good that massive amounts of snow had not fallen so we could go on the rock trails. We started by the boat landing, where there was a little fun with the ice going down the steep drive to the river.
The river and surrounding area was incredibly beautiful and we were all impressed with the little ice flows and formations and how the potholes were filled with ice. The "bake oven" was so full of water and ice that we couldn't go into it.
Next, we drove up to Wild River State Park, and the cute little guest house where we were going to stay overnight.
After unpacking, we went on a 1.5 mile hike through the woods. At the end, we were pretty tired, which was my plan, so everyone would go to bed more easily! It totally worked!
We saw a lot more ice formations by the Nevers Dam site and noticed a really dramatic difference compared to our summer trip there.
After we got back to the cabin, we watched movies, played games and had dinner in the full kitchen, which I thought seemed like a huge upgrade compared to a camper cabin (my original idea!)
Thurs Jan 7
We packed up and headed back down to Wild Mountain for our ski day, which began at 10 am. It was not busy at ALL compared to Buck Hill last year! We didn't have to wait in line for ski rentals or any lifts. Katie got a snowboard and really ripped it up! I had a giggle because Jamie bombed the hills so often that her hair sort of froze to the outside of her helmet and stayed that way even when she was motionless. We extended our lift tickets for an extra couple hours and ended up staying until 5pm. We were all tired and sore but it was an absolutely wonderful time.
All photo collages in this post made with PicMonkey: crazy-awesome photo editing
Check it out - it's my FAVORITE!
