Ski Trip and More!

The past few weeks have gone by so fast. We've had more basketball, we celebrated Valentine's Day, people in our house keep losing teeth, and we travelled to Utah for our family ski trip among other things going on.

Emma's team has done so well playing. They've only lost 3 games. 2 of those being to the same team, who I think we will be playing against in the playoffs. They've improved so much since they started playing together in the 1st grade. 

Ellie had another sewing class this month. This time they made a drawstring bag and scrunchies. 

Concentrating

Ellie was being really sweet to Emma, so I had to get this picture. Emma had a rough game, a girl had fallen on her and hurt her and she was exhausted. They also lost, which makes Emma's game injuries that much worse. Ellie made it all better though by carrying her to the car. 

"scrappy" Mack

Valentine's Day was a little rushed because they were off to school for more parties then we were picking them up to head to the airport for Utah. 

They got a few minutes to check out their loot though. 

These kids were like pros in the airport. We had our babysitter  ride with us to Tampa Friday (Valentine's Day) night. The babysitter left us there and drove our car back to the Valdosta airport as that would be where we were flying back into. We stayed in the hotel that is connected to the airport in Tampa because we had such an early flight. These kids did great getting up early, they kept us on time, and behaved like normal people (mostly) through all of it. 

We grabbed some breakfast at Starbucks in the airport while we were waiting to board. (Yes, somehow, we had time to get 3 kids up and ready and through security and still have time for coffee and food before a 7:00am flight.) Mack was not ready to eat breakfast that early though, and pretty much never ate anything until dinner that night once we were in Utah. It was all too exciting to stop for food, but I was worried altitude sickness was going to creep up on him.  

Our flight went smoothly and we went straight to lunch once we made it to Park City. 

We couldn't quite check into our condo yet, so we headed to main street to do a little shopping and exploring. 

Our first night there, Mack pulled a tooth. He woke Worth and I up at 5:15 to let us know. He had been working on getting that one out for a while. Who knows how long he had been up working on it that morning since we were not yet adjusted to MST. 

Emma having a little snow as we waited to get our skis out of the valet. 

Our kids were more mesmerized by all the snow that actually skiing I think. They were goofing around before our first lesson making snow balls. 

This is the family shot before day 2 of ski school. I didn't get many pictures because a) I'm new to skiing and haven't mastered picture taking/filming while on skis and b) It was too dang cold to take my hands out of my gloves to take tons of pictures. 

Our ski school ended and we were sad to say goodbye to Sarah, our instructor. She was born in Australia, moved to Austria at age 12, and has been in the U.S. teaching skiing in Utah since this past November. She was very patient with our crew. 

They begged for a picture with the big moose. 

This was one of the views from our room.

one afternoon, we only skied half day so that we had time to get back and try out the heated pool and hot tub. It was fabulous. 

I was so proud of these little people! We had 2 full days of ski school and the next 2 days we were on our own. These 3 were on the blue slopes with their daddy and cutting through trees like they had been skiing their entire life. I was too scared to get too adventurous, but I was easily skiing the green slopes and enjoying myself, which was not the attitude I had expected I would have going in this year. It has finally clicked for all of us how to do it and we had so much fun. 

This was my view the last night there. We were sitting at the small ice skating rink right below our condo in front of a fire, drinking wine, and watching the kids ice skate. If it had not been 20 degrees, I might have stayed out there another hour. 

Ellie found a GREAT t-shirt for her souvenir. 

Emma is always cuddling with someone, even if it does have to be Mack sometimes. 

Our last night in Utah, Ellie lost a tooth. the tooth fairy was very busy traveling to find us in another state last week. 

Once we were home, Ellie had to satisfy her creative itch that had not been fulfilled skiing. She went straight to her room and did the "cat eye" with make up. Pretty soon she's going to be doing my make up for events.  

We hit the ground running this week and weekend when we got back with more basketball. 

Mack played his final regular season game and they lost. He played so well and even made his foul shot, which he hasn't been able to do all season in a game until now. 

The Flu, basketball, dancing, and birthday #42

The flu hit us hard this past week. Mack and Emma had mild versions of it, only being down for about 24 total hours. Ellie's symptoms hung around a little longer and she ended up missing 4 days of school. I am still struggling myself with some residual sinus issues which left me without a voice. Nothing else stopped for us though. We've had basketball games, the father daughter dance, school field trips, more basketball, and my 42nd birthday - which I spent feeling pretty sick. I'm so ready to get this virus out of our house, I can't stand it! Hopefully this next week will bring health and a return to normalcy for all of us.

These pictures cover the past couple of weeks, because I didn't really have enough pictures accumulated to make a post until now.

The kids cracked open their frozen yogurt maker a couple of weekends ago and made some frozen yogurt. 

I thought Mack looked hilarious having some bench time at one of his games. I had to snap this picture. 

Mack's team won their first game! As of today, they've won 2 lost 3. 

Ellie had an overnight school field trip to Jekyll Island. She was quite exhausted when she returned. She got home, showered, and got in her happy place with her unicorn (if front of the tv.)

Ellie is on safety patrol this semester. I never get to see her at work, because I have to drop her off early so that she's there before drop off starts. The other morning, I had a PTO meeting to attend, and I get to snap a picture of her out there doing her thing. It was so cold that morning! 

Mack had his 101st day of school. He begged me to make him some ears to wear. 

He's a nut. 

This was the first flu victim. This was Emma when she got home from school 2 Fridays ago. It hit hard and fast. 

I was the 2nd victim of the flu, then came Mack and Ellie. Mack was hilarious. He kept putting on this mask and watching tv with it. I asked him if he was trying to keep his germs contained and he told me "no." I'm not sure what his purpose was but that day, I let him do whatever made him feel better, because he was pitiful. 

Legoninjago flu fighter. 

I got to spend my birthday watching this cute guy play basketball. They lost pretty bad, but I love to watch him play!
I love watching Emma too. Unfortunately, due to having the flu, I missed all but one of her games this week. Her team is undefeated so far. 

Mama insisted on making me a cake even though I can't really taste anything still. I chose key lime and it was a monster cake. 

It turned out delicious! 

Once we had our cake snack, I got the girls ready for the father daughter dance. I'd like to say it was a lovely evening, but that little girl in the middle wearing the white dress decided to throw the biggest fit of her life - one that brought me to tears. Not my best parenting moment, but being sick, tired, and having no voice will leave you nothing to do but cry when your child decides to buck. Emma is stubborn, and when she digs her heels in, it's bad. We all pulled it together though and  the girls made it to the dance and had a great time despite the debacle earlier. 

My kids save up their money to buy/order things, things like wigs. Ellie was thrilled to find said item in the mailbox when they returned from the dance last night.