presidents' day weekend...

For Presidents' Day weekend, we went back up to our house in Michigan. It was good to get away again together. This time of year gets crazy and stays crazy all the way until we put them on the bus to camp in June!

We got in late Friday night. Jeff and the kids got up early to ski Saturday morning. After lunch I walked over to watch them do the Nastar Races. I only took the flip, not my camera. I guess I'm still feeling the ski/snowboard photo overload from winter break and didn't want to add any more to it :-)

Neither kid had a great day time-wise, they both just earned racer pins from their runs...
... but they still had fun and Jeff and I could really see an improvement in their technique (especially Alex).

Once back at the house, we decided to break out the puzzle Alex had gotten at Christmas...

... my parents had bought it for him on our trip to Wisconsin in August.

That night and the next morning the trio skied some more. Sunday afternoon, we were all going to try cross country skiing. However, Jeff called from the ski rental and said that he had been told that none of the beginner trails were open due to a lack of snow. He said that the kids were insistent on giving it a go, so he would still take them. It was up to me if I wanted to go or not, but he wouldn't suggest it. Well... I'm so glad I didn't go!!! An hour or so later, the kids come bursting into the house yelling "dad needs ice... dad needs ice!!". And boy did he! His knee was about twice it's normal size! Apparently, the trail they went on had lots of little hills and none of them knew how to stop! They all took decent tumbles. Alex was okay... Clara had pretty good bruises all around one knee... but it was Jeff who got the worst of it. We all decided to take it easy the rest of the afternoon.

Mango found out how much she enjoyed hanging out in front of the fire...
... she could barely keep her eyes open.

The kids wanted to play in the snow and sled, however, we had forgotten to pack their snow boots! Now that things are going on clearance, I'm on the hunt for cheap boots a size or so too big so we can just keep them up at the house for next winter.

After dinner, the kids wanted to ski some more, so Jeff drove them over and picked them up a couple of hours later. They're so lucky to have each other to pal around with! :-)

And then, one last photo...
... the kids on their laptop on Monday morning before we started getting the house ready to lock-up.

It was such a great weekend together... except for Jeff's watermelon sized knee, of course! :-)