Mid-Winter Break and Valentine's Day 2025

We got a snow day call Wednesday evening for Thursday, which means we got an extra day for Mid-Winter Break, which was awesome! Scott had to teach virtually since his district is out of days so he stayed in the basement most of the day.  The boys went sledding in the morning, I got my new Jeep at lunchtime, and in the afternoon the boys went to play ice hockey with our old neighbors and Jameson.  I'd say they had a fun day!  

The boys and I had Valentine's Day off this year as it was on a Friday and it was a part of our Mid-Winter Break.  Scott, unfortunately, had to work.  I had a hair appointment in the morning and our old neighbors dropped off June for us to dog-sit her over the weekend.  I told the boys I'd pick them up and take them to Chic-Fil-A for lunch and on to the mall to do some shopping.  I had a pair of jeans I needed to exchange at Aerie.  

We played with the dogs after we got back home and waited for Scott to come home so we could do our annual tradition of heart shaped pizzas and chocolate fondue.  

We started this tradition back in college at Western.  A local pizza place sold heart shaped pizzas and once we had kids, we started making our own.  The boys love the chocolate fondue part and we've added and changed what we buy to dip in the fondue.  The crowd favorite, hands down, is Sara Lee pound cake.  

Saturday, Evan had baseball practice in the morning.  The boys went sledding again and then in the late afternoon Evan and I drove out to Alpine Valley to ski/snowboard.  The conditions were great and the lift lines weren't long at all!  We had so much fun!

Sunday Sean had his wrestling tournament out in Brighton.  We had gotten more snow, but the roads seemed fine enough to go.  He did pretty good!  He had a forfeit his first match, won his second (with his first tech fall of the season 16-0), and made it to the first place match.  Unfortunately, he lost the first place match after 3 tough rounds 8-3 and then had to wrestle for 2nd place and lost that one in the second round.  He took 3rd overall.  We let him come home and shower and then we all went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse.  

Monday, our last day of break, was a busy one!  I worked on laundry, cleaning, the kids had homework, and both kids had activities in the evening.  I felt a little overwhelmed with saving everything to the last minute, but it was a fun weekend and it was worth a little stress on Monday.

Back to work and school....

Up North for MLK Weekend

For the first time in years, I had MLK day off of work (no professional development).  We took advantage of the long weekend and minimal sports and decided to go up north to Scott's parents' lake house.  We left Friday after work and ate Jimmy Johns in the car and got up there by 7:30pm.  We caught up with Scott's parents and played Euchre for a while before going to bed.  The plan was to ski in the morning and be out the door by 8am.

We decided to ski at Otsego Resort again this year.  It's about an hour and 15 minutes from Gladwin and we loved it last year!  We got there by 9:30am, rented Sean equipment and got on the slopes.  Evan is snowboarding this year and it took him some time to get the hang out of getting down some of the hills and by late morning, he was doing well!

We took a lunch break around 11:30am and got lucky with both finding a table and having a short line for food.  That place really gets crowded!  The kids loved the french fries and chicken strips!  And then we went back out for a several hours before calling it a wrap.  By the end of the day, Evan was cruising on his snowboard and I think Scott and Sean both liked being on mostly greens all day!

We met up with Scott's parents in Gladwin at the Merry-Hearted Cidery for a flight and then they picked up carry-out to bring home for dinner.  We played a few early hands of Euchre before the Lions game.  Sadly, they lost and it was pretty devastating to watch.  Everyone went to bed around midnight and looked forward to sleeping in on Sunday.

Sunday morning we were lazy until about 11am when we decided to bundle up and go sledding.  The temperature had dropped quite a bit so we knew we would only last about an hour sledding.  

We had lunch back the house, watched some football, read, and played games. We decided to go to the indoor pool.  The kids practically had the pool to themselves, although Evan decided not to swim.  We grabbed dinner at The Hearth and came back home to relax.  Pops wasn't feeling well that evening so he went to bed early and it was a quiet night.  The next morning we had breakfast and packed up to head home.  We enjoyed our weekend away!