Mid-winter break skiing

 Since we had to cancel our weekend skiing at Nubs Nob because of Covid, we decided to ask Scott's parents if we could use their lake house in Gladwin.  We got lucky because they had a couple of inches of snow, it was cold and wintery, and we planned to drive a little over an hour to ski at Otsego (used to be a private resort, but now is public).  

We left on Friday after Scott got out of work.  We had Little Caesar's in the car and got there by 7:30pm.  The kids explored outside in the dark while we unpacked the truck.  Then, we settled in eating snacks, watching TV, playing with some toys Nana had, and doing a 300 piece puzzle.  It was a cozy evening in!

Saturday morning we all slept in.  We made waffles, eggs, and bacon for breakfast and took the dog for a walk.  We decided to get bundled up and go sledding.  There's an amazing hill back by the campground and we had the whole thing to ourselves!  It feels like you're in the woods all by yourselves.  The Sugar Springs recreation center was doing a social lunch with hot dogs, hot chocolate, chips, etc.  So, we stopped by and took advantage of that.  The kids didn't want to swim so we went back to the house.

After showering and hanging out for a bit, we decided to drive into Gladwin to go to the Merry-Hearted Cidery.  We got a flight to start, a pint after of our favorite one, and split a crazy concoction they call "Whole Hearted", which is a sample of each flavor (all they have on tap) mixed together.  It wasn't bad!  The kids played Uno and we made a deal with them that we would stop at the Dollar General for them to pick out something small after, so of course they were happy.  On the way back to the house we stopped at The Hearth for dinner.  Then it was back to the house to relax!  Scott and I played euchre online with his parents who were in Florida.

Sunday we woke up and got out of the house by 8:45am to drive up to Gaylord to ski at Otsego Resort.  It was a little snowy driving up, but we got there and also discovered that Sean's ski boots weren't going to fit.  Oops!  We had to rent him equipment and then we were off!  Otsego was huge with 5 different lifts and tons of variety of hills.  What's really cool is that you start at the lodge at the top of a hill.  It was a pretty view.  We skied for two hours or so and stopped for some snacks at the other lodge at the bottom of lift 5.  We skied probably another two hours after that, but it got very windy and the wind and snow were making it hard to see.  So, we called it quits and drove into Gaylord to have an early dinner and some beers at Snowbelt Brewing.  

Back at the house we all relaxed.  Sean did some homework.

Monday we slept in, made a big breakfast again, walked the dog, and started cleaning up and doing laundry to get ready to leave.  We left around noon and drove to Birch Run Outlets.  We did some shopping while Luna hung out in the car and then we grabbed a late lunch at A&W.  The kids had never eaten there and loved it!  Then it was time to finish the drive home.  We had a great weekend away!

February Recap 2024

February started a bit rocky for us.  Our car was hit while parked at the Ice Festival downtown and we had to file an insurance claim.  We are just now getting it fixed since we had to wait for an appointment to repair the damage.  Pretty crazy how much it would have cost us if we didn't have insurance.  Evan got sick with Covid and had 5 days home from school and activities.  Scott and I split up taking days off to be home with him and so inevitably we both got Covid too.  It was about two weeks before we were all back to normal and healthy and somehow Sean never got it.  

I don't think he minded being home sick during unusually mild weather.  We ended up canceling our ski weekend at Nubs Nob with all of us sick.  

We had a huge tree in our backyard cut down.  Thankfully it was a warm day and we could all be out in the front to watch it go down.  It was very entertaining! We even saw a bald eagle fly by!

We watched the Superbowl at home, completely bummed that the Lions were so close to making it and fell short.  I didn't want either team to win.  I was there for the halftime show with Usher and it was so, so good!  We made some sliders and had other snacks for before and during the game.  The kids made it to the end and were not happy with the Chiefs winning.  Oh well!  Next year?!

We celebrated Valentine's Day at home like we always do with heart shaped pizza and chocolate fondue.  Evan was back at school and able to participate in our last elementary school Valentine's exchange.  He gave cute little rubber ducks to everyone in his class.  Scott and I gave the boys a gift card to Target and a package of candy.  Nothing fancy this year.

Scott celebrated his 42nd birthday!  We celebrated early with his family since it was a combined birthday party for Matt and Josh too.  We had a "Bring a soup" dinner at Jackie's house and sat outside by a fire to have birthday ice cream cake.  Evan had to stay home since he was sick with Covid as of that day, but the rest of us were able to go.  We also celebrated this weekend on his actual birthday with bagels in the morning, a trip to Costco (he wanted to go...), a trip to the driving range, and dinner and beer out in downtown Plymouth with blueberry pie back at home.  I think he had a great birthday!

Our Jeep is getting repaired this week, everyone is healthy, and the weather outlook looks great for the next 10 days so let's hope spring is here early and our luck is turning around!  Less than a month until spring break and we are out of here for Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona!