Trip to Washington

So. I was in Washington for awhile. :) Back on January 20, I flew to Spokane. My mom and youngest sister (Cas) picked me up at the airport and my middle sister (Bekah) met us, and the four of us had a fun morning/afternoon at the Davenport Spa before picking up Cas' boys from school. 

The next day, Cas and her husband flew out to South Carolina and Florida for a trade show for Cas' women's golf clothing company, Calliope. My mom drove the 2.5 hours back to her house. Bekah and I stayed and watched the boys. We were good aunts and treated each boy to some individual time and enjoyed them together, too. We got them to and from school, played games together, and kept them fed and bathed and alive. While the boys were in school, Bekah did some work (she works remotely so was still working all week) and we got to also have some sister time talking and shopping and watching shows. 

On Wednesday morning (after getting boys to school), I headed out and drove to my mom's house while Bekah's youngest (who's 17) drove up to help her out with the boys. Cas' husband got home late Thursday, and Bekah and her son left Friday morning after boys got to school. (Bekah stopped at mom's house on her way home so I got to see her one more time, too.) Cas got home late Friday. 

Meanwhile, my mom and I worked to get some of her paperwork in order and go through a number of things. She fed me and we did some shopping for things she needed and we went to Friday morning Mass and the breakfast at the church afterward. We also visited with my gram (who's 101 and counting!) a couple times and got a few more interesting stories out of her. Saturday, we finished up a few last things and then I drove back up to Spokane and got to hang out with Cas and her family a bit more.

Sunday morning, the boys and I rode the Riverfront Park Carousel (which has since been refurbished but was there when I lived in Spokane for college back in the 90's). I was stoked to finally be able to reach the rings, lol. We then hit a cool toy store, had lunch at a mini-golf restaurant (fun and great for active boys who don't like to just wait for their food), and got ice cream at the mall nearby. Then, they all dropped me off at the airport and I finally headed home. Nathan picked me up, we stopped for dinner, and I finally saw all my guys again Sunday night. :) 

Here are some pictures:

So. It was a busy time. My guys are all totally self-sufficient and did their thing while I was gone and kept everything running smoothly at home. I appreciate that and that I had the ability to go help out and spend some time with my sisters and nephews and mom and gram. 

And now I'm home and have caught up on my own laundry and such and am ready to head into February tomorrow. Whew. :)

Thankful Thursday

Today's list is pretty random. :) Things I'm particularly thankful for this week...

1. Loose leaf tea. Just before New Year's, I purged and tidied our pantry area (yay! love that feeling of getting rid of things and reorganizing, truly). In the process, I discovered I have rather a lot of tea. I purged some and reorganized all the tea bags to make them more accessible. Then I gathered all the containers of loose leaf tea (mostly from our lovely local tea house, Happy Lucky's). And lately I've been working my way through the loose leaf teas...enjoying reacquainting myself with them (and simultaneously working to use things up before buying anything new...which also feels good). 

2. New Year's cards. Thanks to our trip to Curacao, I opted to wait until after that to order holiday cards this year. They weren't anything overly exciting (nor was the recap letter I wrote to go with them, lol) but I'm always thankful for holiday cards. I appreciate having the annual recap and documentation...both for ourselves and seeing them from friends and family. Here's how the card turned out:

(Sorry the quality isn't great...it's just a picture of one of the cards.) I've added ours to my office door, alongside the other cards we received this year. I like leaving them up all year and seeing all the smiling faces of friends and family and knowing we were thought of. 

3. Local business cooperation. Over the weekend, I climbed for the first time at Whetstone climbing gym here in Fort Collins. I always climb at Ascent because that's where my membership is. But Ascent was hosting a youth competition so their bouldering was closed for the week. Because Fort Collins businesses are awesome and supportive, even though they're direct competitors, Ascent and Whetstone made arrangements to allow any Ascent members to climb free at Whetstone last week. I so appreciate that spirit of cooperation and enjoyed my experience at Whetstone! (For what it's worth, I see this cooperation among other businesses here often...advertising for each other, supporting each other, working together. Love it.)

4. Streaming services. I know it dates me but I have fond memories of going to the video store as a kid and getting to pick out a VHS or two. It was an event. :) As much fun as that was, though, I'm so appreciative for streaming services and the convenience of getting to pick movies to watch without needing to leave home. It makes family movie night much easier. :) (We watched Rocky this week. It was the first time any of us had seen it, and we enjoyed getting to see the classic and learning what people have been talking about.)

5. Having a garage. Every time it snows, I'm thankful for having a garage. I think our sidewalk is annoyingly long, lol, but am grateful that I can shovel the driveway and sidewalk and not have to worry about also clearing snow off my car. (To be fair, I've still cleared snow off of the car Asher drives since it's parked along the street, but I didn't personally have to sit in it while it warmed up, lol.)

6. Micah's meds. So thankful for Micah's medication. Since Christmas, he's had a couple of flare ups due to having a cold (which messes with his immune system and causes the autoimmune response that brings on the arthritis or something like that) and then being extra cold (because he took advantage of yesterday's snow day to go sledding with friends). While the flare ups suck, they're good reminders of how much worse things would be without the medication. 

Relatedly, thankful for the co-pay card that we get to help cover the cost of said medication. I spent a good chunk of time on the phone today renewing that co-pay card for the calendar year so that I can refill his medication. Without the co-pay card from the medication manufacturer itself, even with pretty good insurance, a month's supply would be almost $3000. Ugh.

Okay, need to get some stuff done. :) What are you thankful for this week?

TBT - Trophies

Time for a Throwback Thursday. Today's throwback is brought to us by trophies. :) 

Yesterday, I took a load of trophies to a local trophy store to recycle them. With Noah and Asher trying to fit all the stuff from their apartments back into their bedrooms, space is a little tight. Since I didn't plan to store these for boys forever and since they didn't intend/want to take them with them eventually, we decided to go ahead and clear the space in the closets now. This is the load I took...

Yup, lots of trophies from lots of activities. Going through them all made me nostalgic. :) I know some might be sad about letting go of these, but my guys genuinely didn't want them and I figure I have the photos of each trophy when it was received. Plus, I have plenty of memories and photos from each activity, which is more important than a thing on a shelf. :) 

Here's a random sampling...

Yesterday's trophies were from soccer, science fairs, karate, and archery. Beyond that, over the years, there were also music classes, swimming, Science Olympiad, First Lego League, parkour, and climbing. So very thankful for all those activities as my boys were growing up...and for the trophies we parted with yesterday for reminding me of them. :)  

One Little Word

It's 2023 now...time for my One Little Word selection.

Last year's word was LIVE and I feel like I truly did that in 2022. I embraced the privilege of living...through my travels and my time with family and friends. And I feel like I stopped to savor experiences and lived intentionally. We were very blessed with good health in our household but a number of friends and family weren't as fortunate in 2022, dealing with injuries and loss. I took those experiences to heart and tried to remember to use my time well, remembering that it's a gift.

For 2023, my word is LAUNCH. Definitions for launch include... 

...to start or set in motion...to throw forward...to release, catapult or send off...to send something out...to begin something new...

It feels like everyone here will be starting some new adventure this year. Micah will be graduating from high school and leaving for college. Asher will finish up his private pilot's license and is figuring out what's next. Noah intends to transition back to the mechanical engineering field and head out on his own. Nathan continues to enjoy his job but also has a side project he's starting and is excited about. 

As for me, I'll obviously be helping with everyone else's launch. Also, though, I'm hoping to start a new adventure of my own. I honestly don't know what that will be just yet. I thought I'd be starting something when we finished homeschooling and a couple times since then, but it just seems that things have continually come up (like pandemics, lol, and boys moving back home and trips). I'm so incredibly blessed to have had this time and to have a husband who supports me in every way and whose job means that I've not needed to do something sooner. I think, though, that 2023 is the right time. Now I just need to figure out what I'm doing...and launch. :)  

Thankful Thursday

Hope your 2023 is off to a great start!

In a week or two I *may* feel like I'm ready to start the year, lol. Yup, still in catch-up mode from our trip to Curacao...and Christmas...and Nathan's parents visiting. While I continue to catch-up, let me just share these pictures from John & Nancy's visit...

We didn't do anything particularly photo-worthy this visit...(winters with a son who doesn't handle cold weather well has a tendency to keep us indoors and most community events shut down between Christmas and New Years)...just a lot of eating together and playing games together and just visiting. More specifically, we had our New Year's Eve charcuterie board and everyone had a one-on-one lunch with grandparents, and we played lots of pinochle and tried Code Names and Mind the Gap and Stuff You Should Know. Time together is good and was truly appreciated. 

Thankful.