Christmas 2016

Christmas break, probably for most everyone, was a whirlwind.  Sometimes I think it's even more so for us when we have three birthdays within days of the holidays.  This year, though, was a big milestone birthday for a particular Grandpa who affectionately goes by Beep Beep.  Back in the summer Amy and the Colorado gang had cooked up an idea to fly to Indiana for a birthday surprise. Months of planning and numerous little white lies, December 22nd finally arrived.  We met up with Amy and family before heading over to the house for a birthday brunch (WL Kecklers were expected, only the CO crew was to be a surprise.)  Although Ben had some inkling that something might be in the works, he was nonetheless surprised and we had a great day.  After brunch, we headed downtown to the Eitlejorg Museum for Jingle Rails.  Kari and Bryce have been numerous times, but this was a first for Kevin, me, and the CO crew.  It really was a spectacular display.

Audra 9, Kari 9, Keira 11, Bryce 7 at Jingle Rails

The afternoon included a Christmas Celebration at the ISO.  It was absolutely grand performance.  J and I had some fun.  Can you find us?  The best part was Gran learning about the concept of photobombing after we told what we had done.

We ended the day with a dinner at Ted's Montana Grill.  The Williams departed the next day to Cincinnati for Christmas there.  We would meet up again in CC for more birthday celebrations.

Christmas Day was a blur.  The kids, understandably, were up multiple times prior to sunrise and sent back to bed each time.  They finally convinced their groggy parents to suck it up by 8:30.  We had the Haugstad traditional picture on the stairs.

Bryce's big ticket item was Cubs gear and tickets to a game this summer.

The kids each got snorkel gear for the upcoming trip to the Cayman Islands.

A couple days later we headed up to CC to celebrate Great Grammy and Grammy Pammy's birthdays.  Amy and crew drove back from Cincy to be here too.  We got some great family pictures.

The Williams spent two days at our house, giving time for the cousins to be together and the adults some time too.  Why does Colorado have to be so far from Indiana??  We just don't get to see these guys often enough, so we need to make the best of every minute with them.  So, of course that will always entail food.  This time we went to South Street Smokehouse.  Yum.

We also found a couple hours to sneak down to the Chocolate Shop.  Christmas break afforded us little competition for prime seating in the fish bowl.

It'd been a while since either Amy or Jason had been on campus.  The kids enjoyed hanging out with Neil and John.

Shortly after this the Williams headed back to the airport and the kids and I headed up to Chicago for part II of Christmas break.

4th Grade Indiana History Project

Today marked the culmination of several weeks of hard work for Kari, and well, let's be honest, the whole family.  A large part of the 4th grade curriculum focuses Indiana history.  Earlier in the fall the class took a field trip to Fort Ouiatenon to learn about the earliest settlers and interactions with the Native Americans.

Right before Thanksgiving the students were given the assignment to identify an Indiana advancement, landmark, development, or natural space.  Students were not allowed to pick a person as that will be the major spring project.  Kari narrowed her choices down and thoughtfully selected the West Baden Springs Hotel in French Lick.  (Her parents think she ultimately chose this because it has gambling and she thought it might interest them in visiting!)  While visiting the landmark was not a requirement of the project, we thought it would be best to learn about it first hand.  So, early on Black Friday morning we steered clear of the mall shoppers and headed South... for three long hours.

Upon arrival to the cute Southern Indiana town, Kari and I headed straight away to the gift shop to sign up for the hotel tour.  Not knowing what to expect, we discovered that the Keckler family significantly brought down the median age of the tour group by probably 30 years.  Kevin and I quite enjoyed the tour, the long and winding history of the hotel, and the secrets it holds.  Unfortunately, the tour was not geared for kids and the 90 minute tour could not have ended a minute too soon for K & B.  We persisted and Kari gathered pictures and facts for her project.

 Intricate tile work all imported from Italy.

 The atrium with hotel room windows overlooking the gathering spaces.

 The atrium dome is a national engineering landmark.

 Kari used the windows as inspiration for her project.

 Spurtle the gnome above the grand fireplace.

We might have made a short detour in Bloomington on the way home to do a little Christmas shopping for family members who made poor higher education choices.

The next couple of weeks saw Kari working on her project a little bit each night.  Finally, things came together and the entire 4th grade of six classrooms gathered in the cafeteria for a showcase for family. To our surprise, Kari ended up being the only one who had chosen West Baden.

 Behind each window Kari had selected a significant fact about the hotel and local area.  Overall, all of the kids did a really nice job on their projects and it was interesting to see what others had chosen.

Kari was right next to one of her best friends, Marley.