About six months ago I came up with an awful idea to host a dinner party. But this wasn't going to be any dinner party; I was going to take it to the next level. By now, Kevin knows to stay out of my way when I start planning something, and did so again this time.
We had four couples and the dishes did not disappoint. I had originally planned to have score cards and everyone submit comments, but we were laughing too hard and gagging along the way to take time out to write down reviews.
Corn Patch Spam Bake- a meaty, corny version of macaroni and cheese. Not awful.
Spam Fried Rice. Again, not awful, just incredibly salty.
Unfortunately, this file was corrupted and was the only picture I took of this beauty. This is lime Jell-o with chicken and the bottom layer is sour cream with pears. Everyone thought this was disgusting. Except Tom Kanaby. He liked it. He had seconds. This should not be surprising for anyone who knows him.
This was Kim's dish. This was particularly special because she actually remembered eating this growing up. It was just as unpopular in 2016 as it was in the early 80's. Think tuna salad, but with chipped beef instead. It's held together with lemon Jell-o and served in squares on a lettuce cup. We all ate it as a lettuce wrapped item which made it mildly palatable. I actually had two servings.
In order to not totally piss off our friends, Kevin made ribs so that something edible could be served alongside the other "delicacies." We really are lucky these fine folks are still our friends after this event.
Eight was great, and nine will be fine. That's our outlook on the next year as our "little girl" officially enters her last 365 days of existence with a single digit for her age.
The weekend was a family-based birthday party. We went to dinner Saturday night at Texas Roadhouse where Kari enjoyed her steak bites and mashed potatoes (of course their famous rolls made a showing, too). Daddy surprised her with mini cupcakes from a local shop for dessert.
Today she opened some wonderful gifts from grandparents and family under the same roof. As she said, it almost felt like Christmas all over again, ha.
We will be hosting a more formal birthday party - including a sleepover for 5 others - next weekend. K finished up her birthday by having her first tennis class at the next age/skill level group and getting used to her new tablet that actually works :)
Bryce was so excited to give Kari a gift exclusively from him.
Shopkins!!!
Bryce's Christmas gifts from Grammy Pammy and Dale
Jacket from Winter Park
And the grand finale was electronics- a Kindle Fire to be exact. Bryce, on the other hand, was none too pleased about big sister always getting the "cool" gifts as expressed in the video:
Well, Bryce decided it was finally time. After countless days of encouragement from friends and family to pull out that sideways looking front tooth, Bryce marched into the nurse's office and had it plucked out by a professional. As anytime when a tooth falls out a school, you get to put your human treasure in a little tooth necklace and wear it around your neck like a badge of pride.
Well, we're officially back home now for a week and have had plenty of time to reflect on what was a terrific Holiday week in Colorado. The trip provided us so many fun times and memories that the kids are already wanting to go back!
We started the week off on Dec. 23 when Holly and the kids met up with Kevin (already out there for work), Amy and the girls. We packed into the Williamsmobile and headed up the mountain from Denver to Winter Park. It was roughly 90 minutes and included some not-so-fun turns - of the hairpin variety - for Holly.
We arrived that afternoon at a beautiful rental pad that we would gladly call home for a week. There was plenty of room for the 8 of us and particularly lots of space for the four kids to play, watch movies and play air hockey.
We went straight to the ski slopes on Day 2 and couldn't have had better weather. There weren't a ton of people skiing on Christmas Eve so that meant no waits in the lift lines. Neither Holly or Kevin had skied in years, so we both were a bit nervous to venture downhill with the Colorado natives. Meanwhile K and B headed to their full day of Ski School to learn the art of snowplowing and occasional turning.
It was a great day for all, but the night was even better. Around dusk, the Resort had a huge bonfire and Christmas Carols booming at the bottom of the mountain. A few minutes later a group of 150 ski instructors came swerving down the snow-filled slopes with road flares instead of poles. It was quite the scene - complete with fireworks, too.
Christmas morning, despite being in a totally different environment, brought surprises from Santa, plenty of the white fluffy stuff falling from the sky and another day of skiing. This time we ventured upwards in elevation with K and B in tow. Talk about a work out.
The Haugstad-Keckler family tradition on sitting on the stairs before seeing what Santa brought. This year they waited at the bottom of the stairs before coming up.
We rotated adults taking B down attached to a harness. While this is meant to help teach a newbie to turn and stop, it turned into more of a "Let's go straight down the mountain and you do all the work" from B's perspective.
Kari started off doing great, but the adults collectively pushed her too far, too fast and before lunch she had lost confidence and became scared despite the early success. Following a short afternoon on the slopes, we returned to the house to welcome Gran and Beep to our vacation abode. Their drive from Indy wasn't short, but ultimately they made it and got to enjoy celebrating Christmas with the rest of us.
We took a day off of skiing on the 26th and then went back at it for one more day on the 27th. This was a combo of kids getting more experience and adults trying to tougher runs sans kids. All in all, a tiring but great time skiing.
A little bit of wildlife right at Gran and Beep's window
The 28th brought about the much anticipated tubing courses. This. Was. Awesome. Four different pre-carved "runs" where you had major speed AND climbed the walls. It was like being in the Olympic Bobsled competition yet substitute the mode of transportation to a plastic circle with Coca-Cola tattooed on it and no medal ceremony at the end.
Gondola ride to tubing.
We finished up the trip with a sleigh ride through the woods for the kids and a pub crawl for the parents. Equal amounts of fun for both, this I'm sure.
Ultimately this trip was made possible thanks to the thoughtfulness of Kevin's Grandpa Keckler who passed away last February. He wanted each of his kids to take their families on a vacation together and this worked out for perfectly for all of us even though it meant Christmas away from our standard comforts of home.
We remembered Pappy fondly each day with a story or stories of him that each of us recalled. Certainly it was not the same had he been there with us, but I think he'd be quite proud of how his great grandkids got along singing Christmas carols, playing together, encouraging each other to conquer personal fears on the slopes and ultimately love spending time with one another.
So, thanks for arranging the trip, Amy! Thanks for making the drive out West, Gran and Beep! Thanks for being the skiing expert and constant helper, Jason. Thanks Keira and Audra for being awesome cousins to K & B - along with up and coming professionals on the slopes. And thanks most of all to Great Grandpa/Pappy for being so amazing to us during our many Winters growing up back in the day.
We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Year's.
Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later; I just didn't think it would be this soon. Fortunately, it wasn't a full-blown leap into the emergency room with dozens and dozens of stitches. Every parent, by now, knows what I'm talking about- your child, typically a son, busting open his chin. Bryce did it this afternoon on the playground, and while the details are still a bit foggy, the results were clear: a trip to urgent care would be necessary. I received the dreaded call from the nurse's office towards the end of the school day and was relieved to hear that Bryce was calmly taking it all in.
Fortunately, with a little topical anesthetic and a healthy dose of Dermabond, we were able to escape stitch free. I know this won't be the last trip to urgent care, but I will now know that the pediatrician's office does not do sutures (go to urgent care), and this kid stayed tough all the way through. Good job, Brycie!
Our little boy doesn't look so little anymore. After some rough housing with Kari resulted in an elbow to the mouth, Bryce's front tooth became significantly wigglier. After a lot of prodding and encouragement from Daddy (and a good solid tug), out came that front tooth! While Bryce claims the other front tooth is also loose, I doubt he's going to let Daddy get anywhere near that tooth anytime soon!
Our good friend and neighbor, Lori, was over that night to celebrate.
So Halloween got off to a scary start this year when our little man said he wasn’t feeling great. We sent him up to our room to watch some TV and lay down. Next thing you know he was crying because he threw up in the bed. Sufficed to say this is an easier clean up when he’s in HIS bed and not ours.
Anyway, he only had a waffle to eat that day so we’re still unsure what caused it, but he was all but out of it the majority of the day. Meanwhile this altered our plans to have us all at the neighborhood Halloween party down the street at Clawsons. Instead, Kevin stayed home with Bryce and the girls went to the gathering.
Eventually, though, Bryce said he didn’t want to stay sheltered anymore and wanted to get his own candy. So we let him go down the street with the crew and get just enough sugary treats to get him smiling again. Soon after returning home and helping hand out some treats to kids that visited our house, he was out. Literally was asleep by 7:30 and slept in until 8:30 the next day.
Kari thoroughly enjoyed her experience as a Zebra. She came home with a ridiculous amount of candy and promptly went to the basement to sort it all out on the floor.
A couple of weeks ago while I was at the grocery store I came across a display of coconuts. I picked one up after catching a rerun of Tom Hanks in Castaway desperately trying to crack open a coconut for only a few tablespoons of the precious milk and thought this might be an interesting experiment at home.
The kids were excited to see a real coconut. From their limited experiences, coconut comes in the sweetened and shaved variety in labeled plastic bags from Aunt Laura's bulk food store. This particular coconut was prepped for rookies- it was scored all the way around and came with instructions.
The kids quickly discovered that raw coconut is nothing like the sweet processed stuff on the grocery store shelves:
Although, I bet if they were on a stranded island, drinking the coconut milk might be a little more appetizing.
So, while this was a fun little experiment, I think these kiddos will choose to remain stateside and drink their milk from plastic gallon jugs.
