Spring Break

 There was only one week between Rodeo Break and Spring Break. It was a busy week with a PTA meeting, 2 basketball tournaments for Rachel, her banquet, and Ryan and Annie's band concert. 

We rounded out the week with field day. The last time they had field day was the last day of school before everything shut down for COVID, so it was kind of feeling like things are getting back to normal. But with the slightly irrational fear hanging in the background that maybe it would jinx everything and we'd go back to COVID lockdown again. Luckily that didn't happen.

With Spring Break came some spring cleaning! I left the kids at home with the task of cleaning their rooms really well in preparation for Rachel and Megan switching rooms so Rachel now gets a year of a room to herself and Megan now gets to share with Annie. Ryan wasn't changing rooms this time, which was good because he spent every morning of the first week of spring break at a sports camp with his best friend, Derek. 

While the girls were home cleaning, I went to the school to build a shed for the PTA. Thankfully a couple other ladies showed up and brought their boys to help out. It took several hours, but we were able to get it almost all the way done in one day. 

I just had to go back the next day to finish up a few screws, then I moved everything from the off campus storage unit to the new shed so the PTA no longer has to pay for storage. It was a bruising couple of days, but nice to accomplish something we'd wanted to do all school year.

Then I came home to more work with cleaning out bedrooms. It was a multi-day project getting things organized, out of the bedrooms, then back into the new bedrooms. 

Rachel wasn't too keen on getting the bed with the slide, and everyone was pretty much grown out of it, so we ordered a new captain's bed and assembled that the following week. It felt good to get the girls settled in their new rooms. And get rid of lots of stuff they don't actually need.

In the meantime, Nicole, the PTA secretary, had worked her magic with Party City and got loads of stuff they were going to throw away.  It was perfectly good stuff in new condition, they just weren't selling anymore. So I helped her unload stuff a bit and started going through it to find anything we might be able to use for decorations for the family prom. 

It has turned into a multi-week project, but it's been worth it to find so many things we can use for the school and will be letting teachers dig through it for their treasure boxes, too. We're still not even done sorting, yet. 

Luckily Nicole went out of town, so I was finally able to turn off my PTA brain for a week and actually relax and enjoy the second week of break. We went to Elevate Trampoline Park with Todd's family and Derek's family. It was so much fun. 

We wrapped up the week with a church movie night watching The Emperor's New Groove. The kids had a fun time and enjoyed the unlimited popcorn and drinks and Skittles. 

All that was left before heading back to school was celebrating Ryan's birthday. 

Rodeo Break

 For Rodeo Break we were given the chance to go stay in a cabin the Kemps use as a time share up in Pinetop. It was pretty awesome. It took some work, but I managed to find snow gear for all the kids, including snow pants, boots, coat, gloves and hat. We really appreciate having friends that are willing to share their snow gear, since it's not worth us buying any, living where we do.

The day before we left it snowed up there all day, so we got to drive on clear roads, but arrived to some pretty pristine snow. That first day we just stuck around the cabin and the kids played in the back yard.

The second day we packed a lunch, some sleds they had at the cabin, and all our gear and headed over to Sunrise Resort, not to ski, but to sled. We were going to do the tube run they have, but by the time we went to buy tickets they were all sold out for the time we would be there. Kids had fun, anyway, just sledding, though they had quite a few crashes. I got a giant bruise from saving 2 kids not in our family from a horrible crash when Peyton and Megan were barreling towards them. 

After we got back the kids had fun playing games while Jacob and I rested. 

We headed out to eat at a pizza place and got there right before the big rush. 

Instead of having stimulating dinner conversation, those on the opposite side of the table were sucked in to whatever was on the screen behind me. (Jacob's blank stare is contrived, but that's what the others looked like the whole time.)

The last day of our trip we spent cleaning up the cabin and doing laundry before heading out. Jacob took the kids to look for a geocache while I finished taking care of towels and linens. We grabbed lunch, then headed to Tucson after a very nice and relaxing time in the White Mountains.

We stopped at the rest stop by Apache Falls to check out the bridge and the view.

We were glad to enjoy the snow for 2 days then go back to our lovely, snowless home. :)