Sky Ranch Horn Creek Spring Break

 We almost didn't make it, but we were so glad we pushed through. Sky Ranch Horn Creek, for the first time ever, offered a Spring Break camp! It was amazing and felt like old school Horn Creek with a super loose schedule, round-up in the evenings, and all the families and kids quickly bonding.

We almost didn't make it for two reasons. The first was that a huge snowstorm was predicted and we did not want to be stuck in transit or be caught in an unsafe situation. We originally had flights which were cancelled and so we had to decide if we would not go at all or drive. Camp actually started on Sunday evening but we delayed our drive for a day to see what happened with the storm. We ended up arriving on Monday evening right before dinner. While Colorado Springs was dumped on, we didn't encounter any trouble with the drive. The second reason was our squirrely kids. They were complaining so much and being so unkind to each other. While we were in the middle of loading up the car on Sunday, Grant and I took a pause and told them we weren't sure we wanted to be in the car with them because of their behavior. We stopped all prep activities for a few hours. They cried and then wrote a "contract" that they brought down to us outlining their commitments for the drive and the trip. We decided to give it another change and finally hit the road. Of course, we stay in Amarillo Sunday evening and ate at the Big Texan. The kids pretty much delivered on their commitments and the drive was super calm.

We stayed at the Lodge, which was a first for me, and I loved the Lodge. Our two joining rooms were really comfortable and it was awesome to be located so close to the dining room, game room, hot tub, and activities. We stayed at camp on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and then check-out was Friday morning. The kids loved the snow and did tons of sledding. They made a toboggin-style sledding run that was incredible. The boys were constantly outside in the snow. We also did the ziplines, hot tub, rec center, and tubing hill.

On Friday we headed to Monarch to ski for the day. It was perfect weather and we all enjoyed the easy-to-navigate size and low cost of Monarch skiing. JR and Grant skied until it closed and Ranger was all about the terrain park. It was a perfect day of family skiing. After skiing, we headed to Colorado Springs and picked up BBQ on the way. We spent the night with the Haughian's and then started the drive on Saturday afternoon. We stayed in Amarillo again and then rolled into home on Sunday evening. It was a wonderful spring break.

Dallas Snowpocalypse

I thought for sure the kids would be out of school due to COVID, but it ended up being due to the snowpocalypse. "Locals went to bed on the evening of February 10, 2010, to forecasts of “possible” accumulations of 1 to 3 inches. What happened instead was an official 12.5 inches of snow that fell at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, which broke all records here for the heaviest snowfall for the date and the heaviest single-day snowfall on record."

It was crazy! It was a winter wonderland, which was fun at first. But then, power started to go out across the city and people were freezing. Pipes burst everywhere and water was flowing into the streets uncontrollably which resulted in water shortages and boil orders. People were trapped in their homes cold and hungry. Warming shelters were set up across the city and people were doing their best to help others. It felt like COVID was gone for a moment because we were all trying to stay safe and warm.

We were fine all week and never lost power at our house. We did have to boil our water and Grant got rear-ended one evening when he went out to get us food. The kids loved the snow and went sledding, made snow men, and learned how hard shoveling is! 

Grant set up a neighborhood brigade with a few other Dads and a Mom serving as the operator to help neighbors shut off the water to their houses when pipes would burst. The wait on the city was hours and water was flowing into people's homes. Grant helped over 60 families and was constantly getting calls. In return, they asked for donations to the family of Chris Murzin and I think they raised over $60,00 for the family as a result of their efforts. Grant continues to be the guy you want around in times of crisis.

Breckenridge, Colorado

We had the fastest and most packed ski trip Jan. 29-Feb.1. We tagged a weekend of skiing onto a Culhane Meadows Executive Retreat that Heather was hosting at her home in Colorado Springs. I flew with the kids on Friday afternoon to Denver and we stayed Friday night at Heather and Shane's house. On Saturday morning, we woke up and drove to Breckenridge. We skied Saturday afternoon, all day Sunday, and Monday morning. Monday afternoon we headed back to the airport and home. The trip was pretty epic and included:

- An awesome 4 bedroom house that we all stayed in together. This included our family, the Haughain family, and Kelly Culhane and her boyfriend Kurt. 

- Beautiful skiing days, which I am glad were worth it after a tough experience getting skies and getting up the mountain. We even got off on the wrong lift stop and had to hike for a bit. The kids were troopers but Grant and I were over it. While we missed skiing with her, we were very thankful that Heather was willing to be our personal taxi driver since she was recovering from a knee injury.

- A horrible fall by Grant getting out of the hot tub. We all thought he had broken his leg for sure. We stayed in Sunday evening to let him recover and the kids had a HUGE game of hide and seek all over the house. Grant's fall was really bad, but even still he skied on Monday. 

- Grant using a $100 bill to get us into the pizza place after EVERYWHERE had hours of wait and we were starving. Thank you Grant, you saved the day.

- So many laughs with wonderful friends. Cards against humanity, Kelly barging in our room in the middle of the night, helping the kids with hide and seek, Colton skiing his first ever black and a few skiing tumbles.

It was a wonderful trip and we were so thankful for great friends, adventurous kids, and God's beautiful creation.