The Hutch-Wagon

 I have never been a pro football fan, though I always support my local teams or teams with whom I have some kind of connection. The Detroit Lions have had a major losing streak since we've lived here, or so I heard. I never paid any attention to the games. However, when Ziggy Ansa was on the team 8 years ago or so, I was pretty excited because he was in the Canton ward and we met him a couple of times. Austin even got his autograph. Kyle Vanoy played for them and stayed with Ziggy for a bit before his wife joined him and they moved to the Northville ward. We met him and his wife as well. 

This season, again, I didn't pay much attention, but I heard about how we were having a pretty good season. When I was out shopping for Christmas gifts, I bought Austin a Michigan shirt and a Lions shirt, for a buy-one-get-one-half-off. I knew he needed a new Michigan shirt and at that point, I knew how well they were doing (Go Blue!), and when I saw the deal, I thought, "Might as well get him a Lions shirt too, since they're doing pretty well right now."

After they won their last home game, leading up to the 49ers game, my boss, who pays way less attention to football than I do, had noticed all the kids coming to school in their Lions shirts and realized we should make a bigger deal out of it for some school spirit. So she announced a "wear your Lions blue and white" day for Friday. When she was telling me her idea she mentioned that Aiden Hutchinson, a defensive end for the Lions, went to Red Bell as a preschooler and his parents live down the street! He played for the Plymouth Canton Steelers, where Kade used to cheer, and went to the private school where my boss's mom taught art. She was his art teacher. 

The best part about it was on Tuesday, a student said how he wanted to be a football player when he grew up, and I told them that Aiden Hutchinson went to Red Bell. One 3-year-old girl promptly raised her hand and said, "Aiden Hutchinson is my neighbor and I walk his dog!" Now, I usually take what these little guys say with a grain of salt, however, she said it so clearly and matter-of-factly that I almost believed her. Either way, it was about the cutest thing I heard last week!

Well, we ended up losing to the 49ers, and won't be in the Super Bowl after all, but this is the best they've played in 30 years. Yes, I did watch the game with my family and was rooting for Hutch, the Red Bell alumni, but our journey ended there. It was fun while it lasted.

I borrowed Austin's shirt for our Lion's Pride day at school. 

Snow Days

 Last week we had 2 snow days right after MLK Day. It wasn't a surprise since we knew the high school was going to cancel school on Tuesday, by midafternoon on Monday, because some of the heating wasn't working and the temps were in the single digits with high winds, so negative real feels. 

Erik was disappointed that he would have to go to school, and not Kade and Austin, however right after Erik went to bed, we got the call that they were going to cancel the rest of the schools due to the poor road conditions and extreme cold. 

I was really glad we had gone skiing on Saturday so that we weren't feeling like we'd been cooped up too much. On Tuesday, I still went to a couple of grocery stores, including Costco, and decided that going on a freaky cold day like that was a pretty good idea. There weren't too many people out so there were short lines. I found it interesting that the people who were out didn't seem as bundled up as me. A bunch of people didn't have hats on and some seemed like their coats were barely sufficient. I suppose since they were out, they must have not been too bothered by the cold to begin with. 

The kids had some friends over and I got some work done around the house. Austin and Erik had a birthday party to attend Tuesday night, which was a weird day for a party, but once we knew school was canceled for Wednesday, due to even colder temps, I was happy they had somewhere to go Tuesday night. It was at Chuck E. Cheese to play video games and they had a blast! Their mutual friend is between their ages and is new to our ward. He moved here from Utah to play competitive ice hockey and is home-schooled. He could only have his party on Tuesday, due to his practice schedule.

The friend that Erik had over earlier in the day had gone sledding with us last year and suggested that we go on Wednesday. I was a little hesitant since it was supposed to be so cold, but his mom was fine with it, so after we met some friends at the church Wednesday morning to run around with, we took Erik's friend, Nick, and went sledding at the "warmest" part of the day. I think it was in the single digits with a real feel of -8, but it was actually supposed to feel like -23, so we got lucky. 

Needless to say, we were the only crazy people there, besides one mom and her son for about 20 minutes. We were there a little over an hour. The sledding wasn't great because it was so cold that the snow was frozen solid, but Erik and his friends (we invited a buddy from church too) played some adventurous games after sledding. I was snowshoeing the entire time so I wouldn't get cold. I was actually warmer than when we went skiing because I had on my snow pants and the coat that Kade had worn skiing. The sun was shining too, so that was nice. 

The worst thing about it? I didn't take any pictures! I thought about it, but I didn't want to take my hand out of my glove to take one, so no pics to show- sorry. 

All I have is this of Erik on Friday when it wasn't as cold and he decided to play outside in the yard, just for the fun of it. He got his square of snow from one of our deck chairs. 

Welcome to winter!

Ski Trip

 For our gift for Christmas from my mom, we were all going to go skiing when Victoria was here, but we never had any snow. In fact, it was pretty warm. I think I mentioned that it was 55 on Christmas Day. Victoria will go at some point in Idaho, I'm sure.

Austin and I were supposed to go on Jan 6 also, since he wants snowboarding to be his winter sport, or at least as many times as he can go, using the money that would have gone toward the dive team. Well, that no-snow issue determined that we couldn't go then either. A few days later, it looked like the forecast of snow for this weekend was going to be correct!

We went to one of our favorite places, Mt. Holly, about an hour away. It was a freakishly cold day, but Sunday and Monday are even colder, so I guess we made the right choice. The warmest part of the day was supposed to be at 11am when the temp was 28 with a real feel of 11. When we left at 5, it was in the teens with a real feel of 1. The winds were blowing so hard that my skis were blowing up on the lift a few times, and then the final blow (pun intended) was when the lift itself was being pushed to the side from the wind and all the snow from the ground was blowing around like a blizzard. I don't know where Jason was at the moment, but he would have had motion sickness if he had been on the lift at the time! 

Even still, the kids had a blast and weren't phased by the cold. Jason and I had a lot of fun too, though I got too cold. It didn't help that I somehow forgot my snow pants, but I did have thermal underwear, plus my winter running tights, so it could have been worse. I ended up putting on Erik's sweatpants over my other layers just to keep my bum dry from the snow on the lifts. Erik only needed his long underwear and snow pants. Jason forgot his snow pants too (ours were together, hanging up by the door...), but his two layers of pants were sufficient for him. 

The kids coming down for a practice round. 

Just about a year ago, Austin broke his wrist in both bones while snowboarding. We're pleased to say that we had no injuries this time! 

I was on one lift and they were on another here. 

They are all pretty good at skiing/snowboarding. I'm pretty impressed when we don't go as often as we would like!

Just before we left we actually saw some sky!

Right now it's -4 with a real feel of -7. Brrrr! I'm glad we're not going today!

Winter Break

 We had some fun times over the break with Victoria here, besides what we did for the actual holidays and Kade's birthday. 

We went to the movies, roller skating,  watched Michigan beat Alabama in the Rosebowl, went for a hike, went to dinner with the Kish family, played games, and watched movies.  Those were the activities that most of us participated in together,  though Austin and Jason had their turns being sick for some of those and couldn't join in. Austin also had to recover from a sprained finger/hand that occurred just before the break on his run when he slipped he hit his hand on a guard rail. Luckily,  it wasn't broken,  but he had to wear a brace for two weeks and it sure didn't look good.  That visit to the urgent care with him made 7 visits to the urgent care or ER last year due to my children's injuries 😕.

I don't get into football as much anymore, but I was pretty stoked about this game, especially after we won!

 

Kade helped make the pizza dough for the game- I think I have a new pizza dough maker!

A warm spot!

Dos Fuentes- yum!

I went to a fancy mall with Victoria,  Barnes and Noble and a thrift store in Ann Arbor with Kade, and Sky Zone with Austin and Erik,  once Austin could take off the brace. Jason and I went to the temple and a wedding reception.

It's the Somerset Mall in Troy and is huge! It has a bridge to cross over to the other part of it, which we didn't get to because Victoria had to go to work. 

I assume Santa's castle isn't always there.

I loved the fountain here!

This was taken a couple of days after his injury.

You can see the bruising in this pic.

This was almost 2 weeks later- still had some bruising!

I know I posted this in the last post, but I wanted to post it again!

I am officially ready to return to school next week and happy to say that Victoria safely made it back to Rexburg.

A goodbye huddle.