We’re here!  We made it to Hays by 11:30PM Wednesday night, a short sleepover there, and on the road 8AM sharp Thursday morning.  I love traveling with my 5 favorite people but this crew is not used to long road trips.  Our van is jam packed with snacks, ski equipment, and every electronic device we could scrounge up.  A few sibling arguments here and there and an overwhelming sigh of disgust when I made all of them read for 45 minutes.  I don’t really think that’s asking a lot out of a 10 hour road trip, is it!?  And I’m certain any of us could step in for Brian on a program at Market Source now, as we are taking in his conference calls.  We stopped in Frisco, CO for a late lunch at Greco’s Pastaria which is owned by a friend of Brian’s.  We always laugh that he literally knows someone EVERYWHERE we go! The food was absolutely delicious and we certainly hope this is not our last visit to Greco’s.

Shortly after lunch we pulled into the Marriott Vail Village and checked into our room (hiding kids in the corner so they don’t see how many people we are squeezing in one room!).  We are getting big enough now that we require 2 rooms.  However, for this short little trip we are squeezing into 1 so we don’t squander away all of Brian’s Marriott points.  It’s a lot of points to stay here right at the base of the mountain.  It’s absolutely beautiful.  Here’s the view from our room and our cute little fireplace.

We walked around a bit and got fitted for our equipment and already have our first souvenir…look at this adorable sweatshirt I found on a sale rack for Reece.  $15!  I’m so proud of myself since everything in Vail is about a million dollars.

And this crazy hat is what she really wanted to buy…thankfully we escaped without that in our sack!

We had quite a laugh at the ski rental because they had Morgan listed as “Mirgan” on the paperwork so we were all calling her “Mirgan” in a hilarious Norwegian accent, including the staff at Vail Sports (who were extremely awesome and helpful by the way).  We’re not sure Mirgan thought it was as funny as we did! 😉

On our way out to find the ski rental, they were serving Smores and hot chocolate by the fire pits and I literally could not stuff one more morsel of food in my body from our big lunch at Greco’s.  The kids were able to make room and enjoyed roasting their marshmallows and deciding which type is best…slightly brown and toasty or burnt. Everything is a competition you know…

The weather is gorgeous and the crisp clean mountain air is so much better than that farm smell and flat boring drive I made from Hays to Denver.  Not looking forward to that again on Sunday!

The kids were dying to swim so we had a little early evening swim!  Look at Morgan’s beautiful outfit.  Isn’t she cute!?

Too chilly for me…I ended up by the firepit and eventually inside waiting for them to finish up!

We played a family card game of Skip Bo and grabbed dinner at Tavern on the square.  I was still not very hungry from lunch!  I convinced Drew to use his Bday money to buy the game because I used to play it constantly at my best friend’s house when I was a kid.  I have to say, it didn’t come right back to me.  We had to do a thorough review of those directions!  I wonder if the Catalina’s still play?

This morning we got up early to make sandwiches (because eating and drinking here costs a small fortune), and get our gear picked up and ready.  Reece and Drew are doing ski school today and Brian is taking Morgan and Jake straight to the runs. Everyone is looking good!  We all got new ski gear on super sale after the season last year so they were excited to put it on.  Hoping for no injuries or sickness and lots of fun today!

We have one snowboarder in the group (Jake) and the rest are skiers.

I’m sure by now Morgan has taken a million selfies and snap chatted every detail on the mountain and we’re only part way through the day.  Teenagers.  😉

More to come on our adventures later!

What!?…how is it already February and 100 school days into Reece’s 1st grade year?!  This is super exciting for her (and not so exciting for me because that means she’s getting older and I am too-ugh!).  The minute the note came home to make a hat with 100 items glued to it for the celebration – she was ready to start.  I think we had it made within an hour of that paper coming out of her backpack!  She chose beads and she worked so hard getting 100 beads counted out.  You know it is very easy to lose count!  She counted her piles of 10 several times to make sure it was exactly 100 and left the hot gluing to me.  I’m getting used to the sensation of being singed by a hot glue gun these days.

By coincidence I was scheduled to volunteer in her class today and she was thrilled that I got to be there on the 100th day of school!  When I arrived the kids were not in the classroom yet and I was able to take a look at all of their hats on their desks.  Let’s just say there’s quite a few over-achievers in the 1st grade at Manchester Park Elementary!  The note that came home made it seem like it was just supposed to be a low-key, not fancy, use scraps you have at home – little activity.  Well, I’m here to tell you that it really isn’t the case.  These hats were elaborate (apparently a few other moms were singed with hot glue guns)!  I thought ours was kind of fancy compared to what Jake’s looked like in 1st grade.  Jake, good thing you’re so cute that it doesn’t matter that your hat was kind of a hot mess!  That’s 100 straws by the way…

And this is Drew Boo’s in 1st Grade…100 googly eyes.

And of course I can’t find a picture of Morgan’s hat.  I’m sure she did one, but none of us can recall what it looked like!  Sorry MoMo!

In addition to all the first graders getting to wear these fun hats to school, they made a 100 day stew!  Ewwww…does anyone like stew?  I hate stew!  Thankfully, there’s catered to kiddos and it consisted of pretzels, marshmallows, goldfish, oreo cookies, teddy grahams, etc…you know..all those yummy  kids snacks.  That’s my kind of stew!  Now if it just had licorice, gummy bears, and chewy sprees…that would be top notch for me!  Reece signed herself up to bring pretzels and she very diligently counted out 100 to donate to the stew.

Great Job Reecie Cups!  Happy 100 days of 1st grade!!  I love you 100 x 100 x 100 x 100 x 100….and on and on!

My gorgeous sister, Shauna, loves her birthday!  It generally gets celebrated for a month or more!  We had a kick-off celebration at my parents house and my mom made a Paleo chocolate tart that we think cost her about $60 and hours of her time to make (hey, no one said following a Paleo lifestyle is cheap) trust me – I eat this way all year long and it’s crazy!  But that tart was super delicious!  Morgan got to sit at the ‘adult table’ for the first time and we’re pretty sure she’ll never want to sit there again.  Apparently it’s not as fun as it seems, kiddos!  We were basically giving her a lot of teenager advice.  Poor girl!  However, the kids table was remarkably calm and well behaved.  Maybe booting the boss (Morgan) out of there has a calming affect on the rest of the kids!

Reece out of the blue the other day said, “do you like sitting at the adult table?” I said, “yes!” and she said, “it seems really boring because you just sit there and talk!” She’s right…that is about all that happens there and we force the kids to go down to the basement which they act like is an act of torture.  To be fair, it does have occasional snakes and mice (they live in the country!) and I’d prefer to play a family game any day.  I’m with you, kids, I think we should stop forcing you to go downstairs and enjoy your company (as long as you don’t block the view of the sports on TV and you don’t spill on the carpet). Happy Bday Shauna!

This is a flashback from 4 years ago when we flew to Mexico to celebrate her bday!

Reece’s daisy’s troop planned a daisy’s daddy daughter date night (say that 5 times fast!). Brian has been traveling A LOT lately (I know I say that all the time) but the beginning of the year really does bring a ton of travel for him.  So, this little cutie was super excited to get some special time with dad eating pizza and bowling.  When she woke up for school Friday morning, the first thing she said to me was…only 10 more hours until my date! Nothing melts your heart more than that!!

Just when we were giving my dad and brother trouble for never asking Morgan to go hunting with them…they asked her to go goose hunting this past Saturday and off she went! I mean…have you ever seen a cuter hunter in your life!?  You really couldn’t pay me any amount of money to get up before sunrise and freeze my tail off to shoot a bird.  So, the fact that she wants to do this with her family really warms my heart.

Actually, I’m feeling really warm and fuzzy writing this because I think my very first post on this conleycrew blog last April was about her first hunt!  Now over 150 published posts later, I’m still managing to find time to write!  That really boggles my mind.

This was hunt #2 for Morgan and of course they came home with zero birds….all they got was a can.  Check out this cute video clip…

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1TspqXNSOZIOE9aR2pTSEJxY1k/view?usp=drivesdk

I feel like every time I talk to these hunters, they haven’t gotten anything!  They are persistent though, because they keep going!  I think it’s because they either get a gourmet breakfast courtesy of my mom or they go out for breakfast afterwards.  Look at that yummy stack of pancakes…now that’s more my style…warmth, food, and good company.  

 

 

 

 

Ok so I’m skipping around a little bit here and going back to December 28, 2016.  Each year the girls in our family host a Grandmother’s Tea.  Many years ago I remember sitting in the lobby of the elementary school my mom worked, glancing at a magazine while chasing a toddler who couldn’t be trusted inside the gym where Jake was playing a BB game. Inside that magazine was a very short article about a family that had a tradition of gathering the special grandmother’s in their life and enjoying an afternoon together.  I tore that page out of the magazine and never looked back.  We just celebrated our 7th annual Grandmother’s Tea!  We spend time together trying different teas (lemonade for the girls), eating fun little appetizers, and creating a craft together.  Most importantly, my girls are learning how valuable it is to be strong young ladies and appreciating the fabulous women that surround them in their lives.  Girls, I hope you always carry on this tradition!  You are so loved!

This year it was my sister’s turn to host our tea party…beautiful job Shauna!

Each year I try to put together a gift of a collage card of pictures from the previous year and my girls keep them in their memory boxes.  Generally, I’m down to the wire trying to get this done, so I may have missed a few years!  Mine is currently sitting right here at my desk and it makes me smile.

And this year, we colored for our craft activity.  We quickly discovered that my Grammy is quite gifted at this activity…no one knew she was a closet color-er!

Hard to believe this little guy is 9 already!  He’s actually looking 9 now that his permanent teeth have finally come in!  He is his own little person, has his own ideas and ways of doing things, a lover of sports, PS4, his mini iPad, super stats keeper, and can eat Fritos all day long.  Maybe I should’ve just gotten him Fritos instead of expensive basketball shoes for his birthday!?  He knows what he likes (there was no talking him into a different pair of shoes) and he’s a super dedicated hard-worker so he deserves a splurge every once and awhile!  

Plus, these bad boys made Drew have the best basketball game of his life!  12 points, 10 rebounds, and 9 steals.  We aren’t sure if it was him turning 9, the new ‘Champs’ arm sleeve, or those shoes that caused this powerhouse game, but either way, we had an absolute blast watching him!

As most kiddos are, he was very excited for his birthday.  Aunt Jenn has a tradition of bringing donuts…

And the sweet Dearmore’s stopped by to wish Drew a happy one…complete with Fritos of course!

The ice storm/icemageddon that was going to cripple the city never happened and every game & practice we had on the schedule for the weekend was called off.  They even moved the Chiefs playoff game and canceled church!  One thing that fake ice storm was not going to cancel was celebrating DREW!!  He requested Fritz’s for lunch (he’s a big fan of cheeseburgers)…

Drew always has a teensy weensy different idea about a birthday party than I do.  But I aim to please, so we had his party at Main Event which is new to the area, all the buzz, and right up his alley.  He invited school friends and family and we were able to celebrate Collin too!  Double fun!

and Lazer Tag was awesome!

and of course plenty of time in the arcade…

These adorable kiddos had the BEST time celebrating and the birthday boy has such wonderful friends and family!  

I recycled the Neon theme that Jake requested when he was 8 and I thought it was perfect for this crazy casino-like venue 😉

Now this lucky bday boy has bunches of gift cards that he is excited to spend and received everything he wanted on his wish list!  Can’t get much better than that!  Check out all the photos on Shutterfly:  pix.sfly.com/dVKwDu09

Since they called off school when we were originally planning to take him lunch…we decided to spoil him with two days of lunch visitors!

We have a tradition of eating Burger King on his birthday because we joke that he was almost born there!  The story is…I was scheduled to be induced the next morning so we let the kids choose where we would have our last meal out as a family of 4.  Jake chose “King Burger” as he called it at that time.  We went there to eat, threw coins in the fountain (yes the one on 119th & Strang Line Rd. has one inside) and I just wasn’t feeling well.  I thought maybe it was nerves but very shortly thereafter, Drew was born at 8:26pm at Olathe Medical Center.  My BFF, Lisa (Lee), was scheduled to be induced on January 15th as well and everything happened right as planned for her!  So these two little precious bundles were born a few doors down from each other 15 hours apart.  Happy Birthday Drew & Will!

 

• Manchester Park Playground 1
• Hard Futsal Ball 1
• Conley Kids 0

This is the way we are summarizing our day yesterday!  It’s never good when you see the school phone number pop up on your cell phone in the middle of the day.  Especially when it’s the school nurse.  After a lengthy conversation with Bev (the nurse) I discovered that Reece was playing tag on the playground and was pushed down hard to the concrete with nothing to break her fall (her hands were in her pockets).  Well, actually her face broke her fall!  She had a giant goose-egg on her forehead, a bloody, scraped up,and swollen nose and a crowd of people around her worried, including the principal.  She passed all the neurological tests and it appears her nose isn’t broken.  Wow, that is NOT a fun day on the playground!  This little gal is brave and tough because she made it through the rest of the school day, 2 hours of gymnastics training, and watching her brother’s futsal game. Speaking of Futsal game, Jake took a hard ball to the face and ended up with a bit of a shiner.  He’s tough too because he kept playing like a champ.  There’s no stopping this guy in the heat of game!  And now it seems the only thing Reece is worried about is how she is going to look in pictures at my sisters birthday party this weekend.  She said she could just hide it with a bow…whoa where can we find a bow the size of her entire face!?  If anyone can pull off a scraped up face, it’s you Reecie Pie!

To cheer up this little cutie, Brian is back in town and surprised her by bringing her Subway for lunch (her favorite!).  We told Brian he is no longer allowed to do selfies because he’s not good at it but you can’t resist this toothless grin!  Reece has managed to lose two teeth in the last week (unrelated to the playground incident)!

And this has nothing to do with anything except that it relates to Reece and Jennifer happened to text this photo to me today.   I cannot resist putting this in…she took this picture of Reece several years ago when Brian and I were out of town.  They actually let her dress this way and went out in public!!  Can you believe this!?  Do we need to put something in the babysitting plan that prohibits this kind of attire!?  ha!

 

Each year we try to pack way too much into the holiday break!  One thing that Reece and Morgan will not let fall through the cracks is Shauna Spa.  This spa opens up for one day and one day only in my sister’s master bathroom.  The accommodations are sub-par and we have to bring our own supplies so we aren’t sure why this is such a desired activity!  ha!  Totally kidding Shauna!  Part of the fun is teasing her about how many toiletries she has but we are still wondering when she might get the jets fixed on her tub!?  The company is fabulous and I can’t think of a better way to start my new year than with my favorite girls! The Shauna Spa sign was created by Morgan many years ago and we can’t get rid of it!  It’s charming, isn’t it!?

We took this photo with my new Apple Watch capabilities!  Scott deserted us to go watch football so we had to get technical 😉

What…I thought cell phones were not allowed in Spa’s?  It’s supposed to be a relaxing escape!  Apparently the rules are a little relaxed!!

Reece might be the hardest worker at the spa!  Reecie, next year you might get a tip!

We are only 6 school days into 2017 and we already have a snow day.  Or an ice day? or what is it really because I haven’t seen one drop of precipitation yet.  Apparently an ice storm is coming.  I wouldn’t really know this because I don’t watch the weather or the news or anything on TV unless its a home design show or Top Chef.  However, by the crowds at the grocery store and Sam’s Club you can tell the KC metro area is on high alert as they overfill their carts with a month’s worth of necessities.  Good heavens.  I am not a weather follower or panic-er so this annoys me (kids, remember when I was driving us around in that horrible blizzard wondering why no one was out!?).  Not my brightest moment!  So normally I would be happy about a snow day, but honestly, it really bums me out today. My little Drew Boo turns 9 tomorrow, and he was so excited to bring his really cute birthday treats to school today and Brian was scheduled to be ‘Watch Dog’ for half the day.  I do not like to see birthday boys sad, and since we are not scheduled to be back to school until next Wednesday, I guess I’ll be putting these treats in the freezer.

In honor of ‘Red Friday’ and the Chiefs upcoming playoff game against the Steelers, we were pretty excited to share these treats.  Wait…is that game going to be canceled?  Surely not.  It’s going to be really weird bringing in these treats to school next week if they lose! Oh well, I’m not hot gluing anymore flags so these will have to do!  Hoping this ice misses us and my Drewy can enjoy his birthday!  I love you to pieces Drew!