Day 1826 | Cross Country Skiing

We’ve been talking a lot about trying to get outside and enjoy the winter more. Today’s warm temperature gave us the extra motivation we needed.

We bundled up and headed over to a nature reserve to rent some equipment and try out the trails. The boys did great. Cross country skiing is no joke and they had good attitudes and worked hard the whole time—really all a parent can hope for in a situation like this. It wasn’t much of a workout for Chris and me at this stage, but we were glad we to be out there as a family.

Day 1825 | Bunk Beds No More

We replaced the carpet in the boys room this week and they’ve decided to un-bunk their beds. In case you’re wondering, this is what they looked like when we first set their room up. So sweet, right?

There was no question about still sharing a room. They were just done needing to be on top of each othe (literally). These little nuggets are growing up so fast.

p.s. The boys are always wearing stocking hats these days. Like always, always. It’s pretty weird.

Day 1824 | Family Date Night

I discovered a long-ago-discarded restaurant gift certificate yesterday while cleaning out a drawer and decided to be crazy and suggest a family date night with dinner out…on a weeknight! Crazy, right?!?

We discussed the idea of making this a monthly event. As a counter argument, Chase suggested we make it a weekly occasion. Maybe we’ll meet in the middle and go semi-monthly. The unofficial name of this new tradition is The Semi-Monthly Tuesday Wanderers Family Date Night. I might make t-shirts for everyone.

Day 1824 | Bear Cards

The boys have been collecting country cards from these Bear Yo-yo snacks for quite some time. If you send in ten UPCs, the company will send you back this sweet map so you can keep track of all the places you’ve collected with flag stickers

As you might imagine, Robbe was more than a bit excited about this project. He was focused and diligent as he sorted and marked his country cards—we’ve got quite the collection, as you can see. He’s only missing 17 countries at this point (of the 80 they make cards for). Yes. We do really like these fruit ropes. How’d you guess?

Day 1823 | B+W Selfie

Chase wanted to take an old-timey photo together today. Obviously, I obliged. Enjoy. :)

Day 1822 | Carpet Install

Every day we’re getting closer. Today’s project? New carpet in our bedroom, and the new closet, and the old closet. The boys’ room gets its turn on Monday and then it’s smooth sailing from there. A few finishing projects and we’ll call the great bathroom renovation of 2019 done. Eek! This is about as exciting as life gets when you’re an adult.

Day 1821 | Big Day

I know the blog is focused on our “big days”. It’s in the title, afterall. But today really was a big day. After nearly three months of work, we have functioning lights, toilets, showers, and sinks. I’ll post a real photo tomorrow, but for today just take my word for it: the bathroom is amazing. We’ve got just a couple details left to finish (carpet, doors, shelving, etc.) but we are extremely happy with how everything is coming together. I can’t wait to share it with you.

Day 1820 | DIY Contribution

Yes. Our bathroom project is still underway. Yes. It’s SO close to wrapping up. We *might* get toilets tomorrow. That’s how close we are. I promise to share photos soon.

Since Chris and I are super handy, we decided to handle the closet shelving project ourselves. It’s practically the IKEA of closet systems so I think it’ll be ok. Tonight’s project? Drawers. It turned out pretty well minus the one dented drawer front and the missing packet of screws. Ugh. This is why DIY-ing is over-rated. :)

Day 1819 | A [Not So] Sick Day

Robbe had some tummy troubles last night that forced a day at home today—you see what I’m getting at, right? But what happens when a good night’s sleep cures all and you wake up 100%? That’s right. A [not so sick] day. We played some Pokémon. We read a lot. We watched a couple of episodes of some slightly annoying show. It was the most solo time we’ve spent together in a long long time. I really like that little nugget. It ended up being a pretty great [not so] sick day.

Day 1818 | Go Pack Go

We were all excited about the big Packer game tonight. The boys even sported their *vintage* jerseys for the occasion (that’s a Woodson jersey and Driver jersey in case you can’t tell—gotta love hand-me-downs). It’s been a fun season of football watching—especially when they keep winning. I’ll make sure the jerseys are ready for next week!

*Side note: this photo was taken at our 4-H meeting. Chase insisted he hold this ball up for the photo. Kids are weird.

Day 1817 | Pancake Protégé

That’s right, I’ve decided to take this one under my wing and show him the secrets of my pancake process.

I really like making pancakes. I think Chris thinks I’m crazy sometimes (ok, more than sometimes) when I want to get up and immediately head to the kitchen on the weekends to undertake the process of making pancakes [from scratch]. I like the tradition of it. I like that when the kids look back, they’ll remember me making weekend batches of muffins or pancakes as a special break from the weekday breakfast monotony. They’ll think that, right? Even if they never fully realize my intentions, it warms my heart and to give this little part or myself to them. It’s ok if Chris thinks I’m crazy.

In case you’re curious…I still use this recipe from Day 94 way back in 2014. With the addition of chocolate chips, of course. :)

Day 1816 | Working from Home

Does anyone else work on top of a 1000 piece puzzle? Yeah, me neither.

Day 1815 | Pokemon Returns

These Pokémon cards have been in hiding for a few months. I can’t say that I’ve missed having this mess take up our living room, but it is fun to see the interest come back around. There’s no way we could have moved past the Pokemon phase that quickly.

Day 1814 | Another Pianist

The little guy started piano today. Hard to believe it’s been two years since Chase started at this age. Robbe was oh so excited (I’m serious!) to get to have his own lesson. He even came home and practiced right away. Let’s hope the enthusiasm lasts!

Day 1813 | Bowling Part 3

I think we’ve bowled more in the last two weeks than in the last eight years—three times. And it’s been pretty great, actually. I wouldn’t mind if we made this a regular occurrence.

Adorable side note: the photo in the bottom-left of the collage is Chase “coaching” Robbe on where to place his second ball. Isn’t that amazing?

Day 1812 | An Old Oak Tree

This was posted on a Facebook group yesterday. That’s our house on the right. And that’s our oak tree. The woman who wrote it was a daughter of the couple that built our house. Isn’t that amazing? I know nothing about trees but the giant ones that surround our house often make me stop and think about all the things they’ve seen.

Day 1811 | Favorite NYE Photo

There were a lot of good shots from our NYE celebration, but this one—captured by Andi (shoutout Andi!!) during one of the “minute to win it” games—is probably my favorite. So much joy in one photo. :)

Day 1810 | Welcome 2020!

We had a great time welcoming the new decade with Chris’s brothers and their families last night. We even let the boys stay up until midnight. The real midnight. I know…who have I become? It was totally worth it, though. Everyone had a total blast.

Day 1809 | So Long 2019!

2019 was good to us. Here’s hoping for just as many fun memories and even more love and laughter in 2020.

p.s. Aren’t holiday cards the best? I love walking by all these smiling faces every day.

Day 1808 | Family Time

We’re home and we’re all exhausted. The fun-filled days in Chris’s hometown with his family made it more than worth the needed recovery, though. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again…it sure is nice when family are friends and friends are family.

*The photo collage is missing one of the six cousins. :( The poor little lady was sick and didn’t make it into any of them. We’ll remedy that on New Year’s Eve.