Ski Trip!

Sorry for another long break in posting, folks. Since the classes I teach started a little less than a month ago, my life has been completely taken over. I've been literally working accountant-like hours this week to get video interview assignments back to students in time for their real interviews this week. That's less than a week to grade (and give substantial feedback) on 90 interviews that are about 10-20 minutes each. If you do the math, it's A LOT. Anyway, that has been a big part of the reason I've been MIA. Not to mention, last week, I had a cold that I thought was going to be the death of me. I've been pretty healthy the past few months (perhaps in part to my continued use of my NutriBullet:), but I started feeling a little under the weather two weekends ago, and it just kept getting worse. I even missed work last Friday. So yeah, blogging has been kinda far from my mind over the past couple weeks. Well, I shouldn't say that, I just haven't had the time or energy to do it. Anywayyyyyy.... That leads me to something more exciting to post about - the ski trip I went on two weekends ago!

In spending the past couple years really getting to know L and becoming more of a staple in his life, I have been fortunate enough to get to know a lot of the people who are very important to him, and the ski weekend was no exception. Way back in early November, some chatter started about a weekend where a bunch of people would get together and go on a ski trip in Michigan. The crew involved some of L's high school friends, as well as some people from college. We settled on Ski Brule as the ski resort and Anderson Lake Lodge as our home for the weekend. For those of you who know me, I'm not really a winter gal, and I most definitely don't ski. Fortunately for me, one of the other girls is pregnant, so she couldn't do the winter stuff, and another one of the girls stayed back from the hills as well. We had ourselves a great time in the lodge while the rest hit the slopes. Anyway, the adventure started on Thursday night when half of our crew made the trek to Colby to spend the night at my parent's house. We spent a couple hours at the VFW when we got to town and then headed home to spend a couple more hours in the Mud Bar. The boys didn't go to bed until 3:30. That's when L came in, woke me up, and then passed out on the bed sideways, forcing me into a tiny little ball while he snored the night away. Gotta love it. ;) Got up to a nice breakfast from mama and then hit the road for Iron River, MI. I won't go into too many details and I'll let the photos below speak for themselves. However, I will say that it was one of the most fantastic weekends I've had in a long time!! You know how sometimes when you travel or you spend time with a large group of people, and the first thing you do is analyze how it might have been better if _____ was different? Well, not with this crew. I look back at the trip so fondly and seriously wouldn't change a single thing. I had a blast, and I can't wait to spend more time with these people in the future! :)

 Me and L at the VFW.

Some of the ladies from the trip!

Lots of food and shots to be had in the Mud Bar...

Breakfast!

The entire crew at Up North Bar once we got to Michigan. What a cool place!

 

My drinks! :)

 

Bar #2 - last stop before the lodge!

The caravan of vehicles to our lodge. It's on a private path in the middle of nowhere!

 Gorgeous private lake view from inside the lodge!

Cool staircase!

Oh, ya know. Just takin' a break to smoke a cigar.

Some of the boys! I like the lighting here. :)

 Siblings!

Sunset from the lodge!

The cake some of our friends had made for the trip!

 Time to get the party started! (Dana on the right is pregnant, no alcohol for her!)

 Mandatory dance break!:)

Rooster dance! :)

We each had a song where we had to take a shot when it came on. Mine was Little Willy, my favorite song!

 :)

 

Hammer took his shot from the hot tub! :)

 

I love everything about this photo. Some dancing, some glaring, just lots of different activity.

The next morning, everyone got up and had breakfast, and the main crew went skiing. I stole a few pictures from L's sister from when they were actually skiing (as mentioned above, I didn't go), just so you could see some action from the trip. The rest of the photos after that will be from night two, which was just as crazy. ;)

 T and L!

The whole group of skiers/snowboarders!

The skiers have returned!

 Relaxing before dinner.

 I put the sandwiches together, and L made REAL grilled cheese to go with his homemade soup!!

 

Then the drinking Jenga and Monopoly came into play...

"I dare you to dance with Bradley." Okay! :)

 Me and K!

 

 Happy couple!

Jumping jacks. The end of the night, ha!

On our way back home, we stopped at McDonald's. L got this TINY cone. How friggin' cute!!

Sorry for the random mix of pictures. Sums up the weekend pretty well. I feel very fortunate to be blessed with such wonderful people in my life. And I must say, having such a tough couple weeks makes me miss that trip so much more. Thankfully, I have St. Patrick's day to look forward to this weekend with my mom, my aunt, and my friend M. Can't wait to have another adventure. The weekend after that is home to Colby for the first time in THREE months (man, I miss my family and all the kiddos!), the following weekend is a weekend with L, and the weekend after that is Madison again for the meat convention since my dad will be in town. The weekend after the meat show, I have a weekend to myself, which will be the first time in like 3-ish months. I love having lots to do, but man, I need some 'me' time! Much of this will be solved if/when me and L live in the same damn city. Someday..... (this is me taking a break to daydream about the possibility:). Anyway, thanks for hanging in there with me, and I hope you enjoyed the photos from my fun-filled "ski" trip! I'll try to post more often, so keep checking back!