January at a Glance
Brian Here - Fun to have Brian visit for a week… He stayed after New Year’s until January 11th. Hiking in Garden of the Gods, discovering a new restaurant called Denver Biscuit Co, walking down Old Colorado City and checking out some shops, Shopping at Anthropologie, movies with Brian’s chips and popcorn, and games of WINGSPAN almost every night.
Booster Shots - Brian, Megan, Luke and Matthew got their COVID booster shots early January. Chris and I already got ours. Hopefully this keeps us all healthy so we can travel to Costa Rica, Utah, Mexico, England and Norway through this huge Omnicron Variant surge.
Denver Getaway - For Christmas, Chris gave me a overnight getaway in Denver. We drove up to the outlet mall and I found a great black coat from J Crew. Then we continued up to Denver in the worst snowing conditions we’ve driven in for a long time. So icy and since we were headed a little bit uphill there were a lot of cars just turning their wheels. We had to go slow and steady, weaving around cars and trucks who had completely stopped in the middle of the road. Denver roads and conditions were fine. We found an underground parking lot and then walked through the city to find the restaurant that Chris had planned for dinner. A German restaurant, called Rhein Haus, which was so good. We shared plates of Schnitzel and cheesy spatzle with basil roasted mushrooms and cherry tomatoes in a herb cream sauce. SO GOOD! We will go back! We enjoyed the evening at the Denver Union Station where we stayed at the CRAWFORD HOTEL. Love it there! In the morning we worked out at the Oxford Club Spa and enjoyed breakfast outside on the patio at the attached restaurant, SNOOZE. Such good french toast. Then over to the Park Meadows Mall to shop and get Orange Julius and then over to the Denver Temple to meet up with Matthew and the other Deacons for baptisms. We headed back to the outlet mall with Matthew on our way home and loaded up at VANS for the kids.
Parkour Classes or Luke and Matt - One of the boys Christmas presents was a ‘coupon’ for Parkour Classes. They were thrilled. I introduced the idea to Issac and Everett’s mom and Ian ended up joining as well. After one class in Parkour I class they switched to Parkour II and have really enjoyed it. We’re carpooling and it’s been great!
Emily cut her hair… SHORT! - She had her friend Brynn do it and she looks darling!
High School Soccer Practice - Megan and the Pine Creek High School soccer girls are practicing a couple times a week. Once at the Soccer Haus and once at Jon Venezia Park. She’s practicing with the Varsity crowd. Tryouts start at the end of February.
Basketball for Matthew - Matthew joined Trey for another YMCA Basketball season. Practices on Wednesday nights and Games on Saturday afternoons right down at the Middle School, which is so nice. It’s been fun to carpool and watch games with the Nielsens. Love them.
Piano for Matthew - Matthew is still really enjoying piano lessons with Gina. Right now his lessons are on Monday nights at 7:30. Every time we get in the van to go I think ‘what are we doing driving somewhere at midnight!’ It’s freezing cold and so dark by 7:30! I stay in the van and text people, listen to podcasts or call one of the kids. Matthew loves sitting in the front seat with me, turning on music and calling Emily to reminisce about driving to piano together.
Wyoming for Chris - Chris worked another two weeks in Wyoming. He’s working out twice a day until we go to Costa Rica so he comes home from work and then enjoys a workout in the living room of his place, has been listening to Atomic Habits (like me) and getting a lot of financials worked out. In between his two weeks he came home for Friday night, Saturday and Sunday and we fit a lot in… including a date to a new pizza place with the best cheesy bread and lots of discussions about upcoming investments.
Snow and Shoveling - Luke and Matthew have always been excited about a snowstorm… but now they - along with friends - are anxious for snow since it means they will go door to door asking to shovel driveways for money. They’ve enjoyed a few days of success and are excited to be saving up for a VR. A few mornings every tree branch is laced in ice and it’s gorgeous!
Megan Working - Megan has starting picking up a few shifts to work at the Broadmoor World Arena and CC Hockey Arena at the concession stands. She says she likes it and has gotten some compliments on her work at the cash register. Just two or three weekend nights a month but every little bit helps. She’s also doing laundry one afternoon a week for one of the gals in our ward.
Maggie Speaks in Church and has an Open House - So fun to support Maggie as she heads off on her mission to the Florida, Orlando mission - Spanish Speaking. Great to be at the Jacksons house that evening to wish her well and talk with friends. She’s going to do so great!
My boys LOVE MovNat — the new PE class taught at the school all about moving naturally, balancing, jumping and a little parkour in there too. Such a good class with an amazing coach. Now Luke is on the flyer introducing the program to other schools in the district. And Matt and Ian found themselves on the MovNat instagram.
Grandpa Johnson’s Birthday celebration - To celebrate Grandpa Johnson’s birthday we took the kids out for lunch to Olive Garden — one of Del’s favorite places to eat. We hardly go there so it was fun to eat our soup and breadsticks and think of him! The college kids got together with all of the rest of the Johnsons and they ate Olive Garden and wrote messages on balloons to send up to him. We love you, Grandpa!
Wingspan - I’m still quite obsessed with that game. I’ve taught Megan and the boys how to play and they will occasionally play with me, but usually it’s just Chris and I that want to play over and over again.
