Spring Break 2023 Part 1 - Colorado

Spring break was late this year, but we had the rare gift of the dance studio holding its spring break the same week as the school district.  It gave us the opportunity to travel for spring break.  After some discussion, we decided to head back to Colorado and meet up not only with the family living there, but also Tom's Aunt Marie and Cousin Marisa who traveled from New York.  We haven't seen them since summer of 2019 and they have never met our nephew Theo.  

Mike and Lynz graciously open their home to all of us, which gave us maximum opportunity to visit with each other and their new puppy Drake.  

He's the tiniest little ball of fluff!  

But the best part of staying was spending time with Theo. 

Our first full day in Colorado we headed to Boulder to check out the University of Colorado campus.  It's a little early for Leo to look at colleges, but it was a nice day out and we wanted to walk around.  It's a beautiful, but overwhelmingly large campus.  

After lots of strolling, we headed to downtown Boulder for a drink.  Tom snapped this picture of the kids in front of a sculpture.  

We had a drink with a big crew, including Tom's sister Maggie and her boyfriend Will.  

Adorable Theo enjoying a "mocktail". 

After drinks, we went to dinner at Carrie's new house.  It was a super fabulous place with a beautiful view.  Lots of picture taking before dinner, 

Here's Marisa, Theo, Serafina and Leo. 

The next day was all about shopping and cooking for this big crew.  Pasta and meatballs, of course!

Tuesday was Marisa's birthday and an outing to Meow Wolf.  We were excited to explore the Denver location of Meow Wolf since we very much enjoyed our visit in Santa Fe. 

We didn't all stay together because it's almost impossible to travel through the space with a large group, but we did all run into each other at one point and made sure to take a picture. Here we are left to right: Maggie, Marisa, Mike, Tom, Serafina, Will, Leo and me. 

Of course I loved the book cave. 

Leo in the driver's seat. 

We had a fabulous time, and it was especially nice that it wasn't very crowded.  

We had some time to kill in Denver before Marisa's birthday dinner, so Maggie took us to a nice park to pass the time and enjoy the weather.  

Maggie and Will drove Leo to dinner and captured this important photo at the convention center on the way to the restaurant. 

The restaurant was a crowd pleaser.  Even Theo was a happy guy, until he got bored of sitting at the table, of course. 

 It was so fun to be able to celebrate Marisa all together. 

Serafina and the birthday girl. 

For our last full day in Colorado, we headed to a Colorado Rockies baseball game.  

It was Theo's first game! 

The Rockies stunk it up and lost badly, but we were there for the snacks and to document Theo's first game. The Welcome Center gave him this cool certificate. 

Not even the foam finger could turn the tide for the Rockies. 

After several warm days in Colorado, the weather turned chilly for our outdoor activity. We survived. 

It was a great gathering in Colorado, chocked full of activities and delicious food.  Tiring, but worth it to reunite with family we haven't seen in a while. 

Epic amount of snow!

Between Leo's broken arm and the crazy weather, we haven't been able to go up to the cabin much. It's been a historic winter throughout California and the Tahoe area has received an immense amount of snow.  Our neighbor sent us some photos of our little cabin buried in snow, but this weekend was our first chance to see it for ourselves.  Even though we knew it was fine (our rental management company has been out there several times to check on it) there was a particular sense of relief to see it still standing.  We arrived late on Friday night, so it was dark but we could still tell there was a massive snow pack.  

Saturday morning, Tom and Serafina headed out to ski.  A few hours later I took Mousse out for a walk and fully assessed just how much snow was all around our house and neighborhood.  

In most places the snow was triple or more overhead.  

When Tom and Serafina got home from skiing, she called me from the driveway.  I thought she needed help carrying stuff inside, but instead she wanted me to find her.  It took me a second, but there she was, on our second story roof. 

Of course Mousse had to climb up and join her.  

 

Hadley and the baritone sax

Leo's friend Hadley came to visit from Missouri during her spring break.  Our whole family loves Hadley because she's hilarious and very genuine.  She came with us last summer to the lake house and the beach before she moved away.  Hadley and Leo went to the mall, had multiple dinners together and took silly pictures in a photo booth. 

Leo has been pestering his music teacher to let him try to baritone saxophone.  She finally let him take it home on Friday and he was thrilled!  The dog? Less so. 

Hadley came over that afternoon and helped Leo negotiate this massive instrument. It's very large and loud. 

He'll leave this big sax at school during the week and only drag it home on the weekends.  He'll also have his alto sax.  
 

Hollywood Vibe 2023

Serafina and I headed to Burlingame for the weekend for the Hollywood Vibe convention.  She had classes on Saturday and Sunday morning, and then competed her routines on Saturday afternoon and evening.  It was exhausting but also fun since Serafina got to spend a lot of time with her friends. She is extremely independent during conventions, which makes my job a whole lot easier.  

I took almost no pictures, except for this group shot of them eating lunch between classes on Sunday.  I don't know why Serafina insists on putting her hand in front of her face, but I appreciate all the other kids being cooperative.  

The dance studio and the dance teachers posted pictures on Instagram in the days following the convention, so I took some screen shots.  

Here's a bunch of the older kids after the awards ceremony Saturday night.  Serafina's senior hip hop team scored especially high. 

Show Jazz team celebrating. 

Ballroom team celebrating. 

Last year, Serafina was on the poster to advertise auditions for the competitve team.  This year they chose a picture from Show Jazz to promote the 2023-2024 dance season.  This isn't just posters and flyers around the studio, it's all the mailers home.  I received this postcard. 
 

And also this mailer that unfolds and lists all the class offerings for next year.  

There is something strange and delightful about receiving mail with your own kid on it.  My friends have received it in their mailboxes as well.  Serafina is less than thrilled about it, but someday she'll appreciate that it's actually kinda cool.  

Leo's Broken Arm Bummer

On Monday, February 20th, Leo was enjoying some Presidents' Day skiing when he fell and hurt his right arm.  He landed with his ski pole in between his forearm and the snow.  His dad and sister went back to fetch him and they called me to pick them up early.  I was worried about him when I drove up the mountain, but when I pulled into the pick-up zone, he was smiling and seemed okay.  He took a little Advil and slept through the night.  He skipped skiing the next day, but was doing okay when we came home Tuesday night.  I asked him on Wednesday if he wanted to see the doctor, but he said "nah". Every day he seemed to improve.  The kids had the whole week off so he didn't need to go to school.  He had time to relax and recover.  Every day he said it felt a little better and he was even able to play guitar.  Saturday, February 25th, we were celebrating my mom's birthday with some take-out Thai food for dinner.  We were getting ready to follow up dinner with this lemon bundt cake I made when we heard a scream from Leo's room.

He went to pick up his guitar with his right hand when he heard and felt a snap.  He came out of his room holding his arm and very upset.  I grabbed our jackets and we headed out to urgent care.  Tom packed up Nana's piece of cake to-go and dropped her off at home.  The regular urgent care wouldn't see him because he's under 18 and the pediatric urgent care was full.  They offered to see him first thing in the morning but Leo was cradling his arm and in tears. It wasn't situation we could wait on until the morning, so off to the Emergency Room we went.  Tom met us there and I was pleasantly surprised how efficient they were on a Saturday night.  Granted it was still pretty early in the evening.  The doctor ordered an X-ray, and I could see when the technician was placing his arm on the X-ray table the bend didn't look right.  Sure enough, the images confirmed his ulna had a break.  Our best guess is that he must of cracked it, a hairline fracture perhaps, on Monday but it didn't displace until Saturday when the weight of the guitar pulled on the already vulnerable bone.  Of course, that didn't alleviate my mom guilt that I let my kid walk around with a broken arm for five days.   The ER put him in a splint. 

He made it through the first night, which was the hardest night of course.  He couldn't get into to see the orthopedic surgeon until Wednesday morning.  After a painful exam full of dad jokes from the doctor, he declared that it didn't need any surgery, but just an over-the-elbow cast. 

Here he is with his fresh new cast.  He'll see the Physician's Assistant in two weeks and they'll do a repeat X-ray.  We are hoping they put him in a shorter cast if things are improving.  

He's being an absolute trooper about it all.  We are familiar with casts around here, but there is a lot to be bummed about.  Leo had just joined the school badminton team, we are still in the middle of ski season with epic snow fall, and he can't play saxophone or guitar.  The entire time in the ER, he was most upset about not being able to play guitar.  To make matters worse, the prior week he finally worked out a deal with his dad to order a new guitar that arrived the sane day he got his cast.  

Ugh, it's a real heartbreaker, but I'm hopeful that because the break is pretty straightforward and he's young that he'll be out of the cast soon and playing the new guitar very loud.