Spring Fun 2011

I THINK it is spring - it's hard to know by the weather we've been having! But ... the weather doesn't keep us from having fun! Here's just a few of the things we've been doing to keep busy in the past few months.
Tessa is moving to California - so the Casey's had a special send off for her. We wish you the best, Tessa! Don't be surprised if some of us drop in unexpectedly - especially if spring never arrives in Minnesota! We went to a cool place that has bowling and indoor Bocci Ball - a Casey family tradition. The Pizza was really upscale and yummy to boot!

Alison is showing off her great bowling technique learned at U W Eau Claire.

Paul gave tips to Mark , but I don't think they helped a whole lot.

The bowling balls were very colorful - mine was the purple one in the back. I think Drew tried every ball, searching for the ONE. Maybe next time, Drew.


On Saturday, April 9 I headed to St. Paul to help my Augsburg College friend, Vonnie, celebrate her 60th birthday. She is experiencing the affects of Alzheimer's, but still enjoyed the day, and even remembered my name!


Here is Vonnie with me and Linda T, another Auggie friend.

Here I am with Vonnie and Svenskie, the fourth of the Auggie Four Muskateers. I brought along a scapbook of our days at Augsburg and we had fun reminiscing.


On Saturday, April 16, I hosted a wedding shower for Angie, my nephew Teddy's long time fiance. Yes! They are getting married at long last. We are really happy for them. Paul is going to do the wedding on May 14. It's going to be a very special weekend since I'll be turning 60 on the 16!!!!

We had lots of fun at the shower - check out those prizes.


Jenna brought Charlie, and he was a big help with the presents. Plus, he entertained us after the games were done.

It turned out to be a small affair, since some of the guests had conflicts with the last minute date we picked out, but we had such a good time we are planning another family "girls only" get together this summer! We'll probably include Matthew and Maddox, just for more entertainment and so Charlie will have someone to play with.

The food was yummy, and so were the leftovers!

Here's the bride to be - and Jane and I are reflected in the mirror! If you check out Jane's blog in my links, you'll see pretty much the same photo - LOL.

Well, that pretty much brings you all up to date on the Casey happenings. Easter is next, then a Casey gathering to welcome Callen home from a semester in Spain, then the wedding, and school will be over for another year. Summer is a'comin - hurrah!

Waterbrooke Ski Trip

Just two days after our extended trip to Las Vegas, I headed off on an overnight ski trip with the kids from Waterbrooke Fellowship. Paul had to skip the trip this year, since he had mucho to do to get ready for the Sunday service after being gone three extra days that week! We headed to the Three Crosses Retreat Center in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. What a wonderful place!

We spent Friday night playing games, snacking, hanging out, and watching movies on a huge wall screen on comfy couches at the farmhouse.

They used to have a family style pool here, but it didn't conform to public regulations, so they remodeled the pool room and turned it into a pool room! There was also ping pong, foosball, a "firepit" with no fire, and an indoor picnic table for snacks and more snacks provided by our hosts!
The kids had a blast in this room.

Evan (on the right) brought a game he loves called "Killer Bunnies" and taught anyone who came near how to play.
We did some team competition, and this group wouldn't give up on the "Build a Crossword Puzzle" challenge - use the 26 letters of the alphabet and try to use as many letters as you can.. Each letter had Scrabble type scoring on it. The winning team scored around 100 points!

Our hosts had another building (formerly a hog barn) they converted into a dining facility and large group meeting area with a stage, and wonderful food! For breakfast we had french toast, bacon, juice, coffee, and milk. And ... we didn't have to do the dishes or the cooking!

We headed to Welch village to ski on Saturday morning. Well...most of us skiied. Good thing I brought a few games so when the kids went in to warm up, they could play a game with
Alex. He held down the fort and saved our tables for us:)

I'm sure the bananagrams had a few misspelled words, but who cares?

Jacob comae in and said he lost his little brother! Turns out Luke didn't want to go down a black diamond( smart boy) , and the other two went without him. Then they couldn't find him when they got back to the top! They came back to the lodge, and told me. I went back out with Jacob and we found him as soon as we got up the chairlift and down the far left hills. He was coming down the hill by himself. Good thing he was wearing the orange hat - we spotted him right away!
It snowed lightly all day, and was a perfect day on the slopes. Maria and her fiend tried snowboarding - no trouble on the chair lift.

Jacob and Luke managed to get off without falling.

Ooops - here's Maria and her friend Mary. I guess snowboarding is not as easy as it looks!

Kristin hadn't been skiing for 20 some years - doing great!

Andy is giving demonstrations on how to get up after falling on his snowboard. He didn't actually fall (in this photo).

Sarah and Jessica navigate the lift with ease!


Ahhh ... headed home. It was a fun day, and nobody got hurt! Thanks for praying, Waterbrooke!