Ski Retreat 2009

What a great weekend for skiing! 39 Waterbrookers headed out at 4:30 in a caravan on Friday, Feb. 20 amidst freshly falling snow to head to Trollhaugen and the Skonewood Retreat Center in Cushing, Wisconsin. Of course, it took double the time to get there since the new snow caused lots of traffic backups. We arrived around 8:30 p.m after stopping in Forest Lake for supper. It was too dark for a picture the building we hung out in, so I had to take it the next morning. Can you imagine all 39 of use staying in this small building? Well, we did - boys downstairs on the concrete floor and girls upstairs!

Here's the whole group - it looks lots bigger once you are inside!Luckily, they provide nice cushy foam for the kids to sleep on. A couple of the younger boys couldn't stay awake during the late night movie (Transformers - how could they sleep during the constant, repetitious fighting???) so they ended up sleeping upstairs most of the night.Here is my idea of a great bed! Actually, it wasn't so bad.
We had great food - Gina, the Italian mama, is a fantastic cook! This is breakfast on Saturday - a great start to rev you up for a day on the slopes.This is a view of me and one of the girls who had never skied before. Trollhaugen gave our group free lessons for any kids who needed them - and after the lessons, I went up with the kids to make sure they were all right on their own. Alyssa needed a bit more confidence so I skied with her until she finally was ready to fly! Paul even went off on his own this year and did great. The fresh snow made for fantastic skiing.
A few of the girls felt it was a bit cold, so after lunch they became chalet bunnies.

The older boys, however, spent all their time on the boarding jumps seeing who could get the most air.

Back at Skonewood, we continued the Marshmallow Marathon on Saturday night. We had 4 teams competing in marshmallow games. Which team can build the tallest structure out of marshmallows, spaghetti, and toothpicks?Who can slurp up a marshmallow on a string the fastest?...and my personal favorite ... Chubby Bunny! Who can stuff the most marshmallows in their mouth and still be able to say "chubby bunny?" Emery gets the crown this year with 13 of the large marshmallows - however, he couldn't manage the all important phrase, so the Waterbrooke record is 12! That beats last year's record of 9 by a whole bunch!On Sunday morning we slept in, cleaned up, and had a closing prayer time and thought we were ready to jump in the cars when Alex realized he had locked his keys in his car!

The Skonewood caretaker came up with the winning strategy after at least 30 minutes of hangars - hooray!

We had a great time, and the kids were super! Can't wait until next year! Maybe my shins will have recovered by then - can't believe how sore they got from those boots!

Catch Up on the Caseys!

WOW - I am very behind in blogging for 2009. I know you're all dying to hear what we've been up to. Not much!

The biggest news is that I'm NOT on jury duty! God answered my prayer about that one. I was on call for the months of January and February - I tried to get them to postpone it until summer, but they wouldn't. So, I just waited to be called. The letter arrived and I had to go down to the Federal Court House in Minneapolis to spend the day last Wednesday assigned to a panel. It took me 5 hours to write the plans for two different substitutes. I couldn't find one who would be available for 3 days in a row. I had to be ready for 3 days just in case I was picked for the case. There were about 50 of us, and 36 were chosen for the initial questioning. I was one of the 36.

I spoke to the judge one-on-one to try again to be excused because of many school related issues that a substitute can't do in my position of Coordinator of Enrichment for 700 students, but he wasn't interested. So I had to sweat it out. At 4:45 they finished the questioning, and we had to wait in the hall for 30 minutes while the federal prosecutor, the judge, and the defense lawyers decided on the 12 jurors. Not me - hurrah! The case was going to go on over a three week period - that would have been disaster for my school programs!

What else is new, you ask?

Check out Jane's blog for a description of a nice dinner out with Jane and Chuck, and Ted and Pat on Valentine's Day.

Paul and I had another fun night out on Saturday, Feb. 7 at the Old Log Theatre. Christie gave us a gift certificate for Christmas, and we enjoyed a great dinner and a show! Paul had prime rib and I had walleye. The play was called Unnecessary Farce, and the show was very funny. We especially enjoyed being there after reading a book about Clellan Card (Axel and His Dog) - remember the TV show from the 50's and 60's? The man who started the Old Log playing Axel's dog and cat (puppets)! He still introduces every show, but his son runs the theatre.

Coming soon - pictures from the Waterbrooke Youth Ski Retreat that is in the planning stages for this weekend - Feb. 20-22. Stay tuned for more from the Caseys!