Snow Day

The snow that the kids encountered at the ski resort on Wednesday was primarily manmade. We had our first snow that actually accumulated on the ground yesterday. I'd estimate we got about four inches. I had planned to sign the kids up for ten weeks of ice-skating lessons, but the day before we drove to Chicago for Christmas, I found out what the schedule will be for the spring musical rehearsals at MCS. I already knew they'd miss some lessons due to our vacation in February, but when I learned they'd miss even more due to musical rehearsals, it didn't make any sense to sign them up for the class. I contacted one of the instructors to set up some private lessons instead. The first one was supposed to happen yesterday afternoon, but as it was snowing at that time and the ice-skating rink is 30 minutes away, I cancelled their lessons. Oliver's was rescheduled to this afternoon. It turned into a date with dad. We drove in two vehicles to church. Nadia, Ian, and I came home after church. Paul and Oliver went out to eat at KFC and then went ice skating for 2.5 hours of which 30 minutes of that was a lesson. 

We didn't leave the house on Friday or Saturday (except for Paul who went to work on Friday). I spent the extra free time doing some data entry for a missionary and doing some planning for future trips. Sometimes I am mocked for planning so far in advance, but honestly, sometimes it's necessary. In December I contacted our Representative to try to get tickets to tour the White House and FBI in March. I was too late for getting tickets for the FBI. We *might* get tickets for the White House. We'll find out sometime next month. I did recently get tickets for Ford's Theatre for April. It's too soon to attempt (again!) to get Washington Monument tickets. I had tickets for the White House, Washington Monument, and Ford's Theatre in 2020, but those were all cancelled. I'm trying again four years later. Although I know where we plan to go in 2025 (Hawaii for one trip and Louisiana/Texas for the other), I have done VERY little research into the Hawaii trip yet. In contrast, I started doing research for our trip to Europe that we're hoping to make it the spring of 2026. I know that seems SO far in advance, but honestly, I spent years planning our big road trip out west that we took in 2021. I like starting to make the itinerary for a big trip farther in advance so that as the months go by, I can tweak it as I learn of other places we might want to visit, etc. 

My current hypothetical itinerary for Europe has us staying there for about 2.5 weeks and visiting Paris, Amsterdam, Belgium, England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland. Nadia had requested that we go to Paris, Rome, and England. I don't think we'll actually go to Italy in 2025. I want to see the tulips in Amsterdam, and Paul wants to visit Waterloo and Ypres in Belgium. Paul and I made three trips to Europe in 2002-2004 so, it's been twenty years since I've been there. We visited Spain, Italy, France, and England together; since that time, Paul visited Italy and Poland without me while attending two conferences. I went on a trip to Austria/Germany in 1997 with my family.  I have listed some things in our itinerary that would be repeats for Paul and me (Eiffel Tower, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Saint Chapelle, Versailles, and the Arc de Triomphe), but mostly I'm planning to include experiences that will be new ones for all five of us. There are other places in Europe we'd like to visit at some time in the future. If the Lord tarries, we shall see where we end up traveling in 2027 and beyond. Paul and I both prefer to splurge on experiences/making memories over purchasing "things." I'm very thankful we have the resources to take our kids to various states and other countries! I purchased our tickets for visiting Alaska recently. Because of getting an Alaskan airline credit card, we can check our baggage for free, we got one ticket for free (using miles), and we only paid $99 each for two of our round-trip tickets. We still have quite a few miles left over. I'm hoping to use those miles for one of our two vacations in 2025. I also have a decent number of miles left over with American Airlines that I hope to use next year. 

One sad event from the last week was the passing of Nadia's guinea pig, Peppa. In October she started losing some hair in a few different places on her body. Looking online we saw that there were a wide variety of possible causes. We started giving her some vitamins as that was the cure for one of the possible problems. It's possible we could have taken her to a vet and possibly there was a cure for whatever was ailing her, but we didn't want to end up spending hundreds of dollars, especially as there still might not have been a cure. We've owned a total of five guinea pigs. We have one at the moment. Three of the other four passed away when they were three years old. Jenna lived five years. Peppa lived the second longest as she was just a few weeks shy of turning four years old. I hope that Lily lives at least until Nadia graduates from high school. I hope Milo lives for another ten years. The passing away of pets is my least favorite aspect of owning a pet. I retrieved the dead bodies from the cage the last two times. The first guinea pig who died was put to sleep at a vet. Ian did the yucky job for me this time of retrieving her body from the cage.