Great Gains and Pains

Sheridan has a great sledding hill right in the middle of town.  And by a great sledding hill, I mean a really GREAT sledding hill.  Unfortunately with all of our new house building, the kids haven't had much chance to enjoy sledding.  But that all changed on Sunday afternoon when the great hill lived up to its great name.

But first, there's no glory without pain.  In this case the burn came in the form of steps - a great amount of steps. 

 

There was certainly a bit more pain when Thane fell out of the sled.

 

Not ready to be beaten, the kids pressed on and started again, this time gaining air.  Both kids reported definite pain upon landing.

To misquote an old saying, with no great pain, comes no great gain.  Both Annabel and Thane had a blast. 

You could say it was all fun and gains (groan!)

Art Show

Annabel & Thane had the day off from school last Friday, so we decided to head over to the Brinton Art Museum in nearby Big Horn for a quick visit.  The museum has some great western art and Native American items on permanent display.  They also had two temporary exhibits, one of which highlighted illustrations from children's books.  But the real reason for our visit was to view the artwork of local 5th grade students, including Thane!

Thane's class created a display of origami cranes with messages of hope for the future hidden inside each.  Thane is pointing to his creation.

As a thank you for contributing to the show, Thane was gifted a children's book featuring the museum's mascot dog.  Several of the book's illustrations were featured in the exhibit we had seen earlier.  

It was a pretty cool day!

Principal's Award

We are so proud of this guy, who came home from school on Friday with the Principal's Award.  Thane received this award, given to only 3 students per year, for his leadership all day/every day.  Several times a week we remind the kids to be leaders, not followers.  It looks like that's starting to pay off!

In other 5th grade news, Thane created this cool interactive box for his school Valentine's party.  It was the classic mix of old school computer font and cutting edge joy sticks that cracked us up.  Thankfully Thane is still in that "Ugh, girls!" stage, so no other Valentine's planning was needed.  For that, we couldn't be happier!

Happy Birthday Jordan!

In the midst of the grind of construction, Jordan turned 36 years old last week.  While he refused to take the day off (shocker!), we couldn't let the day go by without expressing our appreciation for him and his hard work on our behalf.  So Gramma cooked some AMAZING ribs and invited us up for dinner, and Annabel was super happy to use the baking set she received for Christmas to make Jordan a delicious chocolate and peanut butter confection.

Jordan was gifted hunting equipment, tools and books.

If only we could have given him time to use them.

Happy Birthday Babe!

Plumbing and Electric

We have almost completed the next two phases of our new house construction:  electric and plumbing.

We are thrilled to be this far, as the next stage will be heating.  While we have been blessed with an incredibly warm winter here in Wyoming, the morning temps have generally hovered a little above 0. 

With a high of 15 projected this weekend, that heat is looking better and better all of the time!