January 2023!! Time is flying and it is already 2023...three years since COVID began. The year that Olivia turns EIGHTEEN! One more year till Olivia graduates from high school. Time just seems to be flying away from me, but here we are beginning 2023 (and as I write this quickly approaching the half way mark of 2023).
January was a lot of school, Olivia prepping for the running start accuplacer tests, some skiing, some basketball, Claire's ankle bone check-up and packing up the Christmas stuff.
So here you go...hopefully a quick review of the January highlights!
The first Thursday in January, I took Claire in for her follow up appointment on her ankle. It was very much the news we expected. Of course it was great that she was walking in there, the last time we had been there she was still wearing a brace. She had an x-ray first of both ankles so they could compare. I looked at them because they were on the screen while we were waiting and could tell right away that what they had expected had happened in the right ankle that she broke. Can you tell the difference between the two pictures?? The picture of her right ankle shows that the growth plate had filled in and she can no longer grow in her right ankle. But you can still see the line in the left ankle showing that that ankle still has an open growth plate and can grow there.
After seeing the doctor and the first scans, she ordered a waist down scan so that they can see the difference in her leg length. When you zoom in on these scans you can see that growth plate in the top of her tibia and fibula are still open, the growth plate in the bottom and top of her femur are already closed up, but the growth plates in her hips are still open. So she still has some spots in her legs where she can grow. She could continue to grow till about15 1/2 or 16 and they want to check and make sure the difference does not become too large between her two legs. It shouldn't, but it could and then they would need to kill the growth plate in her other ankle. Right now there is nothing to do about it. She does need to have another x-ray and probably scan this summer to see where she is at with her growth.
I'm always sad to take Christmas down, but alas it was time. Here are some pictures of our little trees that we put our advent ornaments on.
Here are the girls with their gingerbread houses they each made.
And their hand print salt dough snowmen they made! Their hands are getting so big!! I love looking back at how tiny their hands used to be! Sniff, sniff...
And these are the new ornaments we got this year!
We had this fun trophy for 2 years because Hans won the fantasy football championship two years in a row, but this year he didn't win, so it was time to mail it on to the next person. So we took some pictures before sending it off!
And I wish I would have gotten pictures of the girls working on these puzzles over break, but of course I didn't. And sadly I didn't get to help much on them. I love puzzles, but had lots to do. So here they are....Pocohontas and Mickey and Minnie in Paris...reminded me of Hans and I's time in Vegas at the hotel Paris.
We wanted to make sure to make it to at least one basketball game, so we went mid January. Both Kelsey and Jada played really well. I am not remember whether or not they won or not. I kinda think Kelsey's team won, and Jada's team lost just barely....hmmm....Maybe Olivia will remember! Either way it was a fun night watching the Kopp girls play some basketballl!
Now Jada's turn!
The last pics of Christmas before it came down...Sometimes I like to remember how I decorated the year before. I usually remember and rarely look back...but sometimes I do.
I thought this was cute when all three cats were looking the same direction and in the space I could get a picture of all 3 of them.
Anthe the ornaments each of the girls made. If you zoom in you can see their name with each of them. They are always so cute!
And after Christmas comes the Valentine's decorations! They are cute too and make me happy!
Look at these cute girls at a pie night at Shari's. This school year was so much better for BSF because we had a lot more girls coming!! So yay for growing BSF group and lots of people at pie night!
And then it was time for our annual ski trip with the Mills. This year we went somewhere new again which was to Schweitzer in Idaho. This was a super fun trip!! This year we found a cabin on the hill that was ski in and out and it really great! We might just be hooked on this place! It is a long drive but worth it!
The first day which was a Tuesday (Jan. 17th) we drove the 7 hours or so to Schweitzer, got checked in, and then it was time for some dinner and swimming. And we brought our Nintendo switch so that was also a hit downstairs in the ski locker room with a tv. It was pretty awesome because we had a whole area to store all our ski grear and get it on and off. No hauling stuff to the lodge was amazing!!
The next morning was Hunter's 17th birthday! So of course we had to have cinnamon rolls for her special day!! We always have cinnamon rolls on the trip anyways, but it was fun to have a special birthday to celebrate.
Then it was time to get ready and off for fun day of skiing! It was a snowy day and not great visiblity. I decided it wasn't up for skiing and spending the money on something I don't really love, so I stayed back, cleaned up and relaxed and worked on my blog and listened to a book on audio. It was really nice and the time flew by! Plus I had a really good audio book that I got sucked into called The Water Keeper. Here is everyone getting ready and on their way for the first day of skiing.
A few hours later they skied back in for lunch! How fun it was to be able to have lunch at our place and not have to pack the lunch for eating in the lodge.
And they came back for dinner a few hours later! They all had a great day on the hill!
I can't remember if we had dinner first or went swimming first. Either way we had a fun night. Here are some pictures from swimming that night. Well the kids swam, but the adults sat in the hot tubs! The worst part was getting out and getting back to our place because we had to drive down to the pool area.
Our place was a 3 level place. The top floor had 2 bedrooms and enough room for 6 to sleep so we slept up there. The middle floor was the living room, dining room and kitchen, and downstairs was the ski room as well as 2 bedrooms with sleeping for 5, so Mills were down there. The living room was on the small side, which was the biggest bummer of the place, but we made it work.
The next day was still pretty socked in and there was a bunch of new snow on the ground so I decided it would be best for me to not ski. I don't love powder and really I don't love skiing...so it was another relaxing day for me in the cabin. But I also got to watch them a big more this day. I got ready and went for a little walk and saw where the lodge was and then I cam back up to the top of the trail where they skied in for lunch. And got to watch them come in. Here are a few pictures they took while they were out.
And then some that I took that morning!
And here they are coming down the hill for lunch!
I had to get some lunch time pics since I usually do that in the lodge! Lol!
Getting ready to head back out after lunch!
In the afternoon, Hans called me so I could watch them ski down a black diamond at the end of the run near the lodge. I headed over to take some pictures and see them ski down. That was fun! So in no particular order, here are the pics of them skiing the black diamond.
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| Little on the top of the hill |
Here they are flying down the hill!! Can you tell who each of them is??
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| Aubrey and Rae |
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| Claire |
The afternoon cleared up in spots and the mountain did look pretty! Got a family photo before the girls and Hans headed back up the hill for a couple more runs.
And the last of the ski pics, some from their phones and some from mine as they came down the last hill at the end of the day!
And a last hot tub night! We hot tubbed and swam each of the three nights we were there and had a nice dinner and chat time. Another super fun ski trip with the best of friends!
The next morning as we had to head out the sun finally came out and it was beautiful! Of course the day we had to leave! But we got our traditional group pic before we left. Unfotunately we set the camera up too far away and didn't want to retake the pic...oh well!
The next weekend was Jada's second senior night, this time for basketball. It was so fun to get to see her up there with her family. She is really a great athlete and we have gotten to watch her grow up. So this was hard as watching her get ready to graduate, means Olivia's graduation is right around the corner. It really is so bittersweet watching these girls grow up so so fast! And our friends kids too!! Another fun night cheering for our Jada!!
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| Kelsey playing the game before Jada's |
Jada played awesome as always! I am trying to remember if they won or not...Olivia thinks they did and I think this win helped get them into the playoffs...
Pictures from the end of the game. Such a fun night supporting Jada!!
On this day Raelyn was invited to a birthday party on the water! It was a nice, but cold day and she had a blast swinging with her friends at the end!
And the last...letting go of too small things is always tough. This ski gear I am trying to sell to make a little extra cash. They are sure cute!
And it was time to say goodbye to these sweet little stuffed animals. We just have way too many still...but these ones weren't the favorites and it was time to say goodbye...sniff, sniff.
And there is the end of January 2023! Another great month in the books of our life. We are really blessed to have all the adventures that we do!
