Nelson Family Blog: Bridges Bay and The Super Bowl

Well, we are halfway through February already. So far, this month has consisted of basketball practices and games, homework, 4-H activities, and a trip to Iowa. We have definitely been keeping busy.

Emma is still playing basketball, and she is really enjoying it. We had another scrimmage at school last weekend. Emma has improved so much since the first scrimmage. She actually scored her first basket every during the scrimmage, and she was so happy! It was a really fun evening of basketball, and it's fun to watch the improvements from week to week.

Homework continues to go okay with the kids. Usually, both kids have spelling words, memory work, and reading time to do each night. Then, Emma has piano lessons to fit in, and sometimes some science or math. We just had conferences with the teachers last night, and everything is going well. Both kids are really good students, there are just always things to work on and push the kids with. But, overall, we were two very happy parents after conferences and we went to Walburgers afterwards to celebrate.

4-H has been keeping us busy as well. The first weekend of February, we volunteered at Winterfest of Wheels. We spent three hours helping run the car simulation, selling raffle tickets, and both kids dressed up in costumes and walked around during the event. It was really busy, but it went pretty well. We were all ready to leave by the time it was over. The next day we had a 4-H meeting, and we made Valentine's cards for nursing home residents. Then, we ate supper at Pizza Ranch with Jim, Barb, and Katie for Jim's birthday. It was nice to catch up with everyone.

We also made some purchases this month. After shopping for quite a while, John finally bought himself a new ice shack. He hasn't even gotten to use it yet, but he has it all set up and ready to go. He plans to fish this weekend, and he is very excited. I finished my Diamond art of Starry Night, and took it to Hobby Lobby to be custom framed, so in two weeks I should get that back and we will find a place to put it. I'm really excited to see how that will turn out.

This past weekend, we took our trip to Bridges Bay with my parents and Rachel and Elena, which was mom and dad's gift to the kids for Christmas. Everyone had a really good time. We all arrived around noon, and met in the bar for lunch and visiting. Our rooms were available at 1:00pm, so we checked in, changed, and then went to the waterpark. The kids had a lot of fun with the waterslides and the lazy river, and Emma really enjoyed the hot tub. We spent a solid 3 hours playing in the water, and then we headed back to spend some time in the room.

We cooked some pizzas for supper, and of course everyone brought way too much food and drinks, so we all snacked pretty much all night. The kids played very well together the entire weekend, and us adults enjoyed some games and just hanging out. We watched some Winter Olympics and just enjoyed our time together.

On Sunday, we went to the waterpark as soon as it opened, which was nice because it wasn't very busy. We swam for a couple hours, and then we all got cleaned up and checked out of our room before eating some lunch and then heading home.

We got home around 3:00pm, and then had to get ready to host a Super Bowl party. We had the Hinners and Jen over for the Super Bowl. John made wings and queso dip, I made some meatballs, and then everyone else brought some treats as well. It was a really fun party. The Rams played the Bengals, and beat them 23-20, so it was a pretty good game. Everyone left around 9:00pm, and then it was time to put kids to bed and clean up. It was a very tiring day, but it was fun.

This week has been busy again. Last night we had parent-teacher conferences, tonight is choir practice, and tomorrow I have Women of Bethel Bible study. Every single evening has had something going on. Throw in some homework, going to the gym, and housework, and that's pretty much my entire week. Also, this weekend Emma has another basketball scrimmage and then we have bowling with the church on Sunday. Whew. On top of all that, we signed both kids up for slow pitch softball this summer, and I just signed Emma up for Camp Luther. We are going to have another crazy summer!