A Very Merry Christmas Season 2021

What a crazy month December was! I think that 2021 ended the best way possible, full of love, family, friends, and hope.

We had the Blievernicht Christmas at my grandma's, and the kids got to meet Santa for the first time! Brady was all for it and sat on his lap with no qualms. Ashley was a little more hesitant and wouldn't sit on his lap without me. I'm looking forward to seeing what they think of Santa next year as well. 

 

Christmas at Dan and Theresa's involved a bounce house this year, and I think all the kids were really enjoying bouncing and sliding around in there. 

We were royally spoiled with so many gifts, I feel like people were opening presents forever. Brady and Ashley's favorite gift of the night was the Styrofoam that packaged some blocks. They had that stuff EVERYWHERE. I'm so sorry for that messy clean-up Dan and Theresa!

Christmas at my mom and dad's was a little more relaxed (because there are a lot less people ha!), but we were still spoiled rotten. I don't think that anyone but Brayden and Ashley opened a gift that day. If you had a present in front of you, one of them was coming to sit on your lap to open it up, whether you wanted them to or not. It will be fun to watch them open their birthday presents this year!

Our new Christmas Eve tradition is going to my Grandma Wolf's house to celebrate with her, and then we go through the Christmas lights in Effingham on our way home and attend midnight mass at St. Thomas. Last year was cake because the kids slept through the service. This year was little more hectic as they were up for everything this time and little more antsy than we would have liked. But we made it almost all the way through church so I'll call that a success.

Christmas morning was laid back and relaxed at our house. We stayed in jammies all day and enjoyed all the presents left under the tree. A clear winner for presents this year was these stepping stones. The kids like to stand on them and be "tall".

And for non-Christmas updates from December- first up is the house! The forms came off the basement walls and we saw our garage and basement walls and floors complete. The basement got framed up (it will remain unfinished), and we also got a subfloor put on. Eric mentioned that seeing the basement framed up and walking around down there really made the experience seem real. 

Brayden and Ashley enjoyed all the warmer weather that we had in December. We also had lots of rain, which meant lots of puddles. So naturally we spent a lot of time playing outside, in the puddles. And thanks to the build, lots of mud.

When it's been too cold to play outside, we have enjoyed our time indoors as well.

We went to lots of basketball games, where I hardly get to actually watch the game, but one day that will come. For Fresh/Soph games we sit down by the court, but we definitely sit in the balcony for Varsity games- these two need lots of room to roam ha!

 

This month we also met our newest nephew- Austin! He is the cutest little guy, and I'm definitely needing more snuggles in with him soon. 

Bring on a new month and a new year, this Schackmann family is ready for all that is to come!

Colorado 2019

Family vacations are always a blast, and when our entire Schackmann family headed to Breckenridge, Colorado I knew it would be a good time. We ate too much, laughed a ton, snuggled with Grant, and explored the great outdoors that is the beautiful state of Colorado.

Our first full day there was spent fly fishing. Dan, Eric, Chad, Connor and I met our guides at Breckenridge Outfitters and drove to Kremmling to fish the Colorado River. Either we royally stink at fly fishing or the fish weren't biting (or more than likely a large combination of both), but we didn't have much luck that day. I think most people got a bite or two, but only Connor was able to get his fish in. Regardless, we all enjoyed being outside, feeling the rushing water of the Colorado River around our legs, and breathing in that fresh air.

Our next day we spent jeeping! After picking up our jeeps, we drove out to Idaho Springs to get on the Yankee Hill jeep trail. We were initially planning on jeeping closer to Breckenridge, but we were told that the trails would probably have snow on them as they had such an extended winter season. They actually still had the ski slopes open the weekend before we arrived!

The trail was not well marked and at one point we ended up on a winding road up a hill with no guardrails and a steep drop off the side. It was pretty dang scary and someone might have even cried (and no, it wasn't me!). We decided that that wasn't the right way so we scarily turned around and made it safely back down. 

We did eventually find the trail, and had a minor jeep breakdown along the way. It made for a nice pit stop for pictures though!

We were soon back on our way- it was such a beautiful day for jeeping! We made plenty of pit stops for pictures and to soak in the gorgeous scenery.

I might have just mentioned that we had beautiful weather for jeeping. That was, until, we didn't have such beautiful weather. We made it to the top of a mountain and the sky turned so dark. It wasn't long before it was raining, and it wasn't long after that that it was hailing on us! And hail in an open backed jeep is not much fun. Luckily it didn't last long, and we decided to make one final stop before heading down the mountain for a photo op. 

The next day was white water rafting! We met in Silverthorne and rafted about 6 miles down the Blue River. The first three miles were pretty mild, but decently fast as the water was really moving. The last three miles were pretty much straight rapids. There was a time or two I thought someone was for sure going overboard, but I'm happy to report that no one ended up in the freezing cold water. 

It took us about an hour or so to get through the six miles, but our guide told us that in a few weeks when the water was moving even faster it would only take about a half hour-crazy! I got like no pictures of us rafting because I didn't bring my camera, but I did snap a few of Erin and I and Eric and I in our wet suits before we put on our helmets and jackets. Connor got video of the rapids on his GoPro and I'm really looking forward to seeing that footage!

After rafting we all got dolled up and took some family pictures. We drove out to Lake Dillon and up to the lookout at Sapphire Point. It was so beautiful out there! After family pictures were done, I took engagement pictures for Erin and Chad. I am so in love with how they turned out. You can check those out here if you're interested: https://sharonschackmannphotography.com/blog/2019/6/22/chad-and-erin-engaged. 

That night was probably my favorite night of the entire trip. Grant was stalling out on bedtime. He kept grabbing each of our hands and leading us down to his bedroom. Before long, we were all down there. He started playing and left the room and shut the door on us. The second time he did it we decided that each time one of us would hide until everyone was hidden in the room.

We started hiding in the closet, and at first Grant didn't seem to notice. When it was Eric's turn to hide, he decided to climb under the bed. So I blame him for all that was to follow. Grant eventually realized we were disappearing and found us in the closet, and then found Eric under the bed. He must have thought that that was funny, because he crawled under there with him.

Then, he started taking us by the hand and having us go under the bed as well. When it was Nikki's turn, I guess Grant was getting impatient and started pushing on her head to get in! The four of us ended up under the bed with Grant- only an adorable almost two year old can get four grown adults under a bed at one time. Connor and Chad eventually were drug under the bed as well (don't worry, the rest of us were out of there by then. That would have been very close quarters!). I don't think we've all laughed that hard in a long while. It's definitely a memory I don't want to forget!

Our last day there was pretty chill. We decided to go on a family hike. We hit up the Blue Lakes Trail and boy was it stunning! It was also pretty chilly by the time we made it to the top. I don't think any of us knew we would be hiking up a mountain!

Once we made it towards the top we saw a nice group of mountain goats just roaming around. 

There were even people skiing at the top!

Our drive back also brought us our first adult moose experience. There were two moose in the field, but this one had the better antlers. 

The rest of these pictures are just an array of random pictures from the trip that I don't want to forget. Up first is rolled ice cream. We might have gotten it two or three times while we were there...

The gondola opened our second to last day there, so we made sure to take a trip on it on Saturday. We weren't in the same car as Grant, but Nichole told us that he was absolutely loving the ride!

A little hot tub fun with us and Grant.

We even saw a baby moose in a parking lot in town. I'm sure momma moose was not far away, but we didn't catch a glimpse of her at the time.

And our last night in town was deemed date night. All us "kids" went out for an afternoon of drinking and munching. We did a pirate escape room- and escaped with 10 minutes to go! We went our separate ways for dinner, and met back up for some rolled ice cream. (I told you we might have had it once or twice this trip!)

So there you have it! A week in Breckenridge with our Schackmann family. We made so many memories, took so many pictures, and had so much fun. I'm sure our next family vacay will be a little more low key, but I know that no matter what we do, we'll have just as much fun as we did that week in Colorado.