We finally made it back to Casa Bonita! The last time we were here was March of 2019 and my children look so much younger in that photo than this one. We had a wonderful time enjoying the new and improved Casa Bonita. Same charm and quirkiness but renovated and clean with way better food. This is Colorado's version of a year round theme park and the way my family was smiling and laughing definitely reminded me of when we were at Disneyland last summer. The best part was spending hours of fun together as a family amid our usually busy spring schedules.
As the dog can show, we had plenty of time at home over spring break too. We made spring themed GF/DF sugar cookies, Hubby helped Natalie repaint her dresser as an early birthday present, and we watched so many movies and tv shows. Well, Kate was hanging out with friends a ton and Danny quite a bit too, but the rest of us had a double header of Top Gun & Top Gun Maverick, lots of episodes of Ghosts and Michelle and Natalie and I even watched Moana 2 one afternoon. Danny discovered Agents of Shield and between A of S and Chuck, he and I agreed so many good tv shows were made before streaming services were mainstream.
We had lots of plans over the week that kept getting canceled and poor Natalie felt super sick most of spring break. Some canceled plans were missed track and softball practices for Danny and Natalie when they weren't feeling well or high winds, no trip to the Denver Mint or the Wild Animal Sanctuary or DMNS, and a couple campus tours for Kate when she decided to only go to the CSU one but Michelle went in her place to the CU one. I got to go along to that one and it was impressive to say the least! We spent the entire afternoon there between the tour, Trader Joe's, and taking Michelle to a consignment shop to pick out birthday presents. She found a lovely black dress that would be good for her orchestra concerts when there is warmer weather, cute white sweatpants for tennis practice, and an athletic skirt for the same. We also picked up her favorite treat at Trader Joe's and she was so patient to wait until her birthday to open everything she knew she was already getting. She reminded me to keep her birthday chill since she got her viola at Thanksgiving and is going on her trip with the leadership academy in a few months.
So what did Michelle do on her 15th birthday? Get her Learner's Permit, drive in the high school parking lot for the first time, have lunch at the cutest tea room, tour the School of Mines, and bake herself carrot cake cupcakes! I promise I offered to help but she said she wanted to bake on her own. I tell you what, after watching Michelle drive, tour Mines and bake, I feel like this newly minted 15 year old is ready to take on the world! I could totally see her going to Mines and loving it there. Happy birthday to my amazing middle daughter. We are so lucky to have you in our family!

Natalie spent the whole week feeling sick but felt well enough to play softball on the weekend. While Hubby took Kate and Michelle to visit CSU, I took Natalie to her Bunny Hop tournament. They started off with a 14-7 win in sunny but windy conditions. After a lunch of Jimmy John’s they battled the wind and the opposing team, winning 12-2. The wind was even worse but they ended 15-1, short sleeves and all! Day 2 was Hubby’s turn to take Natalie to softball and he got to watch them win 9-3 but also get eliminated when they lost 14-1. Although I was sad they didn’t make it to the championship game, I was happy they were heading home to me sooner rather than later. On the last day before returning to school and work, I wanted all of us to be together. A little bit of March Madness, dinner, trimming the crabapple tree, dinner, Michelle making chocolate chip cookies, and Ghosts and all of a sudden spring break was at an end.










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