Skiing 2024

2024 was a breakthrough year for Rallo family skiing. Nobody played basketball so our weekends were intentianlly free to lean in. Hazel, Wes and I improved enough that we eliminated the need to split up. Owen loves black diamonds, Wes is slowly improving his skills with grit and positivity and Hazel flies down without any fear. Getting to this point was a big commitment, mostly on Ty's part, and it was 100% worth it, this being the first year we spent more time skiing than preparing. 

Turns out that skiing on the bunny hill and skiing on remote parts of the mountain are different things. I'm not a highly skilled skier so I was hesitant to push myself with kids in tow. Once I finally made the jump and got closer to the top I started to enjoy the sport much more. It is really beautiful and such a wonderful way to be outside as a family during the worst part of the year in the PNW. 

We stayed up at Crystal with friends for the long weekend around MLK day and went to Bachelor for mid-winter break. Ty has been saying it all along but ski trips really are where it's at. Eliminating the commute and having a full day on the mountain significantly reduces the stress. 

The highlights were everyone skiing down from the 9,000 foot summit at Bachelor and an amazing sunset run at Crystal, pictured below. 

Disneyland 2023

We've been wanting to plan a trip back to Disney for multiple years but the timing just hasn't worked out. In preparation for our trip to Namibia in August we've been saving our frequent flyer miles and vacation funds. We ended up booking those flights through Virgin Atlantic, leaving us with a stockpile of miles on Alaska. When we factored free airline tickets into the math and realized we could pop to California for a weekend for a relatively modest price, we planned a spontaneous trip. Owen was six the first time we went and Hazel was six for this trip so it felt like perfect timing.

It was a magical weekend that, once again, made me understand people's obsession with Disney. The kids maintained positive attitudes and we had a blast. The first morning there was definitely some kinks to work out on how to maximize the fast pass, which lines to commit to, etc but we pretty quickly found our groove. We did one day at Disneyland and one day at California Adventure. Disneyland certainly has more to offer but I think we enjoyed California Adventure the most. There were fewer people at California Adventure and lots of carnival type rides we were able to walk right on without waiting in lines. We didn't get to do every ride we'd hope for at Disneyland but felt good about how many we hit in our limitied time. We walked over 10 miles per day and were exhausted by the time we left. A quick trip is great but I may consider staying a bit longer and building in a day or two at the pool if we go back. 

The Cars ride was #1 for everyone in our family with Stars Wars coming in at #2 and Soaring Around the World third. 

Christmas 2023

The 2023 holiday season was lovely and included time with all our people. 

Christmas landing on a Monday conveniently extended the holiday through the weekend. My family (Mom, Marty, Erin, Levi and Ari) came up Friday afternoon for an early celebration. We had beef tenderloin, played games and the kids learned the joys of a fart machine. Christmas Eve was on Sunday, so church was first thing in the morning. After church we celebrated with the Hights and did Christmas Eve dinner at Grammy and Grandpapa's. 

The boys got Apple Watches as their main gift. Hazel, a Furby and Karaoke machine. Santa righted last year's wrong and delivered her the reindeer stuffie she requested. I decided not to make cinnamon rolls from scratch and nobody noticed, so I'm officially laying that time consuming tradition to rest. Without large toys to assemble, Ty and I were in bed before 11pm on Christmas Eve, a first for the Rallos. After Christmas morning at home in our matching pajamas, we hosted the Leitz/Rallos/Kellers for Christmas dinner. 

Chris and Kari spent the night and after a scene similar to the family leaving for the airport in Home Alone, we were packed and on our way to the Cove slightly after lunch time the next day. Our time there was packed with Wonka at the historic Ruby theatre, the Barbie movie in the home theater the kids created, cosmic bowling, night skiing and lots of cousin time. 

We came home from the Cove Friday and I worked Saturday/Sunday. It was a busy and shitty few shifts. I came home from work at nine on NYE and the kids decided they wanted to stay up until midnight. We rented the new Trolls movie and everyone made it! We blasted confetti poppers at 12:01 and everyone was in bed by 12:15. 

At the end of it all I was exhausted. Working two days in a row and then staying up until midnight set me over the edge. In years past we've rung in the New Year at 9 pm, which is a much more reasonable bedtime when starting the day at 4:50am. Beginning a new year in the CICU has historically been inspiring and I was disappointed by the physical and emotional drain I felt on my New Year's shift there. 

Also, cleaning. The wrapping paper, loot of new things, dishes, washing/changing sheets and prepping meals is a lot. I wholeheartedly embrace the messes of a beautiful life but it required significant energy to orchestrate it all. It took two full weeks to recover my energy back to baseline. I, of course, wouldn't trade any of it and am incredibly grateful for the large tribe of people we have to celebrate with and the chaotic, mess filled, sacred memories created.