Oh, how I love break weeks—Thanksgiving, Christmas, spring... we are usually so ready for them that we can't see straight and this time was no different. Our spring break this year was (mostly) delightful and the theme ended up being ticketed events and "how many times can we drive to Colorado in one week?" Matt took an entire week of leave (rare!!) and when we weren't doing something that required tickets, we were sleeping or reading or eating or lollygagging...skills we like to hone on breaks whenever possible. A summary of events:
The Cavs Game
We kicked off spring break a few days early by heading to Denver on a school night to see the Cavs play the Nuggets, our long-awaited Christmas gift. We were all VERY EXCITED. I attended my first Cavs game in 1974* when they moved from Cleveland Arena to the now torn-down Richfield Coliseum; somewhere in this house is my charter member of Richfield Coliseum card to prove it, but I have torn things apart more than once looking for it and the universe still hasn't coughed it up. It's a little bit of a parent fail that the girls are 14, 12, and 9 attending their first game, but whatever. 
A few answers: yes, Maddie was on crutches. She had a fairly catastrophic ankle sprain (again) the night before, and had not transitioned to a walking boot yet. Yes, this jeopardizes her chance to compete at Regionals on April 15. Yes, we are crossing our fingers she'll be healed up enough to compete. No, the Cavs didn't win. in fact, they kind of played like crap—but it was still worth it to be that close to them all. The Nuggets rudely made fun of Cleveland fans for not knowing anyone on the roster besides LeBron and the girls were seriously offended because of course we know each and every one of them. Well, except for Deron Williams and Derrick Williams—we're still getting to know them.
Anyway. Super fun.
Maddie's Orlando Trip
Less fun: getting back late and setting an alarm for 3:45 a.m. to get Maddie to school for the music department's Festival Disney trip. On crutches (I had her walking boot shipped to the hotel in FL). She had a good time overall—the boot saved the day. They had two travel days, one big festival day, and the rest of the time to be set loose in Disney and Universal. Not too shabby a way to spend spring break.

Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats Concert
On Friday we headed to Laramie with some friends to see Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats; while their Red Rocks show in August has long been sold out, it pays to pay attention to University of Wyoming events because we easily got tickets with 1400 other people for the Arts & Sciences Auditorium show. I spent a little time worrying that we would be the oldest people in the room but it was a very diverse crowd of all ages. The last time we saw something in A&S was a live show of Prairie Home Companion back in 2000 or 2001. Garrison Keilor is fine, but this was 100x more fun!

Bonus: dinner OUTSIDE IN MARCH IN LARAMIE, WY at the Alibi. It is among my most favorite things in the world to eat outside with friends.
The Power of Costume Star Wars Exhibit
Deb arranged an impromptu session of Camp Dillow-Karahalis (sadly with only 50% of the campers because of other activities) so Gracie, Bridget and I headed back to Colorado to see some Star Wars costumes on Sunday. I'm so glad we did—it was awfully fun. Even though I'm not really the biggest fan of the Star Wars movie empire, I always love seeing behind-the-scenes concept art, costumes, and details of anything. There were some truly fantastic costumes but my favorites were the classics:

I do love that C3PO.

The Karahalises PCS in June to Alabama and I'm trying not to burst into tears every time I think about it.


Spring is much farther along in Colorado than in Wyoming (understatement) and it was just lovely to stand and gawk at some blossoms after we left the Denver Art Musuem.

We also had to stop and gawk at the beautiful mural that just was completed in Denver.
By this point in the week Ellie was starting to get very concerned about the fact we lost a sheep, and spent a lot of time on Maddie's bed willing her to appear.
Rustic River Cabins, Drake, CO
Next up: our two day adventure to Estes Park and Drake, CO! This was the crown jewel event of our sleeping/eating/reading/lollygagging plans. Matt was suffering through some terrible cold by this point, which was NOT part of the plan, but we still managed to sleep/eat/read/lollygag to our hearts' content.

There was some skipping rocks instruction.


It snowed a ton on Monday night, which was exciting in every way. The gnome directed us to take our snowy heads into the cabin and read our books, which we did.
my book club book for April


There was a hike up a snowy mountainside (Ellie had the time of her life) and a good nap after (same).

We left the sickie at the cabin for a few hours and checked out downtown Estes Park, finding most of our favorite things: books, paper products, sweets. There was also some sanctioned vandalism in the name of the rodeo; it wasn't like we were the first to decorate the lamp post : )
Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast was our official spring break movie this year (we waited for Maddie to get home to see it) and all of us + Megan gave it two thumbs up. Even Matt giggled at a few parts. I will say that the live action Cinderella was ever-so-slightly better, but this was still very, very good. Gaston was kind of a nonsense character in the animated version but he stole the show in this movie. I seriously would go see a movie every weekend if only I could figure it out.

A few other things we did over spring break:
+ attended a CFD event
+ attended the retirement ceremony and dinner for a dear friend who has served the Air Force for 43 years (it was seriously beautiful and touching and I was weepy a good 75% of the time)
+ moped over a weather April Fool's joke which caused our long-awaited full session of Camp Dillow-Karahalis to be cancelled (wah-waaaaaah)
+ finished the First Floor Curtain Project which has dragged out waaaaaaaay too long but is DONE DONE DONE
+ cleaned the house up, hosted book club, which resulted in my favorite kind of clean: book club clean
It was a good spring break.
*The internet tells me the game was October 29, 1974 vs. the Boston Celtics, which they lost 92-107.
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