Chandler's first Band Informance

Monday January 31, 2018 Chandler got to show off is MAD Trombone skills.  

He just started playing the trombone at the first of the year. He has really enjoyed playing this instrument. Chandler's band teacher is Mr.Wayne Fears. The program consisted of Warm-up Routine Exercises they work in class and how they learn to site read.  They played a couple songs, they even showed us how they tap their foot and clap and count.  My favorite part was when all the Bass players played their solo. 

Look at this cute smile.  He loves playing the trombone. 

Why do my boys always choose the brass instruments and get stuck int he very back?

I love that the Band Teacher had the back row stand up and I got an awesome picture of my Boy! 

Chandler with Mr. Fears

Kayden's Snow Cave Campout

Friday January 22, 2018 at 5:30am Kayden got up and headed on his Snow Campout.  They started with a nice healthy breakfast of Doughnuts. :-)  And drove the 5 1/2 hours to the Bavaria area.  They hiked 3km up the mountain.  Kayden thought the hike up the mountain was hilarious because you never knew when you would sink in snow all the way up to your mid thigh.  It took them about three hours to get to their camping spot.  They proceeded to dig two snow caves and set up tents.  For dinner they had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, with a package of gummy bears.  Kayden spent half the night in a the snow cave and the other half in a tent. In the morning, Kayden woke up and put on frozen boots.  They were completely frozen since he forgot to put them in the tent.  Kayden ate a warm breakfast of oatmeal and powdered milk, with hot water and chased the oatmeal down with some hot cocoa.  They packed up the camp and headed down the mountain.  Kayden said," As we got started we had to run down a hill through a process called plunge step.  You would run down the hill.  If you foot fell through the snow you would pull it out and continue running."  It took an hour and 30 minutes to climb down the mountain.  They stopped at McDonalds to eat lunch and made it home Saturday January 23, 2018 at 4:30pm 

The part of Bavaria the boys hiked. 

Ben helping Kayden secure his backpack.

Randy Johnson, Luke Westhoff, Zane Hills, Joseph Myer, Kayden Bastian, Ben Anderson
John Westhoff is taking the pictures and the one who planed the campout.  He is amazing.

The boys are ready for this adventure. 

And off they go...

Look how "RED" Kayden's face is.  

Kayden is sitting in the "Snow Kitchen"  drinking Hot chocolate.

The boys are getting ready to hike down the mountain. 

The boys got to watch the sun rise, 

Kayden is taking a break.

This is where they set up camp for the night. 

What on earth did I get myself into???

Surrounded by Snow and beauty. 

I am frozen, but man is this the LIFE.

Kayden running down the Mountain.

Kayden fell through the snow and had to climb out and keep going
AKA the Plunge Step. 

Ben and Kayden dying as they got out of the car.
Man these boys worked hard.  Lots of fun new memories .

Winter Walk Sunday January 21, 2018

This winter has been crazy wet It has rained non stop the entire month. Last night was the first snowfall of the year. When we woke up this morning we went on a family hike in the snow. It was beautiful the sky was nice and blue and the sun was out. The snow will not stay long but we sure enjoyed it for a few hours.

Beautiful winter day headed into our forest. 

I love that the sun is out too. 

Love walking in my forest with my L❤️ve

A family that hikes together stays together. 

Brooklyn stole my phone and took this picture
Stunning!

Ice Festival Metz, France Jan 1, 2018

 Jermey and I wanted to do something fun today. We all got up early around 8am  (some of us didn't go to bed until after 2:00am.) We had both babies today Roderic and Mariella.  I had asked their parents to bring their passports because we were headed to France and well,  I didn't want to be caught with two babies trying to cross the boarders with out passports.  Ha!   We drove 1 1/2 hour drive to see La Feerie de Glace "Disney"  Aka The Ice Festival in Metz, France.  It is a 1400 sqm exhibit of Ice sculptures inspired from Disney Characters.  Their are 30 artists of 12 nationalities that come together for 5 weeks to create these masterpieces.  600 tons of Ice are brought in and are used to build 80 sculptures ranging from 2-6 meters.  They are huge. You can see the size as the kids are standing next to them.  They are pretty impressive. The temperature in side is -6 degrees celsius or 20 degrees Fahrenheit .  We were all bundled up and it didn't seem too cold.   It really was amazing to see the attention to detail on every character.  Even the wall had some amazing ice sketching. They had an ice bar you could grab a hot chocolate.  They also had an ice slide.  Oh my goodness we had the best time.   I'm sad the lighting was not the best.  However,  hopefully you can see some of the Magic and attention to detail?  When we were finished with the Ice Festival it was pouring buckets of rain.  I'm sure it was quite comical watching our party of 7 and all the umbrellas trying to make it back to our car. The wind made things tricky as well.  We had rain coming at us on all directions.  We made it back to the car and was able to eat our picnic lunch and feed the babies.  We made it home around 5:30pm 

It really was a perfect way to start off the New Year.  

Happy Roderic!

 .

Beautiful, Beary lovable Mariella

You can see Christmas is still decorating the town.

Bastianclan plus two additions Roderic and Mariella

Kayden and Brooklyn wanted to carry the babies. I have the coolest kids!