More Winter Fun

The kids had last week off of school. Don't ask me why, it's basically comes down to, "Well why not?" Regardless, Dee had to work but we needed to get out of Dodge for a bit. Our friends have a second house in Mt. Shasta they offered to let us use for a couple days. AWESOME! Close enough for Dee to work and far enough we could get away and have fun.

Monday we were absolutely lazy. This is how the day started. Love it!

Then a walk in the woods. They were super excited to find snow. Not much, but plenty to play in. I think everybody got hit in the face with a snowball.

Back for hot chocolate, more board games, more TV. Heaven!

Dee was able to get Tuesday off and he took the three oldest skiing/snowboarding. Carter and I met them for lunch and to play in more snow, then home.

It was so great to get away for a bit. To play, to relax, to not have distractions pulling at us from every side. Love family time!

For a couple extra pictures, the first is Tyler's last Pinewood Derby car/snowboard Turned out pretty awesome.

Next is a picture at my Great (Grand?) Uncle Les Wheeler's 90th birthday celebration. He's the one in the center. This was just a portion of the people there to celebrate him. What a great man! My dad came from Utah, my Aunts, Uncles and cousin came from Idaho. It was so fun to see them!

Awesome Webelo and things that make me smile

Ty officially received his Webelo Scout badge. The Blue and Gold dinner was this week where he was presented with the patch. We're so proud of his work and so thankful for his great leaders who take the time and put forth so much effort to helping him.

As tradition dictates, the Scouts make a cake with their fathers. The theme was Wild West. There is a story behind this one, but let's just say it couldn't BE more scout-ish! Love how it turned out. :)

I mentioned a few things that make me smile. One is the rounding up of our poor dog. Did I mention how very patient Pete is? Love his look in the last picture.

Ellie has become quite the monkey. The picture on the left is at a birthday party she went to at the gymnastics place. She is much higher than she looks and climbed probably 5 times all the way up. Amazing girl! The picture on the right is her Valentine box for school.

Another thing that makes me happy is Tyler's grades. I had a picture on here but it stated his school and stuff, figured I'd better just leave it off. He's really been struggling in math this year and has finally brought all his grades up. Wa hoo!

The next smile probably won't make McKenna happy, but maybe she'll stop taking pictures with my phone... :)

And last for today - Ellie's LOVE for reading. There is a point my kids have all hit where it stops being hard or a chore to read and they can't get enough of it. She's hit it!

Hiking In January

Lovely weather here. I know at least one of you reading this just made a grumpy face at me (mom) but that is one of the joys of being in the North State. To celebrate we thought we'd try on the gift my parents gave us (National Park Pass - Awesome gift!) and go for a hike.

I'd love to be able to tell you where we are. Somewhere around Whiskeytown somethin or other. All I know was on the other side of this wall was a long and beautiful way down. You know the kind where for a fleeting moment you wish you had wings? Maybe that's just me. And it's not so fleeting. Anyway...

I don't know if you can see Carter's face in the next one. He looks worried as if he's going to fall.

As you can tell, he doesn't worry long.

Love this picture. Can you tell who Pete's favorite is?!