Field trip to Woodland Park Zoo

I have not meant to neglect my blog this long!  Will keep trying to update it more often...here are some pics from our field trip today to Woodland Park Zoo with Christian's class.  It was rainy and chilly and not nearly enough time but we made the best of it!  Got to see some of God's awesome creativity...

Happy Birthday Ezra!

Ezra just turned 6.  It was a fun 2 day event since we had his party the day after his official birthday.  So nice to be able to celebrate this special boy.

 

 

Cupcakes for breakfast...

 

 

We had a few friends come to Bounce It Up and then to our house for pizza, cake and presents.

 

Lots of legos, balls, guns, and games!

 

He wanted Tom and Jerry decorations.  Super cute.

Wenatchee trip New Years 2014

We headed over the mountains for a few days of vacation after Christmas. We were hoping to find snow to play in but the only snow we found was at the top of Bluitt pass at a snow park.  It was old snow that had melted and refrozen a little so it made for very fast sledding!

 

Regardless of the snow situation, it was so relaxing just to hang out as a family.  The kids enjoyed a lot of time at the hotel pool.  Tim and I swam with them a little too.  So nice just to play and have fun together.

 

We took our first family hike one afternoon.  It was more challenging of a hike than we thought we were getting into.  It was definitely satisfying to reach the top of Saddle Rock.  We weren't as prepared as we should have been either.  I was climbing in my snow boots but the kids were troopers.  They were pretty tired out by the end of the hike but the views from the top were worth the effort.  This was New Year's Eve.  We did not stay up until midnight since we were all pretty tired out from an adventurous day!

December - a quick review

We had a very enjoyable December but I have not kept up on blogging in the midst of it!  This will be a quick effort to hit the highlights as I sit here enjoying the frost on the grass, the sunrise over the mountains and the hummingbirds coming to our feeder - some of the things I often enjoy in the mornings as I look out our back windows in the winter.

 

 

We went to a Christmas party at our church where there was face painting, treats and an antique sleigh for pictures...

 

We had several days of clear, cold weather with little rain.  It was wonderful - great running weather and such a nice break from the usual cloudy rainy winter weather.  The kids even got out on the trampoline!

 

I ran the Jingle Bell 5K with my good friend Jessica in downtown Seattle.  It was COLD but still a lot of fun!

 

Christmas tree decorating - the kids were so excited they started dancing with each other.  Haven't seem them do that before.

 

Of course in short order the dancing turned into wrestling. 

 

Christian was especially excited about decorating this year.  He would have decorated the whole house (his way) if I had let him.  I did let him do a lot though - he really enjoys it.  He even teared up in the car in mid November when I told him I wasn't sure if we would put up lights on the outside of our house this year.  We did end up getting outside lights up - mostly for him - but it was an easier job than we had expected and we did enjoy how pretty they were.  No pictures of that though.

 

We went to see the "Clam Lights" at Lake Washington for Grammy's birthday - with Ivars for dinner.  That was the 2nd or 3rd time we have done that.  The beginning of a tradition?

 

Sunday morning services in December at our church the kids came in for a short talk with the pastor.  Ezra always seemed to be front and center. 

 

The boys shopped for each other again and took turns wrapping what they bought.  Ezra wrote his own tag for the first time.  I love how he is practicing his writing and how the boys enjoy doing this kind of thing for each other.

 

We had half a day of snow the Friday before Christmas.  It was supposed to be the last day of school before break but school was cancelled.  The kids got Christmas vacation one day early!  We played hard in the snow for the few hours it lasted. 

 

We used up all the snow in our front yard and our neighbors contributed to our snow man by making one of the body parts from the snow in their front yard.  We were able to make a pretty tall snowman.  We turned him into a Sounders fan.

 

Ezra tried to swing in the snow!

Christmas Eve letters to and from Santa...

 

 

 

Christmas morning - new pjs

 

We went to Grammy and Pa's later in the day and were able to spend time with them as well as Aunt Karen, Uncle Chris and Annika and Levi.  It was a quiet, fun, relaxing Christmas which we are very thankful for.