Check out that beautiful sunshine and kids not wearing coats!
These past 7 days we have had amazing weather.
the kids have been at parks, playing in the back yard, in the driveway for hours with side walk chalk, hiking in the woods, taking walks around the neighborhood – all things I can’t believe we are doing in February!
they made a birdnest in the back yard.
they also dug up some snails – can you see it?
our ski resorts are suffering, but the city living is nice. we aren’t going to complain!
The kids came home from school on Friday with bags full of valentines. They were sooooo happy! I was cringing at all of the sticky sucker eating.
bill arrived home bearing gifties for the ladies of his life. Both girls got the same flowers (because these days it is sometimes easier to present them with the same thing). They were seriously delighted. So thankful their dad loves them and fills them up!
you can see Charlie in the background trying to figure out why he wasn’t included on the flowers. Bill tried to talk to him about this a bit, but he was so so on it.
Ellie – feeling delighted in.
I made 2 heart pizzas – my other heart turned out better.
Then Charlie and Bill (Bill encouraged charlie to help in giving them to me) walked in with flowers for me. So thoughtful!
twas a fun Valentines Day!
We sat down to do our valentines the other day and I thought Ellie would have a very hard time because she almost never writes a letter for me. I don’t think I have ever seen her write her name.
Well –before I knew it she was busting out her name! It was crazy how all of a sudden she was just doing it, but then I realized it was Ellie and of course that is how she would do it. When she decides to do something she just does (or in this case when she really wanted to write her name she did, but she wasn’t going to be told to write it just because!).
I was beyond proud of her!
notice the extra flare on some of the Es. Love that.
Claire worked on hers as well and surprisingly had a hard time free styling her name. She can trace it really well (where Ellie won’t trace it) and can usually just write letters, but had a hard time placing her letters in the proper row without lines or help. Was fun to watch her get better at them as we went along. Good things we only address Valentines yearly – I don’t think I could handle it much more than that!
As you can see on the wall – Ellie wrote her name a few times with Elli (E = the last E is backwards facing towards the other one). She would only right it the correct way if I told her to. She said she didn’t like that and wanted them to face each other. It cracked me up because that is EXACTLY ellie to decide how she wants to write her letters.
You can also see that Bill drew Ellie and Claire some really pretty princesses. Well – Ellie’s is below.
Bill drew Claire’s and wanted to make them a bit different so he added some teeth and let me tell you that was the WRONG choice! Claire cried about it for over an hour and this was her face. She despised those teeth and at the first chance she had she colored over them. ha!
These two always keep us on our toes!
The first weekend in Feb, Auntie Dotes made the trek to Spokane! We were really missing her and were so thankful when she decided to leave Uncle Elliot and visit us. She arrived in really late Friday night so Saturday morning it was party pancake time!
Ellie & Mary.
Ellie tried to use Mary’s phone as MUCH as she could.
It was a rainy day on Saturday so we did what any smart family would do and watched a movie on the big screen.
it makes any rainy day awesome!
we pulled up the blinds after the movie and the rain had passed so we headed out for a hike in the woods.
Ellie sporting Mary’s scarf.
Hiking in a row.
Monday we went to gymnastics with Dotes until she had to leave at 2pm.
We were so thankful to see Mary and the kids cried after leaving her. We can’t wait to see everyone in March! Thanks Mary for coming!!
Me and my homies have been talking about this Jan/Feb 2015 reunion for years. It was worth the wait! We planned the weekend for January 30-Feb 2nd, which we learned one month before the event happened to be the same weekend as this little football game and small golfing thing that were happening in Phoenix at the same time (aka the SUPER BOWL and US OPEN event). It really didn’t effect our time in Phoenix, but really affected my flight times.
Julia and I boarded our plane at 7:45 and then sat on the runway for 3 hours waiting to get approval to take off so we can land in Phoenix and so that was a bummer. but I was super excited that I was able to chat with Julia for the whole time! We connected with Kerri & Beth’s flights in Phoenix and were all able to drive to Becca’s house together. It was amazing to all show up and BAM we were together again. So joyous and so normal!
Me and Kerri after arriving.
Nicole, Becca and Scarlet.
cheers!!
despite having a bit of rain (the only rain the forecast for weeks!) we got into Becca’s hot tub and it was incredible. Her backyard is amazing!
after chatting way to late we crashed and after some coffee we headed out for a walk around Becca’s neighborhood.
crusty picture (nicole, beth, me)!
kerri, becca, julia
we really wanted a group picture so Beth rigged up her phone in a tree and snapped this beauty. the best were the outtakes of her running back to check her phone.
Pretty awesome pic!
then becca added missing Kamber (and her little babe) and Rachel (with her baby inside!). I loved this!
After our walk – soaking up some bits of sun!
nicole made some delicious peppermint bark for us (and mikel!).
chowing down lunch after our walk!!!
kerri – officially in Columbus, Ohio.
Julia – in Liberty Lake, WA (sooo close to me!!)
me – so thankful for a shower!
Beth busted out some cinnamon rolls so we could make them tomorrow. I have talented friends people. Becca helped with the rolls, but most of the credit goes to Beth.
all showered up and ready to go out to eat!!
lookin’ gorgeous! love that khaki and scarlet wanted IN on girls weekend too.
Beth, Julia, Kerri, Nicole, me, Becca.
the fog lifted so we could get a good pic!
A delicious dinner at the Herb box. Love these ladies sooooo much!
these are my kinda ladies. we opted out of dessert at the restaurant and decided to head home and make gooey brownies and eat big bowls with ice cream & brownies by the outdoor fire. While the brownies were baking I looked online and saw that Aaron Rodgers won MVP and freaked out so Beth (another loyal sconnie) and I did a GB cheer that I made up on the spot.
go packers! I’m supposed to be a letter B for GB.
Enjoying the dessert by the fire and some time with Mikel!
Sunday morning we woke up to see Nolan back home! Becca is the best mom! She lets nolan have some coffee!!
love this friend!
then we drove to hike the Gateway area.
so thankful for blue skies!
me and beth!
we did a 2.5 mile hike up and took this picture before heading down.
why oh why can’t AZ and WA be state neighbors???? I {heart} you bubuk.
reflecting on our time together. a dream.
we arrived home from the hike and showered off and had to pack up (except for julia and beth who were staying for a few extra days) and head to the airport.
we thought the airport would be dead because we were flying DURING the super bowl. yeah – not so much. I was supposed to depart at 6 and get home at 8pm, but instead didn’t fly out until almost 10pm and got home closer to 1am. I watched the super bowl with random airport people, but it was fun and I got home to my fam safely so all was good. I am so thankful that I was able to get to Phoenix for the weekend and that Bill took friday off to stay with the kids. Feeling very filled up from time with these friends. Miss you all already! I’m ready for our next reunion!
