Frenzied February

February flew by and we had lots of fun! Skiing, a getaway for Hans and I,  a Toby Mac concert, and all the regular fun of AWANA, dance, swimming for Raelyn. It feels like it was forever ago when we actually had activities and reasons to get out of the house. Well, even though we have been quarantined for 6 weeks now and you would think I would have had this written by now I am finally getting around to it. Here are the February highlights!

We started February off with one of AWANA's four is fantastic gifts. The girls worked hard all year at their verses and sections and every four weeks their amazing AWANA club at Keyport awards the kids who got 4 sections in 4 weeks with a prize of some sort. This is one of the favorite gifts and the girls were excited to get 2 this year. One for each of them.

In January and February, we read a book called "The Wheel on the School". It is a great book about storks and the kids at the school trying to get storks to come back to their town by finding a wheel to put on top of the roof of the school. When we finished the book we decided to do a craft on storks. The girls did a great job and they turned out really cute.

The younger girls attended Audina's 9th birthday party. They had fun as always and enjoyed their time with her.

We watched the Super Bowl this year at our friend the Kopp's house. We had a great time and they had lots of yummy food (a must for the Super Bowl), lots of TVs so you didn't miss a thing and the kids had a blast even though they didn't watch most of it. It was a great time of fun and relaxing and really good game, minus the raunchy half time show, which was a bummer!

Some silly pictures of the girls. This one of Claire reading us something I can't remember for sure what she was doing. Practicing a report or something I think. 

These are the cards I made and send to the grandparents.

We had a fun park day with friends one afternoon. The sun was shining and it was nice to chat and let the kids play. Especially fun for the younger girls who have gotten the short end of the stick when it has come to playdates and park meetups. Oh well, so goes it when you homeschool and have older siblings.

Raelyn di swim lessons in February and part of March (till the pool was closed down till further notice). She was learning so much and doing really great. I am glad she got some lessons. It was rushed to get there on Thursdays from dance, but we made it work. She really had fun and liked her female teacher the best, and being with Holden in class.

Raelyn with one of her Valentine's from Homebase.

They love putting on these long fake nails, but they never last long. A girl can not function well with these things on...lol!

We made Valentine cookies with the royal frosting technique we learned at Christmas time. The girls had a great time and did so good once again creating them. I froze the frosting and didn't work quite as well, but the girls still had fun making their creations.

Aubrey's cookies

Claire's cookies

Raelyn's cookies

I didn't get many Valentine pictures. Here is cute little Raelyn, still likes to pose for pictures for me.

So because I didn't get any Valentine pictures on Valentine's day or near it...it just didn't happen. I finally got some of the younger 3 in May! LOL! Still haven't gotten any of Olivia...maybe someday soon!

We had Valentine's dinner the night after Valentine's because there was a church game night on Valentine's day. I can't remember what I made for dinner, but I remember it being really yummy! I think it was tri-tip steak with some yummy sides.

And for dessert this year was heart-shaped lava cakes. So so yummy!

On February 18th we went skiing to use our passes that we got for the electricity being out. We woke up early and headed to the hill. It is a long drive, but fun to be up early and see the sunrise as we cross the bridge. It is a long tiring day, but we lucked out once again and had some great weather and snow.

We spent the day on the hill with the Mills (of course) and this time Anna and the boys were able to join us. So we had a blast with all of us on the hill.

Some pictures at the top of the mountain!

Tolf/Chadwick Clan

Tolf/Chadwick

Mills plus Zach

Tolf/Mills clan

We ended the day at our new favorite pizza place off the mountain.  And then it was the long drive home. Worth it though for such a great day on the mountain!

Aubrey took some fun pictures on my phone and then edited them.

Raelyn before swimming one night...looking so cute!

Claire got to go to a really fun dance experience with her company girls in Edmonds.

Can't resist a sleeping sister's picture.

Aubrey and Sammy.

My mom was able to come and take care of the girls while Hans and I went on our first big getaway to celebrate my 40th birthday. We went for 2 nights and almost 3 days to Vancouver, B.C. We had never been there and it was a fun choice of a getaway.

We headed out Friday morning and it took a bit longer than we expected to get through customs and up there. We also didn't expect that we wouldn't have any cell service once we crossed into Canada so we were a bit unprepared and didn't have the address to our hotel or directions to any of the places we wanted to go. Fortunately, we were able to stop for lunch and get some wifi to find the addresses we need and the car had good navigation to get us where we needed to go.

After we got checked into our Trump Tower Hotel. We decided to take a walk around the park which was nearby. It was sunny out and a nice day for a walk.  Our feet were totally sore by the end, but it was nice to get out in the fresh air.

That night we ate at the steak house across the street. This was the yummy dinner I had!

We had just enough time to get in the hot tub for a bit before it closed.

Saturday we decided to head up to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. It was on the cooler side but not raining. I forgot my hat and gloves in the lobby of the hotel so that was a bummer. I had to share with Hans.  This place was really neat and I would definitely consider taking the girls there someday. The bridge in all honesty was a bit scary for me. I did not like being up so high and the swaying was scary especially when you were in the middle. I was afraid of dropping something or falling.  But I made it across twice and conquered my fear!

See curved bridge off of the rock wall in this picture? You will see pictures of us on there later.

This was the treetop area. This was really fun and not as scary. The trees were amazing and so big!

A view of the bridge from the treetop area.

This tree fell down in a big storm and broke the bridge at one point.

Headed out on the cliff wall walk. These walks were more stable but almost more scary because the walk was so narrow if you looked down you could see how far up you were. I didn't really like it and tried to look straight out and not down much.

After the gift shop we headed back to Vancouver for some city touring.  We decided to walk downtown to see what we could find and get some lunch. We finally found the mall and walked around there for a bit before getting some lunch at a Thai place. Then we headed to the Gaslamp area of town.

We found the famous steam clock which was pretty neat to watch and some great little tourist shops where we were able to get some souvenirs for us and the girls. 

On our way back to the hotel we were going to stop by the Olympic torches just to see them. Little did we know that they were having a 10 year anniversary relighting of the torches so we decided to stick around and watch it. It was supposed to be just a half-hour away, but they didn't light them when they said they would so it was almost an hour of waiting in the cold, but it was worth it!

This is what our hotel looked like from below.

Sunday we woke up and had breakfast and packed up to head home. It once again took longer than we expected as going through customs was slow, but we had a nice time visiting and hanging out together regardless. It was a really refreshing weekend to get away and reconnect to celebrate my birthday and 18 years of marriage in May.

Monday morning Hans took off for a work trip to Washington D. C. and the girls and I and Grandma began project paint the bedrooms. We have been working for over a year to turn the guest room into Claire's room and we finally completed it with the paint and finding the perfect bedding. Here are some pictures of the work in progress.

And Claire's finished room! It turned out really cute!

And Olivia really wanted the purple in her room painted over. I was sad to see it go, because I loved this color of purple and thought her room looked really great, but alas I gave in and let her paint a teal color over the purple. It turned out nice and I am getting used to it. Here are the before pictures so I can remember what it looked like.

In progress...the lighting isn't right.

Here is Olivia's finished room! Still hoping to get her a new desk and then this desk will go in Claire's room.

Raelyn's dresser was moved into Aubrey's room and now they share that room together, much to Aubrey's chagrin.

Aubrey's room before.

And after...now Aubrey and Raelyn's room.

That Friday (the 28th) Hans flew home that morning and that evening we went to the Toby Mac concert with a bunch of our friends. I was sure glad we got in this concert before everything got shut down, because we were really looking forward to it and it did not disappoint! It was a great line up of performers and such a fun night.

We were so close to Tauren Wells!

Toby Mac is always so amazing! He puts on such a great performance.

February was a great month and flew by so so fast!  And then just a few short weeks later the craziness would begin!!!