February was a great month! We had Grandparent time, football parties, a freedom filled, super fun ski trip, lots of friend time with basketball and football watching and so much more! It is a good thing I take pictures, or I would never remember what happened! LOL!!
So here goes February! I had one amaryllis bloom early and this one didn't bloom till later. It was super pretty though and great for Valentines day!
More passing on of the little things. Always tough on me to let go. Some things more than others. Some of these coats were worn so much by all the girls and others were barely worn or only worn by one or 2 of the girls. They found some new homes though and I am always happy to see them on other little girls or my niece.
We had our Sunday school classes once again on Wednesday nights and the younger classes (pre-K through 5th) were working on memorizing both Bible verses through song and the Books of the Bible. On this night they preformed for the parents the books of the Bible song they learned. It was really cute!
Aubrey finished up her gymnastics in February. This was her last night and her grandparents were there to watch. She is super strong and I got some photos and videos of her. Love watching her.
Mary and Eric were in town for the first weekend in February and we did a little outing to downtown Poulsbo for Sluy's doughnuts and walking around. It was chilly but fun!
We also went to the park one afternoon before picking up some Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner. The younger 2 had fun playing on the play equipment for a bit, and then we all played frisbee for a bit. You can see them playing frisbee in the background of this first picture. It was a fun afternoon.
The tree fort at the park is always fun too!
Beautiful sunset!
The next week there was another outdoor party for our oldest church member (and one of the founders of our church). He turned 101 this year! How cool is that! We sang some hymns and of course happy birthday for him!
Our friends have a Friday afternoon park meet-up most Fridays and on this day we decided to join. We usually don't but this was fun to meet up and play in the sun that day. It was actually fairly warm that day! Yay! I felt old, because all the moms there were super young (except the one that invited us). But it was fun to chat with new people and share some of my seasoned mom experience.
I don't usually think it is spring in February, especially when we are getting ready to go on a ski trip, but often my little crocuses do! Here are some early crocuses and daffodils, popping up!
Valentines day is always fun. We celebrated Valentine's day early this year because we left on the 15th for ski trip and I knew I would have no time to do a special dinner with packing and prepping for that. So we celebrated early on the 12th. Can't remember what I made for dinner, but I think was my traditional tai-tip steak, shrimp and twice baked potatoes. I did get a pic of the dessert which was a heart brownie and chocolate dipped strawberries! Yum!
I didn't take the time to find the Valentine bags apparently as the picture shows 4 Christmas bags. Funny! I got the girls (younger 3) new goggles for the ski trip and Olivia the book Unbroken, because she already had good ski goggles.
These must be my Valentine flowers! Always love having flowers on my counter any season but especially in winter!
We had to cram it all in on Sunday the 13th, it was Super Bowl Sunday. Our friends the Kopps offered to host at their house which was great. The weather was nice and some pickle ball was played before the game. The kids played outside a ton and fun was had by all. Plus the sky was gorgeous that evening from their house! Jealous they can see so much more of the sky!!
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| Little Louis is adorable! |
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| Boys playing football and the girls in a tree! Too funny! |
Tuesday, the 15th, we were off on our ski adventure. This year we headed somewhere new and it was the perfect year to do so. With prices so high for tickets at our favorite spot in Washington, Crystal Mountain, we decided to try out Silver Mountain in Idaho. It was a longer drive but ended up being so worth it!! I took no pictures of our little lodge. We had two adjoining rooms and even though it was a little short on space for sitting together in the living room area and eating and didn't have a ton of beds, we made it work. But the great things about this place were the water park that we used 3 nights and then the ease of getting to the ski gondola in the morning. It was a short walk to the gondola and then about a 20 minute ride up to the mountain where the gondola dropped you right at the ski lodge. The ease of not having to load up vehicles and drive and unload vehicles was so worth it. We just put on our great in the morning, packed our lunches, and headed to the mountain. Same with getting back in the evening we got back so much earlier than we would when having to drive and load up all the stuff. It was super nice! Add on the fact that Idaho was not mask nazis like WA and we were free to do as we pleased in that regard and we were so happy to have a few days of freedom, fun on the slopes, and the water park. It was definitely a great decision to go to Idaho this year!
It was kind of cold when you got wet and then weren't in the water.
I slept terrible that first night there. Not sure why, but I saw every hour go by and was so exhausted. But what do you do. We got ready pretty quick and were headed up the mountain on the gondola. Here we are on our way up.
The first day was beautiful weather. I skied some, but got tired fast so I decided to wait at the bottom of the lift for a few runs and take pictures as the skiers came down.
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| Hunter |
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| Hannah |
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| Olivia |
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| Aubrey |
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| Claire |
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| Aubrey |
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| Raelyn |
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| Claire and Olivia |
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| Aubrey and Hunter behind her |
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| Raelyn coming down! |
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| Ashia and Holden |
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| Selfe of Ashia and I |
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| Olivia, Claire and Hannah |
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| This was fun to see this ski dog with his handler. He would just hop right on the chair. |
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| Raelyn and Holden are ski buddies! |
Time for lunch! We had the whole downstairs lunch room practically to ourselves! It was great!
I took a break after lunch and then met up with them again a little later for some more pictures.
After dinner it was back to the water park for more fun! What fun filled days and nights! We played in the water park and then soaked in the hot tubs on the way back to our place. I sure felt tired quick walking up the many flights of stairs to the tubing area. But the kids did it again and again! They were amazing! These pictures got all mess up in order for this night. They had lots of fun in the water slides, tubing as a groups or individually and playing in the lazy river. Lots of fun were had by all.
Playing basketball.
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| Love how these two are chatting away! |
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| Waiting for the big bucket to dump on them! |
Second day on the mountain and the weather was not as nice. It was overcast, snowing some, and windy. I was tired and sore from the day before and not feeling good about the weather or my knee so I decided to sit in the lodge in the morning. This was my view out at the bunny hill. I read a book and just relaxed. I was bummed the coffee baristas were not there that day.
They call came in for lunch and were having a blast! See the rice crisps! A tradition is to bring rice crisps skiing each time! Yum!
We had to get some family and group pics after lunch!
And the skiers!
I stayed in after lunch a little bit more because no one wanted to ski the easier slope with me. I was so tired I even fell asleep for a little bit. But then Hans called and Rae was ready to ski with me for a bit. So we took an easy fro me slope down and watched them ski down for a bit. I liked the easy trail and it was just enough for me. These are all out of order too...oh well! Too much to get them in the right order..you get the idea.
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| Claire and Hudson |
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| Ready to head down the hill! |
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| I hate skiing, but I like looking like a skier! |
And last pics on the gondola ride down!
The last night we were cold and muscles were tired so we sat in the hot tub on the way to the waterpark and again on the way back. The kids had a mother fun night playing in the water park. Well most of them did. I think Hannah skipped out the water park the last couple nights and Olivia went back early one of the nights too.
Heavy dads make for fun tube rides!
Some of them look a little tired! A really fun trip!!
Our photo all together before making the 6 plus hour drive home! It was a gorgeous sunny day!
And we stopped in Ellensburg on the way back at this yummy cafe! It was a little out of the way but worth it!
That following Sunday, Ashia had gotten tickets to hear Dr. Malone and a few other doctors down in Gig Harbor so we went. I knew most of it from my reading, but was fun to see Dr. Malone in person and hear his story.
More sweet kitty pics!
Daffodils from a friend! Mine were not blooming yet, but hers were in February! Crazy!!
I got home and started tomato and pepper seeds!
And we got a little dusting of snow!
And more pics of crocuses blooming! So cute!
One day they had a fun thing at Keyport Naval Base. It was free so we met some friends there. The girls had fun running all over the place.
Kelsey and Jada came over this night and we surprised them with going to Haapalas for dessert and games. Then they came back to our house for while and played games and did silly things till late. It is always fun to have extra girls (who feel like sisters) over!
And last but not least we went to watch Kelsey play basketball quick one night before BSF. We couldn't stay long but we got to see a few plays before we had to leave. Next year we will have to plan a better night to go watch her.
