Yes, more snow

Believe me, I'm sick of it too. The kids only went to school one day last week, and then today we got another few inches. The problem really is the ice. Snow starts melting in the sun, then quickly refreezes. I've nearly fallen a few times. Anyway, I'm over it. I'm so ready for spring!

At least the kids are enjoying themselves. Hopefully it will be back to school tomorrow. :)

Brr! It's cold here!

The kids finally went back to school today after being off almost a week. We did get our snowstorm on Monday evening. It ended up only being about 4-5 inches, but along with it came really cold temperatures. Thankfully it was warm enough on Tuesday to play in it.

It was a really dry snow, so no snowballs or snowmen. Things it was good for: snow angels and throwing it in the sunshine like Elsa. There was a lot of Frozen role playing going on. 

Now we are looking at more record breaking cold air coming in tonight. So chances of there being school tomorrow are looking slim. I'm a little bit jealous of all your fantastic pictures of sun and beach from the west coast. I'm ready for a little more warmth myself.

Valentine Fun

On Valentine's Day we finally had a day where everyone was healthy so we headed off to DC for an adventure.

We decided to check out the US Botanical Gardens. It was a nice reprieve from the cold to be inside surrounded by wonderful smelling flowers and plants. It was much larger than I expected and pretty interesting. We'll have to go back in the spring when they have more exhibits open.

After the walk through the gardens we went over to the Air & Space museum to check out a planetarium movie about deep space. We also walked through their area dedicated to aircraft carriers. It was a fun little outing for sure.

We rounded off our day by having pizza for lunch at Costco, taking a nice nap, going to dinner at Smashburger, and then heading home in time for the winter storm that came our way. The snow blew in with 30-50 mph winds and temperatures dropped to the negative teens. It was enough to even cancel Church on Sunday.

Today is President's Day, and we are just hanging out. We are preparing for another big storm. This one is supposed to drop 6-10 inches of snow on us. I guess this long weekend is likely to get even longer. Hopefully it won't be too cold to play in. I'm pretty much ready for spring.

Cold Winter Blues

We are still alive and well. I know it's been forever since I've posted anything. Honestly, we've just been stuck in the normal routine without really venturing out too much. With the exception of a couple nice days here and there, it's been really cold outside. Too cold to really do much besides stay in, build fires, and play games.

I did try to mix things up on a day off school and took the kids to a pump it up.  It was pretty similar to the one we had gone to in Oregon, except here they had a lot more rules. I was hoping for some relaxation time, but instead ended up managing my four year olds every move. I don't think we'll be back.

This week Neil started his very first swim lesson class. I was pretty worried about how he would do. I didn't think he'd stay with the teacher or follow any of the rules. He did have a hard time understanding that he needed to wait for the teacher before running into the water when we first got there, but otherwise it went really well. He loved it! I'm so glad that he actually participated and listened. He is really growing up. The second class went even better. 

Other than that it's just the same old thing for us. Work, school, think about houses, repeat. Hopefully soon we can get back to doing the fun things that we enjoy. Some nicer weather would help too.

The kids received packages in the mail from their Grandmas for Valentines. They were all thrilled with the goodies. (and can't wait to hit up the Dollar Tree with their crisp $1 bill)

Happy Valentine's Day!

When Daddy's away...

We haven't been up to much lately. Mostly because Chris had to spend the week in San Francisco. I'm definitely jealous of the nice 60 degree weather there. Since Monday was a holiday (MLK day) and the kids had no school, we partied it up.

First we all slept in. Well I did at least. Who knows what time they all woke up, but I was still in bed at 9:30am. It was glorious! We lazed around the house before taking Neil to his speech therapy and then doing the funnest thing possible. We went to Dollar Tree!!! Oh man! My kids love to go there and bring all of their hard earned cash. I have to convince them to only pick out a few things. This time Grace picked out a bunch of super glamourous costume jewelry. She insisted on wearing the clip on earrings for the rest of the day.

Then we came home and played with friends before going out to fancy dinner at McD's. I know, right? How does a holiday get any better than this? They were happy at least, and I didn't have to cook. Grace was still sporting the earrings and her ring. At least she ditched the huge diamond necklace.

The happy meals came with books this time. Pretty fun ones too. Here's Grace with her Flat Stanley. We're supposed to take him all over and take pictures of him. She insisted the coke machine was the best first stop.

The rest of the week went by rather uneventfully. Two of them picked up colds, and we've had snow on and off. This picture is really from last week. 

I was feeling a little bit bummed this week. I'm not sure why, but probably because Chris was gone and I felt so far from everyone. I treated myself today to some chocolate chip cookies, a trip to Target for new nail polish (and plenty of other fun stuff), and then broke out my pdx carpet socks. I really do love these things. There's nothing like seeing that carpet. To me, it is home. Unfortunately, they are just socks and not the real deal. But I can imagine right?

I also found this gem in Grace's backpack. The kids were supposed to draw a picture of a healthcare worker helping people. Grace wrote, "The nurse is helping Ms. Kim have baby Ella." I totally teared up when I saw this. What a special day that was! By far the best day at work ever. It's fun that Grace remembers that happening and associates it with being a good reason to become a nurse. She still insists that she will be one when she grows up. Anyway, it just made me miss my friends even more. At least I have my socks. Also, for the record, I don't remember her flying through the air. :)

Great White North Christmas

We were lucky enough this year to spend Christmas at my grandparents house in northern Minnesota with my family. We all drove and met up in the middle. It actually worked out really well. Fortunately for us, the drive was shorter from Virginia than it is from Oregon (only 20 hours). It was made even better by the fact that Chris has a cousin who just happens to live at the halfway point in Indiana. We got to spend the night with them and enjoy a trip to the famous Arni's for tasty pizza. We had such a good time hanging out with the Phillips clan!

The roads to Minnesota were nice and dry almost the whole way. Once we were in northern Wisconsin it got pretty snowy. Thankfully, it wasn't too terrible, and we made it into Duluth just in time to see my Grandma in the hospital there. She had dropped something on her eye and needed surgery. It was pretty crazy timing. Here we all are coming to her house and she is having surgery. I'm glad that our route took us through the city she was in so that we could check in with my Grandpa and help out. My Grandma was released the next day, but she had to deal with a painful eye without sight for the duration. Hopefully it will continue to heal and the sight will return.

Our first few days were full of relaxing. The weather was really mild (in the low 30's) so we spent tons of time outside playing in the snow. It's the best to watch the big flakes fall when you are surrounded by trees. The kids built a snow submarine and had tons of fun running around, being pulled in the sled, and riding the four wheeler.

Neil had a blast in the snow. He couldn't go outside without taking a giant bite out of the first handful he could find. 

We didn't get a ton of snow while we were there. It only snowed for the first couple of days. We had a little more than in this picture with Chris. There was just enough on the ground to pull the sled with the four wheeler through the woods. 

Making peanut butter cookies. We had plenty of treats to get us through the cold days. 

This was a singing candle. Once lit it played Christmas songs continuously. Sounds fun right? Not so much. It was the most obnoxious music ever!! Seriously wanted to throw it in the snow. The directions said to let it burn at least 2 hours the first time. I couldn't take it after 45 minutes. It just had to stop.

Making our Santa cookies on Christmas Eve. Poor Santa had a lot to eat that night. 

Christmas Eve jammies. Claire is still really into cats right now. She even got more Warrior Cat books which she's pretty excited about. 

Christmas morning chaos begins. We all watched each other open gifts and then enjoyed a pan of carmel rolls along with bacon and eggs for breakfast.

Chris had David in the exchange this year. He bought him a tool box and some tools to go inside. Then he bedazzeled it to death. It was awesome! Normal tool box on the outside...but open it up and you see Philip Rivers with hearts. I think David liked it.

Kee had Chris in the exchange. He had asked for something awesome...he sure did get it! The shirt says "Everyday Struggles". They walked around saying things like, "you cats to be kitten meow." and other similar cat puns. It was two weeks of team cat. 

After Christmas it was time for more fun! We played outside everyday, we shopped, played games, and just enjoyed hanging out with everyone.

Being pulled behind the four wheeler was a hit. Grandpa had a good time pulling the kids all around the place.

We rented some ice skates and used them at a free rink in Duluth one night. The kids loved it even though it was really hard to keep them up at first. 

They did have these neat pvc pipe contraptions to help kids learn to skate. 

Even Neil got to try it out. All the pvc things were in use, so he went with a chair. It worked pretty well, although it was a major quad workout for whoever was helping him. I felt like Apolo Ohno after a while.

After skating, we visited a very impressive Christmas light display in Duluth. There were millions of lights and it was pretty cool. It was free to do and they even gave out free hot chocolate, cookies, and had big fires for roasting marshmallows. At this point the weather was getting a lot colder so we didn't stay super long. It was a fun adventure though.

Now that the weather was colder (about 0 degrees), we weren't so worried about playing on the ice at the creek next to the house. The kids used their ice skates some more and started to feel much more comfortable.

Neil wanted in on the action so he talked Grandpa into sliding him across the ice on his back. The kids all took turns. It did look fun and I almost wanted to try it. I probably would have but I didn't want my coat to rip.

We even got my mom out on the ice.

The kids sure loved riding around with Grandpa!

Chris on his way to do manly things like chop down trees. Looking the part of lumber jack.

One of the funnest things we did was go curling. We found a place that had open lanes and we tried it out next to a group of experienced guys. Let me just say it looks way easier on tv. Just getting the stone to slide took some serious effort. We all fell a few times. By the end we were getting the knack for it. Definitely a fun time! 

The crew besides my dad who was also there. We got to meet Kee's boyfriend Jeff. He got to come spend the second week with us. It was fun to get to know him. Hope he doesn't think we're too crazy.

 We played broom ball out on the creek a couple of times even though it was freezing outside (0-10 degrees). It's like hockey, but with brooms. It's so much fun except when you get bumped (or pushed) and wind up on the ice. It's a pretty friendly game, although we were all pretty sore afterwards. I think Chris and I are just getting too old.

It was so cold out that our breath turned our hair to ice. So here's a preview of me with gray hair. Chris was glad for his no-shave Nov and Dec beard.

On New Year's Eve we lit the brush pile on fire. It burned really hot and fast this time. We enjoyed watching the fire and then the wrestling matches that followed between the kids and Kee & Jeff. We even tried to do a couple of spooky games where someone would go hide in the woods and we'd go look for them. Those woods are creepy enough in the dark.

After our fire we went inside to warm up. We ate chocolate fondue and got ready for our annual glow stick dance party. It's always a blast! The adults stayed up until midnight, but we didn't really do anything momentous. Just chatted and played games.

On one of our last days we took a few pictures with everyone before Bree and David had to leave.

The whole crew minus Jeff. 

We had such a fun time with the family! It was really great to see everyone and the kids really liked playing with their cousins. I'm so glad that we were able to work it out. A big thank you to my Grandparents who let us all come invade their space for such a long time. I have such fond memories of visiting as a kid, and I'm so glad that my kids get to enjoy it as well. We love the great white north!!

Our drive home went alright overall. The first day went by without a hitch. We got to see our family in Indiana again, and eat at Arni's again! Pure heaven for Chris. We had a great time getting to know them all a bit better and can't wait until we see them again. Maybe we talked them into visiting DC sometime.  

The second day of our drive was not much fun. We dealt with crazy heavy rain through Ohio, and then through the mountains it was freezing fog. We couldn't see anything! Super scary and stressful. We made it though. Now it's back to real life and all that goes along with it. Gotta snap out of vacation mode I guess. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Happy New Year!