Donner Lake and 100 Days

We went to Truckee, CA for some skiing over President's Day weekend.  Our friend's the J family invited us to go...their family has a condo right on the lake.  It was only 10 minutes to Sugar Bowl ski resort which was so nice!  Avery and I were bringing up the rear for our group.  It was so cute watching her trying to walk in that snow suit.  She was doing great....

...so I took a quick video and then she fell down...I think her legs got tired but she was fine from the heavy snow suit.....it is only 7 seconds long...

She and I hung out in the ski lodge in the a.m.  We watched the boys ski first...I only took videos and didn't take any pics.  The beginner's hill even had ski gates (I don't know what they were called) that the skiers could ski under and tunnels to go through.

 There was a Patagonia outlet nearby that was having a big sale for President's Day.  Unfortunately their selection was pretty low by the time we got there.  (Sale started Thurs a.m. and we didn't get there until Sat p.m.).  I was really hoping to get Avery a puffy jacket...looks like this:

It would have been $18!!!   It is normally $89!!!! but all they had was size 3 months left.  Maybe next time.

 Mel had been to the sale earlier in the week so she offered to hang out with the kids outside for a bit so I could get in there quickly....and the kids were climbing on the van!

 Joe and Geoff went to ski/snow board the bigger hills when we went to Patagonia.  Here is a pic of Joe on one of the double black diamonds.  I am glad Geoff took a pic because I have always wanted to see what one looked like.

No thanks~but the view up there is gorgeous.
Starbuck's treat one morning.

 View from the condo...

 The boys returned to school Tues and it was a rough re-start.  They are just so tired sometimes when they get home from school.  Today they celebrated their 100th day-and were supposed to dress up as if they were 100 years old.  I wish I had more time to have been more creative but I was lucky to get J to wear something other than track pants.  He was all decked out when I picked him up.

 At least W wore a sweater vest....that kind of counts right?   It was really windy!

The Kissing Monster

A started giving us kisses a couple of weeks ago.  I asked her to give Daddy a kiss that night and she wouldn't at first...she just walked around shaking her head no.  Then she had a change of heart and she must have kissed him about a dozen times...and she was quite proud of herself after each one.

 

 She likes to be right there with the boys no matter what they are doing...at the allergist...

 At the dentist...

 At another dentist appt....she was really happy that morning and loved that the hygienist moved the chair up and down...but I think she was frowning bc I stopped their fun for a pic.

May the Force Be With You on Valentine's Day

We were in a mad rush on Valentine's Day morning to finish Valentine's for the kindergarten class.  We used this Star Wars/glow stick idea from Pinterest.

They were really easy and the boys knocked out all of the "to's" and "from's" without complaint.  I was surprised bc they have some challenging names to write out:  "DiMaggio", "Arianna", and "Kingston"are a few.

The weather was nice last week so we broke out the BOB.   A and I even walked to school to pick up the boys on Valentine's Day.

Looks like J has "Thriller" hands here.

They enjoyed going through their Valentine's.

W with his gift of books, and a light sabre lollipop (that sorta looks like an Epi pen).

 Poor W...he is smiling like that bc his lips were so chapped!

  Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's!

Where is Avery?

Peek-a-boo fun from the beginning of January.

SKI

 The snow came and Geoff was off and running with the boys to ski.  He took them to Mt. Shasta twice-they have a rope tow and a nice beginner hill.  On a three-day weekend he took the boys to Mt  Ashland.  A and I joined them to watch.  I had never been up on Mt. Ashland.  It was gorgeous!  The weather was perfect that day...it was warm on the ski hill.  The boys did great on the chairlift.  But the beginner hill was crazy steep!

W only did a few runs then he joined A and I in the lodge.  J skied a few more times with Geoff and it was fun watching him zoom down super fast.  

 J after skiing...one tired puppy.

 I barely recognized W after he took off his helmet and had some crazy hair

 Geoff and the boys went to Willamette to ski two days later.  I wish we went to watch that day instead.  Geoff said they went right on the magic carpet and probably did the hill 20 times on their own without any complaints.

I was out of town last weekend and Geoff took all three kids back by himself!  He hung out with A at the bottom of the hill while the boys did their thing.

15 months

A crossed the 15-month mark at the end of December.
Her stats:  18 lbs (3rd percentile)
We get a lot of "she looks a little young to be walking all around isn't she?" from strangers.
Length:  28.5 inches (5th percentile)

She isn't saying too much yet.  Just mama, dada, bah bah (bye bye), she waves, she can blow kisses, she can make a great elephant sound, and she climbs and walks and runs like crazy.  She has moved into the spunky/sassy stage.  She knows when I say "time to go night night" and she runs away as fast as she can with a big smile on her face.  She put on a big production yesterday when I tried to strap her into her car seat.  The stiff-body, throw her head back and squeal and squirm and screech kind of production.  Wanting to walk places by herself.  She will eat some then after a few bites, reach in her own mouth and pull the food back out.

This pic was from the end of December and I swear she has grown since then.  I am relishing in the little-ness as much as I can.  It is going so fast.

Yoga Pearl

When I saw that one of my favorite yoga instructors was going to be in Portland hosting a workshop I signed up and made plans.

Tiffany Cruikshank lives/teaches in New York.  Before she moved to NY she was the acupuncturist for Nike World Headquarters (in Portland) and you have probably seen her on one of her many print ads...for little places like Nike, Lululemon, and Yoga Journal just to name a few.  She has written a book and she travels nonstop around the world teaching yoga.  The workshop consisted of four classes of the weekend and I had so much fun.  My hips were like jello and all the muscles around my spine were sore (in a good way) afterwards.  I felt like a little groupie asking to get a picture with her but I am sure she gets that all the time.  Ha!

I am hoping to finish my 200-hours of yoga training by the summer.  My biggest training is next week in LA.  Four full days.   Here is a picture of Tiffany - you know, just hanging out and contemplating life.  :)