Zoo Time!

We took a spontaneous trip to the big zoo today.

Our little cherubs.  You'd think there was another camera out there, but we were actually looking at Uncle Joe, who apparently must have been doing something pretty interesting.

I liked this elephant so much that I asked Mom to take my picture three times!

This blue heron snuck into the penguin exhibit!  They seemed pretty friendly toward him.  Maybe he's a regular visitor!

Resident Artists

Party Time!

 Since we were out of town on my birthday, we celebrated on Friday night.

 It turns out, I LOVE CAKE!

 Thanks for the birthday pajamas, Oma!



 Getting the most out of the last bit of snow!

 Sledding with Grandma.

Climbing the hill with Grandpa and our friend, Emily.

Snow Days

It appears our week of winter is upon us, and we are bound and determined to take advantage of it.  That means sledding, snowball throwing, snowman making, going inside for a warm-up, and then going out for the next round.

Sledding is our favorite snow day pasttime.  (See Evan's video below.) 

Nathan loves throwing balls, so it should be no surprise that Mom had to make him snowball after snowball to throw.

It's not all fun and games.  There's lots of shoveling to do.

Mom's been skiing in the morning.  Getting out on the trails is so good for the soul!

Not quite as good as our Soldier Frosty a few years ago (see post on Dec. 23, 2008), but at least he's been promoted!  And he got rid of that awful beret!

Snow transforms everything into a winter wonderland--even our alley!

What do we do during a winter warm-up?  Bake, of course!  After all, we still have a family birthday party planned for tomorrow night.  This is Nathan's second rainbow cake.  Notice the five colors of frosting.  It's becoming a tradition!

Daredevil Rider

We love our neighborhood sledding hill.  Several of the dads built a jump for the kids and then spent hours helping them onto the starting mound.  The moms took over when the dads went inside.  It's too bad this only happens once a year!

There was plenty of snow for our trip to Hurricane Ridge.  It looked like this both days that we were up on the mountain. 

 This is pretty fun.

 This, not so much.  Will someone PLEASE give me a ride?! 

 Our little birthday boy.  I had a good time when the snow was not driving into my face.

 How much snow?  Well, this sign is normally taller than both of us.

 This trail was gorgeous!  Mom and Dad can't wait until we are big enough to do the whole thing.

 Snow angel time!

What a beautiful view on the way down the mountain!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Nathan!

Pirate Nathan

If only Mom would have gotten her camera out before I took off my eye patch!

Guess who learned to ride a bike without training wheels today!

Arrrrrr!

We had so much fun at Owen's pirate party this morning.  We remained pirates all afternoon.

Visitors

Uncle Keith and Aunt Amanda came to visit all the way from New Jersey.  As if our house didn't have enough wildlife, we took them to our local wildlife park.

Taking a break from watching the coyotes. There's one just to the right of my elbow, if you look closely.

Waiting for the tram with Aunt Amanda.

Getting some Dad-time.

We celebrated Christmas, too. Uncle Keith is kind of a big kid himself, and picked out fun toys. They weren't necessarily packable, though, according to Aunt Amanda, who traveled across the country with this big gorilla in her suitcase. :) It was a hit, though, and I walk around the house hugging Gorilla, who is as big as I am, saying, "Hi, Gorilla!" He sleeps with me, too.

I love my new Hotwheels track. We can really make them fly!

 We celebrated New Years/Christmas (our fourth) with Great Uncle Ashley, too.

We had a lot of fun showing them the sights and mostly playing, playing, playing. They are welcome to come back any time!