Great Wolf Lodge

 We spent a couple of days over February Break at Great Wolf Lodge.  We had a great time.

It was fabulous to hang out in our swimming suits and escape the cold rainy weather, even if the warm balmy temperatures were achieved inside.

Taking a break from the water park to do Magic Quest

 It was a great little mini-vacation.

Zoo Day

I got to go along as a chaperone on Kate's class field trip to the zoo. William got to go too, which he thought was pretty cool.  We had a fun time, especially since our group was Kate, William and Kate's friend.

 We were there to cap off their unit on polar animals.  So seeing the polar bears was a must.  This big guy was so fun to watch swimming all around the pool.

Kate especially bonded with the walrus.  They stayed cheek to cheek for a while as Kate listened to the walrus make his underwater noises.  Very cool.  It really seemed like he was telling her something.

We ventured out of the arctic area and saw lots of other fun animals.  These were some of our favorites.

We loved that beautiful blue sky on a February day.

Getting ready

William worked so hard on all his valentines.  It was so cute to see him concentrating to write all of his classmate's names.

Kate also made these cute Olaf valentines for her class this year.  Frozen is all the rage for kids this year.

Piano Guys Concert

I got to go with all these beautiful girls to the Piano Guys Concert.  It was seriously awesome!  Those guys are such amazing performers.  We had a fabulous time!

I love all these girls!

Such a great night!  We are all big Piano Guys fans around here.

I especially love this picture.  As a friend was taking it, one of Sarah's friends commented that they weren't anything like their mom.  Sarah responded, "Not me, I'm just like my mom!"  Love this girl and glad she is mine forever!

Page Orientation

A few weeks ago Rachel had the opportunity to be a page for the House of Representatives in Olympia.  It was an awesome experience for her--one that was even better because she got to do it with her two best friends.

They spent a week in Olympia working long days.  They ran errands, attended page school, presented mock bills in committee, and watched the State of the State address by the Governor.

But before they did all that, we attended an orientation at the Washington State Capitol Building.

 That is one beautiful building.

 Orientation on the house floor.

 Rachel's friend practiced bringing in the flag.

They had a fabulous time.  Love these beautiful amazing girls!

(Thanks to Jared for all these great photos!)

Now to track down the photos from the week of paging...

Life in our house lately

Here is the pile of books on my nightstand.  I'm partway through The Agony and the Ecstasy and really loving it.  I'm also loving Jane Eyre, but I put it on hold to try to get through The Agony and the Ecstasy before we leave for Italy.  I am trying to read a little bit of the Emily Dickinson when I just have a snippet of time, but I can't say I've gotten to it much lately--that must be why it has ended up at the bottom.  I'm in varying stages of reading all the rest.

William is learning to read and write.  This is one of my most favorite parts of parenting--teaching a child to read.  It is so great when it just clicks.  William and I have been sitting down with his magna doodle and I would write a word and then he would sound it out and read it.  After each one, when he got it, he would throw his hands up in the air and yell, "Yay!"  I love it.

Pretty soon he decided to write some words of his own.

Kate broke out with an unexplained case of hives--all over her whole body.  It took a couple days to go away.  We had a fun day together since she got to stay home from school.

 Ben and Rachel had an orchestra concert.  Thanks to Jared Jones for these great photos.

This is Rachel's orchestra.  She sits in the back row, third from the left in the photo below.  She is not in nearly as great of a spot for photography as Ben.

 William got an award at Preschool for Patience.  He looks so very serious in this picture.

I stayed up late helping Rachel with an essay one night.  She finally decided on this for her title:

I'm still waiting to hear what the teacher has to say about that.

Ski Day

We decided to take the three youngest kids skiing on Martin Luther King Day.  Sarah and Rachel both had homework and other commitments and wanted the day to stay home, relax, and get things done.  So we left them home. Neither Kate nor William had ever skied before, so we got up super early, drove up to the mountain and checked them both in for a morning of lessons.  David, Ben and I skied all morning with picture perfect blue skies and practically balmy weather.  It was a lot of fun.

At the end of the morning, we picked up Kate and William from ski school, had lunch, then hit the slopes again all afternoon.  Kate did awesome for her first day of skiing.  She really picked it up fast.  We met up with some friends, and Kate had a great time skiing with her friend all afternoon.  Mostly I just followed them around and tried to keep up.  Ben took off and skied with a friend as well.

David took William and helped him ski for a few hours.  I didn't get any pictures because I wasn't with them.  Skiing with kids is definitely a divide and conquer kind of a day.  After a full morning of ski school and a couple hours skiing down the bunny hill, he was all tired out.  David took him to the lodge for a while, and then I traded him so he could get in some more skiing.  William and I had fun in the lodge together while everyone else skied until the lifts closed.