31 January 2008
What a trip we had! It started snowing the night before we went up to Steven’s pass and it didn’t stop snowing the entire 5 days we were there! I think there was close to 5 feet before we left. Hope lodge was almost buried. Well okay, not really.
Other than the unbelievable powder runs we had, there was fun to be found at Hope lodge as well. Tim got to ride with “the boys” and Kayla got to hang with all the 8-11 year old kids. She really enjoyed their company asking them repeatedly “what is your name again”, and " do you want to sit with me?". It was very sweet.
Julia was still rather sick when we first got there, so she was a bit clingy to her mommy. We knew she started feeling better when we found her scavenging food from the floor. Oh, yum. She was a trooper and we were so happy to see her feeling better again and eating after 5 days of no solid foods. Julia didn’t get out in the snow much, but her big sister did and surely ate enough snow for both of them.
This is Tim and Kayla heading down to the car right before we tried to leave. We did manage to get out, but only after two+ hours of digging. The snowplow didn’t quite make it to the side road, and the snow was so high it kept piling up under our car requiring us to dig. When we finally made it to the highway, we found out the pass was closed and might be for another 4 hours or so. Yikes.
We made the slow descent the other direction to the 59er diner for some nice greasy food (we deserved it after all the digging). We hung out there long enough for the pass to open, and then drove the long slow drive home. I must say that the Rav4 drove great in the snow (except that super deep stuff on the side road) and I am so happy with the car choice.
24 January 2008
Our little Julia turned 1. We had a nice little celebration here on her birthday and then had the extended family over for a party on the weekend.
The cake was not a smashing success, but Julia seemed to get some enjoyment out of it. Julia had fun but was a bit overwhelmed after a while. (Turns out not only was she getting some molars, but the beginning of a flu as well).
Kayla however, was quite the party girl. Thanks to all the generous folks out there, it was hard to tell who received more gifts, the birthday girl or her big sister.
Grandma flew out from Hawaii for the celebrations and was a super help to me especially when Julia really started feeling crummy. Grandma and Kayla got to have some special time together while Julia clung onto me.
15 January 2008
What have they been up to? Let’s see…
Kayla is just growing up so fast. She is singing full songs now like the “abc’s” and making up some as well. She is often “auntie susie”, though she will answer to Kayla most of the time. Kayla has really enjoyed the last few birthday parties we have gone to and will play those often, especially the one where she went to see a puppet show. Kayla loves to help bake, or rather taste the batter, and will scramble onto the stepstool spoon in hand. She often reads Tim or I the books lately. She has been building creatively with the bristle blocks and more able to focus on activities. She still loves to put stickers on things and can do that for long periods of time. Kayla can be very loving and helpful to her little sister at times and has taken to washing Julia during bathtime. I was watching her push the lawn mower toy around after dinner just amazed at how she’s grown.
Julia seems to be working on something new all the time. For a while there she seemed to be practicing standing by herself. She’d let go of one of us, or the furniture, and lasted a few seconds once. She has been “cruising” on the furniture more and sometimes will walk if we hold her hands. She still seems pretty content with crawling to get places though. Julia appears to be a great climber, now being able to climb onto the stepstool, and even climbed a bunkbed ladder alone the other day. She has also taken to going backwards down the stairs. Little J.found her tounge last week and we got to see that for a couple days. Julia seems interested in trying to put clothes on, especially hats. She often asks us to put this one on her. She has been around a few babies close to her age lately and wants to give them hugs. It’s very sweet. As for the older kids she wants to be right in the action and manages to join in wherever she can. Jumping (on her knees) on the bed, playing (or eating) playdough, doing art projects, eating food, whatever. She loves music still and dancing and shows more interest in books. She is such a good hugger and snuggler when she wants to give you a hug. Super tight and cheek to cheek. Love that.
1 January 2008
We had a nice New Years Day at the zoo. Kayla was so excited to show her Daddy where her favorite animals were. It was super cute to see. Our friends Jay and Julie came over and made a nice new years dinner for us. What a nice start to 2008.