FLIP FLOP TOWN

MLK Monday was a beautiful day and we were not the only ones taking a walk on Taylor dock, our town's boardwalk by the bay. The sun was out but the temps barely made it up to the 40's. Most people, including us, were dressed in warm jackets and hats, even wearing sun glasses, which is amazing that we all found our sun glasses after having forgotten about them for many days! Didn't take long before I saw someone in a short sleeve T-shirt and capris. But people wearing flip flops were a common sight . Maybe that caught my eye because my feet are always cold and you won't see my toes until well in to the spring. But after closer observation, I might have found the secret. Apparently, if you hold a cup of coffee really tight in your hands and take a sip every few yards or so, it will compensate for the flip flops. I don't think I will be trying it anytime soon, but let me know if it work for you.

Another Duck

The sun was out and we headed down to the bay to enjoy it. Since we are studying birds this year, we always head out with binoculars in hand and a field guide in the pocket. We were able to mark a few more species down. The picture above is of a male Barrow's Goldeneye that migrates down from the mountains for the winter. It's been fun to identify all kinds of birds and be able to name them as they fly around and feed in our backyard. One of our greatest spotting, besides the eagles which are always fun, was a Black Crowned Night Heron, which are rare in our region. It does not seize to amaze us, how wonderful and magnificent God's creation is!!

Of course, after sighting some ducks and being warmed up by the sun, what a better way to end the afternoon by visting Mallard's. Not for the duck, but for the delicious ice cream!

Ethan enjoying his double scoop of super chocolate.

Cool Creations

You gotta love legos!! It sure kept our boys entertained this weekend! I did not even mind walking through a maze of lego pieces that seemed to have taken over our house. The boys created a lot of neat pieces and had lots of fun in the process!!

NEVER TOO LATE . . .

. . . FOR A YARD CLEAN UP!

Even if fall has passed and winter is here, there are always branches and leaves blowing in to our yard. So Shawn and the boys were hard at work this past Friday to clean it up. Of course, today we had some blowing winds that brought some of it back! Shawn now feels like I do after cleaning the house, the works never ends!! Good thing we have 3 big helpers.

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Yes, the whole family skiing together! Now what is amazing about this, is not that the littlest one is now on the slopes, but that I'm giving it another try. Those of you who have seen me on skis know that skiing is not my strongest point! However, once Ethan joined the boys and Shawn, I just stood there watching all the fun and told myself I was giving it another go at it. And it has been a lot of fun. Right now, Ethan and I are masters of the bunny hills and are braving the green runs. But I know that it will not be long before Ethan will also zoom down the hill and just shout a "hi" to mom while I hardly get a glimpse of him, like Nolan is doing!! Oh well!! It's fun to see how fast the boys learn and how much they love it. We had a beautiful sunny day the last time we went. The pictures bellow are a glimpse of that. Between balancing myself on the skis and keeping an eye on Christian and Nolan, I did not get the best shots. To see some real breathtaking shots, go to http://www.mtbaker.us/ Ethan getting off the lift for the first time. A little scary! But he kept coming back!

"I'm tired but I'm not stopping until they close the lifts"

OLD FASHIONED SATURDAY

What a nice Saturday we had! No soccer games to watch or taekwondo tournaments to go to. For breakfast we made some delicious bran waffles with tayberry sauce. Nolan was in charge of the waffle iron and was great as the chef! Afterwards, Shawn and the boys worked in the garage fixing some things in the car and fooling around the yard. I did a bit of batch cooking and baked some bread. Of course that's where the "old fashioned" ends since I did not have to use muscle power for the kneading but let my new KitchenAid do it. And it did work very well! By now one of the loaves is almost gone! Can you guess why?

MONOPOLY KING

He does it again!!! Nolan, aka Donald Trump, almost always wins our games of monopoly. We had been playing the junior version. Grandma and grandpa thought it was time for Nolan to upgrade to the original version, so that was one of his Christmas gifts. We started our game yesterday and in the beginning I almost felt sorry for Nolan (and myself), since we always landed on those silly places and could not buy any property. Well, after playing for 2 days, I was the first one to go bankrupt in order to pay $975,oo to stay in one of Nolan's hot properties. Ethan was the next victim and after another hour or so, Christian fell prey as well. So, anyone out there wants to challenge 'the" Nola for a game of Monopoly?