Oh hello! Pretty crazy busy week out here. This week Nicole's family came to visit us, which meant adventures galore. They came to visit from Arizona, and picked a great week because we got a big snow storm. Once the snow fell, the kids were out in the snow forever more. But coming back to Monday, I set up Grayson's rings he got for Christmas. Grayson LOVES to find things to hang from. He hangs from the kitchen cabinet handles, the car door handles, etc. Anyway, it's good to have a safer place for him to hang (and now swing).
Later Monday morning we headed to the Children's museum. We got a family pass for the year for Christmas, and cashed it in immediately! The kids all had a lot of fun, and there are a LOT of things to do there. We maybe went around to a fourth of the things or so. There was an outside winter adventure thing. There was dog sledding, curling, and even sledding. Fortunately there was even some snow on the hill, so I took Winry down a few times.
The girls spent some time painting, and I worked on a stop motion video right outside the door with Grayson. Even if it's washable, painting just didn't seem like the best activity for Grayson who was already on his second shirt (the first one was sacrificed to the water room).
We made gingerbread houses last week, but didn't get a picture of them all together. Here they all are, from left to right it's me, Monica, Winry and Brooke.
Monday night the Halberts arrived. On Tuesday morning everyone went to the park, and I went to grab some groceries before coming to visit them. The park didn't go well, so they all ended up getting home shortly after me. I was looking forward to spending some time outside, so I asked Grayson if he wanted to go on a walk to the creek. We ended up out walking for almost 2 hours! I really like this picture I got there. We ended up walking to a bridge to throw sticks in, and with about a quarter mile left to home Grayson got REALLY tired and I had to carry him the rest of the way. He almost fell asleep on my shoulder.
On Wednesday we went to the zoo! The vultures were back! So the bird flu risk must be back down. Winry was VERY excited to sing them happy birthday. I asked if she wanted a picture with them before we took off, and this is the pose I got.
Grayson was all crazy about the fishing cat, per usual. One was even taking a nap on display, and looked right at us! The other one was pacing around, which when I was downloading this picture Brooke said "wait... there were 2 of them?!" There's usually only been one visible.
And the tiger, OH MY! I have ALWAYS wanted to see the tiger up walking on it's high walkway. When we were walking up it was roaring, or whatever it's called when a tiger does it, and then it sprayed at the people watching it (fortunately not us). Then it jumped up the stairs and onto the walkway. My real worry was that I was going to get peed on standing under it.
And here are all the kids on the way out. Emotions seem... mixed. I had a great day at the zoo at least.
We headed straight from the zoo to the Giving Machines and met up with Tyson and Tina's family. We let everyone pick a thing to give and then headed for home. The girls were a little sad that they didn't get to pick more things.
We got a good amount of snow Wednesday night to Thursday. The total as measured in our front yard was a little over 7 inches, so I'd guess the snow fall total would be 8 to 9 inches. Pretty nice for our visitors from Arizona.
And how can you tell you have Arizona visitors? When you find snow covered flip flops on your doorstep in the morning!
Anyway, Thursday morning we all got ready and headed to the park to sled. We had to all pile into the back of the van. We used the driveway to get out, but Nicole couldn't get her car away from the curb in the snow.
We had a lot of fun sledding. The group ended up splitting after a little bit and I stayed with Brooke and Luke to keep sledding. I stumbled upon my snow skate sometime in the last few months, and we had a lot of fun trying that out. I don't think I've used it since I was a teenager.
Grayson had a serious dance break during his snack.
And it was in and out of the snow all day (and Friday too). Everyone tried the snow skate around the yard too, and they all loved it. Also, come the end of the day Thursday there was a LOT of snow eating going on, so we pulled out some of our snow cone flavors!
We all got giant swaddle blankets for Christmas from Jerusha. On Friday night I swaddled Grayson in his. I thought he'd go crazy having his arms stuck, but he was surprisingly okay with it. I think he's the only one to be properly swaddled in their blanket... so far.
The Halberts headed back home on Saturday. Winry spent some time with her hand painting set she got for Christmas and had a good time. She made a fish and a turtle, and got some paint on the door :).
Grayson went to bed at his normal time, and then the staying up began. The girls played twister a bunch of times, and then we watched a movie. Winry picked Elf, everyone's favorite New Years movie. Winry ended up making it until about 9:30, and then was falling asleep on the couch, so I carried her up to bed.
When Winry went to bed a Kindle party broke out on the couch. Brooke made it later than Monica into the night, but only by 15 minutes or so. I took Brooke up to bed at around 10:30, and Monica headed up to bed a little while later. I stayed up till midnight on the couch playing Stray on my Steam Deck, and got cued to midnight by the fireworks... and Grayson's crying after he got woken up. I waited downstairs with the monitor for about 20 minutes until I thought he might be back asleep before heading up to bed, but he kept crying and woke Monica up. Oops.
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