Christmas Ships 2013

The day after Thanksgiving

 Uncle Peter took our family out on his

boat to follow the Annual Christmas Ships parade.

Our favorite cousins were all in town for the holiday

which makes everyone happy...

 pizza, salad, mulled cider

it was a perfect night 

with some of our MOST favorite people in the world!

Weekending through my phone!

Wow, it's been awhile since I posted!

I ended up with bronchitis after Thanksgiving

which really s l o w e d me down

and it is taking awhile for me to feel 

normal.

I celebrated my birthday last week

and was blessed beyond measure

by SO many wonderful friends and 

family♥

So...here is a quick up date of the weekend 

with pictures from my phone

Friday night Lucy and I went to craft night at her school, the

girls who put this on outdid themselves...Lucy made sugar scrub

snowflake feather ornament, snowman ornament, 

magnetic picture frame, and a candle holder!

Saturday was Lucy's lesson at SANCA

She has been working SO hard on her trampoline seat drop

which does not come easy with her hemiplegia, but 

she has got it!!!

You've come a long way Baby!!

My favorite is to watch her on the tight wire

and the confidence she feels as we walks

across

and I am a little bit in love with this 

machine!

Buddy the Elf was feeling a little 

mischievous this weekend :) 

I spent the weekend getting our Christmas decorations out

my chalkboard walls are decked for the holiday!!

and Sunday we got our Christmas tree!!

There you have our weekend

in a handful of pictures!

xo

Nisqually Wildlife Refuge

Monday my friend Dawn B. and I took the kids on little field trip...they had been home since Friday, the weather had been grey and rainy EVERYDAY...and we just felt like they needed to get outside (and away from the video games!)

I had been told about the Wildlife Refuge and thought that would be a perfect day trip, since it is about an hour from our house.  NONE of the boys were excited to go :), but what usually happens is by the time you get them out the door and on the road, their attitude changes and they always end up having a good time...plus with the Brown's they each have a friend their age!

First thing on our walk...this is what we saw!!

 See...doesn't Bennett look excited??? 

Dawn B. has worked really hard getting to know photography, and knows her camera well, so she got me to switch to Manual while we were out...I have not been practicing much since my photography class, so this was the perfect opportunity to just snap away!

photo by Dawn B.

photo by Dawn B.

I LOVE moss...mossy rocks, tree trunks, branches, anything

and living here in the northwest there is LOTS of moss!

Sweet Kylie and Lucy!

photo by Dawn B.

The refuge has lots of trails...we stayed on this boardwalk path that took you out to the observation deck

There really wasn't much wildlife to see besides ducks...but there was a gentleman who had set up his BIG camera with a live video, and was able to zoom back into the wood 100 yards or so and show us an Owl's nest...very cool!

I am just crazy for these barns!!

These four look like they might be related to the Twilight Cullens!!!

Dawn B. and her little Faith!

The Girls and I (photo by Dawn B.)

We took the kids out for Pizza after all that exercise :), and then took them to Cabela's, a GIANT sportsman store that is practically a small museum of animals inside along with a waterfall and aquarium!

It was such a fun day, and I am sure if you twisted the Boys' arms they would tell you they had a good time!

 

Careful what you wish for....

We had a fun snow day on Wednesday

but by Thursday morning things were looking a little different...

trees were snapping

(this is our tree in the front yard...what you can't see to the left is the neighbors truck it just missed)

plants were covered in a layer of ice

our snowman got a frozen runny nose

a layer of ice covered our world

many neighborhoods lost power...we were one of the lucky few who did not

we did lose cable and internet access for awhile

my Mom has SO many trees down on their property (some on their roof) and as of last night were still without power

school was cancelled for the rest of the week

and thankfully today the temperature has warmed and things are beginning to thaw.