What a Difference a Year Makes

As I was going through our pictures from 2011 I came across this picture of Micah and I at the end of last January. We had been at the Butterfly reserve north of Santa Barbara for a field trip. As we were heading home, the weather was so beautiful that we made an unexpected stop at the the beach in Santa Barbara and played in the water for a little while.

And one year later, we had another unexpected adventure. Lots of fun! But much colder this time!

With all the craziness of moving, getting settled and adjusting to a new job, Nathan and I had been wanting to take the kids away for some family time. But as we looked at the upcoming calendar, we realized it was either now, or much later. And the deal was much better if we did it now! So Nathan called his boss on Sunday afternoon to see if he could take a little time off, we made a reservation, and we were off! In the midst of our quick packing we realized that Ashlyn was trying to figure out this whole moving vs. vacationing thing as she asked what was going to happen to all the things in this house after we left. It seems she thought packing up the car again meant we must be moving. Poor girl! We're really confusing her!

Ready for a new adventure

Enjoying a little dinner on the road

 So where did we go? We headed north to Wisconsin, a state that none of us has ever been to. We found a little town called Wisconsin Dells - sort of a cross between McCall, ID (our favorite winter resort town) and Myrtle Beach, SC (our favorite beach). And it just happens to be what they call the Waterpark Capital of the World. Hmmm?!!

But before hitting the waterpark, we had something else on the agenda...

Downhill skiing!!

Yes, they do actually have skiing in Wisconsin. Not quite the Rocky Mountains, but the kids are beginners so this hill was just perfect!

Look how little the skis are? Aren't they so cute!

We had been planning to take Micah skiing for Christmas this year. But then our plans changed and we moved to Illinois instead. We figured that meant skiing was out until our next visit to the Northwest during the winter. But then we found out there are actually a few ski hills in the mid-west so we decided to give it a try. And at Cascade Mtn. in Wisconsin, kids ski free! Can't get any better than that!

Skiing was one of my favorite things to do growing up and I couldn't wait to be able to teach our kids to ski too!

Ashlyn and Daddy... almost at the top

I was super impressed with the bunny hill. It's been over 20 years since I spent time on the bunny hill so this might not be a new invention, but it was new to me... sort of an escalator for skis. Way better than the rope tow, and it doesn't ruin your gloves! So cool!

Here comes Micah!

Ashlyn's getting ready to go

Wheeeeee!

Watching the kids learn to ski brought back so many memories of when my good friend, Amy, and I first learned to ski at Brundage Mountain. I can remember it like it was yesterday. So glad our parents finally let us try it!

After a morning of learning it was time to hit the lodge for some hot cocoa and lunch.

Getting ready to head back outside

Silly Ashlyn!

Micah did fabulous out on the slopes! It wasn't long before he wanted to head up on the chairlift...

I realized we were in trouble when Micah wanted to take me up on the lift to show me what he and Daddy had found. He was only on skis for about 3 hours before he started looking for jumps!! They found a terrain park with all sorts of jumps! Aarrgghhh!

Ashlyn did a great job too! Before lunch she struggled a bit, but I think it was mainly because the thought of hot cocoa inside kept her from enjoying the slopes outside. But after lunch she was awesome. She even went up on the chairlift too (Daddy's idea) and skied on her own near the end of the runs. We were surprised at how much she enjoyed it! And we ended the day without any injuries. Praise the Lord!

After skiing we went back to the hotel and then over to their indoor waterpark. And this morning we were back at the waterpark again for a few hours before heading home. Here's a few pics from our last day...

Breakfast at Dunkin Dounuts! Mmmmm!

And then off for some water fun!

Micah braved the Crock-Walk...

He made it all the way across without falling in!

Here comes Micah...

Wow! That was fun!

Micah and Daddy racing down. Micah came down first...

But Daddy went farther

Bye Bye!

From Christmas into the New Year

Life has gotten a little busier now that we're settling into life in the Midwest. Here's a lot of pictures from our last 3 weeks!

The day after Christmas we went over to Nathan's boss' house to hang out with his family. It was a blessing to get to know he and his wife a little better. And the kids had a blast playing with their kids. Although their 2 youngest are older than our kids respectively, they had a great time!

Ashlyn and Sarah Beth painting

Micah and Zach had fun on the Wii

The kids have been entranced with the GPS, but it got even better when they realized that you could change the voice that talks to you. Here they are discovering Yoda. It proved to be quite funny and Micah continued to imitate him for the next several days.

We surprised the kids with passes to Legoland Discovery Center. With it being just a few miles from our house we decided it would probably be a great place to seek indoor entertainment during the winter.

I am always amazed at the things that can be created with Legos

On an adventure with Indiana Jones

Going for a ride

The Lego raceway track was a big hit. Both kids and Daddy built their own Lego car and then got to race them against each other and a few other kids.

The kids were told that Ft. Boxes, Illinois would be coming down on January 1st so they spent as much time as they could during their last week with the fort. They even got to sleep in it for 2 nights in a row. It was fun while it lasted!

Peeking out the front door

Either she isn't really sleeping, or that's a really funny dream

But this kiddo always falls asleep right away

We were thankful for the opportunity to meet up with some friends from California that moved out here a few years ago. The kids enjoyed another opportunity to play with other kids. Micah and Michael spent most of their time together playing Legos, but they eventually made it downstairs to play Lego video games. The girls played with their baby dolls and had a great time getting out energy on the slide.

 For New Year's Eve we had a service at church followed by dinner and bounce houses. The kids had a blast!

Ashlyn enjoying her cake

Ashlyn loves bounce houses, but in the past she has typically been too scared to go in one with other kids in there too. She wants to control the bounce herself. But on this night she finally got up the courage to go in the one where there were mostly younger kids, like herself. When she first went in she almost backed out, but I was able to encourage her to quickly get back to the stairs so she could go down the slide. Once she found the slide, she was sold! Nothing was going to keep her out of there then!

Micah had fun trying out all 4 of the bounce houses

The kids got to play for about 45 minutes. I wasn't really paying attention to the time, as I didn't even know what time it was supposed to end. All of a sudden Ashlyn came up to me crying. The event was over and it was time to take down the houses. She was so disappointed she proceeded to cry (loudly) for 15 minutes while the houses deflated. There was no consoling her. By the time they were all packed up she had finally calmed down and decided that climbing on the packed up house was enough to keep her happy.

We were planning to head home after that, but we ended up meeting a family with younger kids and they invited us over their house to ring in the New Year. So we spent the rest of the evening at their house. Ashlyn was thrilled to find they had their own bounce house in the basement!

After all that jumping it was time for a little refreshment

The girls had so much fun together. Here they are pretending to go to sleep with their baby dolls.

Happy New Year!!!

 
With Christmas behind us, it was finally time to eat the gingerbread house. The kids had a ball tearing it apart.

To celebrate a new year, we checked out Oberweis Ice Cream shop, just down the street from our house. We were excited to find board games there so we could play while we ate.

Although the weather here is nowhere near warm by California standards, it had been quite warm by Illinois standards. With 50 degrees temperatures, we decided it was finally time to go investigate the park across the street. Micah and Ashlyn have adjusted just fine to this new weather - they were hot wearing just sweatshirts. I, on the other hand, was bundled up in coat and gloves, and I was still freezing!

On the way back to our house we saw this beautiful sunset. We've had several of them and they are amazing to watch from our front window!

Ashlyn was eager to be my mail helper one day. I didn't realize quite how high the mailbox is until I saw her reach up high to get it open. She did a great job though and was so proud of herself for getting the mail and bringing it in.

With all the beautiful sunshine, Micah decided it was time to open a hot cocoa stand. We were shocked at how many people stopped by (some were even driving by and stopped) to support his new business venture. He is quite the salesman - he waved at every car that drove by, and called to all the people who were out walking, seeking to persuade them to purchase some nice hot cocoa! He had so much success the first day that he was right back at it again the next day and made over $10 between the two days. His plan was to do this every weekend until it snowed. Unfortunately for his business though, the snow came just a few days later. But he was eager to trade in his business plans for some fun in the snow.

The kids were thrilled with a new addition to our kitchen - a movable island that functions as a breakfast bar for them. And I LOVE the extra counter space it gives me!

 

Micah was THRILLED to finally have the computer hooked up again so he could play his computer game. 21/2 months without playing a single game! Wow, that's a long time. He savored every moment he got to play this day.

Finally, this last week we got lots more snow so we took full advantage of all that nice powdery snow and spent much time outside playing in it.

While the boys were outside working hard to shovel the driveway, the girls worked on a special treat with treat.

Ashlyn even baked some of it in her own little oven

Working hard!

4 inches and still snowing

 The next day we headed outside for some creative spelling opportunities. Writing spelling words in the snow is so much more fun than writing them on paper.

Finally, Saturday came and with it an opportunity to head outside with Daddy. First we worked on ice caves out front, then we trekked over to the park to have fun sledding, and this time I brought a camera...

Ashlyn's cave became more of a tunnel

Micah's cave is big enough for the two of them!

Ashlyn got in on shoveling snow too!

On our way to the sled hill

Ready to head home and get some hot cocoa

Nathan got quite a work out pulling the kids around

Looking a little cold

When it snows, they will come... come outside that is. The weather has been cooler since we've been here, so we hadn't seen many of our neighbors. But once the snow started falling, everyone was outside together working on their driveways and it provided an opportunity for us to meet several people. Micah was very excited to find a few friends to play with on his little sled hill out front. The boys spent about 3 hours out there sledding, shoveling, and having snowball fights. So fun! And a wonderful answer to prayer!