What we've been up to...

Dan was stuck in Seattle during the snow storm last week. Dan finished his work 2 days early and was going to surprise me by being home on Wednesday. However, after waiting on the plane for 40 minutes the pilot told everyone Reagan National Airport was closed due to a snow storm. So instead of coming home on Wednesday he enjoyed some sightseeing. He escaped the Seattle Airport around 12:00pm and realized he had just enough time to fulfill one of his dreams...to visit Olympic National Park on the Olympic Peninsula across Puget Sound from Seattle. He made it to the park and up to Hurricane Ridge, one of the parks famous overlooks, just in time to be caught by the webcam at the top. Here's the picture (he is the figure on the snowfield in the background).

He came off the ridge about dusk and contemplated driving 1 hour west to Forks, WA. but decided not to because he is afraid of vampires and werewolves. Instead he turned around and drove to Bainbridge Island where he took the ferry back to Seattle, crossing Puget Sound again but in the dark. He said the lights of Seattle were shining in the distance and the stars were bright in the sky. It was truly an exceptional experience. He was glad to have had the chance to do it. He then went to the Seattle REI flagship store (which was three stories tall) and tried to exercise self control. He failed....

In hindsight, I am sooo glad he didn't come in that day or he would have been stuck on the GW parkway for hours on end. He was definitely missed! Abby looked out our back window for his car saying "Da Da" a zillion times! I took the kids out with me to shovel snow behind our garage. Jacob helped me shovel for a few minutes but then I was on my own and my back still hurts! Abby LOVED being out in the snow...although it doesn't look like it from her face on the picture above!

Jake has had a hard time going to school again this month. I just hate sending him in the front doors with a red-splotchy wet face from crying. I emailed his teacher a couple weeks ago to make sure Jake was okay once he got to class. Mrs. T told me that once he is at school he is happy and when she talked to him about it he said he hated leaving is sister(TESS)! I thought for sure we'd have a rough morning today after 3 days off because of snow but he was happy.

I recently had a parent teacher conference for Tess and couldn't be more proud of my girl. She is doing really well in everything. Here is what Mrs. Hicks wrote about her-- Tess loves life, she enjoys all activities...Tess is one of the kindest, most compassionate kids I've ever taught. She is a joy to have in class. Your great parenting is bearing fruit! It is all Tess!

Abby has more personality than her little almost 18 month body knows what to do with. She climbs on everything, gets into the trash regularly, takes her pants and diaper off magically, and talks constantly! She can't get enough of her Dad and loves playing with Tess.

Dan is loving his new car...that's right- his NEW car. On New Years Eve, Dan walked into the local Honda dealership just to see if they could make us an offer we couldn't refuse and they did. So we sold Dan's old Civic (in one day!!!) and bought a new Civic! We feel like we've lost a member of the family. The old Civic was 17 years old and had 240,000 miles on it and was still going strong but we (I) felt like it was time for something safer for Dan. This is certainly a change for Dan since the car has been in his life almost longer than me and all of the kids combined. He is looking to spend even more money on a house for us to buy here- if we can decide to actually buy a house.

That's what we've been up to- life is good.