Skating Finale

The kids finished up their skating lessons this week. They can all make it around the rink safely now and feel a degree of confidence in their abilities (some more than others)

On Abby's last skate lesson, Frosty and Mrs. Snowberry came to visit and talk to the kiddos.

Abby got her ribbon for completing "Tikes 2" Way to go Abby!!




Elise worked very hard during practice to be able to do her crossovers to pass level 2
a
Samantha and Ethan were a bit less willing to not have both feet firmly on the ground and got "Participation" ribbons.
Ice skating can't be everyone's "thing", right??



Nice job Kiddos!

Bryans take on Bachelor

On Feb 6 Brad's brother Benji and his wife Shawna flew into town to go skiing for the weekend. So Saturday morning just Brad and I headed up to Bachelor with Benji and Shawna. It was nice to leave the kids behind and not have to worry if they were cold or hurt, or waiting for them to get down the hill. We spent awhile together going down one of the little hills and just before lunch Benji and I left Brad and Shawna to go explore some other runs the novices could go down.

It was a beautiful day: little wind, blue skies, warm temps and not bad snow. They couldn't have picked a better weekend!!

Brothers
Brad in his crash helmet :-)
After lunch Benji and I scouted out a few more runs and then took Brad and Shawna up one of the bigger chairs, and they made it down... eventually. I think their confidence is better now, and next time they'll conquer that run like it was nothing :D
It wasn't really until the end of the day when I finally kinda got my groove back. I figured a really hadn't been skiing "for myself" since I've been married because I was helping Brad learn how to ski, or my kids. It was exhilarating to be out there again and can't wait to go back!

Dr. Gingerbread

This is actually a flashback from before Christmas, but I got such a kick out of it I wanted to share. At school the kids were asked to make a gingerbreadman, and have it say something.

Here is Abby in front of the bulletin board .

Here is Abby's up close it says

"I am a Pathologist"

(we thought the spelling was pretty close for a Kindergardener)

Gettin' the boot

No, I haven't died. I joined a local gym's "Bootcamp" and it is pretty intensive. The class itself is only 2 mornings a week for an hour, but there are exercises and stretches we have to do every day at home, tracking calories, food logs, group hikes, homework articles to read and report on as well as mandatory get togethers, so that we get to know each other and become a support to one another. This has taken up most of my free time (especially in the evenings) and since I am up early to be at the gym for 5:15, I've been going to bed earlier too. Not too much time to blog. But I have stuff to share, so stay tuned. I'll hopefully get some of the fun stuff up next week (since Benji and Shawna are visiting this weekend I doubt much will get done this weekend either)

This is our fearless leader Matt and he is a great motivator and totally makes the workouts fun and is a great support, and won't let you "Fight for your right to suck." I have promised to "surrender to the process" even though it is hard. I will keep you posted on how it's going. This beginner bootcamp lasts 4 weeks, then there is a bit of a break followed by 6 weeks of "advanced bootcamp" (if I graduate :D)

Hoar frost

Sunday we woke up to the most BEAUTIFUL hoar frost!! The conditions have to be just right to get hoar frost, so it was a real treat!

The frost was so thick! I've never seen it that thick!

While some of it had melted by the time we got home from church, our tree in the front gets a lot of shade, so I was able to take a few more pics before it melted away.

SO BEAUTIFUL!

Eugene!!

While Samantha was off practicing, we decided to have a little fun and explore Eugene. We ended up spending most of Friday on the University of Oregon campus.

It was a chilly morning and had to wait for 10 minutes before the museum opened so we decided to keep warm in the neighbouring law building, where I took a few pics of Elise.

We ate lunch at the cafeteria where the kids got the CHEESIEST grilled cheese sandwiches I have ever seen!!
Abby was excited! She called it a "double cheese"
We spent a couple hours at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, which was heavy into geology, but we also got to see the worlds oldest sandals (around 10,000 years old!). The kids were actually the first to try our their new hands on geology exhibit and meet the lady who had created the exhibit.

Staying up until 11:30pm the night before and waking up at 5:45 caught up to the kids around 2pm and they all had a quick snooze in the car


Refreshed about 20 min. later we took the kids to the art museum on campus.
The art museum was installing 2 exhibits (so the exhibit halls were closed), so we got a short version of the museum, but it filled our time nicely.
There was a LOT of Buddhist art and the children's area was all centered on Buddhism. Here are the kids coloring pictures of Buddha.
I saw these in the Museum store and LOVE them!! They are exactly the colors I want to do my kitchen in. Alas, they were a bit expensive, but great inspiration!!
Since we were at the University of tree huggers we figured... "when in Rome" and gave a hug to this HUGE tree.

After all the tree hugging we headed over to Samantha's concert which was enjoyed by all.

We stayed both nights at the Super 8 in Eugene and the best thing about staying in the hotel is hotel beds that mom doesn't care about!!

Once we were ready on Saturday morning we headed off to.....

THE MALL!!

This was the 2nd time we've been to a mall since we moved to Bend a year and a half ago (the last time was almost a year ago) Who knew it could be so exciting to go to the mall??

(Clearly not quite as exciting for Brad :D)

After our mall trip we head over to the ice rink to skate on some real ice, on a real ink and had hoped to get Brad some laces for his skates, but they were sold out!! We had a good time though, and we were able to get Samantha's skates sharpened too.

We headed home around 4pm and Ethan and Abby drove us nuts doing their various renditions of the following video...

Isn't that funny? Not so funny though when you're trapped in a car for over 2 hours with kids going crazy and repeating "Char-lay, Char-lay" over and over again!! :D

We survived though and got home safe and sound.

Such an honor

Last Thursday Samantha headed out to Eugene (2.5 hours west of Bend) with a friend around 9am to be there in time to begin practicing with the other 149 members of the Oregon Middle School Honor Band. It was really an honor to be chosen as one of the top 150 middle school band members in Oregon, and even more prestigious to have been selected one of the top 14 flutists.

The students rehearsed together for 10 hours in their 26 hours together (including an over-night stay at the Hilton.) Phew!

The result was a wonderful 30 min. concert

Here are a few samplings for you to enjoy:

Samantha said she was exhausted when it was all over, but that she had learned a lot and had a great experience. We are very proud of her and how hard she works on her music.