comings and goings

This first part of 2016 has been fairly uneventful in our world, which is nice.  We've had work, and school, and back to the usual routines.  With a little bit of fun sprinkled in...

this guy is officially reading.  And I caught him up early one morning, reading to himself in bed.  LOVE it!

 My brother celebrated a bit of a milestone birthday the week after New Years, and darn it that his current timezone is 9 hours ahead of ours, and between his work day and ours we couldn't even connect via phone to wish him a happy day -- but instead we made ourselves a Moscow Mule in his honor, and sent him a text.  Modern day technology I tell ya.  Hope your day was marvelous Derek!

Eddy worked a weekend -- so we hung around the house a bit, Kaitlyn changed clothes 15 times in a 3 hour span, and then we took off for a bit of exercise.  

Queen of clothing 

hawk spotting with his new binocs 

 And the other day that weekend when Eddy was working, we visited my dad (mom was out of town) and took a bike ride near their house, just for a change of scenery.  St Mary's College is about 2 miles from my parents house, so we rode (I ran) up the trail to wander around the campus a bit.  It really is pretty.  

checking out the statue of Father De La Salle

Ryan the photog

As we were heading home from campus, we stopped at the fields to watch a game of rugby.  Man were those guys muddy!  But it was super fun to watch.  The kids found it rather hilarious.

We also finished our quest to watch The Return of the Jedi, carried over from our vacation week.  Ryan had received the Lego Star Wars book for Christmas from his North Carolina friends Aiden and Court, so he very enthusiastically followed along while we watched the movie.  It was so cute.  And he pretty much hasn't put the book down any other day either...

Eddy and I were granted the freedom (thanks a million times over to my parents for helping with the kids!) to hit the slopes on a weekday that we both had off work.  It was mostly sunny, the snow was perfect, and we didn't wait in one single line.  A perfect day.  

smiles from the top of Mt Lincoln chair at Sugarbowl

yet another costume change for the little miss.  I can't tell you enough how many times each day this happens.  Please tell me, oh friends that are moms of little girls...this phase will pass, right???  Please?  

And finally, this past weekend, it rained a lot.  And we didn't do much.  But we did manage to take a day trip down to San Jose and took the kids to the Kids Discovery Museum.  It was crowded, and not as great of a museum as others we have been to, but it definitely kept us entertained for a bit.  Once we hit overload point, we wandered outside and the kids had a great time hugging the huge elephant/mammoth and running in the open space, before we headed over to have dinner with some good friends who live nearby and we rarely see.  A great way to spend a rainy Sunday on a 3 day holiday weekend!