January happenings

January caption time:

In a strange warping of our world, Cambrie is the one wanting to hug McKenzie and McKenzie is the one squirming to get away.  Who are these girls?

Cambrie got to go snowboarding with her friend, Jacob. It was the first time she's been able to just go with a friend and I think for her it changed everything about the mountain.  (As a side note, Jacob is the main character in all of Cambrie's current stories, nemesis on the Scrabble Board, and senior assassin teammate.  This friendship has been a good one.)

 

With Kelton moving up to deacons, Daxton is left behind at Activity Days.  Luckily for him Dash and Oliver aged up this year too so he has a full crew of boy buddies.

Kelton's first information night at Westlake.  He and all of these other fifth graders look way too tiny to be going to middle school next year.  He is so excited though.

The boys built a ramp out on the street, and with Jeremy pulling them behind his Bronco they were able to jump it time and time again.

Daxton doing his thing and baking cookies for the rest of us.  Yummy.

And I guess this is how we wait for carpools and piano teachers in our house, standing in the window.

In flash of sentimentality we decided to watch Toy Story 3 for family movie night.  McKenzie's heart went out to Kit and Caroline who were sitting on the shelf in storage, and she just couldn't take it.  She brought both dolls out and dressed Caroline in every outfit she owns.  It was quite the fashion show.

Schontz's Cabin

We were invited by the Shontz family to go hang out at their cabin for the weekend.  Is was so much fun.  First of all, if Jeremy and I were to choose the absolutely perfect cabin for our family this would be it.  It was the exact right size in the exact right location on the exactly perfect lot.  Let's talk about dreams right?  The first night we all settled in chatting and letting the kids hang out.  We didn't see the teenagers at all unless they wanted to be fed, because they were having an epic poker game down in the basement. 

 

We spent the entirety of the next day out in the snow.  I started with a run.  Yes, brrr...

It was a cold weekend, but luckily we have experience with cold.  There is a sledding hill right outside their backdoor which was awesome.  The best part about it though was that no one had to walk up the hill.  Anthony has a cat that just pulled everyone to the top after each run. The boys' minds were blown! 

 Jeremy worked on a jump for whomever was brave enough to try it.  He did a great job and everyone took a turn.  We started with the sleds and they worked well.  

Once the run was fast enough we moved on to tubes which were so soft, yet much harder to control.  McKenzie and Kelton kept launching off backwards. 

And that tree house in the background?  That's where the boys got to sleep.

 When they were done playing they hoped in the hot tub.  I think Daxton spent three hours out there in the tub, jumping in and out for hot cocoa and swinging time.  

The adults ventured off to go snow shoeing.  The snow was so deep though in sections that we were up to our hips, and had to stay on trail.  We didn't make it very far.  

Anthony simply wanted to go find his targets so the guys could shoot.  Jeremy was able to use Anthony's scope which was a great new toy.  They also bonded over their perfectly cut gun foam pieces.

We are lucky to have friends who invite us to do fun things in fun places.

Trojan senior night

This wrestling season has gone nothing like Cambrie expected it to.  Even though she hadn't formally wrestled before this season, she has enough grappling skills that she thought she could do pretty well.  After her collar bone break, she simply couldn't wrestle while it was healing.  In spite of that she has dedicated herself to the sport, attending every practice and every meet, even though it means watching from the sidelines.  She's learned a lot about the sport and her desire to compete just keeps growing.  They honored the seniors at senior night and it felt wild to be walking out on the mat with her.  She really will be leaving won't she?  She's hoping that she'll be able to participate in a collegiate wrestling program so this hopefully isn't the end.  I'm ridiculously proud of the dedication she's shown even though the season looked differently than expected.

Seniors with their supporters.

I think we need to remind this girl how to carry a bouquet!

She helped at every meet, most often keeping track of the scoring. Now she knows what she's looking for.

Her senior poster next to the gym.  She looks pretty tough.

Daxton's birthday

The grandparents happened to be here on Daxton's birthday this year, which was great because we needed some serious help blowing up these monster balloons!  The biggest of them was so much fun to play with.  When we threw it through the air it moved in slow motion like it was defying gravity.  It was massive!  

We enjoyed his breakfast scone before school then finished up the day with his presents.  

The plan was to take the whole family to Skate City to go roller skating, but did you know that they are not open on Mondays?  I didn't.  So we improvised and had a video game marathon with his new game instead.  

Happy birthday bud!