Snow Day!

We had our ONE snow day of the year to welcome in 2016.  We didn't have much snow, but we enjoyed getting out and playing together in it.  Beverly didn't like the snow that much, but everyone else did.  We are thankful with our long driveway that we actually don't get snow very often.  Yay, for snow!  

It is Sunday, so we only went to one hour of church and then everything was cancelled. Of course school was cancelled the next day too and then we had late start the following day.  Washington has a hard time with snow. ;)

 

Adalyn 

Beverly enjoying the snow when she first went outside; once her little hands got cold she was done.  

Audrey 

Adeline's big snowball.

Talmage was gathering snow with the trashcan. 

Joseph shoveling. 

Handsome T. 

Beverly is over the snow.  :(

Adorable Joseph 

Adalyn's snow angel.

Joseph follow along.

Sisters making a snowman.

Our little snowman. 

Student of the Month

 Talmage earned the student of the month award for the life skill of Caring!  We are very proud of him and the wonderful young man he is becoming.  His classmates actually nominated him for this award which we thought was really awesome.

Talmage continues to love to read, play with his buddies Aidan and Oliver, he's doing awesome on the piano, and create things.  He loves to make things out of cardboard, tape, and of course legos.

Talmage is a wonderful son and fantastic big brother!  We love having Talmage be apart of our family!  Way to go "T"!

Receiving his award.

Proud Mom and Talmage.

Mom, Beverly, Joseph, and Daddy all cheering Talmage on!

Snider Time

We decided after our Seattle trip to head an hour north to Camano Island to visit our Snider family - Uncle Phil and Aunt Donna, and Gordon's cousin Stacey's family.  We had such a fabulous visit and were all wondering why we have taken so long to get together.   

Joseph loved playing trucks in the gravel and all of the kids LOVED playing on the tire swing. Uncle Phil, Gordon, and Chris (Stacy's husband) worked for about an hour getting the rope up in the tree.  They were successful and had sore arm the next day, but not ego's.  We had so much fun meeting Stacey's kids, Jakob and Fiona; they are our closest cousins.  Then the kids also got treated to ride Uncle Phil's horse Tropper.  We look forward to our next visit!

Playing in the gravel with Aunt Donna

The guys trying out the tire swing

Joseph, Fiona, Adalyn and Jacob

Having fun on the tire swing.

Fiona and Joseph; so cute!

Getting really high.

Stacey and Adalyn having a cuddle.

Audrey showing her new gap in her mouth.   

She lost her seventh tooth while in Seattle.

Talmage on Trooper with Uncle Phil leading.

Audrey, Trooper, and Uncle Phil

Adalyn, Trooper, and Uncle Phil

Audrey, Joseph, Trooper, and Uncle Phil

Woodland Zoo

We had an awesome visit to the Woodland Zoo in Seattle.  We started out by feeding the Giraffes which was so fun.  It was so cool seeing their long tongues up close and really being so close to a giraffe.  The kids really enjoyed feeding the giraffes and it was a highlight of the day for me personally.We enjoyed seeing all of the animals and we even got a rained on in true PNW weather. The zoo is also VERY large, so we got our exercise too that day.

 Another highlight was feeding the Elephant.  In the feeding you couldn't be as close but it was still really fun, and that's the closest I've been to an elephant before.  The elephant even posed for a picture which was really fun.

The kids also had a chance to make poo paper out of elephant poo.  To make the paper they cook the poo to get rid of the bacteria and then they are left with what looks like hay.  Then they mix that with wet recycled paper, squeeze out the excess water, and then you have elephant poo paper.  Adalyn was apprehensive to put her hand in the bowl know their was poo involed, but Talmage and Audrey didn't hesitate.  

I love having fun family activities with our family and learning/experiencing at the same time.  

Talmage feeding the giraffe.

Joseph

Mommy 

Daddy

Audrey 

Adalyn

The bronze hippo.

I love the bronze statues they have at zoos.

ADORABLE Beverly; she loves being no the go with the family.

The gigantic bear.

Our monkey's

Monkey Adalyn

Bear cave

So cute all looking at the animals.

Having fun on the elephant.

Talmage

Talmage by a real elephant skull.

Audrey feeding the elephant

Adalyn

Joseph

Talmage 

Mommy 

Daddy

One happy gang.

The pose from the elephant!

The majestic jaguar

Turtle Audrey

Turtle Audrey 

Scooping out he elephant poo and paper mixture.

Rolling all the excess what out.

Adalyn rolling her excess what out.