Nothing but Pictures

I'm in over my head with life right now and I've got nothing left for blogging.  Nothing bad is happening; it's just a lot of different things pulling me in different directions and it's left me with  absolutely nothing extra.   I can't do creative.  I can't do stories.  This post is basically just a picture a day from the last week.       


February 23: One of our favorite youth activities of the year is ice skating and my kids love it.

A noble try for a diet friendly lunch from California Tortilla, but alas, it was way better looking than tasting.

February 24: Rain, rain, rain.

February 25:  Beautiful sunrise on the way home from dropping Emma off at seminary.

February 26:   Despite the fact that we've had these crazy good looking cupcakes sitting around our house for the last few days, I've stayed strong and haven't had a single bite.  And if you knew how much I like frosting, you'd know that that's actually a pretty big deal for me!

February 27:  Glen went to Colorado for the weekend to see Cami play in a lacrosse tournament at CU in Boulder.    His mom and dad also came, which was extra fun for Cami and Glen.

 Glen misses the mountains.

Cami scored two goals.  

February 28:  We had a wonderful New Beginnings program tonight.

I absolutely love these girls!

February 29:  It was  a beautiful spring-like day, which called for reading a book while hanging out of the sunroof (in a parking lot) and going for a quick walk around the block.  

Apparently it's also time for Adam to get his hair cut.  

Ice, Ice, Baby…and a Frog!

We walked out of church yesterday, the first time we've had church in 3 weeks, and found our car completely encased in ice.   I rolled down the window in an effort to start getting rid of some of the ice and had to laugh when this happened….

Thankfully the roads weren't actually all that bad and we arrived home safe and sound.   The sidewalks and driveways, however, were another story and proved to be the most precipitous part of our trip.    School was cancelled yet again, and it was easy to see why when we woke to this sight in front of our house….

Even the snow was encased in a shimmery layer of ice...

Cami had fun demonstrating the slipperiness of conditions for all you dear readers.  

So we decided to hunker down and do what any crazy homeschooling family does on a snow day...

Dissect earthworms and frogs.   

The kids have been literally BEGGING me (especially Cami) to do it for weeks, and I finally relented today.  I was happy to have kids old enough to be independent about it, so I could just be the supervisor printing off diagrams and showing them videos about how to do it.  

They still have some more school work to get done, then we are all going to sit down and do a little "homework" getting ready for Spencer's Make-a-Wish trip that is only one week away!!!!!!

Any more guesses?   

We are so excited!   

Link to join our team

Youth Ice Skating Activity 2014

A lot of people assume that with my Minnesotan heritage that I would be good at winter sports, but truth is, I've been skiing and/or ice skating approximately 3 times in my life.    And during one of those skiing trips I was accessory to a plow-over of an innocent bystander when mine and my friend's ski braking techniques (the snowplow?) lacked a little in the direction department.    In other words I am pretty much as oxymoronic as a Minnesotan as a Hawaiian would be who doesn't like the water.  

BUT despite my snow sport inabilities….

I sure had fun helping to plan an ice skating activity for the youth at our church.  

The youth let us know that they love ice skating, but it was going to end up costing way too much to take all of them to the local outdoor rink.  My counselor and I put our heads together and figured out that we could rent out the rink for the entire night, combine with a couple of other wards (congregations) and could have a great inexpensive, but very fun activity.

Tuesday night was the night.  

We carpooled up to the Reston Town Center Ice Pavilion...

and had a fun night. 

 

You will not be surprised to know that I kept my feel solidly planted on cement covered surfaces the whole night...

and enjoyed my role as ice skating photographer.

There were a few minor injuries...

but all in all, a very fun night was had by the youth and adults alike! 

And I am proud to say...

that all these native warm(er) weather Virginians...

including my own children...

are much better skaters than I am. 

And that's probably a good thing, 

since this long and cold winter (by Virginia standards) isn't done yet

and they may all be skiing or skating to school this coming week!  

More Ice Pictures

Here are a few more of my favorite ice pictures from today. 

I took my camera with me and was shooting pictures everywhere we went.  In the grocery store parking lot, at the church, after pulling over on the side of the road, etc.  We were enraptured by the beauty of the glistening icicles and although the temperatures hovered just above freezing all day, I was not disappointed that the ice took all day to melt off the branches.

Now they're predicting  3-6-inches of snow for tomorrow and school is already canceled....an announcement which was welcomed with much rejoicing at our house.

If the forecast actually pans out, it will be the first time in nearly three years that we've had more than 2-inches of snow.   

Ultra-cool ice creations from the ice storm notwithstanding,  the kids are exceedingly excited about the potential of some decent sledding and snowman building.

That and another day to sleep in and you won't find anyone at our house complaining about the weather!