Bring on the New Year!

We ushered in 2016 asleep.. woo hoo big party animals! I caught Colter's virus and sounded like a middle aged man. I was super sick for almost two weeks. The combination of being pregnant and Colter starting school and bringing home all kind of bugs has not been very pleasant.

Ben continued the Polar Bear Plunge tradition this year. Always a bit of work to drum up some supportive plungers, but this year he roped in Dale from our old community group, and Cale, our old neighbor. They were both first time plungers, so we will see if they return to the craziness next year!

I did make it to the annual girl's spa day.. although I had a crazy coughing fit on the massage table that made things slightly embarrassing. I get so much joy out of this event every year. It is amazing to me that all of my sisters and my mom live near me and also that we really like each other!

We got a tiny bit of snow but because of our steep driveway that doesn't get any sun, Ben was actually able to sled down. Colter and I made a teeny tiny snowman that was melted within hours. Colter's biggest joy was shoveling the sidewalk. 

I found a make your own volcano kit at goodwill which was a super score! 

Maddie is so into babies right now. She is always feeding her baby, rocking her baby, taking her baby to the doctor. I can't wait to see her become a big sister. I just know she is going to be amazing with him. I haven't been great about taking belly pics, but here's one I took to compare with my friend Adelle. 

I took Maddie to the children's museum when Colter was at school. It's so odd just having one kid with me, but I love being able to focus on doing whatever she wants to do!

For the cousin's Christmas gift, I had the three "bigs" over for a sleepover. We had a blast! We did a puffy painting art project, made our own pizzas, made ice cream in a bag which was a total flop (thank you Nana for bringing mcdonalds ice cream with you!) and we watched some sean the sheep. The kids went to sleep really well.. besides little rascally Maddie who demanded she sleep on the blow up mattress and then was up all night. I love the bond that our kids have together!

Ben was out of town in California for the weekend for a funeral of one of his close childhood friends. It was such a devastating and unexpected loss. I think it made both Ben and I have a very strong reality check to really cherish life and those in it. We missed him so so much and were so glad when he returned safely. 

We picked him up from the airport and enjoyed some red mill burger. 

I have been missing doing adventures with the kids with our school schedule. It's really hard to motivate the kids to go anywhere since we are in and out of the car so much during the week. I was super motivated on this day and we had a fantastic time at the fremont troll and at Kerry park.

Playing stories with these two cracks me up. Maddie always wants to play some sort of girly story like dolls, princesses, babies and Colter usually wants to play a story where there's a signficant problem, a dam breaking, a flood, lightening storm, wearing the wrong spacesuit and getting too hot, etc. He pretty much always wants something wrong to happen to me. "Can you pretend you ran out of fuel? Can you pretend it didn't work? Can you pretend you didn't get evacuate in time?" Blending the story ideas of these two is quite interesting. W e have a lot of people missing trains, princesses visiting building sites, demolition crews knocking down the doll house after a flood, etc. 

As a reward for having a good school day, we went to eat at Menchie's afterwards. We were so relieved when Colter had so many good school days after returning from school break.

For my Christmas present, Ben organized a weekend away with Adelle. We both sent each other giddy texts as the days got closer, and soon it was here! We stayed in an amazing rental house right in downtown Fairhaven. Jayna and Lindsey joined us Friday night and stayed all the way through Saturday. We had such a fantastic time! We felt so spoiled having two nights away! 

Friday night we went out to eat at 8:30 and were so proud of ourselves for being up so late. 

On Saturday, we went out to a great breakfast where we all feasted on a ginormous cinnamon roll and then I was too full to eat the actual breakfast I ordered!

We got pedicures, the other girls painted pottery, and we went for a beautiful walk along the bay.

Man what a precious jewel these friends are. We don't see each other a lot because of different schedules, but when we get together it's like no time has passed. I'm so thankful for the laughter, genuine conversation, and closeness I feel with them.

That Sunday happened to be a Seahwaks playoff game, so our hubby's drove up to Jayna's house and we met them there. Poor Seahawks couldn't pull it off, but we still enjoyed our time together, and quickly moved to celebrating Jayna's birthday and forgot about the loss.

I've always been curious about a lake that is just south of Bellingham, so we got off and explored the area on our drive home. Again, we went from having whiny kids, to amazing moods, just with a simple walk in the woods. We have to come back here this summer and explore some more!

Colter is starting to make some academic progress. This was one of his first independent attempts at writing his name.

When we were in Bellingham, we talked about going out for Mexican food and then ended up choosing something else. I couldn't get chips and salsa out of my mind so I convinced Ben to go out for our date night!

We had a follow up ultrasound to check on the baby's kidney, and much to my surprise, the ultrasound tech turned on the 3D imaging. It took my breath away and made things so much more real to see this guy's face!

Ben's grandpa passed away, so we went down to California for the memorial service. I have so many special memories of his grandpa. He and Zona have always welcomed me with open arms. Glenn always had some unique story to talk about and had a great sense of humor. He loved our kids dearly. I will always remember our visits to California, playing games and sharing dinner together. It was so special that Ben got to grow up with a grandparent close by. He will be missed.

Colter wanted to wear his spacesuit on the plane, and so many people got a kick out of it. I think we should have been paid some marketing referrals. 

On our first day, we went to his grandpa's interment at the Riverside Cemetary. 

After the service, we went back to the train museum that we went to on our last visit. Both of the kids got to enjoy it this time!

One of my favorite parts of the trip was picking fresh oranges every morning and making orange juice!

The next morning we went to the local dam since dams are Colter's current obsession. 

Glenn's service was that afternoon, followed by a reception. I really enjoyed getting to talk with some of Ben's extended relatives that we never see. 

Oh boy did we enjoy the warm sunshine!

That afternoon we drove down to San Diego, where we stayed at a rental house for the next few days. That evening we met up with my aunt, who was visiting my cousin, who just moved to San Diego a year ago. We met up at my favorite place in southern California, Coronado. 

Our favorite day of the trip was our surprise trip to Legoland. When Colter knows about things far in advance, he tends to build things up and get a lot of anxiety. Some of our best outings have been when we just show up to things. When we pulled up to the parking lot and he saw all the legos, he was so excited. The day turned out way beyond our expectations. Because of the time of year, the park was literally dead. We also had a special pass that let us bypass any line, when there was one. The rides were perfect for Colter's age, and he even tried a roller coaster! I was so so so happy when we walked out of that park. 

This was his face when one of the lego characters came out to "open" the park

This was the first ride he picked, and he did it three times in a row. Pulling a rope up a crane.

Because there were no lines, we could repeat rides as much as we wanted. Poor Ben had to do this fire fighting pumper truck challenge three times in a row. Colter drove the wheel, but Ben had to do all the work to get us to the other side. The third time is a charm though, and we finally came in with a victory!

This picture cracks me up every time. There was a water ride that had water cannons on the outside of the ride, so when people passed by, you could shoot them. The sad part was, is that the water cannons on the boats couldn't reach the people on the outside shooting them. Colter thought it was hilarious and Ben and I were secretly dying of laughter every time he totally soaked some unsuspecting victim. I love his stance. So into it!

I think we rode this ride 4 times!

Colter is not one to desire to be in pictures. I thought it was so cute that he wanted a picture here to show Maddie. 

Maddie had a fantastic time with Gigi and Grandpa at the zoo. They saw all kinds of animals that we don't have at our zoo. 

We saw some incredible sunsets! We ate take out at Carlsbad fish and chips and took in the last few minutes of sunshine. Ben had one of his life dreams come true when he saw the "green flash" for the first time. The green flash is when the sun hits the horizon on a cloudless night. 

We spent the next day at the beach. It was so warm the kids were in swim suits! I only packed jeans and long sleeves shirts because I couldn't comprehend that it could be so warm in January! Thankfully Ben found a random store that had some pants I sort of fit in to! 

That night we caught one more sunset and indulged in some tasty ice cream.

Then it was back to our normal routine. We got family pictures done and then Ben and Colter went to the boat show, where they spent HOURS looking at boats!

Maddie and I played at the park, and did a costco trip.

January ended up being quite a busy month! Only two more to go before our life really changes!