Snow Day!

 Just like most everyone else in the region, we got dumped on with snow! We probably have 2 ft. in the last 48 hours but it's been pretty windy blowing it around,  so it's hard to tell. Anyways- we've been enjoying it :) Hayley's been so happy to get out throw snowballs, constantly asking to build a snowman. (really fluffy snow though so the snowman didn't work out)

 ....she got stuck thigh high in snow.

We even played on the playground since she was all bundled anyway.

Then we got bored and made out first fort :) She was very excited to play under the sheet. Even thanking me for making a fort for her 

"That's so nice. Thankyou mommy a making a fort a me."

Christmas Part 2

Christmas Eve we drove down to Gearhart to spend time with Skyler's family. It just happened we were able to be there while all of his siblings came and went, overlapping at points. It was great to see nearly everyone. Considering it had been since Easter since we saw some last. The kids especially loved to see all their cousins. 

Sadly I didn't capture any photos of actual Christmas day...

But the days following we had lots of fun.

 

Since it's whale watching season, as the whales migrate down south these next couple weeks, we went up to Ecola State Park to see if we could spot any. I thought we did at one point..but we're pretty sure it was just some rocks that happened to break the water at just the right point.

Cute little light house that always makes me wonder, how did they build it way out there?

 We went to the arcade...

 There is a large herd of Elk that like to frequent Skyler's parents neighborhood. They are such amazing creatures!

As tradition, we took a picture in front of Camp18, a local logger restaurant about 15 min out of town. Great food, and lots of it. We got a similar shot last year on New Years with all the cousins. 

(Minus Milena :( they already left)

On our last night we planned to stay at Skamania lodge on our way out of town.  However Skyler's parents ended up needing to come into Portland anyway the next day and offered to keep Hayley overnight so we could have a date night! We had such a great time relaxing. We stopped in Portland, did some shopping and ended up here, at Bridgeport Brewery for dinner. It was delicious! Then we drove the 45 min to Skamania Lodge in the Columbia River Gorge.

The Hotel was huge and brimming with people and activities. We ate breakfast at their in-house restaurant- so.good. Then we drove back to Portland to Ikea for a quick stop while we waited to pick up Hayley from Skyler's Mom. 

We had such a great time visiting both families and seeing so many family members and friends. For our last week off, we enjoyed it together in Pullman, getting things done and relaxing in preparation for our last Semester to start. Yay!

Christmas part 1

 As students, we have been enjoying long Holiday breaks with plenty of time off to amply visit both our families for each Holiday. We are so excited to be done with school this May, but I'll admit it was hard to imagine not having 3 weeks off for Christmas and a whole week at Thanksgiving next year. Our first week off, we enjoyed spending the good part of it with my parents and family in Kent.

We went to Zoo lights...

 Hayley and her cousins rode the Carousel

 The lights at the Zoo were awesome, I'm not sure I've ever been to  Zoo lights. 

Even though it was freezing, we had a great time.

 On the 23rd we ventured up to Bellevue for dinner, and the Snowflake lane Drum line show. 

Due to long waits for dinner we didn't get the excellent spot on the bridge like last year but we still enjoyed the music.

 After Snowflake lane, we came home and had a mini Christmas together before we left for Gearhart the next day.

 Logan, excited about the Monster hat I made him-

 Adriana, wasn't sure about how to pose, but was excited about the owl hat. Since oddly enough her school doesn't allow any hats that don't cover the ears, this one she will be able to wear!

I made this for my mom, I think she like it :)

We had a great time in Kent, Grandma Forbes even stopped by for a few minutes. We made cookies, shopped, played games, caught up with friends and enjoyed family time.

Snow Day and Pre-Christmas

Because we attend a student ward, and alot of the members travel home during holiday breaks, we had our Ward Christmas party the first week of December. Unfortunately Skyler was working at a wheelchair BBall tourn. so he wasn't able to come. 

Hayley wasn't so sure about Santa, she didn't cry though once she saw I was going to stay with her. It also helped she was being handed a candy cane during the pic.

 Creative silly girl, always coming up with new uses for the stool.

It snowed! This year has been a lot different than last year, when it was snowing nearly every week. Since Thanksgiving we've gone almost a month with clear sunny (below 40degrees) days. 

Hayley and I went out and made the best of it. It wouldn't really pack together for a snowman but we had fun.

A friend gave me this cute Monster hat the night before- perfect timing! Since she didn't have a hat yet this year. 

 She loved playing on the snowy playground.

So...Hayley's been a early riser lately. We're talking 5:30-6:30am at the latest.  One evening I was wrapping presents I came in and found her like this. Just chilling half in the laundry basket watching Caillou.

 Because we will be traveling for Christmas day, we decided to have an early Christmas with just our family. Logically it didn't make sense to pack our gifts to eachother just to unwrap and pack them home again. 

We got Hayley an "Ok to Wake" alarm clock. It lights up yellow during the night and changes color when it's ok to get up. (like a silent alarm clock) It has alarm capabilities, but really, I'm pretty sure we don't that quite yet.

This is her gift from Santa...she was excited I swear!

We teamed up with the North Pole, Santa gave her a wooden train set and we got her the farm/animal car set to go with. She.loves.it.

We also went to the Women's Cougar basketball game as a family last night. It was also Native American recognition night which was also cool. Since it's break, there weren't too many people there in the Coluseum so we got to sit really close. Hayley really like watching the game, spotting Butch seeing the dancers.  At half time they had a neat Native American song with drums etc. They also had all the Young women in the area tribes come in their Native dress. Like Miss Yakima Nation and so forth. That was cool.

We're excited to celebrate Christmas with family this week! 

Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving Break!

 Hayley and I went to Seaside for a couple days before meeting up with Skyler and traveling to CA. 

While we were there, we went to Port of Play in Astoria. Hayley enjoyed it, they had a cool nautical boat kitchen and Astoria fire truck along with lots of other stations.

 Before we took off, we got to go see Skyler play basketball. SO cute! 4 on 4. They did great.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house, my sister's family and my Aunt Becky's family came too :)

It was quite a feast.

It was also my Sister's birthday! Happy Birthday!

We drove home Saturday after a week full of fun, but before we left we went to Seattle to watch Adriana run the last segment of her Kid's Marathon!