Superhero Bikers!

{Thanks for the new masks and capes, Auntie Kim!}

Great Wolf Lodge

The last weekend in January, John and I were leaders for the Great Wolf Lodge weekend with the Youth Group. I'm kicking myself for not getting more pictures of that weekend, but we had a blast and made some great memories!

Memories like...
Riding down in the back of the bus with singing 9th grade girls. It was a party back there.
Water slides and wave pools
Mint chocolate chip brownies and "The Eye"
NVBC sharing time
7 girls sleeping in 2 queen beds the last night of the trip.
Dancing with the kid's dance party in the lobby Saturday night - The girls were so sweet with all the little kids!
And most of all, quality time to really talk and get to know everyone better. 

Mistake #1 of the trip was volunteering to ride down on the bus.  :-/

A few of my girls.

John's group: discussion over dessert.

Worship time.

Undecorating

Boy, I'm finding all sorts of pictures I had forgotten about!

These are from early January - taking down the kids'  Christmas tree. I had just opened my new camera and ahhh.... it is so refreshing to have non-blurry non-iphone pictures.  :-)

John's Birthday

January 23rd, we celebrated John's birthday!

The kids and I spent the morning with Great Grandma.

It was a rainy trip to the park. We literally walked in the gate to the park and turned back around. The kids just liked carrying their own umbrellas!

After James' school, the kids helped decorate for "Dad's birthday party".

Birthday dinner and cupcakes.

(Not naming names, but someone got sneaky with the cupcakes....... )

 Then we drove down to the Seattle Boat Show with the kids and Will and Devon. John chose his birthday present there. Ha. Hahaha. ;-)

I am so thankful for such a respectable, loving, playful, and understanding husband. He makes my job easy.

He is a man's-man who teaches our boys to work hard, play hard, and be tender and sweet to their sister.

He adores his little girl and will do anything for a Bethy kiss and a "Da-eee". (Soon, Beth will learn how to work that to her favor!)

John is all about his family. We all feel so loved and protected by his self-less focus on what is best for us as a family unit.

John is the most driven, go-getter I have ever met. His goals and dreams seem crazy at times, but I know by now that he'll make it happen. It's what he does.

Love you, Walt.  ;-)

Happy Birthday Old Man!

The Faces of Nate

Nate is Mr. Expressive. Mr. Personality. Mr. Emotionally-Transparent.

I took these pictures back-to-back. They make me laugh.  :)

Cabin Weekend

January 17th and 18th, John and I had a fun weekend away with some friends at a cabin over in Plain.

It started snowing at the cabin as soon as we arrived on Saturday. It was beautiful - big, slow falling flakes covered the ground quickly. Cabins in the snow are the best!

Emily, me, Adrienne

We spent the afternoon and evening in Leavenworth. We hit the brewery and played a lot of Jenga, we did a couple of wine tastings, lunch, dinner and Rob made an epic drive over the pass to meet up with us.

One of our goals for the evening was to find a good place to watch the NFC Championship game on Sunday. We found the spot where the locals watch the game and ended the night playing Foosball there.

On Sunday, we watched the big game with (I'm not good with people-counting) 50? 100? other people.

It was really tough to watch, especially in an environment with such a "diverse" crowd of fans. But the last 2 1/2 minutes of the game was SO much fun. The place erupted!!

Sunday night, we hung out at the cabin, watched movies, and accompanied Adrienne on her "polar plunge" in the river. Crazy Adrienne!

Good memories. Great weekend!

Bethy's Few Words

This was back in January, but I recently found it on my phone.
Bethy makes us laugh.  :-)

Monster Trucks

For Christmas, Uncle Reed and Auntie Katie got the boys tickets to see Monster Trucks at the Tacoma Dome.

On Jan 9th, the guys all headed down for the show.

Gravedigger jumping

The boys had a blast! James' favorite monster truck is "Gravedigger" because it was the winner and Nate's favorite monster truck is "Zombie" because it had arms that flop all over.

Nate with Zombie

The kids played with their toy monster trucks for at least 2 weeks straight after that.

They'd line all the cars on the side to "watch the jump show". One truck was the judge and he handed out trophies to trucks that jumped the furthest. 

I'd say it was a very memorable night!

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve 2014 was the best.

John put together a Vegas Casino murder mystery party. We had dinner, drinks, 3 game tables and *gasp* a murder. I was a waitress, "Bette", and John was the casino operations manager, "Vic".

Everyone definitely got into their roles and made the night a huge success!

I have to add this picture just because it makes me laugh.

The kids were with me when I was shopping for a New Year's Eve dress. We were stuck in this little tiny dressing room in Macy's trying on outfit after outfit. They did great, but I had to laugh.... I hope the other people in the fitting rooms were laughing too.  :-/

"James, quite voice please."
"Bethy, no touch."
"Nate, stop licking the mirror."
"Boys, let's not completly lay down on the floor, this isn't your living room."
"Bethy, can you find something that is blue?"
"James, is it Nate's turn for a game?"
"Nate, I said stop licking the mirror."
"Bethy, eyes in here, we don't want to be rude."
"Shhhhhhhh....."