January 2012

So, it's been a while since I added anything to our blog.  Or looked at anyone's blog for that matter.  But, I still will update when I get around to it.  Today is that day!

So, this is from last Christmas, but due to the picture below, it deserves a mention here.  My friend, Genni, and I headed off to the Woodland Park Zoo with 7 kids in tow.  And yes, the lady at the ticket counter did comment on our kid to parent ratio:) Although, I should note, one of the kids above is Genni's niece, but Genni has since had a baby, so she really does have 4 now, so it all equals out:)

No, your eyes are not decieving you.  This really is a picture of a snake eating a mouse.  Right when we walked up to the snake exhibit, they were getting ready to feed it lunch. (Luckily for us, we had already eaten).  The mouse was already dead when they brought it in, but it was still amazing/disgusting to watch the snake eat the entire mouse.  Quite an education for us all:)

I still remember when we lived in Saettle for our summer interniship, and someone told me that it doesn't snow in Seattle.  I wish I remember who it was, so I could go back and ask if they were crazy.  It might not snow the entire winter in Seattle, but both winter's we have lived here, we have had snow.  At first it is alot of fun.  The kids love to play out in it, and Dave and I love living in a place that does have all four seasons. (As long as the snow melts in a timely manor, that is, haha)

Here's Dylan nailing Daddy with snow down his pants:)

But, Dave got him back:)  All in good fun.

No playing out in the snow would be complete without a snowman

And of course we had to go sledding on our friends street.  How many kids can you fit on a inner tub?!

The snow got considerably less fun when our power went out.  For about 15 hours. And we kept hearing horror stories from people who lived here 5 years ago when the power went out for 5 days.  The temp got down to 50 degrees in our house.  For dinner, Dave got out his little backpacking stove and boiled some water for hot chocolate and instant oatmeal.  The only reason you can see everyone in the picture is due to the flash on the camera.  We had candles around and a fire in our fireplace, but it was pretty dark.  Luckily, we were able to watch a movie on Dave's laptop, before it ran out of battery power. 
A couple of things we learned, make sure all phones and computers are charged up during a time of possible power outages.  By the end of the night, both mine and Dave's cell phones were dead, and Dave had to back the car out of the driveway, to turn in on and charge our phones a little.  Also, we need to get a larger camp stove to cook on.  We were just so excited when the power came back on as we were going to sleep that night.  Yay for heat and power!  In all the years we have lived in snow, this is the only time we have lost power.  It certainly made for an adventure!