Random Phone Pics

It's amazing to me when I go back and look at my phone what pictures I find! The girls will frequently get a hold of my phone and can access the camera without having to unlock the home screen. I've found quite a few fun selfies, lots of lego pictures, a few videos of the girls talking to themselves, and some random pics of the furniture in our house!

Annaliese's hair is getting so long! We've had fun braiding it and trying out some braids I've found online!

Playing with hair chalk

These two were home from school for a few days with some sort of bug that left them just wanting to sleep all day!

Lazy dog!

Haleigh's class led chapel earlier this week (Haleigh is wearing the pink/white/black coat)

Haleigh and Lydia laid out their clothes before hopping in the shower!

Ice cream date to Edaleens!

We went for a hike on Gold Mine Trail out in Everson one afternoon. The girls had all spent the night at Kelsey's house to celebrate Mallory's birthday and I met up with her, Grandpa and Grandma, and Kim and Thane for a muddy but not rainy hike! Kyle wasn't feeling well so he opted to stay home.

Grandpa and Lydia

Mallory

This was the face I got when I asked for a smile

While the girls were with Kelsey, Kyle and I took the opportunity to go out on a date. We went for a hike at Larrabee and went out for dinner. 

Snowshoeing

 Annaliese's basketball game was on Friday this past weekend, which meant we had an entire Saturday with no plans. We really enjoy cross-country skiing, but the girls have outgrown their skis and we just aren't quite set up for that right now. But, I was able to grab a few pairs of kid-size snowshoes off Facebook Marketplace so we headed up to Mt. Baker for the day. 

Usually, we make sure the weather is going to be just perfect because we want to set ourselves up for a successful day, but this time we just went because we had the time. It rained off and on for the entire drive, but we were optimistic that the higher up we went, the higher the likelihood of getting snow instead of rain! 

Cuties! Everyone is happy now that we stopped for lunch!

And thankfully, we were right! For most of the day, we had huge snowflakes and very little wind. Overall, the girls did a pretty good job. We aren't quite sure how far we went- Kyle's GPS tracker said 5.5 miles. Mine said 4 miles. 

We went on the White Salmon forest service road; it was mostly downhill for the first half, with a steep hill at the end to what was probably a very pretty overlook. It was too cloudy to see much though. Somewhere along the way, Lydia walked out of one of her snowshoes; thankfully the snow wasn't very deep and she didn't even notice! Since it was an out-and-back trail, we found it on the way back.

Trying to build a snowman.

Our view at the top!

Despite the crying and all of the 'I can't do this' and 'I'm never going snowshoeing again' comments, once we made it back to the van, everyone said they had a good time!

January

January has been off to a great start. We were all ready to get back into the routine of school, of our morning walk to the bus stop, and to see friends again. We're back in the routine of basketball practice, piano, and Small Group, and we added an Acro class for Haleigh to our schedule!  

We've had some incredible sunrises recently. 

Several of our friends have had babies recently and Haleigh has been asking if she can hold one of them. Here is Baby Bea...she's 7 weeks old and such a cute little peanut!

Annaliese has such incredible hair!

Grandpa and Grandma will be leaving soon for their trip to warmer weather, so we are trying to fit in a few more fun activities before they leave. Last weekend we all got together at Kim's house for dinner and game night. We had ourselves a ping-pong tournament (Grandpa won,) Spoons, and a handful of other games, plus some rather spicy but tasty Green Curry for dinner.

This game of spoons started with 12 people playing...Ben and Kelsey made it to the final round.

Wrapping up 2022

 The last week of 2022 was filled with a few more fun activities. I took the girls to Summit Trampoline Park to meet up with a few of Haleigh's friends. We made a trip out to Birch Bay, spent some time playing with our Christmas presents, and wrapped up the year with a New Years Eve Day hike with Grandpa and Grandma. 

A grey day at the beach.

We got this puzzle for Christmas...the girls and I spent a long time working on it together! (And then knocked part of it off the table and had to do it again!)

We hiked the Y Rd trail to Stewart Mountain. Parts of the trail were a little muddy, but overall it was really nice to get out and get some fresh air. 

And with that, we wrapped up 2022. We were in bed by 9:30pm...because who wants to start the new year off tired?!? We are jumping into 2023 with excitement about what the year will bring, about the way that God is going to work in and through Blue Shirt Coaching, about our trip to Mexico in April, and how God is going to use each one us.