Here’s what we were up to in January. We rang in the New Year with friends.

Andrew turned 15 the next day

Scott and Nicole visited us on the way back to WWU. Here they are trying out the Oculus

Look at all the pets together!

Making French toast

Phoebe loves getting pupacinos at Starbucks

Layla did a cheer camp and got to cheer at halftime at the girls basketball game

Pink hair!

A cute note from Layla

Silas had a great season playing basketball – Go Gladiators!

At the First Grade Toymaker’s Workshop

Nana went to New Zealand for a couple months. Here are a few pics from her time there

Here’s the rest of what we were up to in December. Of course we visited Santa.

Snow! Silas and his buddy, Ethan

Layla and Kennedy

Celebrating Silas’ friend, Justin’s, birthday

We went to see Cinderella at the Village Theatre
 

Silas had a choir performance at the downtown tree lighting  

Dinner at The Club with Grammy and Papa

December Bunco

We lost power for 24 hours, just long enough for it to be fun and not too much of an inconvenience

Layla had her gymnastics Devo Demo   

Avery and friends at the pass

Kieron and Virgil baking gingerbread cookies

College campus tour with AVID

More baking in preparation for Christmas

Christmas morning was pretty chill with just the eight of us.


 

The boys got an Oculus for Christmas and let Grammy and Papa try it out.

Christmas Eve was a little quieter than normal this year. Nana is in New Zealand for a few months, and the pass closed both ways, so the Avery’s of Pullman couldn’t make it over either. So it was just us, Grammy and Papa and a ton of food. We made the most of it though, and had a good time celebrating together.

These two played a lot of cards together

Avery and Papa, sharing time together on the piano
   

Because Uncle Scott couldn’t be here and Layla is old enough to recognize her dad in a Santa suit, we were left with a Christmas Eve crisis! Fortunately, our amazing neighbors pulled through and Santa still showed up. Let the magic live on!

“Do you see Rudolph?!”

Papa and all the animals

Avery and Silas, trying out the new gaming monitor

In 2020, the Varsity XC team started a holiday party and scavenger hunt tradition for team building during covid. It must have been such a bummer not really having a season at all. Anyway, last year was our first time being part of it and the kids (and parents) had such a fun time! The son of the family who traditionally organized it graduated last summer, so I decided to take over the tradition for a while. Mother Nature had other plans in mind and threw a bunch of snow and ice our way, so the 5-6 mile run turned into a 3 mile hike in snow boots. There were ambushes by XC alumni and Bigfoot. Then everyone came back to the house for dinner, dessert, and a white elephant game. It was a fun night!