Spring Break

We had been planning on spending Spring Break skiing in McCall but because of COVID-19 all the ski resorts were closed so we just enjoyed the snow and a break from our house.

The kids spent a lot of time sleding and just exploring in the snow.  By the end of March the snow is pretty crusty and hard but we were blessed with a couple days of fresh snow.

Andrew broke Lily's little snowman but made her another one that she really loved.😀

Natali was headed to Utah on a road trip with friends but it was canceled minutes before our van pulled out for McCall.  She quickly grabbed some stuff and hopped in the car to join us.  Unfortunately, she failed to grab her snow clothes.  So whenever we went out to play we had to do a bit of sharing.  

We also made a lot of snowmen - this guy was made the day it snowed 6+ inches.  We named him Corona and the kids hit him with sticks, fists, kicks, you name it, till he came tumbling down.  It may have helped get a little frustration out of their systems.

By far the best part of the trip was our ongoing dare text war with the Wilford's.  They were going to come to McCall with us but last minute virus contact concerns (Natali's friend's sister was being tested and Natali had just spent some time with her - part of why the road trip was canceled) meant they'd stayed home.  We were missing them so we send them the first of many dares.  We dared one of them to eat a spoonful of mayo.  They send us video evidence of success and sent us a dare in responce.  Mack layed down in the snow without a shirt on.  Then we challenged them.  Back and forth it went.  It gave us something to do and made us laugh and scheme.  We loved it.  

Some of the best moments were:

*Luke, Sammie, and Jared eating spaghetti, Elf style, complete with Jellow powder, marshmallows, chocolate chips, maple syrup, and herseys chocolate syrup

*Jared asked the kids to step in the lake but it was still frozen so Mack and Andrew stripped down to just shorts and swam through the snow on the top of the swiming pool ice.  Hilarious and slightly painful.

*The Wilford's recreation of the Scott Sterling soccer video

*We had the Wilford kids all pick an ingredient for Val's sandwich.  Pepperoni, ketchup, tuna, nuttela, and hersey's syrup. Yuck.

Greg had been a out of town quite a bit before all the virus stuff shook out so each night the kids and I would watch Studio-C skits every night creating a list to eventually com up with the 10 best skits (we could only narrow it down to 15).  This continued in McCall.  We spent hours watching, discussing and voting on our favorite skits.  We calculated stats and revoted in different ways.  No one was ever completely happy with the results but we had a lot of fun creating the list.

        1.     Kyle Skits

        2.     Scott Sterling

        3.     Worst Ever

        4.     Hunger Games

        5.     Voldemort getting ready for the Yule Ball

        6.     The Smith's

        7.     Voicemail

        8.     Kindergarten 

        9.     Awkward Avoidance Viking

        10.   Country Song

        11.    Least Know God's

        12.    Lip Sync Battle

        13.    Great Brittish Baking Show

        14.    Crayon Song

        15.    To Kill A Mocking Bird

                Honorable mention: Apartment Alone, The Airplane Montage, So Lucky

It was hard to head home knowing we would be starting online school, quarintined at home away from other people.  

Another Wonderful Year of Skiing

This year was another great year for skiing.  We did one day at Bogus with Wilfords, two days at Brundage over Presidents day weekend and then skipped two days of school to ski in McCall with Iversons.  It was a blast.

My little Bob is getting pretty good.  She loves 45th Parallel and can handle any blue square at Brundage.

President's Day weekend we had two ski days and two snow days.  It made for an awesome weekend.  Emily and Andrew found a lot of huge icicles, made lots of trails in the snow and did a lot of sledding.  When tired of sledding Mack and Andrew decided to try skis.  Not sure it was worth the hike up the hill but they still did it several times.

Presidents Day was our best ski day all year.  Beautiful powder all over the mountain and Lily decided she was a rock star and started to follow Mack through the trees and off little jumps.  We were able to ski lots of runs all together and it was such a blast but a little bitter sweet.  I finally have them all skiing and next year Natali won't be with us.  I will miss how she takes Emily and challenges and encourages her to try new runs; how she can distract Lily when she's grouchy or overwhelmed. Love that girl!

This is one of Natali and Emily's brave adventures and a pic of Mack on Northwest Passage.

We loved our two days skiing with Iversons.  We missed the powder but the warmth, sunshine, and blue skies were amazing.  Mack and Natali couldn't miss school but the rest of us had a lot of fun.  We did a few runs all together and Lily and Anders had a lot of fun skiing together on Bear Chair.

Here is everyone skiing together on Bear.

Here is Hattie, Kate, Anna, Emily and Andrew.  They liked to take all the jumps on Bear.

The top of Main Street with everyone but Anders

Tip off

Tip-off is the girl ask guy dance for Middleton.  The dance was scheduled on the same day as a ski race so Natali asked her friend Bryce from ski team.  She tied this giant ski pass to his car.

His response poster was pretty clever.

In the end Bryce couldn't go skiing because of an injury so Natali went skiing with Ian, her double's date.  They just decided to enjoy their "day" date another time.  The weekend before the dance they decorated their shirts for the Glow in the Dark themed dance.  Then the night of the dance they did dinner and hung out.  They had such a great time and enjoyed being comfortable rather than formal at the dance.  They may have got a lot of attention for all their glow gear.

We got a late night doorbell ditch and Mack found this awesome sign and a bunch of balloons filled with jawbreakers.  Some of the candy had letters to spell Lindsay's name.  

He responded by writing "Yes! Let's kick it at Tip-off." on a soccer ball - can you tell they both like soccer?

They had a fun night and looked pretty cute- I might be a bit biased.

Lily Party

Lily's birthday this year was on a Tuesday so we partied on Sunday so we didn't have to miss choir (who complains about an early bday right?)

Silly girl wore her unicorn bathrobe over her church dress while she enjoyed the spotlight.  She got a doghouse for her doll's dog, some doll clothes, a sleepover at the Zoo and some stuffies.

She wanted a rainbow cake and she got it - I was super impressed with my layers and she helped with the skittles and marshmallow clouds.

Big 7 is the year for a friend party so she planned a Rainbow/Unicorn Party.  Like usual I forgot to take any pictures.  I took a few of the decorations after all the girls left and luckily Greg grabbed a few while they opened presents.  The girls had a blast.  They played ring around the unicorn horn with glow rings, had a rainbow scavenger hunt, played a Skittles game, enjoyed a silly string war, decorated cupcakes, ate hot dogs, and made unicorn horns.  It was a busy two hours.

Lily wanted balloons- lots and lots of balloons.  She wanted some helium balloons and balloons all over the floor.  She got pretty good at blowing up balloons.  In fact we left them floating around the house for nearly a month.  There were lots of balloons!

She loved having her friends Jill, Payton, Brooke, Ella, Libby, Sydney, and Austyn at her party.  Her favorite present was definitely her narwhal slippers.  They are so huge even Mack can wear them but she absolutely loves them.  

We all love our Bob.  She keeps us laughing, makes us smile and gives the best snuggles.