Woodgrain Meetings in Mexico

 

For our shareholder meeting this year we all went to Cabo.  We also worked through the next phase of our Banyan Constulting stuff.  Sharee, Spencer, and Holly also joined us.  We played during the day and had meetings in the evenings.  It was a wonderful break from normal life and all the cold.

We took a day trip to Flora Farms where we got to enjoy the beautiful farm while learning to cook our own veggi tacos, salsa, guac, and tortillas.  It was so fun.  

Did you notice all the matching Woodgrain shirts? 

Dad wanted to go visit the beach where Grandpa Bud used to park his trailer and live on the beach.  I remember going there in 8th grade - it was very different now.  So many boats, people and tourist stuff.

I didn't take many pictures but it was wonderful to just hang out with my siblings and Holly.  We had lots of good chats.  

We also had random dinner assignments that matched us with different people each night.  It was a fun way to get to chat with my cousins and their wives as well as my siblings.

I did yoga every morning and got to watch whales as I exercised- So cool.

On the last day Greg went fishing with Kelly's family and caught this enormous marlin!  We were supposed to go swimming with whale sharks but the weather was against us and we didn't get to go so this fishing trip sort of helped ease Greg's sadness about the whale sharks.

We had a wonderful weekend and Mack did a great job of holding down the fort with all the kids!

February Moments

 Lily dressed up for the Father/Daughter Dance

Our winter had been a pretty steady cold temp so we enjoyed a glorious 55 degree sunny Sunday by pulling out the picnic blankets and playing Trivia Pursuit out on the lawn.

We went up to McCall with Wilfords and enjoyed our last ski days of the season.  Andrew spend a fair amount of time creating a "how to ski" video to go along with his speech for speech class the next week.  

Emily got really comfy waiting to connect with the other kids after we had gotten separated.

Who took my phone and took some glam shots?

She is 9!

 Hard to believe my youngest is 9 already.  Time goes too fast.  When she tries to curl up on my lap it is starting to feel a little awkward- but I'm not ready to be done with that yet.  Love my little girl who acts like a kitty, makes us laugh, and LOVES her cats.

She found this cake idea online and I have to say I think I did a pretty good job of recreating it.  She even helped with the leaves and bamboo.

She got a much needed ski helmet, church shoes, mini squishamellos, and a bunch of other treasures.  Love that little monkey - Happy Birthday Lily!

Winter Carnival

The last weekend in January we went up and enjoyed a sunny Friday skiing at Brundage.

Andrew and Lily worked out some special tricks.  We got really good at motivating Lily, cheering her on, and making things fun.

We weren't allowed to eat our lunch from home in the lodge so we were grateful for the sunshine while we ate outside.

We slept in Saturday and just enjoyed being together.  Our beautiful weekend happened to fall on Winter Carnival opening so we stopped at the sculptures on our way out of town Saturday afternoon.

Our favorite (and first place winner) included coral, ice sharks, scuba divers, and sea turtles you could sit on.  It was so amazing.

The kids didn't complain about stopping for mini donuts and lemonade from the street vendors as we headed back to Middleton.

January Fun

 Emmy tried out ski school this year.  She and I enjoyed a few beutiful days at Bogus skiing together.  It was so fun to just hang out together to to listen to our audiobook the whole way down and back.

But man, that line for the race is so long.

No one gets tired of this silly cat.

Wilford's didn't have school one Friday so we headed to the skating rink.  I stayed with the non-skaters and we bought some hot chocolate and ice cream (hilarious combination right?) to share with the others.  Val even spoon fed Lily as she skated around.

Then she enjoyed her own cup of ice cream when she was done.

Happy girl!

Off to McCall

We had to get up to McCall to ski before break was over.  Cousins swapped so we had a girls van with Val and I had a van full of boys.  We watched Mack and Andrew's indoor soccer game in Boise then hit the road.  Unfortunately, we drove through a snow storm the whole way.  The drive was slow and stressful and just to make it more interesting Luke started throwing up.  Luckily, I had a medical grade barf bag.  He nearly filled it up but I couldn't pull over becuase the snow was too deep.  He toughed it out till we hit Cascade and made a quick barf dump.  The poor kid felt sick the whole time he was at the condo.  We missed him skiing.  

 It was super cold that week so Kate, Lily, Rachel, Sammie, and Jared stayed at the condo with a sick Luke while the rest of us went skiing.  Toe and hand warmers saved the day since the temp didn't go much over 12 degrees but it was a lovely day.  The trees were covered in an incredible layer of snow.  We only did a half day but it felt about perfect.

Mack, Val, Andrew, Emmy, Abby

Mack had tweeked his back playing soccer so he only skiied a bit that first half day and spent most of the rest of the week in this bed - here Andrew and I are trying to get him to come join us for some fun.

We spent two days with Wilfords then they headed home and Greg joined us.  He took the 4 youngest kids into town to do the bumper ice cars- always a hit.

We were all going to ski on Friday but Lily barfed in the early hours of the day so Greg stayed home with her, Mack skipped out because of his back, and Kate opted out because it was still quite cold.

So Andrew, Emily and I ventured out on our own in Greg's truck and loved our half day of skiing.   With just the three of us we cruised down run after run, the cold might have motivated us to keep moving as well.  Around 3:00 we had to take a 10 minute hot chocolate break because Andrew couldn't feel his hands, but then we were back on the slopes catching one of the last chairs of the day.  We had a blast even though we missed the other kids.

That night we rang in 2021 with lots of sparkling cider and hours of the new show, All Creatures Great and Small.  Emily and Greg had just finished the book and the show was a hit with all the kids.

Saturday morning was -4 degrees when the kids went out to play in the snow.  They didn't last too long.  We did some clean up then Greg headed home with Kate, Mack and Lily.  Andrew and Emmy jumped in to help me get things cleaned up.  We decided to stay one more night - so we cleaned with the reward of  watching some movies.  The next morning we washed sheets, listened to church and enjoyed a peaceful, storm-free drive home.