No school

What do we do on a non-school/non-work day in February?!  Well, I wish I could say we went skiing, but there's no snow and it's been acting like Spring all month, so went to the park (yes, in shorts, it's 55 degrees in Idaho ;)!!  A trip to Costco for a cheap lunch date will suffice too. ;)

 

Love these two!!

 

 

 

Invisalign

After 10 years of my teeth shifting (the joys of getting older!), I decided it was time to do something about it.  18 weeks ago I started Invisalign to fix my teeth and it turned out to be one of the best things I've done for myself! I'm so happy to have my smile back!!

 

 

BEFORE

 

 

AFTER

 

 

Blue & Gold banquet

 

 

 

 

Blue and Gold was a success!  This was my second year in charge of it and after last year's stress of planning it, I learned my lesson to delegate more and simplify!  Our theme was "Mexican" and we had a nacho/taco bar, two piñatas, a cake eating contest, and a photo booth!  The boys had a blast (especially with the pinatas), and that's most important!

Mr. Bill Gates

Austin has been working very hard for the last 8 weeks in his Challenge program on his famous person project.  He chose Bill Gates and did a tremendous amount of research, writing, and learning about Bill Gates.  He also created a poster, a tri-fold brochure, a timeline "wheel", and wrote a speech to give in the presentation to all the parents!  He even looked the part! What I loved most though were his reasons for choosing Bill Gates. He didn't choose him because he was a billionaire, he chose him for his creative and genius mind and for his philanthropic efforts across the world.

 

I am so proud of Austin.  He works so hard in school and continually blows us away with his smarts.  This kid is going places!!!

 

 

 

SF Girls Trip

A couple of months ago a few girlfriends and I schemed up a surprise trip for a friend's 40th birthday to SF. I had already planned on going out for my 6 month scans/doctor appointment, so why not bring a few friends with me?!  Well, it turned out that the friend (who was turning 40) couldn't go, but we decided to stick to our plans anyways.

 

Our 3 day trip to SF was supposed to have torrential rain the whole time, but somehow we lucked out and ended up having hardly any rain at all!  We spent Thurs in the city sight-seeing: Coit Tower, China Town, Fisherman's Wharf, Union Square, riding bikes FOURTEEN miles from the Wharf across the Golden Gate bridge and back, riding a trolley, and our favorite part?  Eating our way through the city, of course.  We had breakfast at Mama's Café (probably the best breakfast of my life), ate loads of delicious fresh salt water taffy from Pier 39, had lunch/dessert at Ghiradelli's and stuffed ourselves silly with the most amazing Mediterranean food for dinner at Kokkari.  Of course, the best part was actually celebrating clean scans once again (4.5 years!) while in the city.  I am so grateful and blessed beyond words for continued health and remission and LIFE!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday we drove down to Carmel, which is a 2 1/2 hr drive from my parents.  We had a little rain, but not enough to put a damper on the day (or sights!). 17 Mile Drive along the coast from Monterey to Carmel was spectacular to say the least, and eating and window shopping in Carmel was heavenly.  So many amazing art and photography galleries there!   We even went and dipped our feet in the ocean!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday we headed back to the city to do a little more sight-seeing, but at a little slower pace this go-around.  We strolled through the Japanese Tea Gardens at Golden Gate Park, went to the famous "Painted Ladies" (the Full House row of houses) at Alamo Square, ate lunch at Pluto's (the best salads), drove through the Haight/Ashbury and Mission districts (always a cultural experience), and stopped for the ice cream at Bi-Rite Creamery for some unusual yet delicious flavors such as Orange Cardamom and Honey Lavender.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, it was such a fun and therapeutic trip with these amazing girls!  We laughed, we cried, we had some deep conversations, and enjoyed having time together.  I feel so lucky to have such great friends and examples in my life!



McCall Winter Festival '15

We decided last-minute to escape the inversion in Boise and take a jaunt up to McCall for the Winter Festival, where we were greeted by blue skies!  It was such a beautiful day!  We walked around downtown to see the different ice sculptures and then walked out on the frozen lake and ate a picnic lunch.  The boys loved "ice skating" on the lake and we had fun watching people fall all over the place (including one epic fall by myself!)!

 

We then met up with some friends to go sledding at a local hill and got pizza after.  It a perfect day!