Eye of the Tiger

The kids were out of school for Veteran's day and I wanted to get out of the house so I invited my mom (there was no way I was doing this by myself) and we were off to Tiger Mountain. A little ambitious, considering it is a 6.2-mile (10.0 km) hike, round-trip, with an elevation change of about 2,000 feet. However, I was determined and it wasn't raining (at the time)so we were off!

The kids all wore poppies, in remembrance of those who had died since WWI

Ethan started out walking, he was a trooper!

We had done this hike several times, always turning around halfway up the mountain. Somewhere along the way, it was decided that today, we were going to the top!

This looked like a great place to rest...

This hike was tough for the kids, but we had a goal! And we finally made it to the summit, which has a beautiful view of Seattle...except it was starting to rain and we couldn't see a thing! Still smiling though!

So, after a celebratory picture and an orange :> (we hadn't planned on going all the way to the top, so we were running really low on food) we turned around and headed back down the same way we came. Only with rain.

The kids were pretty proud of themselves and we were all starving so I treated them to a real celebration at XXX Burger!

confused?

I started out with some of the more recent posts and am working my way back and post dating so you know when it took place...so if you don't see any recent posts, try going back in time :>

Star Wars

Our house has been invaded by Star Wars.  Darth Vader, Luke, Princess Leia and others are now frequent visitors.  May the force be with us!

Snow Days

We are going to be going to school until July the way they have been cancelling school.  For the second time this year they cancelled school without snow on the ground.  They were worried about the storm that was coming and it did come for the second day that school was cancelled.  In two days I went from 84 degree weather to 26 degree weather, that is quite a swing. 

Maui

I haven't been to Hawaii since high school and Shawn had never been so for a mid winter break Shawn and I and our friends the Hatches flew off to Hawaii for some much need R&R. However, we didn't do much resting but we had so much fun!

We went to a luau for Valentine's day and were treated to dancers from many of the Polynesian nations.

Then we ventured up to Hana, finding many must see "unknown" waterfalls (thanks to Marissa and Maui Revealed) and I did not get sick *gasp*!!!!

The rest of our days were filled with snorkeling, beach hopping, tennis and whale watching!

A couple other favorites:

- snorkeling with a huge sea turtle at Black Rock

- black sand, red sand and little Big beach

- Darrin's thoughts on the true meaning of love

- 8 truly wonderful days in Paradise...can't beat that!

Greensleeves

Jada is growing to be a beautiful ballerina! She danced to Greensleeves which is one of my favorite songs and she is so full of grace that it is really fun to watch her dance.  Here are a couple shots of her dancing:

And for after the recital, ROSES! :)

Blackboard scratching

Have you ever heard 120 4th grade kids playing the recorder? It was definitely hard not to cringe but it was fun to see the kids trying so hard!