view from our bedroom

Hadley's bed used to be here.

view from Seila's side of the room toward door

Now the master closet is gone and the bathtub from the hallway bathroom.  This is the view from my bed.

Bathroom remodel has begun!

We did it! We gutted the bathroom!  This is the one from the hallway.  We're not going to rip into the master bath yet.  In a couple of days.  I'll add pics as we go along.

Justin and I got home last night from a trip to San Diego with friends. We had a great time. The weather was not as warm as we were hoping for but warm enough for a little sunburn after riding bikes for 4 hours.Some highlights were:

Mon:  Wahoo Taco's for lunch. Walk down the beach to World Famous for dinner (about 1 mile).

Tues: 10:00 session at the San Diego temple (so incredibly beautiful!). Lunch at Old Town Mexican. Mormon Battalion museum in old town. Bit of shopping. Kimberly and Dan met us at our beach house for steak dinner and playing on the beach.

Wed: DisneyLand. Cheesecake Factory for dinner.

Thurs: Rent bicycles. Breakfast at Konos. Ride bikes until about 1. Hang out at beach house then shopping. Early dinner at PF Changs. National Comedy Theater. Bogart Yogurt for dessert.

Fri: Pack up and check out. IHOP for breakfast. Movie "Unknown". Airport.
Snoqualmie pass was slow going on our way Monday morning but even slower to come home Friday night. When we finally got home, we discovered that we picked up someone else's bag. Now trying to figure out how to return it to them.
While we were gone, Kai had his MS wrestling end-of-season party and received the MVP award! Seila went to the HS sports banquet on Monday night with her sub parents, Greg and Erin Pike. She also had New Beginnings for mutual on Wednesday, also with substitute parents.

The kids had so much fun here with Erin. One of the many highlights was pancake day. She also took them swimming at Grandma Kay's house and hot tubbing at Allred's. They really had a vacation of their own right here with Erin and Greg.
This morning is Zoe Noftle's baptism at 10. Then Justin is going to take the kids to Basin City to see the goats this afternoon. I'll stay home, I think, and try to get the laundry done and work on Heidi's baby quilt. I might take Seila to Moses Lake. She needs a few things and I left the curling iron in San Diego so, I need a new one.

New Year

So, I finally changed the video at the beginning of our blog.  It's about the new year and not looking back.  I'd love to know what eveyone thinks about it.  So, leave your comments!

I've been terrible at bloggin lately but I'm really going to try to keep up again.  Of course, I can't remember all that I wanted to blog about.  So now I am only able to blog what I do remember which really isn't very much.  I always say that and then I go on and on about everything.

Santa left a letter on Christmas Eve that said he thinks it's time for the kids to learn to ski.  So, he helped us find a weekend to take the kids for ski lessons.  Kai is going to learn to snowboard and the others will learn to ski.  We are going to hopefully borrow some equipment.  If you wouldn't mind lending some to us, we'll take good care of it, I promise!  Rentals are $30/day per person.  Ouch!

Seila started drivers ed classes in the evenings.  She turned 15 in December so she was eligible for the class that started a couple of weeks ago.  I absolutely can't believe it!  We took her in to get her learner's permit and forgot to take the birth certificate with us.  So, we had to go back a different day.  Justin took her a few days later and forgot to take the application that states she is in the class.  So, he had to go find the office for the driving school and get a new application.  Then she was able to get her permit.  She can only drive with the instructor or one of us.  I took her out on Friday to run errands here in town with me and I let her drive.  She had stayed home from school that day because she was sick.  Whe was feeling better by the afternoon so I took her with me.  She had never drived a car before.  I have to admit I did feel a little panicky once we were actually sitting in the car with her in the driver's seat.  To make a long story short, when we arrived back home, I was very glad that we had signed her up for this class and that she will have almost an entire year to practice driving before she is on her own! 

Kai had his first 8th grade wrestling tournament on Thursday.  He did very well.  I'm always nervous until the first match is over.  He pinned his opponent in both of his matches.  It looks like it might be a great season for him.  Only time will tell.

Hadley was in the Red Rock spelling bee on Friday afternoon.  She was the first one up to spell and the first one to get out.  Her word was plumber and she forgot the b.  When I went to give her a hug after it was all over, she started crying.  She was so embarrassed to be the first one out.  It bothered her all day.  She kept talking about it after she got home.   She says she got teased a bit too.  She seems to have gotten over it though.

Kale's just so funny.  At dinner today, we were talking about a boy in his class.  I mentioned that I think the boy is a funny kid.  Kale said he didn't think so because he is the funny one.  Apparently only one of them can be funny, not both.  We couldn't help but laugh.

Justin and the boys went clamming on Friday.  They went to Friday Harbor.  Clamming is something new for us and they wanted to see what it was all about.  They only brought home about 20 clams but all of them said it was fun and we should all go.  I think we might try to go next month when the kids have a day off of school.