With the big Community Awards Luncheon behind me and I think safe to say, a resounding success, we headed to Bend/Black Butte to see Grandma and Papa and Corey and Zoe. It was a lovely trip from which I hope to post more photos as soon as Zoe can find a way to rescue them from the camera holding them hostage. We got to see the new property Grandma and Papa bought (lovely!) and spend some good quality time in Zoe's Grandma's beautiful house in Black Butte. We snow-shoed, cross -country skiied and Elena and Michael got to play in the snow a lot with Papa and Zoe.
But with the best laid plans come oogies and Elena got a pretty nice stomach bug complete with all the joys stomach flus bring, so our skiing dreams were squashed and with snow in the forecast for our drive home, Ryan made the call to leave an afternoon early and avoid a more difficult drive. Though we gave it a valiant effort, the kids were possessed by car demons and we made it a sad few hours before stopping in Klamath Falls, for what I have to call, a fabulous evening, complete with a suite in which the kids could cause mayhem, dollar beers for our own mayhem and a free breakfast with which to complete the picture. It was a short-lived respite though because the darn car demons returned and took over young Michael's body for five solid driving hours. Yes, the lad cried for five hours. It was an indescribable day. Thank goodness for the nice trip to soften the overwhelming need to whack the lad upside the head.
Following that weekend was my gal's trip to Napa and with that bit of lovelieness behind us, we are in March and patiently waiting for March 17-18 when we get our own backyard paradise (for which, incidentally, we hired a personal trainer to whip us into shape. We're a month in, much stronger and some pounds down).
Elena is getting sassier with every minute, proving herself to be a very normal five-year old drama queen. She has these long moments of sweet accompanied by whining, crying and arguing about...well, everything. The thing about her arguments though, is that they are hysterical and I can't help being proud of her wit and vocabulary. "Can we have a conversation about this, Mom?" Or when she was lying over the toilet after her umpteenth barf, she said, "I just want my normal life back, Mama." And my favorite? "I am going to extract myself from this." Really, kid? Most adults don't know how to use that correctly and she did. I'm sure it's a fluke, but I'm jazzed on it nonetheless. And sweet Elena still says lovely things like, "I love the smell of my Mama, or thanks for staying up with me all night while I 'throwed up,' Mom. " She is my favorite little girl in all the land.
Michael has some new goings-on with new words and phrases like, "I love you (I yew), and dinosaur (di-so)." He is so darn cuddly still, even spending chunks of time putting babies to sleep and giving kisses. He even put a pillow down next to Bentley (Corey and Zoe's boxer) so they could go 'nigh-night " together. But at this moment, he's taking swings at Ryan and puffing out his lip when Ryan scolds him with a stern voice. Oh, sweet Moses, you're cute, buddy. You're a stinker in the making, but you're darn cute.
And that should sum up the month for now. Here are some photos and a video to illustrate Michael's incredible pipes, but that'll wrap up this long overdue entry.
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