Yard Work Day 1: Cutting down trees

We are starting to get our yard landscaped and today was the first big yard work day. My parents came over to our house first thing in the morning with their 6-wheeler and a chainsaw and we worked all day! Steve with the help of Jon, cut down probably around 30 trees that were either dead or needed to come out to make room for all the things we want to add to the yard like a shed, garden, playground... My mom and I moved most of the wood that was cut up for firewood to a big wood pile as well as we had a huge fire to burn all of the branches. We got a ton of work done, unfortunately it was just the first of many more long days that we will be spending out in the yard to get it where we want. We were so happy and grateful of my parents for helping us all day.

Skiing at Hatchers Pass

Saturday was a beautiful day and Jon was really wanting to take Kyla skiing up at Hatchers Pass, I was not looking forward to going because the snow was finally melting at our house and I was very ready for winter to be over, but I decided to go and we had a great time. Jon skiied up with skins on his skis, I snowshoed up and Kyla switched off between rides on daddys shoulders and hiking. We hiked a ways up to the old mines and then Jon and Kyla skiied back down. Kyla did well skiing and had a lot of fun. The weather was great and it was a n=beautiful day up in the mountains.

Playing in the water with Ethan

Ethan came over to play at our house with Kyla. The weather was nice and they wanted to get outside and play, we filled the water table up and went out to play. They had fun creating slush by adding snow to the water. They also had a lot of fun trying to skip rocks in the huge puddle from the snow melting, Ethan was even caliing it a pond because of how big it was. They had a fun day together playing dollhouse, playdoh, games and going to the park.

Today Kyla, Daddy and I went to the school park to play and ride her new bike. She has rode her bike around in the house a little since getting it last week, but had yet to ride it outside. I was very impressed with how well she did on it. Last year she rode a trike, but had a hard time with it, this bike with training wheels was much more what she needed. She did really good and even rode it around on some uphills and downhills and only had one crash. She would do a loop around the parking lot then get off to play at the park, get back on her bike do another loop and then back to the playground again...

It was another beautiful day out, after the park and bike riding we went to lunch, to the ice cream shop and back home where she played outside in the water table again and then we played card games on the porch. We are really enjoying the longer warmer days of spring!

Zoo Day

On Monday Kyla, my mom and I all went to the zoo. The weather was beautiful and our annual zoo pass was about to expire, so we figured it was a good day to go. Kyla always loves going to the zoo. She had a lot of fun I guess because the next day she was asking if we could go again before our pass expires, so we decided to go again on Thursday with Ethan and Ella too. Kyla and Ethan ran all over the zoo, while Ella was back and forth between chasing them and riding in the stroller. Kyla said her new favorite animal at the zoo is all of the owls, her favorite has always been the wolverine because he was so much fun to watch run around in his cage, but he died so she had to pick a new favorite. They also really like watching the snow leopards, one of them was licking his paw to clean himself so Kyla started copying him, then Ella and Ethan started to copy her, so all three kids and the snow leopard were all licking their paws to clean themselves! They had tons of fun at the zoo, after we left we stopped at the park to play and then went to lunch. We were not in the car five minutes before they were all asleep, and they all stayed asleep for two hours.

Spring Time!

We have been loving the warm weather this spring! I think winter seemed extra long with all of the really cold weather and all the snow, we had a record breaking amount of snow this winter. So the warmer temperatures in the low 50's have felt extra good this spring. We have spending lots of time playing outside, taking walks on a trail through the woods to the lake, walking to the school playground, going to the zoo...