What we've been up to SINCE Christmas...

Well, my last posts were from Christmas time with lots of pictures. I've been rather silent here for OVER THREE WEEKS now.
We've had company and a mini vacation so I'm going to use that as an excuse...and, of course, the baby is always a good excuse to not get anything done as well, but when you get right down to it I just never tackled the job of updating you all and posting more photos for you to enjoy on our blog. It just wasn't a priority for one reason or another although I THOUGHT about it a lot and PLANNED to post "later", you know how that goes. OK. Enough apologizing and explaining. You all know what I'm talking about and can probably relate. Now I am going to ATTEMPT to get this up to date by the end of this day!
First off we were graced with Mark's Dad's visit from the Czech Rep. He arrived on Dec. 31st and just left yesterday, January 21st. We had a very nice visit and were glad that he was able to come and be a part of our lives yet again. During his visit we all went on a week long journey from Jan. 5th to January 11th. Our first stop was to see my Grandmother, Maxine, in Springfield, Oregon. We spent the night in a hotel, which was NOT so nice! Shilo claims to have affordable excellence and we found that this is not always true. Some of their places are very nice but this was supremely SUB PAR! Oh well, it WAS affordable...but certainly no excellence involved in any way. So a big warning to anyone traveling to Eugene/Springfield Oregon...DO NOT STAY AT SHILO! Anyhow, we visited and had dinner with my Grandmother (who'd never seen baby Liberty) and my Auntie LouLou, Cousin Toby and his son Jude and Lou's husband, John. We had a nice, but too short, visit.
Thanks Grandmother~! It was wonderful to see you and everyone else.
The following day, Sunday the 6th, we headed to Newport, Oregon (where I lived from the ages of 13 or 14(?) to 17!). The PACIFIC OCEAN; the children had never seen the Pacific...the only real open water they'd seen before was the Gulf of Mexico when we were visiting Gram Jane in Naples, FL a couple years ago. The Pacific was a very different and MUCH colder experience from Naples. There's nothing like the Pacific Ocean, in my opinion! I love it. Anyhow we stayed at SHILO there and had a REALLY nice experience and they can truly claim a degree of excellence there! We visited the aquarium in South Beach which was really the highlight for the kids...and I think for me as well! We also went to Mo's on the waterfront for some clam chowder and seafood. I had my favorite; OYSTERS! Oh my were they delicious and I enjoyed a local Rogue beer to complement my meal. Azriel was told that if he ate his dinner we could go to the candy store, next to Mo’s, and get a treat. Well, in fear of NOT getting a treat like everyone else he shoved his food down his throat as we were about to leave and ended up throwing up all over from gagging on the food. Fortunately I caught most of it in napkins so that the other diners didn’t really see anything and none of it got on him! We decided then and there to never use eating all his dinner as a condition of some reward/treat. Big mistake. Oooops. Lesson learned. We let the waitress know and exited to the candy shop where Azriel DID get a treat.
After Newport we headed for my parent's home in Edmonds, WA. We had intended to stay there only 2 nights but ended up staying 3 because the Pass had gotten a great deal of snow. The children got colds again during our trip. That now brings the total of colds to 5, YES, FIVE! colds since the beginning of October (and one flu). Fortunately this was a really short one, lasting only a few days.
OK…I typed this out a week ago now and I still have more to add…but this is going up for the moment. More pictures, ETC to follow…
As I have time, which at present, I don’t. Chaos is raining down right now so I have to sign off…

The day of Grandpa Dave's Departure

Reading stories to the kids for the last time during this visit! Shortly after this picture was taken Grandpa Dave headed for Colorado to visit some relatives and then on to Naples, Fl.

More January...

This is quite obviously Avigail and baby Liberty who we've taken to calling fLiberty Jibbet (as of today!)

My silly boy and girl. Aziel is at that point in life where I have a difficult time getting a REGULAR smile out of him. It's all silliness when it comes to picture time!

Proving my point...

January Miscellany

Azriel and Liberty

Liberty and Grandpa Dave

Avi, of course...bundled to go out!

More Liberty Pics from Jan 08

Current Liberty Pics

We FINALLY got some snow around here! When all was said and done yesterday we had 8 1/2 INCHES!!! So, I'm claiming "SNOW DAY" Blogs out for play time and firebuilding. That's my excuse for NOT updating by the end of the weekend, as promised. So, now to the work at hand...I WILL steadily work as I have time on updating this here blog!
Anyhow, it's still white and COLD out there. We did some sledding at a local, neighborhood park yesterday. We offered to go to the store for our elderly neighbors but they didn't need anything...but we went to the store anyhow just for a fun drive. It was pretty cool because we'd had an ice storm the night before with 1/4+ inch of solid ice coating EVERYTHING and then yesterday morning the ice fall turned to snow and snowed until the evening. It was SO lovely. We kept the fire built and the house was toasty warm and cozy.
Mark's off to work today. I hope he doesn't have to drive anywhere too far away! OK...now, I'm going to finish picking out the pictures I'm going to put on here. That will take a while~but keep checking back...

Azriel & Avigail at the Darigold Cheese Factory

I'm working on posting a LOT of photos etc. from the last few weeks. As I was going through my albums though I couldn't help but put this one up right away! Anyhow, look for massive updating of the blog by the end of this coming weekend.