Fisher Pond was frozen!

We've had a pretty fantastic winter this year on Vashon.  Temperatures have hovered around 35 degrees most of the time and it's remained sunny and blue most days.  We've enjoyed a few days with snow, built a snowman and watched the temp drop into the 20's. Fisher pond froze with the cold weather.  We are told that the pond really only freezes completely every 5 years or so.  The ice was pretty thick everywhere and the pond is only 4 feet deep in the deepest spot so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and skate. 

 

 This sign, frozen in the pond was what greeted us when we got there.  I love the laid back attitude the island has.  It's nice to see we are not restricted from it, but can make our own decision.

 

 There is a family on the island that brings 30 pairs of skates out for people to use for free.  Avery, Alia and I were all able to find a pair to use.

 

 Grab a seat and lace up.

 This was both Avery and Alia's first time skating and they did great!

 No crowds here!  The pond is about 1/2 mile wide and there were about 10 people there so we had lots of room to skate.

Scott was having a blast zooming around in his skates.  The pure joy on his face was fun to watch.  

Annual Friends Weekend

This weekend we flew to Wisconsin for the annual friends weekend.  It's been 5 years since we have all been able to get together.  These girls and their families are golden.  30 plus years of friendship makes them feel like family.  We had so much fun laughing, playing games, and sharing stories.  The kids said it was their favorite vacation they've ever had.  Alia's favorite part was playing sardines.  Sardines is like hide and seek but backwards.  One person hides and then as you find the one person, you squeeze into their spot and hide with them until only 1 person is left to find everyone.  It was quite the feat trying to squeeze 5 adults and 3 kids in a bath tub.  Avery loved playing Telestrations with everyone and playing ping pong.  I am truly thankful for Irene, Janna, Sarah and their families and feel so rejuvenated.  I am also thankful for stand-by flights at the last minute.  It was easy to fly in this time because flights to Milwaukee were wide open right after Christmas and it was a short drive to Janna's.  Alia and I were even upgraded to first class on the way home.      

The next generation of friends continues! 

 It's important that the peppers are pretty!

 The game Speak Out is so funny!!!!  Try wearing dental mouthpiece that won't let you shut your mouth.  The goal is to get your team to guess as many of the cards as they can in a minute.  The words that started with b, p, f, w, and s were really funny and so hard to understand.  

 

 Looking good Scott!!!

We were able to celebrate January and February birthdays together. 

Happy New Year!!!

 Poppers are always a favorite at midnight. 

She's only happy when food is involved.

 We had a great night playing games and eating fun finger foods.  There's nothing better than bringing in the New Year with family.  

Christmas at Home

We spent Christmas Eve making gingerbread houses with friends.  It was so much fun to see all of the different creations the kids created.

Alia used a green circle for a wreath, a candy cane for the door and andes mints on the roof.


There's a lot of snow on Avery's roof!


That looks tasty!


We went back to Angie's Christmas tree farm on Vashon and cut our tree down again this year. This was the first year we had a fir. 


This year Venus tried to pull the branches off of the tree.  Luckily each time I caught her and was home.  My only guess was there are a lot of fir trees in our yard and lots of branches fall down in wind storms.  Avery and Venus always play tug o war with the branches in the yard and Venus wanted to continue the fun inside. 


I made my first real wreath this year with friends. 


Santa came to visit the kids.


So did his elves Happy and.....


Goofy

She asked Santa for a stuffed Santa this year.  She was very excited when she got it.

Avery got dye-free gum balls for his gumball machine from Santa. Venus is helping open the gifts.  Every Christmas she can be found in every picture trying to see if the gift has food in it.  This year she even went so far as to start ripping the packages open.


We had snow for a few hours a few weeks ago and the kids raced outside to build a snowman before Wilderness.  The temperatures have been so cold lately that it took the snowman 3 weeks to melt.

Deception Pass

This year my friend Sacha and I signed up to run our very first ultra trail race.  We signed up for the 25K at Deception Pass State Park in Washington.  It was a beautiful trail race that took advantage of the amazing views that the park as to offer.
 

 
See the bridge in the background?  We started where we are standing and ran over that bridge during the race.  It's a pretty amazing spot to run.

 
 All smiles even at the end!  This was a really fun race that I would love to run again.


 We made it!  Sacha is an amazing friend and we had so much fun on this race.  I always love when she says, "I'm having a happy moment!"  when we run together. It is a great motivator to stop and look around and take it all in.


 Scott and the kids and Francois and Maarten drove up to cheer us on.  While they were waiting for us to finish the race they explored the park.

 

  

 

After the race, the sun came out and we even saw a rainbow.

 

 

 

The park has 850 year old Douglas Fir.  It was one of the most amazing trees I have ever seen!

Green Friday Hike

On Friday we took advantage of the nice weather and decided to go for a hike.  Maury Island Marine park is one of our favorite hikes on Vashon and it never disappoints. 

 Tilly was enjoying an amazing view

 This location used to be a gravel pit.  They transported the gravel out to the boats using this structure.  It is still intact even though it hasn't been used for years.  It's a fun jungle gym for anyone that can find it's location on the island.

What a great group!