Winter break in Wisconsin

 Playing a rowdy game of Farkle.  Bama was very lucky and by the end Avery was making the dice he threw touch her so he could roll a one or six.

 Rocking our hoodies

 Cassie and Kristi's new dog, Juka is full of energy so we took him to the dog park.

 While we were at the dog park it was snowing the large, pretty flakes I love.

 Juka was tearing around.

 Cassie and Alia built a 3-D ferris wheel

 Kristi and Cassie's other dog, Cubbie

 Zoe

 The gang- Kristi, Cassie, Bama, Papa, Me, Alia, Avery and Scott

 We flew in and out of Chicago which allowed us to visit Irene and family.  I was finally able to meet the twins, Salma and Nadia.

 Salma and Nadia

Playing store with Roberto

 Crazy, static hair on the plane

We had a beautiful day to return home to.

Happy 11th Birthday Alia

 

 She asked for macarons this year for her birthday.  It was fun learning all of the tricks to make them turn out.  The biggest issue we had was using duck eggs instead of chicken eggs.  Once I found out the exact measurements in grams the recipe turned out.  

 Avery took a design, imagine and create class this year.  He made this creature for Alia during his sewing class.  

 She loves slime


Alia wanted to do an escape room for her birthday.  We tried a new one out  in Tacoma called Enigma.  The room we were in was called The Cure and our goal was to find the doctor and the cure to a deadly virus that was spreading.  This room had a lot of puzzles to solve and some really cool, unexpected things happened with electromagnets. We escaped in 57 minutes and made it on the leader board.

 On the way home we found a good Taco truck.

Alia and Banana age 11

She wanted to take a picture in front of the entertainment center to see her growth from last year.  This center now sits in my bedroom.

Yearly Questions:

1.  Favorite color:  blue or turquoise
2.  Favorite toy:  stuffed animals and slime
3.  Favorite game:  pictionary or cranium for a board game and Roblox for a computer game
4.  Favorite animal:  sloth
5.  Favorite book:  The Candymakers
6.  Favorite thing to do outside: capture the flag and make forts
7.  Favorite holiday:  April Fools
8.  When I grow up I want to work with animals.
9.  Favorite subject:  writing
10.  Least favorite subject:  math
11.  If you could buy anything in the world, what would you chose?  A house with secret passages.
12.  What do you like most about yourself:  I am funny.
13.  Biggest accomplishment:  I am improving in math.
14.  What do you want to do next year:  Explore new areas.
15.  Favorite thing to do:  draw
16.  I like to collect:  trinkets
17. Favorite family tradition:  Going on trips and to Wisconsin.
18.  Favorite memory this year:  Playing guitar hero and mom singing.

Playing in the snow at Mt Rainier

Cross Country Skiing for New Years

For New Years we headed to Plain Washington to play in the snow and ski.  We rented an AirBnb in a community called Ponderosa that had ski trails and sledding hills.  We spent a lot of time sledding through the woods on the trails, it was our favorite sledding ever. 

 The fridge had words to create sentences and Alia created this one.  I think she has horror/mystery writing in her future.

 No visit to the area is complete without walking through Leavenworth for the Christmas lights.

 The weather was warm the few days we were there and it was actually raining when we went sledding but it made for really fast sledding.

 Maia had fun running around but was so cold by this point and refused to walk in the large puddles on the road.

 Alia made homemade poppers for our New Year's Eve celebration.  

 Avery sporting his hoo-rag

 It turned out to be a warm day and fast skiing conditions.

 She's becoming quite the skier.

 We spotted a bunch of turkeys crossing the ski trail.  There's one just up a head of Scott.

 The cabin we were at had a Wii.  We really enjoyed being a rock band.

 On the way home we went back through Snowqualmie Pass in search of more snow.  We found lots of feet of snow on the PCT trail by the ski hill.  Maia, who is part Chinese Crested does not like the snow and happily jumped into Scott's arms.

This is the face he made after I threw a snowball at him.

Burying Alia

And Avery