Mt. Spokane Ski

We spent the day skiing at Mt. Spokane. We're not impressed with their ski lifts though. Connor and Jason went to the top and did a few runs, but it was foggy and a little bit icy so they spent the rest of the day on the lower slopes with Kaiden and I.  They have very old 2 seat ski lifts, with a small 1-2 inch lip on the edge of the seat and 1 pole in the middle.  Connor is already scared of heights, so he really didn't like these lifts. The seats are close together and move fast so we had a few issues with getting in place fast enough with the kids. They don't slow down the lift to let inexperienced skiers get on safely, although I did watch them almost stop the lift for several ADULT snowboarders, but when I asked them to slow it down a bit to get Kaiden on they wouldn't. The beginner hill is pretty small.  We did find a cool side trail that starts towards the top of the mountain and winds from one side to the other with a gentle slope. That was fun. We did that run at least 6 times.  Kaiden also enjoyed the ski terrain park and did that at least 6 times. All of us did do one run from the top together. There were a few pretty steep spots that Kaiden wasn't super thrilled with, but he did great.  Overall they have quite a few nice runs and it's nice that it's so close to home. Our only complaint is the crappy ski lifts.

Altitude Trampoline Park

 I took Kaiden and Alex to the trampoline park to burn off some energy for 2 1/2 hours.

January Fun

 The boys put the Lego Mandrake together for me.  We went to the running start orientation night.  Connor wants to attend EWU next year.  He's still leaning towards an Engineering degree.  We also signed him up for Drivers Ed because he will need to drive himself to the college campus for classes.  I really tried to convince him to take Drivers Ed this last summer just to get it over with, but he procrastinated.  Jason and I got to watch Kaiden get an award at school.  I bought Kaiden and Alex a Lego jeep and dinosaur for Valentines.  I also found some Lego dinosaurs for his Valentine cards too.  Coolest Valentine ever.  Each kid gets to build their own dinosaur.  Kaiden and Alex each got 6+ dinosaurs to test them out too.  Plus they have instructions to combine 6 small dinosaurs to create one huge maga dinosaur! Fred came back to visit again this year.  So, probably about 6+ years ago we had a pigeon smack into the side of our house and injured his wing.  Jason heard it happen and assumes he was trying to escape a bald eagle or larger bird.  He ended up hobbling to our side yard behind our fence and we put a tarp over one of the 4 wheelers so he could hide out underneath it.  The boys and I bought bird food and left some for him every day.  They named him Fred. He hung around for at least a month while his wing healed and then flew off.  Every since then though every year a pigeon visits our house randomly and hangs out in the tree in our backyard and coo's.  I'm pretty sure it's Fred.  Last picture is family game night.  We played 2 different Harry Potter games and we got Jason hooked on the Quidditch game.

Christmas Day

 Santa brought Kaiden his Army man camp and Connor a Mythology book.  Piper somehow can tell which presents are hers?!?  I bought her 2 stuffed animals this year and even left them sealed in their plastic bags and wrapped and she could tell which were hers.  She's very careful when she unwraps them too. She also got a bag of mint dog bones.  Kaiden got a light up skate board, helmet, Nerf guns, slippers (which he's obsessed with), Spiderman fleece snuggie, practice drum pad with sticks (we were going to get him a full drum set, but he decided he didn't want it and only wanted the practice pad), light up swords (Connor got one too), light up light saber chop sticks, belt, Star Wars Uno game, PS5 Hogwarts video game, etc.  Connor got a guitar with amp, robe, Mythology book (which we actually later returned and he found 4 new books instead), ankle weights, ski helmet and goggles, 3 PS5 video games (Star Wars Jedi Survivor, Star Wars Fallen Order and God of War Ragnarok), etc.  Jason got some kitchen gadgets, puzzle games and a wireless meat thermometer.  I got some Harry Potter board games and a Harry Potter Lego Mandrake. Can you tell I love Harry Potter?  We had a very relaxing and fun family Christmas and everyone is happy with their presents.  Since I had to return Connor's mythology book we (Connor and I) went to Barnes and Noble for him to find a different book.  I've been trying to get him to check out Barnes and Noble for a year now, but until recently he hated to go shopping.  OMG he loved that store!  We were there for 4 hours! He finally narrowed it down to 4 books that he wanted.  2 are mythology books (the kid loves mythology) and 2 are just books he wants to read.  I have a feeling we will be visiting this store several times in the future. For Christmas dinner we had steak, shrimp with noodles, crab cakes, crab salad and garlic cheese biscuits.  I met some of my 6S RN friends for lunch at Pho Van.  Kim, Sarah, Biljana and Lindsey.  I sure miss working with these ladies!