ah, winter break. the time where i'm always trying to strike a balance between relaxing downtime and doing enough activities so everyone is not losing their minds from being in the house together for two weeks. a lot of ashford's friends were traveling last week, so it was the first time in 5 years that we didn't have a kid party for him on his birthday. we will do one in january instead. this was a huge load off my already heavy plate this time of year. i was also reminded that the last two years at this time we got a little snow. it's been an unusually warm december, so no chance of snow in sight. oh well. i'm saving our christmas recap for later this week because this post was getting too long.
last monday we didn't have any plans. we hung out at home in the morning. in the afternoon the kids met up with sisi, thelonious, and their uncle who is in town for a nerf gun war at the park. i watched 'the crown' and read, they played video games, and i broke up some fights. when thatcher was waiting for the bus after work, he saw fireworks coming from the seahawks-eagles game and sent this pretty shot.
tuesday morning we hung out at home. in the afternoon ashford's friend raleigh came over and then we all walked down to the movie theater to see 'wonka'. raleigh's mom and brother met us there, as well as azalea's friend lilah. the movie was really great. we all loved it.
wednesday morning azalea had a dentist appt to talk about phase II orthodontics. i took the kids to mcdonald's for lunch and then ashford's friend trent came over for the afternoon. it got super foggy and thatcher sent this picture while waiting for the bus. i guess it was the week for that :) thatcher made ashford's birthday cake in the evening.
thursday was ashford's 10th birthday! i can't believe i have two kids who are in the double digits now. how?! i love doing a birthday collage of my kids each year. i usually do pictures from the past year, but it's fun to do one that's ages 0-2-4-6-8 and now when they turn 10.
in the morning we facetimed with cedar and jack in zambia. then we hit the road for whidbey island to go to the northwest wildlife sanctuary. ashford has developed a love of sloths in the past year and we learned that this place does a 'sloth experience' so we knew we had to check it out. we stopped at mod pizza (another favorite) on the way up for lunch. we had a little extra time before our appointment, so we stopped at deception pass.
we had a 90 minute semi-private tour (8 people total) at the sanctuary. i have never been to a place like this before. the owner has probably 20-30 wild animals that he cares for. snakes, reptiles, a lynx, armadillo, owls, wolves, and 5 sloths. we got to "meet" almost all of the animals there. some are more likely to bite, so we had to be careful, but it felt pretty safe in general. ashford loved the sloths of course, but they were a little challenging to interact with since they swing their clawed limbs around and do like to bite. they were really entertaining to watch. i know all of us will remember this experience forever.
when we got home, we made greek chicken pita sandwiches for dinner (ashford's request) and then we hopped on a zoom call with grandma jan, unkie brandon, grandma cheryl & grandpa durant. they watched ashford open his gifts and blow out the candles on his cake. thatcher made a chocolate cake with mint buttercream frosting. it was really good. ashford got a new down comforter, currency to use in fortnite, a small stuffed sloth, a game, and some money.
friday we didn't have any plans. it turned into sort a long day in the house while i attempted to get some christmas stuff done, in between mediating kid bickering. i managed to wrap about half of the gifts.
in the evening i met up with my friend beth at 'baker's' in our neighborhood for festive drinks. it was so nice to catch up with her and do something christmasy on my own.
saturday was christmas eve eve (which is totally a thing now - haha!). azalea and i braved fred meyer in the morning to get all the food for christmas eve dinner, and christmas day breakfast and dinner. it was really busy there! i wrapped more gifts in the afternooon while the kids played video games and thatcher went for a walk. i also watched 'it's a wonderful life'. after dinner, we headed over to olympic manor neighborhood to look at the lights. it's a favorite tradition of mine. it was a beautiful night - upper 30s and clear - and everyone was in a good mood, which is a gift in itself :)
when we got home, the kids and i watched 'home alone.' thatcher does not like re-watching all the old classic christmas movies, so he only joins us for new ones.
i have more to share about our christmas later this week before we head to a cabin near mount rainier for new years :)
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