warm weather, everyday life, and a winter hike

i've mentioned that it's been a wet month in seattle, but it's been a warm one too! most days the high has been around 50 degrees and a couple days last week it was 55 degrees. i'll take it. ironically we bought a sled at fred meyer last week. it usually snows once a winter here and we never have a sled because they sell out any time snow is in the forecast, so i decided to get one while no one is thinking about it. ;) now it probably won't snow at all. ha.

the kids asked for pickles for a snack one day. they were so funny, i had to take a picture. 

 last week was a week of appointments. on monday i had an annual physical and on wednesday ashford had a dentist appointment. at least we are done with that stuff for a while.

tuesday night we had high winds and lots of people lost power, but thankfully we didn't. because of the power outage, the remote school day was cancelled district-wide on wednesday, but we didn't find out until 30 minutes after school started. the notification from the district to teachers and families got delayed. it ended up being a strange morning. as the teachers found out, they had to end the school day abruptly and it left a lot of parents hanging. in the afternoon we went to discovery park with our friends kay, wyatt, and fritz. 

speaking of school, the district sent out a survey to parents to commit to whether they want to send their kindergartner or 1st grader back for in-person starting march 1st. there was very little information provided and a quick turnaround time, which was stressful. as much as i would love the kids to be in school, azalea does not have the option to go and ashford had a hard time in kindergarten last year under normal circumstances, so we decided to just stay remote for the rest of the school year and hope that things feel more normal in september when they can both return.

ashford got a dupicate lego set for christmas, so we went to fred meyer to exchange it for another. he was thrilled. 

on saturday we all went to ewan's drop-by 7th birthday party on his driveway. they had each family sign up for a time. the kids gave him his gift, ate cookies, and played for a while. it was fun. i forgot to take any pictures. 

on sunday we decided to do a hike a little over an hour from home. it was in north bend and it was the "garfield ledges" trail. it was dry until we got there and then it started steadily raining. at least there was a lot of tree cover. it was a 2 mile hike (up and then down a large hill) and it was so pretty! the trees were covered in moss. there was a lot of mud, but no one fell in it. ;) when we got to the top we were surrounded by clouds/fog, so we couldn't see much, but it was still beautiful. it felt good to get out in nature to break up all the days spent at home. 

thatcher and the kids are off today for martin luther king day, but it's technically a work day for me. we plan to just relax at home. i can't wait for biden's inaugeration on wednesday!