Sarah is home, part 4!

So...another snow day here today and again tomorrow as well, so I guess I'll keep on blogging!

On New Year's Eve we had an extra friend around for part of the evening, which was pretty fun for all of us, but especially for my niece!

Once Noelle left, we got into serious party mode...after all, you gotta do something active to keep the old folks awake until midnight!

We had fun with more Minute-to-Win-It games! And of course, hats & "2017" glasses were in order.

We toasted to the New Year with sparkling apple juice leftover from Christmas dinner.

We also had a beautiful snowfall. 

^^Oh yeah! My parents got a small foosball table for the Kid Cave! So fun!

On Sarah's last morning, she & I headed out so she could take some snow & mountain pictures. I loved that time with her, marveling at the creation, looking for creative photo ops, and talking. 

We also celebrated my brother's birthday!

^^The door to the Kid Cave. The first thing the cousins did was make signs for the door! 

 

And then, all too soon, it was time to say good-bye to Sarah & the cousins and go back to school. We see those cousins again in July (Yosemite, here we come!) and Ed & I see Sarah (& the new baby and his family!) at the end of February. Bethany gets to see Sarah (& the new baby & his family!) the beginning of March, but Becca & Elise have to wait until the end of May to see Sarah. Sad. 

We were blessed by our time and love looking back on those memories.

Sarah is home, Part 3!

Okay, so Christmas break wasn't entirely perfect. We didn't do everything we hoped and we were missing 5 of our closest loved ones (including the new baby whom we are looking forward to meeting!) But I still have some more pictures to share! And since we are in a blizzard here in the Pacific Northwest, it seemed like a good time to share a few.

We went to a matinee of SING! which was way cuter than I expected.

We watched a lot of football.

AND we went ice skating! For many of us, it was our first time and we were a bit tentative at first, but honestly, it was WAY easier than I expected it to be! Once I was confident enough to let go of the wall, it actually got easier. I didn't even fall at all and no one that did fall broke anything, so it was a roaring success!

There was lots of reading and hanging out...

And working on finances for the new adult...

Oh, and lots of eating, as usual!

We went to find eagles...and found over 150! I know there are some great eagle pictures on the big camera that Sarah took, but I haven't gotten a chance to look at those yet. 

More football...

And lots of games!

This post is quite picture heavy, I think I'll save New Year's and the last days for the next blog post. Who knows...if this snow storm continues, maybe I'll blog again tomorrow! ;)