snow shoe date

Our church, Mars Hill, is going through an 11-week-long series called Real Marriage. The series is based on a book our Pastor and his wife wrote called...you guessed it...Real Marriage. Anyhow, all that to say that part of the series involves participating in some purposefully planned dates and we like to go on dates! So, today's date is brought to you by Real Marriage!

Dan planned our date with 2 things in mind: 1) we like outdoor adventure and 2) today was going to be the only sunny day for awhile. That being the case, Dan took a day off of work and we went on a show-shoe hike for our date. We dropped Jackson off at Grandpa & Grandma's house in Tacoma and drove up to Hurricane Ridge for an entire day of just us and God's awesome creation.

To sum up today's date in just one word: awesomeness!

Here's photographic evidence of our epic date:
(make sure you click on that panoramic photo above to enlarge it and check out the awesome view we had from the top of the peak)

bedtime story

Here's Jackson "helping" his Daddy read him a bed time story...

party time!

Our great-niece, Madisen, celebrated her 4th birthday today with a party at the YMCA gym in Puyallup. With trampolines, foam pits, parallel bars, rope swings, and more it wasn't hard to keep everyone entertained - even the adults.

Here's the birthday girl!And here are some more photos from our fun at the gym...Here's video of Jackson having the time of his life on the long, runway-style trampoline...

While a slight mishap on the trampoline resulted in a bloody lip for Jackson, he "bounced back" immediately and didn't let it spoil his fun. Fun was had by all and the birthday girl was celebrated in style. It was a great day!

skiing Edmonds Bowl

Today was snow day #3 and the town is going wild, or perhaps the complete opposite of wild would be a more accurate description. Roads are snow-packed, vehicle traffic is scarce, and people on sleds are in abundance. Dan went in to work at 4 a.m. this morning so that he could get off early and come play with Jackson and me. Jackson conked out in the car right away...... but our grown-up friend Matt came out to play. Together, the guys skied down our largest hill, Walnut Street (pictured below).Ready to roll.
Down the steep hill, through the 4-way stop between 2 waiting cars, and right to the front door of Walnut Street Coffee. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

Here they are at the bottom of the hill.
While I didn't get to ski this time around, I gratefully was treated to a coffee as payment for my reverse-gondola services.

sledding fun

It's not very common for us to get snow here in Edmonds, but we've got it and we're enjoying it to the fullest! Today was snow day #2 and a bunch of us got together at a local elementary school to make good use of their hill and our sleds. The kids were bundled to the point that they appeared to be immobile, just like the kid from A Christmas Story and fun was had. Here is the photographic evidence:
And a sledding day wouldn't be complete without at least one video, right?