What a full year it has been already.
Elliot is rocking the reading. She is past Harry Potter and we even got her a kindle for her birthday because even with regular trips to the library it is hard to keep up with her reading. Getting her attention while she has book in hand is nearly impossible. We are trying to convince her that walking, crossing roads and reading do not go together! Elliot is a very sweet friend and is enjoying both sports and the arts.
Weston finished up kindergarten strong! He still alternates between moving a mile a minute and being sweet and snuggly, its hard to know which you will get. He continues to terrorize Fiona, but she adores him! He is all about bike riding, slamming on his brakes, standing on his bike seat while biking and giving us a heart attack. His obsession with remote control toys continues. He is working on his reading and writing still. His best publications to date are "all butts are stinky" during his morning writings and his graffiti on the house of "BUTT". Crystal accidently told him she would teach him to spell "butt" if he read a book and that kind of backfired.
Fiona is 3 going on 12. She continues to try to keep up with her big siblings. She learned to ride a pedal bike in May and by June she is trying to skid out, bike standing up and stand our her bike seat like big brother. We quickly decided we needed to upgrade the girl's helmet! She enjoys making LOTS of sweet "notes" with scribbles, stuffing them in envelopes and passing them out as presents...we have gone through LOTS of envelopes. She will wear NONE of the dresses I had from Elliot at this age and is all shorts and T-shirts, which Crystal appreciates!
We were able to get some skiing in early in the year and Elliot is really turning into a capable skier! She enjoys it and we enjoy skiing with her!
Happy siblings!
Grandma and Grandpa Cook were out for the New Year to help bridge childcare gaps while we waited for Wendolyne to come. They brought with them a bunch of legos and wood / electric toys to build. It was great to see Wes and Andy working on building projects together!
And side benefit - we got to celebrate Grandma Cook's birthday when she was out with us!
Welcome Wendolyne! She joined us in early January as our new Au Pair and hopped right into the swing of things!
The new year also brought pinewood derby as part of Cub Scouts and an excuse for Weston to use power tools. He really seemed to enjoy Cub Scouts and his little lion den included a number of his friends from school and t-ball, making it a fun experience for us all.
Fiona continued to love ABC in general and woodshop in particular. She really seems to like building and creating with her hands and woodshop is a great outlet for that. She also LOVES magna tiles and stacking them up whenever she can!
More skiing for everyone! Elliot is basically independent on the slopes this year while Fiona and Wes have made MAJOR forward progress. Weston is working on turns and snowplow while Fiona capped off the year by skiing a green run at Summit all by herself (i.e. without one of us holding the straps!). Fiona is a wiz at the magic carpet and Weston (surprise, surprise) loves going fast!
Loosing teeth!
We took a family trip up to Cooper spur in the spring. It was snug little cabin close the mountain and lots of skiing for everyone. Interestingly, Crystal and Mac accidentally both booked cabins for the same weekend. We didn't realize this until literally the drive up to the mountain and so we were out a bit more money than planned. Oh well.
At least they had a hot tub at Cooper Spur resort. Hot tubbing after a long day skiing and when the snow was falling was a great memory!
One of the great things about kids this age is that they are endlessly curious. We are so luck to have three kids who can turn any walk into an adventure and get along so well together!
We also have been more intentional about planning date nights and time together just as a couple. With such a wonderful Au Pair, this has been really nice and something we were missing through the pandemic.
Snowshoe adventure up to mirror lake. The day was amazingly beautiful and the snow was deep enough to be fun without being overwhelming. The kids were great little hikers and we had a running snowball fight through the woods. Wes, Elliot and Fiona all ganged up on Mac to trap him and were surprisingly accurate with their snowballs!
Then we had hot chocolate in the snowy woods and got everyone warm before a hike back to the car.
First Blazer's game! The Uhlman's were in from Yakima for the weekend and we had dinner at Great Notion followed by tickets to the Blazer's game. We had nosebleed seats (I think literally like 3 rows from the top of the stadium) b but the energy and the noise was intoxicating for the kids (and the popcorn...and the candy...and the music!)
Elliot and Wes were involved in basketball this winter at Matt Dishman community center with coach Earl! He was a kind but direct coach, who really loved the kids he worked with and they loved him! He wasn't above telling them to "stop pussyfooting around" and get out there and run their drills. It was actually really great!
Madison remains a good stealer and actually got herself caught in a dog treat bag. Sigh, she is getting old and we love her.
More parent date days! We got a chance to go up and ski Timberline on a beautiful,, if windy, day and took one run that went all the way from the top of Palmer glacier to the bottom of Summit, in Government Camp. It was like 30 minutes of continuous downhill skiing, a really impressive overall run!
Crystal turned 40 this year and we celebrated with a cake and a whole house decorated in her memory! Photos of her whole life all over the walls!
Fiona is a cool dude!
This spring also brought a return of cookie sales! Elliot is now a brownie and LOVING the events of girlscouts. She loves the meetings and the community as well as their adventures and focus on improving and learning. She was a great cookie seller - hitting up not only family and friends but heading out to the neighborhood and sitting at the table at Fred Meyers! That is where the real money is. The troop used their money to provide a donation to the Oregon Humane Society and got to go to their to deliver the check and meet some of the rescue dogs.
Another weekend at Cooper's spur with the family. Great skiing, ate out at the restaurant.
Living it up on the hill!
At some point Crystal took them to iHop? They LOVED it.
Crystal and her friend Jess ran a trial 25K+ in the spring and had some special help at the end of the race! Crystal did an amazing job running and training for this race. She was dedicated and out there with Jess working hard and having fun! We drove out there to meet here with Joe / Oliver / Leo and even though it was a little grey and raining had our own little tailgating party in the parking lot - supported by the Lassiter's camper van.
Then it snowed in Portland!! This was an epic snowstorm and resulted in 2 days of school closure's and Mac actually got the Prius stuck while driving to work and had to abandon the car on the hill up to OHSU - coming back the next day to dig it out. Very embarrassing.
This was right before Fiona took a sled to the face at the bottom of deadman's hill in our neighborhood. It is a crowded and steep hill and there were some bigger kids sledding down and got her. It was a fun sledding day up until that point.
Snow day means science experiments with Wendolyne!
Uncle Eric came in for Crystal's big birthday bash! Even the snow couldn't stop him.
A little late in the February we celebrated Crystal's 40th birthday!! She organized a taco bike to come for dinner as well as a slushi machine for frozen margaritas and a keg! There was dancing, beer pong, flip cup and keg stands (!). Some of us were VERY hungover the next day. The kids had a sleep over in Wendolyne's room. After a series of snow days from Snowpocalypse 2023 - parents were ready to PARTY! and it showed!
Stores remain a favorite game for everyone. They love setting them up, writing the signs and then selling people anything and everything they could ever want.
Pinewood Derby! Wes was actually voted "best design" by the pack - something he was really excited about! From left to right are Sawyer, Walter, Austin, Wes and Tyce. Unfortunately Mac had to work during this, so Wendolyne took him. He LOVES cub scouts.
Alameda school auction - 70s theme. We raised / spent a bunch of money to help the school. It was a great time with the friends group!
St. Patrick's day with green icing on cinnamon rolls and green milk!
Homegirl loves a cinnamon roll!
Randomly walking around and ran into a fire station crew cleaning their trucks - and they showed us around. A big hit!
More skiing - this time at summit. A bit more manageable of a mountain, Fiona can ski the chair lift and actually made it to be able to do an entire run by herself!
We are hard at work at swimming lessons at Children of the Sea! Elliot actually graduated the program and is ready to move on to swim team in the summer!
Spring break brought us to Mexico with the Weis Family! We were able to get a full week off to travel to an all inclusive resort in Cancun. There was TONS of swimming to be done, delicious food to eat, slides to ride and breaches to explore. We had a great time getting to spend a whole bunch of family time together!
And there was a white party!
As part of the trip we chartered a yacht a spent the day sailing around. It was just our family on the yacht and we had a wonderful time enjoying the waves, stopping at a little beach to swim and stopping along the way for a meal.
As we ate lunch and enjoyed the sand, there were a variety of people coming around with animals and reptiles that we could take pictures with. The boys LOVED the idea of taking pictures with snakes, iguanas and the the like. Even though this one was a bit big for them.
Back in Oregon for Easter and egg decorating. It was a bit cold and rainy to se were decorating inside this year.
Brunch with mom!
Easter morning brought a scavenger hunt through the house for the baskets that the easter bunny left!
And now it is spring! Fiona is a monster on the bike - taking to the peddle bike with so much enthusiasm. She loves heading out for a ride and exploring the neighborhood.
Wendolyne is fantastic and loves making forts, doing experiments and building with the kids.
Elliot's reading has really taken off in second grade and not only can she read complex books all by herself, she enjoys reading to her siblings and they LOVE it when Elliot reads to them.
