Bringing in 2025

 

We finally made it back to Oregon all in one piece after the crazy adventure travel with everything going wrong to the East Coast over the new year. Early 2025 was spent with time at the mountain, skiing, snowshoeing and relaxing at home.  Mac and Crystal were able to sneak away for a morning to rent, ATT skis and ski up the mountain, getting back to our friends cabin before the kids had even woken up. Fiona finally learned to ski on her own without the harness this year and suddenly we have three little skiers :-) yay The kids are enjoying going over jumps and going through more narrow tree runs, which of course gives mom anxiety.

Celebrating Crystal’s 42nd birthday and style

Saying goodbye to our Au Pair, Wendolyne of two years. It was a very hard transition. She will always have a place in our hearts and a spot in our home.

Elliot’s choir had a concert and she got flowers afterwards.

Baking with grandma Weis

Surprise, Elliot reading again.

February I brought a few snow days and time out in the neighborhood before the snow melted.

After this, we were off to Colorado to meet Kimothy and Luca…. Spending time with uncle Eric was pretty awesome too. We were able to relax and have time to play. We attempted to head up to the mountain to ski, but again the travel gods were not in our favor and there was a huge accident on the highway and we had to turn back. We did however, get to enjoy a day out in the ice near uncle Eric’s house.  Fiona was so excited to have a new cousin her age.

Well, the beginning of 2025 brought a lot of joyful moments, it was also a big transition for our family. Our dog Madison had passed just over a year earlier. Initially after Madison passed, Cooper had almost acted like a puppy again, starting to run and get the zoomies. But slowly over the past six months he had been losing a lot of weight. Well, he didn’t look like he was in pain, It had become clear that it was his time. Losing Cooper was a big transition for our family and a very hard adjustment.

Giving Cooper snuggles at the park His last day.

Spending some time with his favorite person on earth.

For spring break, we were able to make a quick trip down to Mexico to visit Wendolyne and meet her family. They spent the first few days on the beach in Sayulita.  We had Rented a small Airbnb and spent some days eating street tacos and playing on the beach. After this, we took a bus ride to Guadalajara. The bus initially sounded like a great idea, but we had underestimated the mountain roads and let’s just say we had to do a Fiona bus cleanup due to motion, sickness :-(.  They were total troopers and we got to meet Wendolyne‘s extended family and spent some time with them in Guadalajara.

Elliot decided she no longer wanted to deal with her long hair and wanted a short new haircut. She knew exactly what she wanted, we made her wait a few weeks to make sure but boy was she happy with the bob haircut!

Baseball season!  Super chill team has been such a great community

Fiona’s kindergarten class also informed a T-ball team!

Easter!  We were able to do our traditional basket hunt, egg dying. On Easter day we had a community Easter egg hunt at our school, followed by brunch at our house, which was a great way to celebrate the day with our community.

Tulip festival

The spring brought lots of T-ball games, baseball games.  Elliot was able to participate in girls on the run and finish a 5K! Crystal was there as one of the coaches and was so proud to see her motivation. Elliot also was able to go on her First Girl Scout overnight trip, She had begged Crystal not to chaperone, which was impossible since she was the one organizing it :-)

How did she get to double digits so fast!

For Mother’s Day, Mac I had organized a family pottery event!

For Elliot surprise 10th birthday present, Mac and Crystal took her to Universal Studios in California to see Harry Potter world. The time alone with Elliot was such a treat to have it just be the three of us for one night. Well, it was a quick trip, Universal Studios and the time was amazing.

It was a busy May and after returning from California we were off to camping with our Alahood community. The fourth graders decided that they were going to sleep out under the stars, which was shockingly successful.

Alameda auction.  Mac had a different take on rodeo, haha

Berry picking with Fionas class.

And a lash the last day of school! An end of an era with no more kindergartners and incoming first, third, fifth graders.

A school got out. We did a very quick trip home to Wisconsin to see the Weis family. With time on the lake and a trip to the dairy breakfast it was a short but sweet trip. Elliot was able to stay a few extra days with grandma to do “grandma Camp“ with Jordan. Crystal spent a few days with her best friend.

We are at such a fun stage with the kids right now. There’s so much personality and individuality. It is still so amazing to us as parents how quickly each kid becomes their own person and so crazy different. Elliot is fiercely independent, capable. She needs time to herself and balance. She is learning to master balance what she needs with time to herself as well as time with her community.  She’s a great big sister, Avid reader, learner at heart. She’s excelling at school and able to manage things very independently.

Wes is all about movement and sports. He loves team sports and competition. He is so helpful and very into projects.  We’ve been working with the school to get an IEP for his dyslexia. This spring we got formal testing to confirm things to help us move forward with establishing an IEP with school which was a very stressful process.  Also, he is an amazing snuggler!

Fiona is growing up so fast trying to keep up with her older siblings.  She loves unicorns and rainbows, but will also get out there and body check anyone in her way.  It’s not a coincidence her best friends are boys.   This spring she would come home with a huge calluses and bleeding hands from being so obsessed with the monkey bars. There were sometimes on the playground that we would see her doing crazy flips/tumbles and we would just pray that she would not break something!  We had pegged her as our likely first broken bone, but so far so good :)