Spring Break-San Diego

The first week of April, we left the snow covered mountains of Snoqualmie for beautiful, warm San Diego, CA.

Many days were spent on the beach, just soaking up the sun and doing nothing at all but swimming, playing, digging in the sand, reading and finding clams and shells.

Posing in front of the Coronado Navy Lodge. I loved Coronado, the houses, the happy people, wonderful restaurants, the beaches, the sun.....what a great trip.

We spent at least 3 days at the beach. The water was really cold, but Millie insisted it was warm and spent lots of time running around playing in the water.


We spent anther day at Balboa Park in San Diego. The spring colors were amazing there.



Off to see an Easter play starring Benito bunny at the theater house in the park.

Off to Legoland on Thursday.

We also visited Legoland, which was fun for Millie and not so fun for adults. Anytime there is an hour long wait for almost every ride, that is not a good place for anyone in my opinion. But we stayed a few hours and tried to avoid anything with a super long line.

Panning for gold!

Millie and Papa flying a lego jet!

Millie really surprised us with how well she drove her lego car on the racetrack. Maybe driver's ed in 11 years won't be so stressful after all....

Millie and Papa with their new lego family.



Gorgeous yards at the houses in Coronado.

Welcome to Disneyland!



Millie said her favorite rides were the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. (I have to agree, those were my favorite also.)

We were only about 1 hr 45 min from Disneyland, so we definitely had that on our list. Millie, really wanted to go, but was constantly on the lookout for princesses. We finally found them!



Ice-cream stop in Coronado.

Delicious breakfast Easter sunday at the local diner in town. We don't have a real old fashioned diner anywhere near us, so this was a real treat for us.

Playing at the park in Coronado.

Another amazing yard in town (yes, every single house and yard looked this good there!)

And of course, we were back at the beach the day before we left for home.

Chasing bubbles at the beach. This was mine and Millie's first trip to California. We are back home now, but feeling really happy CA is not that far of a trip for us. I would never leave if I had a chance to live there. Of course, it is raining again as I write this blog and our beach days don't usually happen until some time in July.....I have a feeling we will definitely be back for a trip. And I didn't even mention that delicious Mexican food we had every day. It's worth a trip just for the food!

Winter fun!

Mike came home from Afghanistan mid-March. We are so relieved and happy to have him back with us again. The crazy thing is that I have NO photos of Mike since he got home, but promise that he really is here and that next post will have pictures of all of us!

Despite having an okay winter, March hit hard and we have had lots of rain, snow and hail along with cloudy days....I think we only saw sun 2 times this entire month! But the ski season is still going strong here and we have gone cross country skiing 3 times in the last 2 1/2 weeks.

This is Millie's third time on skiis and she does great. We were out on the trail about 45 minutes.

Millie and I standing in front of a huge snow pile in the sno-park parking lot.

I don't think that Spring has arrived yet up on the mountains.

Millie posing in front of her school, Snoqualmie Elementary. We love that we live only 5 houses away and we can walk to and from school in just a few minutes.

Spring is slowly finding its way here in Snoqualmie. Now if we can get more than 2 days of sun a month, I will feel better.

Playing at the park down the road.

Two Years ago...

Millie and I enjoying the hot tub in Hood River, Oregon! This was two years ago, but felt like posting an "older" picture just for fun. We had snow yesterday, and today was sunny, cold, but beautiful.

Last month's winter freeze

Well almost a month has past since my last post. We were enjoying the beautiful snow when all of a sudden the weather developed into freezing rain and the freezing temperatures stayed for several days. We woke up to no electricity, LOTS of broken branches and trees and everything covered in a sheet of ice.

We were without power for three days, so tried to make the best of the situation. Spent much of the time splitting wood for the woodstove in the attempt to keep warm, cooking on a camping stove, and spending time with neighbors and friends for dinner by candle light.

Millie had 4 days off from school...





We have been back to normal for a long time now and even had some beautiful spring weather in between. Daffodils and tulips are coming up, flowers are appearing on trees. Our gerbils even love when the sun comes out and jump up on their little house to sun bathe.

During the day they are usually burrowed deep under their woodchips to stay warm, but last week when the sun appeared, they couldn't help soaking up the sun!