Jan 26 and 27 - Sunny slides & Sunday smiles

The weather was warm enough on Saturday so Neta and I took Opal for a walk/jog to the park. There was some ice patches and Neta slipped on them and we walked from there on out. We decided to take Opal to one of the slides at Brookside Park. She liked it.

Opal likes the slide

Neta's turn to go down with Opal

Neta and Opal at the bottom of the slide

Here's a quick video of Opal going down the slide:

Then Sunday, after doing our family scripture read, we played a game, Villanous, a game based on Disney villians, as a family. We didn't end up finishing the game, because it was taking too long, but during the game, we had some good laughs, which, sadly, doesn't happen as often as I would like.

Maleficent is hanging from Ro's nose

Not sure what's going on here

I haven't seen Eric laugh like he did this afternoon in a L-O-N-G time. Wish he laughed more often.

Jan 14 and 21 - Snowfort in the Backyard

Not knowing what, if any more snow, would fall this season, Graigry took the opportunity to build a snow fort. He had been asking the other kids if they wanted to come help. Then he asked me. I had dishes and other house things to do, but decided to "play" with my teenager while he was asking me. This is something hard for me, but I need to get better at so I went out back and grabbed a shovel.

We shoveled as much snow as he could in a mound on top of the three hay bales Graigry shaped into a C. Opal wasn't sure what to do with us. While we moved snow.

 :) After we had a decent mound, Graigry started digging a hole which became a space just large enough for him to sit in.

Graigry wanted to sleep in the fort Sunday night. It was a relatively warm night, considering it was January 14, (22 degrees with no wind chill). I wasn't too sure about it, but told him if he could get Eric to say yes, then I would go with it. Eric didn't approve, so the snow fort spent the night alone.

There wasn't much time to play in the fort before some rain came down. Thankfully the weather stayed cold enough over the next week that the fort didn't disintegrate into slush. It gave the dogs, Merp and Opal, an opportunity to play on the night of the lunar eclipse. Yes, Graigry, Nate and Neta came out just before midnight, to watch the moon turn red and play peek-a-boo with the clouds. While watching the eclipse, we got the dogs to go in and through the fort.

Dogs do almost anything for treats. :)

Jan 12 - Sledding!

January and February in Indiana seem to be the months with snow and we finally got enough that we could enjoy some outdoor recreation. We were supposed to get seven plus inches over the weekend  of Jan 11-13. Saturday it snowed big perfect for sledding snowflakes from morning until evening off and on throughout the night. The three younger kids and I took the opportunity to go sledding at Brookside Park, a mile north of our house. (Video above is towards the end of our adventure.)

Neta & Zoe (friend from Church)
Zoe had never been sledding before

Nate gives the girls a push

What sleds down, must hike up

"Where's your sled, Nate?"

Graigry found a bump to sled off of
Which he did and enjoyed until he bruised
his tailbone.

Built himself a throne
(He could ice is butt & no one would know the difference)

Here's another video:

Jan 5 - Skating Sisterhood & Soup

Graigry went rock climbing with Xela. Nate went bowling. Neta wanted to do something, but she only had two dollars. "I guess I could take her to ice cream." I thought that was really sweet and offered to foot the bill for a little sisterly outing. Neta wanted to go ice skating, but because roller skating was cheaper, and she only had one Saturday before Xela left for Idaho, they/we did that (if I'm paying - I'm going). :) 

They seemed to be having fun skating in an oval, around and around and around again...

Rolling in left handed ovals
(I really wanted them to switch it up, at least once)

They're happy. Really.

...until, during a little game of tag, Neta bumped Xela a little too hard and the big sister landed on her bad knee. Xela was done. Neta and I skated for a while longer. Neta took breaks to play air hockey with Xela (I can't remember who won).

"Let's go two out of three"

We were there for just over an hour and then headed home, with a stop at Ace Hardware so Xela could say hello and, most importantly, a stop by Debra Stokes house for some homemade chicken noodle soup.

She had heard Eric had been sick so she wanted to do something, and "all I know how to do is cook." Debra is a fabulous cook. We picked up a large pot of soup, that smelled so delicious it woke up Xela when I brought it to the car. Upon arrival at the house, it was know just after three o'clock, we all sat down and had multiple servings of good noodles, thick pieces of chicken, savory broth to warm our insides and our hearts. We love Debra.

SOOOO TASTY!!