Snow 2012 (part deux)

I guess that we (or should I say Matthew?) missed the white stuff a little bit, because we took a trip last week to Mt. Rainier for a little play time in the snow. Matthew loves, loves, loves the snow. That's all he could talk about the whole way there (Is it snowing yet?, How much snow is there going to be?, When are we going to be there?). Fortunately, Mt. Rainier was able to deliver and boy did they!! We could only get as far as Longmire because the road to Paradise was closed due to high snowfalls and avalanche danger. So we went snowshoeing on some of the trails at Longmire and just played around for a while. Matthew's favorite thing to do was to race mommy while pushing her and getting pushed into the snowbanks (I know the video clip makes it look very one-sided, but believe me it was 50-50).
We stayed in a cabin just at the entrance of the park in Ashford. It was a little rustic and Scott had to brush up on his fire starting skills. He managed to figure it out quite well and by the time we were ready for bed, we all had to go to bed in our underware because we were roasting. Matthew also found a game checkers while we were there and throughly loved beating his mommy (with the help of daddy) and now wants to play all of the time at home. He also learned how to play "Chinese chickens" (a.k.a Chinese checkers). However, by his rules he gets to make 8-10 moves at a time.
Here's the pics....

First time snowshoeing

We thought about storming the gate, but decided against it.

Not sure what that look is about.

The pictures really don't do the scenery justice. I'm so amazed at the beauty of this part of the country. We are very lucky to be living here and look forward to many more adventures to come.

February 2012

I thought I post a few pics and some news of the Taylor Feb 2012 happenings. One of the biggest events in our house the past few weeks was the arrival of the plague with Superbowl Sunday. Matthew started vomiting and had diarrhea on Sunday and kept on going until Friday. It was very impressive. He made one trip to the ER and was possibly working on a second when he finally turned the corner. I have never seen him so sick. He and I both lost 5 pounds each. Me, mostly because I couldn't stomach the thought of eating after cleaning the mess up. This pic pretty much sums up our week...

We were worried he was going to miss hockey the week after he recovered. It was going to be a big day because he finally got to play with the mites in between periods of the Bremerton Warriors game. He was soooo excited and I was petrified that I was going to have to tell him that he couldn't play. Thank God he rallied. He was so happy to be back on the ice and playing in front of a crowd.

Pics from practice before...

Pics from the big game...

The other highlight of the past few weeks was the superhero birthday party that Matthew was invited to by his dear friend Jonas. We debated for a while whether or not to come up with a costume and we compromised and I made him a Batman cape. I was pleased with how it turned out, but thought it was really cool to see it flapping in the breeze and Matthew rode the rope swing at the party. He loves it and I almost have him convinced to be Batman for Halloween (yippee- over half of the costume done already).

Well that's all for now from Casa de la Taylor. More updates to follow....