This Family Wrocks!: 2011 Blog Blitz

So...can I catch up on a year of blogging? I have pictures of things we did last year that I wanted to write about and never did. I've been a little busy. My kids stay up pretty late. They like to use the computer during the day. They wake up fairly early in the morning. It's hard to get my computer time in.

I took pictures last Valentine's Day. They were on my phone, though, and it had a problem. I had to replace it, and all the pictures on it were lost.

However, I finally dug this out of Matt's car today and took a picture of it. On Valentine's Day, we went to a

members' party at a kids' museum, where they got to do crafts and decorate cookies, then on to Matt's work for more festivities, including more cookie decorating. They had a guy doing caricatures. He said he couldn't put all four of us in. Winter chose to have her dad in the drawing, so this is it! She wanted Matt to put it up in his office, and it's been in his car ever since, until I brought it in today.

In March, we went to the same kids' museum for a Mad Hatter Tea Party. They had more crafts and got to play croquet with flamingo mallets.

Winter took classes at the museum all last year, and Miss Allison, her teacher, was at the tea party that day.

Holly didn't participate in most of the tea party activities, but I enjoyed getting pictures of her favorite museum activities, like the train table and the waterways.

At the end of March, we all traveled south, flying into Dallas, where we spent time with my aunts, uncle, and cousins, and Sharon, one of my very best friends. Then we drove out to Louisiana to visit with Matt's grandpa, aunt, uncle, cousins and their families. Matt's grandpa took all of us, the whole family group, out to his friend's miniature horse farm. When we arrived, we were loaded onto the back of a truck to be driven around the ranch.

Winter and Holly were excited.

One of the best parts about visiting there is just hanging out in the back yard, with the dogs

and the ATVs.

Matt's uncle John recruited the kids to help with some yard work.

It's always so nice to reconnect with family. We hope to return to the South before too long!

In April, we met my friend Lily from Vancouver, BC, up at the tulip festival. It was so fun. Winter loved watching the parade. She said it was the best parade she'd ever seen.

Lily got this picture of us in the tulip field.

Winter got lots

of great shots of the tulips. This is my favorite because she's got her toes in there, too.

Around Easter time, we were at the mall. Winter saw the Easter Bunny there for pictures and decided she wanted a picture with him. There's a Target in the mall, and we went to get outfits for them to wear. Holly wouldn't put on her pretty dress, but I love this picture anyway! ;)

In May, Matt's parents came for a visit. We ended up at the Disney store at the mall. They put on a princess parade, and Winter joined in as Ariel.

Holly warmed up enough to her Papa Bob to ride on his lap on the monorail.

At home, Winter put on a play for all of us and then continued her role as Ariel.

In the middle of June, we met my sister's family in Redding, way at the north end of California. It is such a beautiful area. We took a tour of the Shasta caverns and hiked around Burney Falls.

After hiking at Burney Falls, we found a lake to splash around in for a while.

We also went to the Turtle Bay Exploration Park and visited the Grossology exhibit at the museum there.

Before returning home, we stopped in Ashland for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I had always wanted to go there and was so happy to finally make it.