Snow Days

We are going to be going to school until July the way they have been cancelling school.  For the second time this year they cancelled school without snow on the ground.  They were worried about the storm that was coming and it did come for the second day that school was cancelled.  In two days I went from 84 degree weather to 26 degree weather, that is quite a swing. 

Maui

I haven't been to Hawaii since high school and Shawn had never been so for a mid winter break Shawn and I and our friends the Hatches flew off to Hawaii for some much need R&R. However, we didn't do much resting but we had so much fun!

We went to a luau for Valentine's day and were treated to dancers from many of the Polynesian nations.

Then we ventured up to Hana, finding many must see "unknown" waterfalls (thanks to Marissa and Maui Revealed) and I did not get sick *gasp*!!!!

The rest of our days were filled with snorkeling, beach hopping, tennis and whale watching!

A couple other favorites:

- snorkeling with a huge sea turtle at Black Rock

- black sand, red sand and little Big beach

- Darrin's thoughts on the true meaning of love

- 8 truly wonderful days in Paradise...can't beat that!

Greensleeves

Jada is growing to be a beautiful ballerina! She danced to Greensleeves which is one of my favorite songs and she is so full of grace that it is really fun to watch her dance.  Here are a couple shots of her dancing:

And for after the recital, ROSES! :)

Blackboard scratching

Have you ever heard 120 4th grade kids playing the recorder? It was definitely hard not to cringe but it was fun to see the kids trying so hard!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Grandpa has had some recent health scares so we were really happy to be able to celebrate this birthday with him! Here's to another year!

Shawn's brother Tamer, Shawn, Daniel, Samia, Shawn's sister Gihan, Grandpa and the rest of the crew!

Snow

How much snow does it take to scrape together a snowman?

not much

How much snow do you need for a snowball fight?

not much

How much snow does it take to cancel school?

you got it!

Traditions

Our family has some pretty strong Christmas traditions.  We always spend a day in downtown Seattle and the more the merrier! We started off at the gingerbread houses, which are always so creative!

Then off we went to the old fashioned carousel, where I take the pictures... I can barely watch it without getting sick!

And then we end with fish n'chips at Ivar's

 And even though the food is fabulous, it is feeding the seagulls that the kids look forward to!

Except Ethan, who would rather eat the seagull food...

And an added bonus, it didn't rain!!!