MLK Day

When the weather's unseasonably warm...take your family to the beach!  Today is the 11th day in a row that it's been sunny, clear and in the mid 60's.  It's hard to believe that it is the middle of January!  At first I complained that the sunny weather was cutting into my favorite winter weather, but then I decided it won't last forever...So now I'm enjoying every minute of it.  We had a great day at the beach.  We had a picnic lunch, built sand castles and hung out.  Zoe even got into the water.  I don't know how she got in when the water temperature was 50.4˚.  Noah rolled around and ate sand.  It was a great way to spend a day off!

Fancy Dinner

On Friday night we went out for "Fancy Dinner" as Zoe called it.  She decided that she and Noah needed to dress up for dinner.  She picked out both of their outfits and even insisted I take their picture.  She also wanted to do some silly pictures (as you can see).  Zoe was the person who got to pick where we were eating.  She chose pizza and ice cream (not so "fancy" I know, but it was her choice).  We had a great time and we all enjoyed pizza and ice cream!

Christmas Hoedown

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Picture Day

Zoe had her first picture day at preschool.  I thought for sure they would be terrible, but I had decided I would be happy no matter what they looked like since they were her very first school picture.  In the end, we were pretty happy with the results.

Noah's First Snow

It sure makes it more difficult to enjoy the snow when you can't walk!  I think in the end Noah enjoyed his first snow.

First Snowfall!

We woke up this morning to the first snowfall of the year.  It's hard to say how much snow fell, but it seems to be several inches.  Definitely enough snow to play in.  Zoe even enjoyed a "snow cone" with actual snow vs. shaved ice.  What a great way to start the weekend.

Christmas Time!

Last year, for the first time ever, we bought our Christmas tree at a Christmas tree lot.  We usually go to a Christmas tree farm and cut our own down.  We couldn't find a tree farm in Humboldt county, so we ended up at a lot.  I don't know if it was the fact that the tree seemed dead in a VERY short time or if it was the uneventful feeling we had while picking out our tree at a lot...whichever the case we vowed NOT to do it again this year.  We were  determined to find a tree farm or pay the $10.00 and trudge out into the forest to find our own tree.  After a bit of research we finally found someone who knew of a tree farm in the hills of Arcata.  It isn't advertised.  It's more a word of mouth sort of place.  So on Saturday morning we set out to find the "hidden" tree farm.  We didn't really expect to find it since the directions we were given were quite vague.  To our surprise we found it pretty easily.  It was GREAT!  It's a tree farm that a local, older couple have at their house.  You walk around their property in search for the perfect tree.  The only stipulation is that the tree must be taller than 5 feet (as you can see ours is 10 ft).  Once you find your perfect tree you flag it and then cut it down.  Many of the best trees were already flagged, but after a bit of searching we found our perfect tree!  At first our plan was to flag it and take one more look to see if there was anything better, but Zoe refused to leave the tree.  Her exact words were "This is our tree.  I'm going to stay by it and protect it so no one else takes it."  That pretty much settled the decision...we knew it must be the tree for us.  After we had our picture taken by our tree, went on a hayride and had some free apple cider served from the couples' kitchen we tied our tree to the top of our car and headed home.  It's definitely a tree with "character".  At first we named it our Charlie Brown tree.  Then we thought it was a little more Whoville-ish.  Now I'm not really sure what type of tree it is, but it definitely showcases our whacky ornaments nicely.