Big Helper

After driving up to the snow, the car was in desperate need of a washing (even though rain was inevitably coming soon after). So Annaliese was a big helper as she got soap and water everywhere (hair, clothes, ground) and stayed out of the way while I did the washing :) Too cute!

Giggle girl

My Sweetie did a good job for V-day!

Andy and Luke prepared dinner including dessert for Virginia and me for Valentines Day... take a look what we enjoyed!

Luke grilled up steak for the main course

Amazing salad with apples, avocado, strawberries, candied walnuts on a bed of baby greens

Sparkling apple cider (Virginia is preggers!)

Andy's creme brulee a la strawberries

(Seriously, he made this completely on his own!)

Love you so much!

Good times with good friends!

P.S. Thanks to Ji Hae for taking care of Annaliese and putting her to bed for us so we could enjoy this time!

Snow Day

Annaliese and I drove up to Sierra Summit a couple of weeks ago to have lunch with Andy when he was taking a group of high school students to go snowboarding and skiing.

Such a beautiful day!

Ji Hae had a blast learning how to ski... she's going to try learning to snowboard next! Maybe Annaliese will be hitting the slopes in a few years! :)

Fun family time!

The Park

Most days of the week, when it is not raining, we make it down to the park. Although there is a nicer, newer park about a mile away, this one being less than 2 blocks away gives us more time to just toddle around. Basically, Annaliese thinks the best thing about the park is picking up the bark and throwing it, although she sometimes tries to eat it as well. She loves watching other kids, running around, going down the slide and sometimes gets distracted enough so that when her hat falls off it doesn't even matter.

P.S. Thanks to Ji Hae for taking these pics of us.

P.P.S. Do I wish I had showered and done my hair that day? Um, resounding... YES.

Outside

One of Annaliese's favorite things to do is to go "Outside." Whenever I or anyone else says the word "Outside," she taps her head to see if she is wearing her hat or not. Frequently she already is. If not, she begins looking for where it might be. With a little help situating her hat, she marches to the front door and whines for me while signing "Please." She craves going outdoors. Daily. Rather, multiple times per day. Even when it is raining. Rainy days can be long for both of us sometimes.

If we've already been to the park that day, we usually go just beyond of our front yard to a little dead end part of the road by the rail road tracks (fancy and super-kid friendly, I know) and wander around, picking up pebbles, kicking bottle caps, and pulling grass.

If you can ignore the orange striped road block, and imagine that those mountains are not only toward the east as shown in this picture, but stretch both north and south in our view on this particular day, then you'll know that this is one of those cherished but all too few days in the Central Valley of seeing the awe-inspiring views of the Sierra Nevada that we will miss when we move to... somewhere else.

For now, we'll just enjoy going "Outside!" and then love the new "Outside" where ever that is, when we get there!