Blankie, well-loved

When Helene was first born, she received a small "blankie" as a gift.  It has been the love of her life ever since.  It was about 1 foot square, flannel on one side, silk on the other, . . . just a small thing to snuggle.  It was light pink.  I can't find a picture of the exact one online, but this is basically what it looked like (except pink instead of blue and with silk ruffles around the edges).

It has been lost and found many times since then, once missing for almost 6 months.  Here is a picture of her with it when she was 3.  (I haven't figured out this Mac yet.  I rotated this picture on iPhoto, but it is not staying rotated when I upload it to Blogger.  Argh.)  It had lost some color by this point, looking more off-white than pink.

And here she is with Blankie now.  The poor thing is totally in shreds and mostly dingy brown, but she loves it more than ever.  Helene will turn 6 in two days.  I wonder if she'll be ready to give up Blankie before Blankie gives up the ghost.  I told her tonight that I was taking a picture so we'd always remember Blankie, even after she (yes, Blankie is a she) was completely in shreds and all worn out.  Helene cried at the thought.

Unseasonably Warm

We have had incredibly warm weather this week - in the 60s and 70s during the day.  Beautiful!  On Sunday, Campbell set up a Frisbee golf course for us (which fulfilled a requirement for Cub Scouts and provided a fun activity for the family).

Helene and I enjoyed wearing our bikinis and soaking up a little Vitamin D.
The boys went shirtless, just because they can.  Guys have it so easy!  ;)

I pulled some dead stuff out of the vegetable garden and added it to the compost.  So nice that the ground's not frozen or covered in snow!
Just for comparison's sake, here's what John's run in the foothills looked like last week:
And snow is in the forecast for tomorrow . . . so I had to write this before then.  I might want to look back at it to remind myself that I wasn't just dreaming.

Happy New Year

This is how I've felt during Christmas Break:











Campbell got a camera for Christmas (from his really cool Uncle Chad and Aunt Courtney). He has been super excited to use it at every opportunity. Today, John went skiing, and the kids and I went for a hike (we all skied together yesterday; two days in a row would overwhelm our children). Campbell took his camera along:

We did the 1.3 mile Lichen Loop at Heil Valley Ranch. It was a beautiful day, about 60 degrees. All the snow has melted, so the hike was pleasant. The kids had good attitudes (it was their idea to hike in the first place, so that helps), and they did lots of bouldering along the way.

See Campbell's blog for more pictures. Most of his pictures are not on the main page, but if you find the "friends" section on the bottom left of his page and click on "pictures" there, it will take you to his photos of the hike.

BIG NEWS: Helene decided to start blogging! I uploaded the pictures for her, but she did all the typing and spelling unassisted. Check it out.

There's a link to both kids' blogs on my page, under "Friends' Blogs."