I Survived the Winter of 2013-2014

 Well, we made it. It was the most intense winter weather I have ever experienced. Way worse than anything Rexburg threw my way. Of course, I never went through a 'bad' winter in Rexburg. While we were there, all the locals told us that we were experiencing mild winters. This year in Maine, however, was one of the worst that most old-timers could remember. Here are a few leftover photos from winter events that we forgot to post over the last few months. 

Valentines Day dinner featured balsamic vinaigrette chicken, salad, brie, and an awesome strawberry cake. Yum!

Close-up on the cake. It was as good as it looks, my friends.

We actually didn't do as much XC skiing as we wanted, but we did go on walks in the woods behind our house quite a bit. The Atlantic is only 10 minutes away on foot, so we would head down quite a bit for some cool views.

Mr. Finn loves doing most anything outside. As long as he has his cold gear on, he is game for being outside as long as possible.

Walking on ice has been problematic for him, but after taking more than his fair share of digs, he is getting the hang of it.

Madie used to beg me to go outside with her last year, but this year has been a struggle to get her out. She always enjoys being outside after you force her to get out, but has often preferred being inside. She prefers walking in the woods much more than going on 'walks' along the road.

Madie has become obsessed with the movie Frozen, since our date a couple of months ago. She has been particularly taken with two movies this season: Kung Fu Panda, and Frozen. When we play Kung Fu Panda, she insists on being Tylon while Finn is Master Shifu, Mumma is Tigress, Elvis is Monkey, and I'm Poe. When we play Frozen, she is Elsa, Finn is Kristoff, Elvis is Sven, and I don't believe Mumma or I have set roles.

This is looking into the front yard from our porch after a few consecutive storms. Elvis is blazing trails.

Ever interested in ice climbing? New England is probably the place to go. So many cornices of ice. I plan on giving it a shot one day.

Joys

So I'm skipping a bit here and there on this Christmas photo thing. Partly because I'm just not going to get around to posting every single day, and partly because some of them I think are a little dumb. For example: "Favorite Christmas Movie." (That was Dec. 2.) I can tell you that: probably The Muppet Christmas Carol, but there are others that tend to fight for my attention, depending on the year. I don't know though, maybe I'm just not artistic enough to think up some adorable way to photograph that. (Actually, I know I'm not. But that's really okay with me.)

These photos are for the 3rd and 4th--"Red" and "Joy." Here they are in one sweet little package:

It's so fun to see the kids getting to the point where they can really play together. Madie is slowly (sloooowly) learning that some things that seem painless to her are torturous to Finn, and Finn is responding more and more to Madie's antics as he gets older. My red afghan was a gift from my Grammy Haskins from about 15 years ago or so. I love it. In fact, I'm wrapped in it now!

One little tid bit of information that has nothing to do with the photo prompt: that sweater Finnegan has on? Mike's. ****Awwwwww!**** It says it's a 12-month. Yeah...not gonna be happenin' in June, I'll tell ya.

Monday was so nice I called Mike to ask him on a lunch date with the kids and me. We picked him up from work and drove a mile or two down the road and hopped on the trail next to it. We only had about a half hour before Mike had to be back at the lab, so we kept it short, but it was nice to see him and good to get out.

Irish Spring

74 degrees in Livermore today. Definitely doesn't feel like February, even for here in sunny California! A typical winter includes a lot of rain. Sadly we haven't had nearly as much rain as we typically do during the winter months. I remember times when it has rained for a week straight, but we have hardly had any rain since the new year. Too bad, because the hills are so pretty in the winter and spring. I was talking to a friend recently who went to the San Jose Mission (17th century Spanish Missionary settlement) recently and they said that California used to be green all year around until the Spanish came. Apparently the wild grass here wasn't suitable for the Spanish cattle, so they seeded a ton of Spanish wild grass which was a lot heartier and dried out in the summer. Anyone that's been to California in the summer knows that the hills aren't green anymore. The Spanish wild grass has flourished here and has pretty much wiped out the original California grass. Point I'm trying to make is it would have been nice to have it green all year long!

The orange, Madies current favorite food. She could probably eat a whole box of clementines if you let her. First thing she does when I pull her out of bed is ask for an orange.

Lake Del Valle

As you can see, Madie really liked sitting on Mal's shoulders. On the way back we saw a man with a bloodhound. He was tossing a stick into a creek for the dog to fetch when we walked up to them. This dog was so fun to watch, it really made me want one! I had to keep telling myself, "Someday, someday."

What a day for a hike though. Madie absolutely loves being outside.

A Visual

I don't think we have posted any pictures of us since Christmas, so here's one we snapped this morning on our way to church. As you can see, we have plenty of snow. It's actually been really nice lately (meaning we reached 32 degrees, and the sun was out for part of the day).