i’m linking up my phone pics with jeannett again! if you’re on instagram, i’m thepleatedpoppy.

 after our flu-filled week last week, we decided this week would be our attempt at a do-over.  praise the Lord – it was!

with only one day home after our christmas travels, we did our laundry and repacked our bags, woke up at 2am and headed north to bend, oregon.  some of our oldest friends live there with their crew of kids.  we usually visit in the summer, but we needed to get our fill of snow.

 the kids were awesome on the drive.  after 14 hours in the car, the kids said it only felt like 1!  thank you audio books and movies!

 ahhh, my love.  he drove almost the entire time.  he is such a giver.  my favorite of all time ever.

 we had snow a lot of our drive, but thankfully the roads were clear.  until this stretch.  thick slippery ice.  yuck.  super slow going, but at least the view was beautiful!  on this same stretch on our way home we had to wait for over an hour while 2 separate semi trucks were jack-knifed.

 after a small embroidery project in the car, i went back to my 4th grade roots and made a little friendship bracelet.  after a couple missteps on my first try, i found this tutorial that reminded me to do double knots, then it all came back to me!

 sean is super dad.  every night he gets the kids down while i start work.

 home or away, he falls asleep with a book on his head.  this time he had a death grip on it and wouldn’t let me take it off!

 mt. bachelor is only about 30 minutes from our friends’ house, and they have a free bunny slope.  how awesome is that?!  we borrowed snow clothes from friends and our oregon friends gathered boards and boots for the kids (sean and i had our own) and we hit the slopes.

 after not being on a board in over 10 years (pre-kids), i was surprised how quickly it came back.  and all of my kids took to it quickly, too!

 yes it was cold (one day as low as 4*!), but it was so pretty!  i grew up in the mountains, getting some snow in the winter, and i do miss it.

 new year’s eve was so fun.  just a couple families, a gang of kids, and just dance on the wii.  these girls have known each other since they were in utero, and fall back in love with each other every time they see each other – its precious.

these boys have known each other since childhood and fall back in love with each other, too ;)

 we took a break from boarding to go sledding.  the dad’s scouted out a great location at a golf course – it had the perfect hills for us!

 i thought snow angels would be fun… until i smacked my head hard on the snow.  i was reminded of my dumb choice the next day when i was hit in the back of the head with the chairlift… i’m not so graceful.

 we needed this week.  it was amazing.

 it turns out i’m not a great snowboard instructor, so i did better with silas than the girls, since he caught on so quickly and didn’t really need much instruction.

 the time on the lifts was a great way to connect and enjoy the funny thoughts of the kids.  and eat snacks and treats.

 sean, on the other hand, was an amazing teacher.

yay for do-over weeks!

linking up my weekly phone pics with jeannett again! i’m thepleatedpoppy on instagram if you want to follow.

so thankful for a long break from school and some extra playdates for my boy.  and so thankful he has sweet friends!

we did our little family christmas early before we headed to orange county to be with sean’s family.  this was our first time doing christmas gifts at home and i am so glad we did, because the rest of our week turned out less than stellar…

the pic above was sean’s wrap job on silas’ new skate board.  i was just thankful i didn’t have to wrap another present!

i also got a huge order from hawthorne threads just before we left.  i really wanted to bring it all with me to pet in the car (you think i’m kidding?), but decided that wasn’t a good choice.  i accidentally bought a few yards of flannel, thinking it was quilter’s cotton, so i did bring that with in hopes to make myself some new jammie bottoms.

but.

remember last week when our family all had the flu, except for si?  well, he got it on our way down south.  poor guy was such a trooper and had a great attitude.

thankfully, the next day (christmas eve) he felt better and we took him to the vans skate park in orange.

we pretended he was six so he could go in and ride with sean.

he was so fun to watch!  they ended up staying for a few hours.  the girls and i watched for a bit, then went window shopping for a couple hours.  we were totally late to the church service, but it was so worth it because after that, the fun basically ended.

lily ended up getting the flu again, this time on christmas morning (and all day), so she and i spent the day in captivity in our room, snuggling and watching movies and napping.

then silas got it (again!) on the day of our annual family olympics, so he and i both missed out on all the fun again.

then the girls went to a slumber party with their cousins and gracie came home early feeling sick.  so we decided to head home a day early and silas had to miss his special cousin time seeing the space shuttle in l.a.  and our family missed out on visiting close friends.

our normally 4 hour drive home took well over 6 with all our potty stops (things are still not running properly!), but we are finally home.  home has never been a more welcome sight!

during all of these sick bugs, my kids have had great attitudes, even laughing right after throwing up, or giggling on the potty.  they have been troopers.  i tried for the first couple days to have a good attitude and count this extra time with them as a blessing, and see this little bit of sickness as nothing compared to major illnesses.  but my patience has worn thin and my rose colored glasses are off.  i am super bummed we basically missed christmas.  we missed traditions and celebrating.  we missed bonding with our loved ones.  we missed our friends.

and unfortunately, we also left our family with the flu big and have been knocking them out, one by one.

i am so thankful that we still have another week off of school to try to redeem last week!