February Chronicles

February was marked by three big events:

1. Valentine's Day- the kids were diligent about making their awesome Valentines. Enoch wanted to write all his friends' names on the same one. We had to explain that you make a card for each of them. Of course, Aaron's pink-white-red-&-unnecessary performance is something more and more people look forward to hearing about. He pulled off another great and totally original year to his growing credit. I got a 'white' book (Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell) for us to read together. I thought it was perfect and we did have fun reading it together. The kids got an off-the-charts original treasure hunt through....their book shelf to find some big marshmallow suckers (by the Zillow: under their pillow). Every clue was a favorite line from a beloved bedtime story. They had to hunt through the shelves to find the particular book, page and line, where a sticky note held the next clue. It's a spin-off of one of their favorite pass-time games: quoting books and movies together. They loved it and were experts, of course.
2. A Trip to Utah- Aaron made his annual recruiting and interviewing trip to BYU and we decided to all tag along since our next planned trip wasn't until July. We got to see everybody even though we only had two short days. The highlights were meeting Baby Aspen and Aaron skiing with his dad. We were really thankful to Todd and Tana for hosting us during such a busy time for them, and to Camille for watching our kids while we went to the temple.
3. More Snow! Since they hauled off our awesome mountain of snow last month we decided to build our own one Saturday afternoon. Everyone helped build a GIGANTIC igloo made from snow blocks, complete with a slide out one side and built in seats on the interior. It was a hit with our kids (like adding and extra play room to the house), & the neighborhood kids (and adults) for a good solid 4 weeks until 4:40 last Monday when we heard a thud and looked outside to find it had finally caved in. Spring has to come some time, I guess.

The last photo is included to document the ongoing brilliancy of our snow plow guy here in Flag. It's our only consolation to rant about the situation here. Why bother clear the cul-de-sac if you are going to leave a burm of snow across the exit? And how about that rubble in front of our mailbox? It started as a 6ft. wall of snow, then we got a 6ft wall of ice, albeit 10ft. closer to the curb this time, now we have a complete lane of chewed up asphalt in front of our mailbox. The mailbox finally melted out and was accessible again only to be hedged in now by a mound that will never melt. The mailbox is pretty worse for the wear after this winter. It deserves a picture. I'll snap one tomorrow and post it.....sometime in the next year.