Learn to Ski Sunday

 Both kids learned to ski this winter--and it was all due to Daddy...and Oden!  Jeff took Josh up one Sunday afternoon with Drew and Oden, and once Josh saw Odie skiing, he decided he could, too!  After our first crazy experience on the mountain, I was FLOORED when Jeff sent me these pics from the mountain!  Good work, Joshy!!!

Snow for DAYYYYYYYYS...

Amidst THREE snow days in January, we found some inside fun to be had...

Alea starred in her school's Missoula Children's Theater production of Peter and Wendy.  Alea was Tiger Lily and she did a great job!  It was so fun to watch her perform at the end of her week of practice!

 

Jeff's water bottle broke!  You'd think it was the freezing weather that did it, but I think it was just dropped one too many times.  We had to take pictures of all of his stickers before we tossed it and he started over on the Nat'l Park sticker collection.

Fizzie's with Family!!!  Need I say more?

And we had a date night!  Kaitlyn and Linnea offered to watch the kids on a Friday night in January to let Jeff and I dine alone.  Linnea was getting ready to leave for LA, so this was a sweet time--coffee shop in pajamas was quite memorable!

And Josh was so sad to part with Linnea...and her Chewie stuffed animal!  He asked her if he could take it to school for the day before she left...

Harvey Lee Lochhead---1931-2017

The week that Pappy passed away, I remember the "boys" took the week off (Scott, Jeff, and Drew) to help organize all of the details.  I remember thinking that time should really stand still for a few days, while we all mourned our family's loss.  But it was a good week to be together, telling stories about Harvey and looking through pictures.  Here's a picture of Scott that was found in a box of photos...DOESN'T HE LOOK LIKE JOSH!?!?

His service was held on a Friday at Whitworth Presbyterian Church, and it was a full house.  There were a lot of stories told, as Pappy was full of life!

Perri and Dennis came over from the west side, and this is the only picture I thought to take!

It was a good week for our family to celebrate G'pa Harvey's life.  It was so hard to see him in the shape he was in...and we're all thankful that he's now free of his body that was "TRASHED."  :)

Micah Swims, Too!

Micah was so excited to have his OWN swim lessons this January.  I was fortunate enough to have ALL THREE KIDS' LESSONS at the same time!  Should've bought a lottery ticket with that sign-up luck!

Snow Day for Pappy

Monday, January 9 was A SNOW DAY!!!  The Lochheads in North Spokane decided to celebrate with a sledding day at Drew and Annie's house.

We later got the call that Pappy had just passed away.  He'd not been doing well...the boys had just moved the hospital bed into the house the day before.   We were sad.  Very sad.  How fitting that on Pappy's last day on earth, we were enjoying the outdoors at his old house.  He would've loved that.

 

     

Jeff went to be with Granny while we kept the kids' schedules steady.  After swim lessons that night, we stopped by Granny and Pappy's so that I could see him one last time.  A bittersweet thing...we knew he'd been in so much pain, but we were sad to say goodbye.

The kids and I had a cookie toast to Pappy that night before bed.  Sad time, but great Pappy memories were shared.

January Beginnings

Our year started off with Animal Jam and colds.  And snow. 

It was so cold outside, that THIS is the snowman we "made."

 

We watched the Star Wars movies this winter, and all the kids fell in love with them.  Thus began our family's obsession with light sabers, wookies, and star wars ships.

 The last of the peppermint creamer always gets a photo.  Cozy comfort food coming to an end.

Jeff took the kids one-at-a-time to the ski hill and found much more success.  Josh's first day and he was up the lift to the bunny hill with Dad.

 And there were quite a few Sunday morning Mt. Spokane runs with this group.  Gorgeous work-outs.