February started off with a couple adventures! David and the boys drove out to the Lehman Caves to explore, and then went to the obsidian beds to find a ton of obsidian. Pace was so excited to find real rocks that came from a volcano.
The next weekend they all went out to the eagle sanctuary/fish hatchery--who knew there was an eagle sanctuary here in Utah! It was snowy, but they saw a lot of eagles!
We finally got some real snow! It took until February, but a storm finally arrived with about 6 inches, and we hit the sledding hill for some fun with friends! We went sledding all afternoon--and the boys were one year older and wiser this year--no tears with sledding hills this year! Friends probably helped them be a little braver, too. Then we went out for a taco dinner.
After the first big snow, we had another little storm...and discovered David had run over the extension cord when he was putting the snowblower away after the first storm. Yikes. I had to saw off the extension cord to use it the second time around.
Other things that kept us busy during February: Pace lost another tooth!
I got a book set from the boy's book order last year, and was waiting for the right time to give them the books. It's the Magic Tree House book series--little chapter books about a brother and sister who find a magic tree house full of books in the woods. They read the books and magically get transported to the time/place they are reading about. The boys absolutely love this series! They are both into reading the books--Pace reads one book every 2-3 days, and Max reads 1-2 chapters a day. Max finished "Dinosaurs Before Dark"--his very first chapter book--before finishing kindergarten! It's been really fun to watch my boys pick up a book and read, and read, and read.
Max and Bishka are having lots of fun on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons while I'm at class. I've added a study group at the health department on Wednesday afternoons, too...good thing Bishka's here! She's enabling me to do so much to get ready for this exam, and get through this semester in school!
Pace loved this write up he brought home from school: "Spring is the best, rock hunting is awesome. Yesterday I and my dad went to the obsidian beds we found so much we couldn't fit all of it in the car! I love to go on picnics. I bring all kids of food. Surfing is a thing my dad likes to do. Spring is the best. By Pace." Not sure where the surfing thing came from--haha!
We gathered all the returned missionaries in our ward who had served in Brazil and went out for a Brazilian dinner at a restaurant that opened recently by a couple from Santa Maria. We had the best arroz e feijão com farofa, coxinhas, pasteis, vitaminas!
The school celebrated 100 days in school, and the kindergartners got to have a parade through the hallways of the elementary school. They each decorated a shirt with numbers (by 5s) from 0-100. Max picked out decorating his shirt with 95 stickers. When Max's class walked by Pace's classroom, Pace shouted out to Max to wave hi. I loved seeing that--it warmed my mama's heart!
This was the Sunday Max woke up totally fine, and then right before church was laying around like he needed to fall asleep and had a 103.5 fever. The next day his fever broke, and he threw up once, but I still made a doctor's appointment because every time he's had strep, he's thrown up, and or been completely asymptomatic. We visited the doctor the next day and got Max antibiotics for strep.
The school had a letter writing contest--if kids wanted to participate, they could write letters to their favorite author. Max wanted to write a letter to Mo Willems, since he loves the Piggie and Gerald books so much. He wrote this letter all by himself! "Dear Mo Willems, I like Gerald and Piggie. I love that they are good friends. reading Piggie and Gerald makes me happy. Can I Play Too is my favorite book because Piggie and Gerald and Snake play together."
I've been upping my mileage during February so I can hit the trails starting in March--training for the ultra Ragnar means no trails runs under 12 miles. Last Saturday it was a whopping 12 degrees. I piled on the layers--and ended up taking off some layers at mile 1, and others at mile 3...I was planning on running 13.1 miles, but ended up going a little further at 14! It was a great run. Ready for those trails!
