February in Review

Some of our February highlights include driving East an hour an a half to the mountains to play in the snow in Sisters, OR...                                  

                                     
                                       

Sisters in Sisters!

From the top of the sledding part of the hill:

From the tippy top of the hill, about 5,500 feet:

 ...and driving an hour and a half West of us to get sea level to play at the beach the same week as our trip to visit snow in the mountains.

                                      
                                      

              (Some beach rocks, in case you were wondering)

                                      

                        February was also when Juni learned how to ride a bike in one day (oh glorious day!),

                                     

and Ben starting back to riding his bike to work (which he did from our rental home when we first got here, but hadn't since September after our move).  Now he rides to work any day it's not raining, which is about 50% of the time.  He was recently promoted to Avionics and Modifications Team Lead at Garmin AT Repair Station where he is also Chief Inspector.

We also decided it was time to get back to normal chores around the house.  The kids now help with dishes and laundry, set and clear the table, sweep the floor, and clean the bathrooms regularly in addition to keeping their own spaces clean.

Don't worry, they still play every afternoon after school with the neighbors and get to be kids.

As do we!  Here we are with our buddy, Gouda, the Guentner's Garden Center gorilla who lives close to our house.

This is the month that I pulled a tooth out with pliers for the first time.  Ezra had a loose molar that was bothering him, so we fixed that problem.  I'm also back to cutting Ezra's hair.  We aren't doing much besides school and playing right now, we're still getting grounded.

Here's some Oregon observations from February:

The tsunami-like cloud we saw one day.  We have seen three huge rainbows since arriving in OR.

The weather here is temperate ranging between 30-70 all Winter. I have NEVER in my life experienced such a warm February, most days are in the 50s or 60s.  It's finally raining consistently as we were told it would in Oregon.

THAT is why I see fast food places with covered outdoor seating.  The weather is moderate enough year round that as long as one is protected from the rain (and wearing a sweater), you could sit outside year round.  

We have a covered back porch and we didn't think much of it until others visited and said, "Oooh, that'll be nice in the winter!"  Yup!  Of course, it's fun to play in the rain too.

This is a tree near our home that I just love so much!  The kids laugh at me when I pull over to take pictures of things like this.  It's for you, my lovely dozen blog readers.  I do these crazy things for you, which makes me kinda crazy, I suppose, or is it you, for reading this?

Finally, I've been wanting to share the cars with you! They have normal cars here, but they also have a disproportionate number of old cars.  The reason?  No salt on the roads!  If it gets cold enough to snow, they use sand, but all the rain usually washes it away.  We love seeing old Slug Bugs and other vintage cars all over the place.

In the news, Oregon State Capital building has all fifty state flags outside it, or at least it usually does.  This week, it removed the Mississippi state flag from the circle of state flags after giving Mississippi fair warning that it needed to lose the bars and stars from it's flag or risk it being removed from our courtyard.  Mississippi was not apparently phased by Oregon's threat. 

This is the new invention that has Garmin employees talking as well as little ones in my family.  Evidently, we HAVE to save up for one.  I'm not so sure about that.

We love you, you crazy readers, you!  Thanks for visiting our little place in cyberspace!