Aunt Julie's Brunch

They got to come to Aunt Julie's brunch birthday party. It was hard to schedule due to Uncle Kevin's games and Jillian's tournaments, so this worked out well. And as a special treat, Brock and Kayleigh and Ty and Deb traveled here to surprise their mom. They all enjoyed seeing everyone!

 

Baking & Forgotten Games

Just Bridget and Tor came after school since Jillian had basketball practice. Bridget right away asked to make something so she got on the computer for recipes. She selected a brownie recipe so she could do some Valentine decorations on them.

She decided on pink frosting, some with hearts, and some plain as they tasted so good without the frosting.

 Every time I ask them if there is something I can get rid of, since they don't play with it anymore, and the answer is always to play with it so I'll keep it. This is a huge set of Squinkies that when younger they played with continuously. At least it kept them both busy for quite awhile.

Integrity Volleyball Club

Jillian played in her first volleyball tournament this season with her team Integrity, a group of local 14U girls coached by Jaws. It was a 16U tourney, and the girls played hard but struggled to win until bracket play, where they won both matches and claimed the Bronze Division title.

Jillian is a setter in a 6-2 system, and serves to start the game. She continues to improve in all parts of her game, and consistently puts up nice sets to her teammates.

Mom's birthday

 My dad absolutely forgot to take any pictures or videos of my mom's birthday party. None. We will have no remembrance of this birthday. But we will remember you could come between 5:00 and 7:00. Still open. And there's pie. SOOO much pie. Lemon meringue and blackberry. The chocolates (autocorrect) pie went fast. Anyway, this will be the forgotten birthday. Except for the pie. The pie was delicious. And mom was very happy. Happy birthday(to my mom)!

Rick's Birthday Party

After a delicious dinner prepared by Papa, we had Rick's Golf Themed birthday party. 

Earlier in the week when the kids were there I had them make two Lego arches each for the putting green. Some of them were very creative. Then Bridget wrote up the rules for play, like a 3-point penalty if you broke an arch. Rick started it off with a respectable score of 15. Then Tor went next and, of course, beat Daddy by two strokes. Then the scores were all over the place with the non-golfers. It was the biggest surprise of all when Grannie won with 9 strokes!

The golf theme was carried out in matching golf shirts for Rick and Tor. After that we all enjoyed Heather's delicious cake and ice cream!

 

Happy New Year 2022!

Per tradition, the kids went to the beach at midnight to get a picture and watch the fireworks as the new year 2022 rolled in.

It was freezing cold, so we didn't stay long.

New Years Eve

We've been at the beach cabin for the past couple days, relaxing post-Christmas. On New Years Eve, we took it slow, waking up at 10 am and having breakfast before making our way out to the beach at 1 pm. We ran into the carcass of a humpback whale that washed ashore in August.

We tried to play a little football on the beach, but it was freezing cold, so it didn't last long.

On the way through Oysterville, we took a tour of the tiny church there.

One of the day's highlights was going to the old Full Circle for ice cream (still run by Colleen). Just like old times.

After watching two Harry Potter movies, eating make-your-own pizzas, and playing the new Monopoly Cheater's Edition (didn't finish), we made it to midnight.