Evelyn turned 18. She is officially an adult. She can get a face tattoo without my consent, and she can be prosecuted as an adult for robbing a 7-Eleven. Once she graduates from high-school, I can charge her rent and make her buy her own food. Also, she can be on a jury. And vote. Because in North Idaho, it's super important to vote because every vote counts or something.

So, yeah. Lucky her. 

All cynicism and joking aside, I love the person she is turning out to be, and feel lucky to be her dad. Evelyn, in my opinion, is fully ready to take on these adult responsibilities, and I am excited to watch her come into her own. She seems to have a strong sense of self, has good goals and plans for the future, and a strong network of friends and family to fall back on. I'm so freaking excited to see where life takes her. I think it's gonna be good.

Outside of that, it was a pretty normal week. For Rachel, this was a gardening class with Marissa on Monday, bunko night on Wednesday, and a night out with her friends at a karaoke bar on Friday. A lot of reading for me, a book club thing, and playing bass at church. Ev and Addy went down to Moscow over the weekend with the school band for the Jazz Fest. Good week. Here's some photos.

Ev had a bunch of friends over to just hang out and watch a movie. On the night before, I told Rach that I was going to bed. It was then that she decided "I think I want to make Evelyn a cake. It's kind of last minute, but I might not get another chance."

The cake. Pretty good for "last minute."

Speaking of cakes, this is on the bus for ski club. Someone randomly produced a cake on the way up to the resort and they all celebrated together.

The four of us went up for a day and got some good turns in.

Addy's best friend (Faith) was in a leading role for "Seussical the Musical." She did well, and the show was more fun than I was expecting. Fun night.

On Monday when the kids were at school, Rach and I got out to a climbing gym. I think it has been over a year since I went to a gym- which is crazy to think about. Meanwhile, Rach has been getting sessions in weekly. Between my broken wrist for much of last year, and other competing interests, it just hasn't happened for me. I'm happy to say that I can still climb as hard as the setters can set- so that's cool.

Have a good week!

It feels like it has been a really busy week. I don't know if that's just me, or if everyone is feeling it. And not busy in a bad way either. Just...a lot of moving parts. 

Just to recap- the week started off with a super bowl party (that was in the last post), Lindsey had two days of Irish dancing in preparation for an upcoming competition, Addy and Evelyn had two days of a Jazz festival on the NIC campus, and two nights of basketball games (pep band) on both Friday and Saturday, Jackson had his last day of driver's training and is now a terror on the road, Rachel and I had church things on three different days, my car was in for minor repairs so we were constantly swapping with each other to keep things moving, Rach drove down to Ellensburg for a job, I have put inordinate amounts of time in on a presentation that I am giving next week, Maren had a birthday party, we all went up as a family to watch SkiJor in Wallace, and we skied three days on some of the best snow we've had all year. Um...what else? Oh yeah- our van also died and we bought a new car.

So, yeah. I guess it was a pretty full week.

Here are some photos:

Let's start with this one because it really was a joy filled night. Valentine's day. Lightly falling snow. Night skiing. I mean, could you ask for anything better?

Yes. It does get better. Because at the same time, there was a saxophone player up in the lodge playing sultry tunes while we watched the snow gently fall outside the big picture windows. Rach and I escaped for an hour for a little Valentine's day lodge date and the whole evening was just very, very lovely.

This one and the next one are pictures that Ev captured to show the vibe of the night. So good!

This is from Maren's birthday party (She's 14, btw). They went to a tea place and were treated to a very fancy lunch. After that, they went home and had a sleepover.

This was actually a very fun afternoon- even more than I thought it would be. Wallace holds the "Extreme SkiJor" every year, but we have always been out of town so have never actually seen it. Even though there was a slight drizzle, the atmosphere was super festive as pro skiers got towed by tracked ATVs into a terrain park that was build right on the main street of the town. Wallace is cool that way.

This is our new car. It's another Sienna- Surprise! Ok- not really a surprise. This is our 4th Sienna, and we personally put about 200,000 miles on each and every one of them. It seems like we are always getting new cars, but then we look at what we put them through and it kinda makes sense.

This is Maren eating a potato that just happened to be in the bag of apples that we brought skiing with us. Very random. (She microwaved it and bought some chili to put on it. Not a bad idea...We'll have to keep this in mind for future ski lunches). Besides the Valentine's day night ski, we got out a couple of times to enjoy the best snow that has fallen all year.

This. Is. Terrifying.

Have a good week!

This week is going to be one of those "glimpse-into-normal-life" sort of posts. I think I'll use photos and captions to tell little stories. That seems easiest. This is just us being us these last couple of weeks.

We'll start with some culinary creations. This first one is Addy and her friend, Faith, making crepes in French class.

Rach and Marissa making raspberry jelly.

Wait...my bad. Rachel just corrected me and told me it was "jam," which is way different. Sorry.

And a lady's ski day with friends, hanging out in the trees with some "Charcuter-ski."

Also- we should have pictures here of the treats that people made for the Super Bowl- Elf cookies with jerseys and chocolate Oreo truffles. 

Speaking of the Super Bowl- Go Seahawks! The five of us went to a party with about twenty other people and it was so much fun. Thanks, as always, to Amanda and Byron for hosting :)

Also, I had to take this photo of the ceiling at church on Sunday. If I took one of the congregation you'd also see a bunch of green and blue. It's almost like there are some Seattle fans around here!

Here's a few ski photos for the week. The first couple are from the high school ski club. You can tell by the t-shirts what kind of winter we're having around here. This is supposed to be peak season, and it seriously feels like May. One local resort has even started to close mid-week. This photo is Ev (front) with her group.

And here's Addy and Jace

And Addy and me. The reason for the face I'm making is that Maren and Lindsey were supposed to be in there with us, but we got all the way up there and Maren had neglected to put her skis in the car, and Lindsey had forgotten her pass. So...it was just us. For a while. Maren went on an 8 mile walk on a nearby trail, and L got a "pass of shame" from the ticket office (It's a pass she wears on her coat that says, in big bold letters, "I FORGOT MY PASS.")

Random photo of Jack, as he takes a random photo of me. He found out he can borrow a camera from his school, and he's been experimenting with photography.

We all went to see the Broadway tour of Lion King. It was...Lion King. Just like the cartoon. I'll be honest that this is one of my beefs with Disney: Every version is pretty much exactly the same. The cartoon. The live action. The ice skating one. The stage adaptation. All the same lines and punchlines. The same depth- or lack thereof. The same motifs. The same heroes and villains with weak motivations and character arcs. Many of the stories they do have the potential to be sooo much more, but they insist on playing to an audience of children and keeping things on the surface. But hey- the costumes and puppets were really cool. So there is that.

This is Ev, right after she signed her letter of intent for Boise State. It has been a lot of back and forth for her trying to decide what school to go to, but I have to say I am excited that she chose Boise. It's a cool school in a cool town with a lot of opportunities for her. She has a friend that just got in as well and they are planning to room together. Good times ahead.

Have a good week!