The Blanch Herd: February 2020

Monday, February 17, 2020

On the {Frozen} Lake

We hadn't been down to walk on the ice all winter, so when Gregg asked me what my priorities were for Saturday (Feburary 15th), that was at the top of my list (after vacuuming the living room, which he did, because he's amazing like that). The kids were less than thrilled to set out on our adventure but once we got out of the car and started tromping through the snow they were running and frolicking and having a grand old time (which is par for the course these days - they can't fool us with their complaining and whining about staying home - ha!). It wasn't clear ice like a couple years ago, but the thin layer of snow on the surface definitely made it easier to walk on. We went out to a buoy and then decided to "connect the dots" to all the buoys we could see in a line across the lake. It was a fabulous little outing and a fun view of the valley from the middle of the lake!

Holy cow, could they be any cuter?!

And what about us?!

Yes, I did promise she could pose by every buoy
all the way across the lake so she'd happily come
along with the fam.

And don't leave out this poser!

Group shot at the last buoy (not pictured).

My heart!

On President's Day (February 17th) we weren't sure what to do with yet another day off. We threw around a few different ideas ranging in scope/distance/cost from a last minute overnighter to Vernal to a day trip to Salt Lake to a hike on Antelope Island to a hike in town. I bet you can guess where we went, seeing as I am writing and posting about it on the same post as our first venture to the frozen lake? Yep. Cheapskate homebodies win out again. And yet again we had complaining children (probably just one child this time) who ended up loving it once we got out there. Hmm... funny how that works. But this time the sky was the most brilliant blue you ever did see! We got some new snow followed by rain all day Sunday, so the surface of the lake was very different than when we were there on Saturday. But still not too bad to walk on. We brought our sled this time, planning to walk across the lake from the Old Highway parking area (same place we went on Saturday) and hit up the same hills we sledded down last year onto the lake. Turns out that snow then rain then freezing temps combo we had last week that made for really bad skiing was repeated with this storm and made for really bad sledding. But we tromped across the frozen tundra anyway and climbed up on the old highway on the other side of the reservoir and sunk to our waists in some pockets of the crusty-then-loose snow and had a marvelous time. Gregg spotted a cliff he wanted to climb and slide down and Sam followed him the whole way up, climbing like a little mountain goat. Cal was not to be outdone by the boys so she soon joined in. And even old fuddy duddy Mom got in on the fun. Whew! That was hard work! But a fun ride down the hill.

Aren't those pock marks the craziest randomest pattern you ever
did see?

I'll let you guess who was the grumpy one for the first half of
our outing.

On any slope we saw today there were little rivulets in the snow
and they looked so cool!

Heading up the last stretch of the old highway on the opposite
side of the lake than we started.

I couldn't get enough of the shiny strange snow.

Everyone was smiling! (And the sunglasses were an absolute
necessity on this sunny day on the snow!)

The top layer of snow broke off in perfect slabs
and of course Gregg had to try to get the biggest
one he could without breaking it.

I spy two boys on yonder cliff!

And now Cal has joined them.

bonus videos!

"snow slide"

I don't know if we'll be back on the lake again this winter, but I'm sure glad we had a weekend of exploring before the spring thaw that is sure to come soon!

I Choo Choose You For My Valentine

It's the season of love! Callie and Sam have been making secret valentines and stashing them in giant boxes lined up along the wall in the living room and labeled with everyone's names since mid-January, so the actual holiday was a long time coming at our house. But the week of Valentine's Day we finally got around to making our valentines for our music makers and school parties. Sam chose a train theme (surprise, surprise!) so we traced our train cookie cutter on construction paper, wrote a little ditty (I choo choose you for my Valentine), signed each one (Sam took care of that part himself) and taped a pink reese's heart on each (Sam handled that job himself, too).

Callie opted to make her class Valentine's too (actually, even when I asked if she wanted to buy some she said, "No! I want to make them!" And I had to talk her down from writing personalized poems on each since there would be 28 to make for her class. Since she was hand-making, Sam wanted to hand-make, so that's what we did. The simplest way I know how: cookie cutters, markers, construction paper and tape. Done.) Callie made hearts with the saying "I {heart} that we're friends" on it for the girls and for the boys she cut out airplanes with the saying "Have a high-flying Valentine's Day". I helped her a bit with tracing (holding the cookie cutter steady while she drew around it with a pencil) and cutting (she did the hearts and I did the airplanes) but she did everything else by herself! She's so crafty and creative and thoughtful!

Cal's class party was on Thursday since there was no school on Valentine's day. I got to go help out in her classroom, where all the first grade classes rotated through to make frosted (and sprinkled - oh my how they sprinkled!) rice crispy treats. She played games in Mrs. Thurston's classroom and did crafts in Mrs. Coy's classroom and was plenty hopped up on sugar by the time the whole thing was done!

Sprinkle station.

Things got quite out of hand with some of these sprinklers!

Cal's BFF Abby's mom (a former 2nd grade teacher
at this school) knew just how to fill the extra time
after the treats were finished by reading a couple
stories to the kids - she is fantastic!

That evening we had a lovely pre-Valentine's day pink sky
sunset!

Gregg took off the day on Friday so we could all hang out together while Cal was out of school. Our original plan was to go hang out with the Olsens in Heber, but poor Grace got the flu (again! second time this season, once each with Influenza A and B! what are the odds?!), so we had to postpone our visit (again! since the last time we were going to go was the first time she (and Heather) were sick). So we made new plans that turned out to be pretty fun. We started off by opening up our boxes of valentines that the kids (and Gregg) had contributed all month. Callie went through all her class valentines, too, and sorted and shared and spread them all over the room.

I was really feeling the need for cinnamon rolls since I didn't make any for Christmas, so I decided a no school/no work Valentine's Day was an excellent occasion to whip up a batch. (They looked great, but were overbaked and were on the dry side - I am so struggling with cinnamon rolls lately! Guess I need more practice?)

Then we were off on our "luckiest day ever!" (Sam's words) adventure. We decided to cash in on the kids' chosen prizes for their 31-day read aloud challenge from January (we're a bit slow). Cal chose swimming and Sam chose a visit to "Boomdocks" arcade. We squeezed in a lunch stop at Crown Burgers, too, just for fun. And we even hit up a couple of snow-free parks while we were on the other side of the mountains. It was a party of a play day and we had a blast together. We finished it off with (trying to be) heart-shaped pizza and a movie (what did we even watch? I can't remember. There was no new cabin building youtube episodes, so I think it might have been ski racing?). And after the kids were in bed, Gregg and I had a romantic date night on the couch watching Ford v Ferrari fresh from the redbox. (It was actually a really great movie that we both enjoyed!)