Jan/Feb/Mar 2023

In January the kids kept themselves busy playing with their new Christmas gifts. We actually still had a container of eggnog, which we turned into popsicles with some mermaid popsicle molds we'd been gifted. They were tasty!

The nerve of this guy! Thinking he can tell me when to stop playing the piano!
He's right. I'm powerless to resist his charms.

 It looks like I've picked Nibbler up and am holding him in these positions, but I'm not. He jumps onto me and I put my arm up for him to rest his butt on. 

The other kitties are sweet too. Leela can't seem to get enough of the couch pillows.

In the middle photo above we're opening some belated Christmas gifts mostly from William and Nadia and one Lego set from Martha to Allison.

Allison is so proud of what she builds, and as much as Tyler fights going to sleep, he's sure cute when he does finally conk out. 

In mid January we got enough snow that I took our snowblower out. The previous owner left it with us since he moved to Texas. I made a path for the kids to walk to the school bus safely, but I ran out of gas on the way back and had to get Oscar to help me push it back up the hill.

These two bottom pictures are the kids building their Christmas tree Lego gummies.

Here are Tyler and Oscar putting together his solar robots and some good shots Oscar took of me at the piano.

In late January I got my hair cut and highlighted and Allison built these little ostriches.

And unfortunately our sweet Fry cat passed away on February 3rd. He'd had respiratory issues for years, more than half his life, and it finally caught up with him. We've had him since October of 2006 when we adopted him as a 2 month old kitten. Fry was a very social, very affectionate cat. We called him our "Frylow" because we'd often lay our heads down on him like a pillow while he purred. He was super chill around the kids, never scratching or biting if they were too rough with him. He loved to be where all the action was and all the people were. If you brushed him, you instantly became his best friend. We called him our "Festive Fry" because he liked to sit on holiday decorations. He loved the sun. When we moved here and started letting him go out into the yard, he'd bask in the sun, chew on plants, and chase moths around like it was the greatest thing in the world. When we'd jump on the trampoline, he'd find a sun spot near us and watch. This picture on the bottom right was taken on Wednesday and is the last picture of him living. He kept finding the sun spots in our house and moving with them. When I found him on the morning he died, it was in a very similar position to where Nibbler is in this photo on the left - in his favorite spot on our blanket on our bed (in fact when I found Nibbler here later in the day I freaked out a bit that he was in "the death spot" and had to pet him to make sure he was still breathing). Fry died peacefully in his sleep, the way I'm sure he would have chosen to go. He even died on "Fryday!" Rest in peace Fry guy. We will miss you dearly.

In the time between finding Fry and when the kids got back from school, Nibbler gave me some good kitty comfort while I put together a photo album of Fry. When the kids got back from school we let them know that Fry had died and asked if they wanted to see his body. The vet had said we could bring him in for cremation the next day, so we put him in a basket in a cooler and kept it out in the yard until then. The kids said "yes," so we brought the basket in and let the kids see his body and pet his head so they could know for sure he'd passed and could find their own closure more easily. We showed them a slideshow of the album I'd made with Oscar dubbing what Fry might have said in all of those photos, which made the kids laugh and helped them work through their grief. That evening we went out to dinner to celebrate his life and remember all the good times we'd had with him.

The next morning I took him in to be cremated. Letting him go was much harder than I was expecting it to be, but I also felt incredibly grateful for the 16+ years we had with him. I'm grateful that in spite of my dad and Oscar's mom having severe cat allergies, none of us do. All of us could bury our face in Fry's fur without the slightest discomfort. Though we had him 7 years before having Tyler, I'm grateful he adjusted easily to a newcomer taking up most of our attention and was incredibly docile and tolerant when our kids would play with him and grab at his fur. I'm grateful he was returned to us after going missing for two months when he was 9 years old. With his respiratory issues resulting in a poor sense of smell, and his being gone so long, we concluded he couldn't have survived outside and had already grieved his loss. I'm grateful for the two ladies he charmed into adopting him (they'd come in for a kitten and ended up getting him too!). They cared for him and gladly returned him to us as soon as they found out he already had a family. I'm grateful he's helping my kids understand that even though death is hard, it's just as much a part of Heavenly Father's plan as birth, and that life is a gift to be cherished, whether it's a life well lived or a life that's just beginning.

Within seconds of getting back in the car, these hymn lyrics came to my mind and brought me peace.

Each life that touches ours for good
Reflects thine own great mercy, Lord;
Thou sendest blessings from above
Thru words and deeds of those who love.
When such a friend from us departs,
We hold forever in our hearts
A sweet and hallowed memory,
Bringing us nearer, Lord, to thee.

At Tyler's 4th grade showcase, the kids put on a "Rock Concert" which was all about rocks. He almost didn't make it since he'd been having leg pain earlier that day and had to be picked up from school. But a heating pack and ibuprofen helped him feel much more like his normal self. 

We had a random nice day in February (high 50's and sunny), so we took a trip to the zoo. We got great views of both the gorillas and the orangutans. The orangutans were super social, clearly seeing the kids outside the window and trying to interact with them.

We let the kids play near the hippo and lemur area until Allison had to use the bathroom. I took her back inside and discovered there's a window into the penguin habitat from the women's bathroom (top right photo).

We saw the Asian bear and the mountain lions

And finally the snow leopard was out and about. I'd never seen him in any of our previous visits, though the amur leopard is usually visitble. 

The kids played in the alligator play area, in spite of the snow, and one wallaby came right up to us at the fence.

The elephants were out since it was actually warm enough for them. Usually they're in the indoor barn in the winter.

We saw baby Wednesday in the indoor giraffe barn then went out to feed the big giraffes before heading out.

Cute Nibbler soaking up some sun. The kids made Valentine boxes for school and I decked out the kitchen table with Valentine's gifts and candy when they got home.

I got Covid again after returning from our Texas trip (see previous two posts). It was awful, but it was the best week of Nibbler's life. He enjoyed me being constantly in bed. 

The 1st graders celebrated 101 days of school by dressing up like dalmatians. I was lazy and put this together for Allison last minute. I used Crayola ultra washable black marker on a white shirt and just hoped it would come out in the wash after she wore it. It did, and she looked adorable!

In the top left picture, Allison wrote a story for school about how she and her friend Brennan went to Great Wolf Lodge together.

What did we do for my birthday weekend, you ask? Why, took the kids to see dinosaurs of course! What else would I do? We'd done Jurassic Quest in Washington for Allison's 4th birthday, so we wanted to go again when it came to Colorado Springs. It was fun, though not as fun as the last time. Due to lower ceilings they couldn't have as many big animatronic dinosaurs to ride, so the lines for the few they had were much, much longer.

Here's Ty on pachycephalasaurus

And Allison on pachycephalasaurus.

I got this video a bit too late, but she and this boy were super cute roaring at each other like dinosaurs.

After waiting in long lines for one dinosaur and two bounce houses, we decided to do a few things without lines, like arts and crafts, and come back later when the crowds died down. 

Ty was still working on his project after Allison had finished hers, so Allison and I toured around the exhibit while Tyler finished up. 

We went home for lunch then came back later around 5pm. The crowds had reduced, but were still much longer than the exhibit in Washington. Here are the kids on the allosaurus.

They had fun on this bounce house with slides

And Tyler like this tethered bouncy

Though they were too old for it, the kids liked playing in the toddler area.

They went digging for dinosaur bones

And we watched a dinosaur show. It was just okay. The one we'd seen in Washington with dinosaur babies was much more interesting.

We waited in one last line for the triceratops. The lines were too long to do the 4th dino, but that was at least one we'd done before in Washington. 

We were very hungry by then so we met up with Oscar (who'd dropped us off before shopping at Home Depot), then went to dinner at Black Bear Cafe.

The next day we celebrated my 41st birthday. Oscar made me a peanut butter Oreo cake and my teaching partner at church made me this other vanilla cake (which the kids devoured).

Tyler learned "Down by the Bay" from his piano lesson book. Allison heard him working on it and wanted to sing along.

As for the other pictures, I hit 12345 on my pedometer, we had green pancakes and milk for St Patrick's Day, Oscar made yummy bread, and Allison read her Wreck it Ralph library book while watching Wreck it Ralph.

And here are some of Allison's art projects, including her giving me a tutorial on how to draw the story of Lambert the Sheepish Lion.