Tamarack!

 What the what? Our two kids… SILENTLY READING? I keep saying how we are in the "sweet spot," and how sweet it is…. 

 Also sweet was the valentines day treat Ryan and I were given. Breakfast in bed by Morgan and Aidan. WITH gifts! And pancakes and love letters. At 6 a.m. (we need to talk about timing, but seriously, incredibly lovely) How lucky are we? 

 And then we headed to Tamarack to hit some powder. Or rocks. Or dirt. Our ski in/ski out condo wasn't too ski anything. But we had a blast because we were with the Bordners! 

 And Cody, the dog/horse came too. And nothing was damaged!

 Lots of games were played, although Catchphrase may have been the favorite!

 Tamarack has a fantastic terrain park!

 And their food court wasn't too shabby either. Using a fry as a straw, girl after my heart….

 Cheers!

 Three little pigs!

 A Borney Stew. Ryan got a rash after this. Yes, yes he did. Sick.

 View of our condo's twin. Lovely! 

And a view of the little ski resort that could. We'll be back Tamarack, whether there's snow or a resort or not!

Skedaddle to Seattle….

There's a new Foster in the world! And since my youngest child is practically picking out colleges, this girl needed a baby fix in a bad way… So while Ryan was terrorizing the streets of McCall with his gaggle of middle aged friends (ha!), the kids and I hopped over to Seattle.

 This picture has nothing to do with our trip, but it's too sweet not to share. Being a working mom is great, but really hard. Saying goodbye to favorite 8 year old is tough. We have quite the morning routine, which involves a lot of chatting and snuggling. We also have a routine of him standing in the garage, while I blink the lights with my hazard lights on. I can't wait for the neighbors to report a ufo on our street. But it's 6:45 a.m. and no one else is awake. Aidan constructed this picture for me to put in my office so I can think about him when I get sad and miss him. THIS kid….

 The obligatory plane shot. 

 And stuffing of the face shot because Grandma's like to give treats! 

 And the selfie we took to send to Ryan to remind him not to do anything *too* dangerous because there might be some knuckleheads who like him...

 And then we met the baby!! Oh the baby. I can't stop thinking about this sweet little boy. Emmett Jonathan Foster. I let Cass hold him for a second. 

 Look at this gaggle of grandkids… Such a fun group of kids, we are beyond lucky to have this family!!

 And the BABY. Ahhhhh, I need another fix….

 And my baby holding the baby.

 And cue the wrasslin'. 

 Which went on and on. Uncles are the best! 

 I kid you not. I have 189 pictures of these cute little mugs on my phone. 189?!?!

 Mastered the selfie.

 Morgan's in selfie training. Lord, help us all.

 She loves her uncle Jon. Conversation overheard at our house. Aidan: "Uncle Jonny is actually a kid-ult." Me: "What's a kid-ult?" Aidan: "It's like an adult, who is like a kid, but he's actually an adult."

 For the 923rd time. WHO ARE THESE BIG KIDS? WHERE ARE MY BABIES.

I also got to sneak in a visit with my very first and beloved best friend… Kelly's an uber talented photographer and this is the only picture verifying our visit (that's ridiculous). But people, she has 23,000 unread emails. 23,000!?!? You should have seen her face when I told her that meant they were "unread." But when you are getting spots in PEOPLE and US WEEKLY (capitalized because these periodicals are holy to me), you might just have 23,000 unread emails. Or actually if you knew Kelly, it would make sense, she's much too busy living a big, fun, full life for email. LOVE that girl. 

 And then the kid-ult took my children for a lovely swim in the lake. Rainy, 40 degrees, of course! See, now you know why my kids think he's like a kid, but an adult, like a kid….

 Followed by a soak. Even that looked too cold and wet for me….

 I'm a great aunt, but a horrible sister…. Karaoke machine for Christmas, yes please! I realized just how terrible this gift was. The doors may be shut but you CANNOT escape the kid version of "Uptown Funk" no matter where you try to hide. You just CANNOT. 

 Luckily, there were breaks to play a little World Cup.

 Morgan and the ferocious hell hounds. Dash and Bogey. Also known as the dog versions of Morgan and Aidan.

 We took in a little sight seeing to the Snoqualmie Falls. Running a little hot there.

 And no stop to Washington is complete without visiting my mom and grandpa Bob's resting place. Note the little purple flower that is growing… None of us planted it but there it is. Apparently the big guy in the sky thinks they are pretty special too!

Off in the distance you can see the long lost twins, Aidan and Cassie running. So stinking cute together. Thanks Foster family for another FANTASTIC trip! 

SUPERBOWL!

 The Kearney kids had their own version of the Superbowl pre-game. Thanks to Uncle Jonny and Aunt Heather for a great soccer rebounder, ball-kept-hitting-kids-in-the-head thingy. It's a hit! Literally!

 Standing room only... Kearneys like to throw a shin-DIG!

 Look at that gaggle of kids... Next generation of craziness!

 All eyes intent on the game... And WHAT a game it was...

 A) Yes, Lola is packing heat. B) Yes, Heather's dad is circling a crystal.

 And C) Yes, Heather is repairing aforementioned crystal because the thread broke. Remember last year when Heather was wearing a helmet the entire game and I posted, "It's only weird if it doesn't work." Well, turns out superstitions run in the family. And D) Yes, right when the crystal string broke, what what??? We started losing.

Intense moments in Kearney basement. Not pictured, me literally throwing Jamie out of my house and making her stand in the rain. Every time I did that, we scored. I'd like to apologize to Seattle, I let her stay in for that last play. I KNOW! I'm regretting it too. Next year, I won't make the same mistake (who's superstitious?)

8 is GREAT.... {sob,sob}

We recently celebrated Aidan's 8th !?!?!?! birthday. While I am ecstatic to be in the sweet spot (no toddlers/preschoolers/teenagers), the nostalgia is hittin' this old gal hard. Where are these years going? And why aren't I maturing? Aren't I supposed to have all of life's answers for these kids?

 This sweet boy is sadly aging too. 13 years of loving this old lug. Let's cheer for 13 more!

 In order to ring in 8 years of having a little dude around the house, we loaded up all of his 2nd grade best buddies, Morgan and Alora and hit Big Al's for bowling and arcade fun.

 Fun was had by all and I'm still tired. How many times can you count little cotton headed ninny muggin heads to make sure you haven't lost one? Turns out it's a billion times. But we didn't lose even one!

 And huge, big, ginormous thank you for Mema and Papa coming to the rescue AGAIN and also herding these cats!

 Sweet 8 year old boy.

 We are so incredibly proud of this boy. He has been so serious about school this year (almost too serious) and he has been trying so hard. It is paying off people! He has advanced like a mad-man and according to his teacher, despite a lot of distractions (c'mon it's 2nd graders, it's their job to distract), he is super focused and "principled." We are considering maybe he was switched at birth, little Ryan and Sarah were more known for "chatting" in the 2nd grade...

 We learned on this outing that Aidan has an incredibly sweet crew of buddies!!

 Because we are apparently gluttons for punishment, we hosted a sleepover after Big Al's. Aidan and Sean took advantage of brisk temps to get some lacrosse training in....

Turns out big party, followed by sleepover, followed by a family party is a baaaaaddd idea.... Aidan was what a titch tired. Live and learn!