playing after the blizzard & Shari's bday at the ranch

The day after the blizzard finally lifted, we were able to finally get out of the house and make it to the optometrist for our yearly exams. Last year we had waited too long and Noah and Evie's eyes had changed at a bit of an alarming pace. We wanted to stay on top of that. Even though I had Lasix done just over two years ago (January 19th, 2017), I figured I'd better make sure everything was still okay with my eyes. And it is. I can still see 15/20. 

We all were dilated, including Terry and Noah. 

Noah was motivated to make contacts work this year. I think running with glasses is irritating and he wanted to be able to wear sunglasses too. He tried contacts last year but just could not get the hang of it. This time he couldn't get them in on his own so the optometrist finally put them in. So he was on his own to take them out that night, which he did after a long session in front of the mirror with dad. Mastery came after many hours of practice, but he's finally got it down now, a month later.

Terry was modeling what to do for Noah.

We're so cool. But driving while dilated...I wouldn't recommend.

After lunch and a short rest we decided to go to Canyon Lake to see if we could sled. Our normal hill at Meadowbrook was barren, as was the hill by Kathy's where Samuel went into the creek bed. But in the shade of the trees at the park we found the perfect spot. 

The kids tried just about every trick they could. 

I wandered around under the sun a bit. It felt so good. 

Terry took Noah to track practice after an hour and I stayed behind with the rest. I don't think I've mentioned track yet. Yes, Noah decided to compete with RCC this spring and practice began February 25th. They've had several meets cancelled due to adverse weather. Not sure I want to sign up again next year but Noah likes to run in the cooler weather of spring verses summer/fall. 

Zoom in to see Evie's air on that jump. They went over it countless times and had so much fun. One other boy about Evie's age joined them. 

Evie and I very still very much needed our eye protection. Can you tell hers are just the inserts behind her actual glasses? She thought it was great. 😆

I have iMovie on my phone and I just discovered I can combine all of my shorts clips together. It's a lot less work. Yay!

The following day, Saturday March 16th, we went to the ranch to celebrate Shari's birthday, which was the 17th. We had lunch out there and then I accompanied Alice outside to check on the cows. Some of the hens followed us around, ha ha. 

The snow from the blizzard was already melting and everything was a muddy mess. Jerry laid down as much hay as he could. Hopefully the cows would calf in the hay and not in the mud! 

Pretty hen. These are my favorites, the fluffy feets.

While we didn't get as much snow as they were predicting (18"), but the wind was rather strong and whipped up some pretty big drifts. I'd never seen such a large drift here, at the back porch corner of the house. 

Around the back of the house.

This was taken from the front yard. 

Gotta sled if there's snow I guess, even if it's just a really short drop. Ha!

The drift was taller than Evie!

Looking northwest towards the roller coaster.

I climbed to the fence line for this one.

"The hills are alive with the sound of music...!"

Little cousins and big cousins.

Noah was so sweet to stay out there and help the little girls. 

Dwidgie sliding on his knees.

Back inside we sang, had some cake, and played cards. 

Shari and I took some Snapchat filter St. Patrick Day selfies.

Ha!

See? Muddy, muddy mess.

Terry had been out to the ranch a couple times to get Jerry's new cameras set up. They can swivel and zoom very well and were finally working correctly. 

I restrained from putting this photo anywhere on social media, but since practically no one reads the blog, it should be safe here. Afternoons at the ranch are for naps! 👍😴👍

a thaw and a snowed in blizzard

January, February, and half of March were totally brutal as far as weather goes. It was arctic blast after arctic blast. Finally on March 12th, just a week after Samuel sledded into the dry creek, the weather broke and the boys were playing without coats off at the park. 

Our neighbor's yard turned into a lake, as it's prone to do due to the dumb road and culvert they installed behind our house. The entire field drains into her yard. Brilliant engineering. 

She was out there with a shovel to push ice out of the way so the water could flow. 

Terry and I walked down to see her waterfall and when we turned around we could see the sunset reflecting in the reforming ice waves on the sidewalk. 

I sent this picture to someone the next morning. We were doing school despite the public and private schools cancelling due to a "massive" blizzard that was approaching. 

There was supposed to be a lot of snow (18 inches predicted) and a whole lotta wind so the town got shut down. But we had nearby people over to hang out and play Axis and Allies

Steven and Prae came as well as Silas who was home from the Naval Academy on spring break. Dylan, newly returned from Africa, braved the perilous drive across town and was stranded with Prae and Steven overnight (so was Zeb). And Zeb came because he knew he couldn't make it up his parent's steep driveway.  

I had zero interest in playing such a complicated game so I baked cinnamon rolls, cookies... 

...and shepherds pie, which I fed to everyone for dinner.

Terry whooped them all pretty quickly (in like three hours), which was surprising since he always talked about college games taking an entire weekend. Afterwards Terry and Steven sat down and dug into the complex rules to make sure they were playing correctly. They weren't. They vowed to do better the next day.

Breakfast the next morning was glorious. We gave some to ur neighbor across the street. He stopped by to tell us his wife had just died. 😞

The storm ended up ending on Thursday, but school was still cancelled. They group took a break from their second game of Axis and Allies to go get Blaze Pizza for lunch (it was pi day) and in order to shovel out. 

That's a pretty big pile next to the Malibu. 

More big piles next to the driveway and sidewalk.  

Pretty tall drifts in the back. You can see how short the fence appears. We hadn't had a drift there since Atlas I think...but on that occasion the drift when right over the fence.

There were two drifts on front corner of the yard too. 

Luna enjoyed playing fetch with that football. 

Kitten Cat enjoyed watching everyone from safety. 

More playing after lunch. 

The kids were getting bored. The A&A game had began shortly after 9 or 10am but showed no signs of ending so I let the kids play video games despite it not being a weekend (we had done school that morning at least). Terry's game didn't end until after 6pm I think (we watched a movie too while waiting)! Talk about an all day event! After the first game ended so quickly we were not prepared for such a large time investment for the second game. Turns out they didn't know what they were doing in the first game. That's enough Axis and Allies for about a decade. 😜😂

Noah's braces come off!...and ranch sledding V

On Friday, March 8th, after 18 months, Noah's braces came off. 

Before...

...and after!

He looks so very grown up and handsome!

I liked Evan's Orthodontics because they were less pushy and more fun. They sing for everyone who gets their braces off. 😆

My oh my how he's grown. 

They gave him two $5 giftcards as a gift, for Starbucks and McDonalds. We used the Starbucks one right away when we bought some donuts as a reward at Safeway. He took his own selfie, ha ha.

He was the most excited to eat Tootsie Rolls again. He's been so obedient to the rules. He never ever had pop or anything sticky, etc.

First bite of that donut. He kept saying his teeth felt slippery and weird. 

Meanwhile Terry had been getting the other kids ready to go out to the ranch. Jerry needed some help with his new cow cameras that Terry had installed a couple weeks before. 

Had to visit Chuck and the chickens while we were there of course. They were under lockdown due to the arctic temperatures. 

This particular hen wanted lots of interaction. It was so cute how Gramma was talking to her. 

We got to see their very first calf of the year! 

The little stinker didn't want to eat though so Jerry and Alice had to try to keep his energy up with a bottle. 

The whole thing was so stressful! First they had to immobilize the mama by pushing her against the wall and locking this fence in place so she couldn't move. That did not go smoothly though. She kept pushing out at the fence and almost knocking every down. So often ranchers could very easily be killed or severely injured by their cows! Once the mama was finally locked up they tried to get the calf to eat. He refused. He refused the bottle too. I was so worried about him the rest of that day. The next day Jerry came out to find the calf nursing happily away. They'd figured it out on their own. 🙏

We had lunch of course, and when Noah and I had to return to Rapid to pick up his retainers, Terry took Evie, Samuel, and Ezra out to the field for some ranch sledding. 

It was a busy but good day.