So long January

When I first typed the title of the post I meant it to say "So long January" as in see ya later January.  In rereading it I guess it could also mean "So long January" as in never ending.  Either way kind of fits the situation for us.  

Our January started off with the Norovirus which made it's way through every member of our family. Thankfully it was a quick moving bug so you only felt really bad for a day or so.  But that day you felt REALLY bad.  I did lots of laundry to start our month.  One Saturday as the virus was waging war on the final two - Spencer and Trent - Hailey and I decided we needed to air out our bodies of germs and went for a walk to the beach. 

It was gorgeous at the beach.  Hardly any wind and temps near forty made it seem like summer was just around the bend.  Hailey shed her coat at one point.

This girl could play in the ice all day long.

The one good thing about January is celebrating the birth of this girl.  How can she be twelve already?

She invited a few friends over to go to an Escape Room and then spend the night over here.  She was so excited about it.

They made it out!   With a little birthday help and hints from the game runner.

She picked out a unicorn cake that was exactly the same as the cake she picked out last year. 

Another sunny day walk to the beach.  It was colder this day, but the ice formations on the rocks were  cool to see.

Then it started to get colder and  snow.  I guess we knew that we had to have winter at some point.

We spent MLK day with the boys getting haircuts.  Evan is more particular about his hair than Spencer.

The wind chills were below zero but Hailey and I were tired of being cooped up so we went for a ride in the sunshine.  We ended up down by the lake and she begged to get out and walk by the ice.

We were not out long.  We could only handle about twenty minutes.  We had no idea that a week later would be so much worse.

Spencer got his scheduling information for his SENIOR year!  How is that even possible?

So not only did we have Monday off for MLK Day we also had a snow day that Friday for ice and wind chills.   The boys decided to brave the temps and meet their buddies for some sledding.  They rocked some vintage knit masks that we kept from Grampa Dan's thing.

The weekend we cold but not very snowy.  Then the polar vortex came.  Snow and blizzard conditions and below zero temperatures.  We had snow days for a whole week!   Including the Friday before it was snow days for six days in a row.  Unheard of! 

Our puzzle was finished earlier in the month we just hadn't packed it up yer.  We needed to do so to clear the table for snowweek 2019 games and activities. 

I never mind a week off of school but it was hard with it being so nasty and cold.  I don't like to be "trapped" inside.  We spent the week playing games, watching Netflix and shoveling in small bits.

That is our "so long January"  - whichever way you want to think of it.  I hope to be better about posting stuff this year.  Last weekend I finally sat down at the computer and ordered the past five years in blog books.  I still can't believe I was that far behind.  Anyway - I loved looking through the old posts and pictures.  I want to keep doing this so I will continue to try.  Whatever I can get on here is so worth it.