Lythia Park in Medford, Oregon is a nice place to be in February. We had just been dive bombed by a herd (pack? litter? flock?) of hungry, greedy ducks.


Homeschooling even while on the road. Anna put to good use the boiled up remains of a turkey dinner. Here are all the bones all nicely labeled and drying out. I think she may be one of those uber cool lady forensic scientist or something. She'll probably get her own tv show. Maybe an action figure.




I'm not kidding; Lythia Park has some of the fattest, shiniest, most perfect looking duckies you will ever see. The look like Disney cartoons.




Here's Gramma Nancy on her 85th birthday. She's being all goofy with Cora as they munch on curly ribbon. Oddly enough, this was before she got out the brandy and shot glasses. This girl cracks me up. We heart you, Gramma Nancy!

The girls would like to be duct taped to their Auntie Sarah's side for all of eternity. Sarah lets them sleep with her, takes them to the mall, the movies, shares her earrings, and makes them banana splits bigger than their heads. She works at an ice cream shop, so basically she's the bomb. And the sweetest person on planet earth.

While staying at the Chateau Shafer, there was a whole lotta gymnastics going on. Can you tell Cora just is soooo over it?

Sometimes my camera disappears and when it comes back to Mama there are all sorts of odd photos on it I don't remember taking...

Anna and Aly turn 8 and 5, respectably. I love how Aly is watching Anna.

At the Takashige household I just couldn't resist (not that I tried to) taking this photo of two cute morning people. Note their coffee and laptops and synchronized face shielding from the paparazzi.

At the High House, Gramma reads to her youngest grandchildren. Kary really is thrilled we're back and willing to share Gramma with Gianni. Really. She hides it well. Behind a face of annoyance and frustration. Gianni's Oregon cousin, Aidin, pretty much feels the same way about him. Aidin and Kary may be a match made in toddler heaven.

There's a lot of this happening in our lives right now. Which is nice. Lovely. Because when it's not like this, there's a lot of screaming and hollering and bouncing and munching and noise.

There's a bit of snow in Idaho City. Makes for supreme sledding conditions. That speck of black? Cora.

This is the scene of a crime. I challenged Cora to a snowball fight, and it was epic. She took the time to make her snowballs ahead of time and stacked them on her sled. Then things got ugly. The great big one? It's called The Grand Finale. In spite of that, I so totally won.

The girls got snow shoes for Christmas. They're quite fun. And it burns calories. Like 600 an hour! Can you see the fat just melting right off me?!

It's easier with walking sticks. Also helpful if you get bored and want to practice Jedi fighting skillz.

Oh my gosh! Guess who gave up the binky? This was tragically harder on Mommy than it was on Moose. He promptly forgot about it. I still remember it fondly and with a sad sniffle.

Milo found the holidays to be exhausting, what with all the lying around and eating and such. Fortunately, he has the rest of his life to recover from the stress. Remedy: lying around and eating and such.

So, we're several weeks out of Wyoming, and still as homeless as ever (no, honey, that was not a dig on you - don't be sensitive, pumpkin). We've spent time with all the people we missed and who allegedly, missed us. In fact, they desperately want to miss us again, I do believe... but now we just don't leave. The kids are amazingly flexible, thank goodness, and Mike goes to bed at night seeing job applications floating in front of his dried out eyeballs. We take up a lot of space wherever we go, so thank you to everyone who's been putting up with us. Hopefully, life will get back to a normal routine someday soon, because I know you've all missed my posts about humdrum things like paper towels. I don't have paper towels anymore. Because I don't have a kitchen. Again, honey, not a jab at you. Next stop: Washington. Did someone say Bon Jovi concert? Don't mind if I do!