Bellingham, WA

Driving back from Whistler we stopped in Bellingham to visit John and Valerie and rest before catching our flight in Seattle the next day.

First Stop: Bellingham Bike Park

Biking area with cheap bike rentals ($30 for both kids for a couple of hours) and various tracks with different levels of difficulty so you can build up.

Julia rides some of the intermediate terrain

In about 30 minutes RJ worked up to the middle jumps. We might have to head back so he can master the big ones ... and then go to the monster jumps on the other side.

Sara with John and Valerie in font of the pulp digester tanks from the old paper mill.

After biking we headed over to the harbor ...

Bellingham harbor 

After a home-cooked meal ... we walked along a rail-trail and saw a gorgeous sunset.

Night sky from John and Valarie's living room

We might have to head back here in the summer!

Whistler for Spring Break

We headed out to Whistler, BC for spring break. The top of the mountain was delightful ... the bottom was a little slushy with 50-60 degree temps.

Trip to Seattle ... kids in cockpit of 2-week old plane ... Doug announced "test flight"

We learned a bit of patience waiting in the hallway for others to get ready.

RJ waiting on day 1

Julia got in on the action

Day 1: the gondola took us up above the clouds, some nice Russian living in Vancouver helped with the photo

At first we spent a lot of time planning our routes ...

... as the week went on RJ just looked for any thrill seeking event

RJ is that tiny dot heading between the rocks

Day 2: Julia skied with her friend Matti Jane from school

Day2: after skiing it felt more like Easter when we went to the local church

Nice place, 2 bedroom/2 bath short walk to slopes (Julia struggled with manual ice)

Doug and Julia looked for the inukshuks. Julia was trying to frame the inukshuk, RJ was taking the pic.

Sara took this picture of a different inukshuk

Kids occupy themselves while waiting for adults to arrive at the lift

While trying to find the tree fort ... we ran into this bridge on a woods trail

Free fort and castle had slides (best use of Doug's helmet all trip)

Weekend lines were a bit long, rest was good, birds provided entertainment

Olympic village - Dairy Queen and local joint with bottomless sodas!

Doug was sick on Day 5, kids got pretzels

Crossed bridge on way to Whistler side ... followed brick paths for entertainment

Day 7: We ate 4 containers of bread ... then we got some cool stuff from the Kings Hawaiian truck

School Events

Lots of St. Agnes activities recently.

Apr 2: 8th grade reenacts the passion (newsletter photo)

Mar 28: Father / daughter dance (girls had fun, dads were not required to dance this year!)

45 minutes of standing in line was totally worth it. Kacki joined our family!

Mar 26: Julia volunteers at steam night

Mar 13: Girls of the chorus at Frozen

Bats in Back Yard

At twilight bats always come out in our back yard to eat bugs (we have plenty of those). To attract bats we occasionally throw plastic golf balls or other bug-like things in the air. 

RJ retrieving the shed keys from trying to attract bats the night before

CHA4 Party

 The CHA4 end of season party was a free skate. Oddly, the best picture of the event was of the two stowaway girls.

Girls crash the boys hockey party

Grant, Mark, Martin, Mattias, Ewan, RJ

Lola at Grandad's

Since we will miss Easter, we travelled to Baltimore to see Grandad. We got to:

• Watch Duke get to the sweet 16 in the NCAA tourney (81 - 58)
• Eat pizza, pasta, and wings
• Try to pet Lola

RJ tries to cast the cat toy to lure Lola out

Lola wasn't going to budge until she saw an opening to escape!

Hypermiling

New car ... Honda Accord Hybrid replaced the oil leaking, poor visibility, trunkless, gas guzzling Honda Accord Crosstour.

Doug decided to try to maximize his mpg. Sara called this hypermiling. 

Average is about 50 mpg, P.S. I never listen to 80's music. 

March 26 update on drive home from work ... 

That's more like it!