Five Guys, Minecraft, and Basketball

Enjoying french fries and oreo milkshakes at Five Guys. Thank you to Aunt Tian for the gift certificate!

 The girls went to a Minecraft session at Little Engineers... they had a great time!

Playing at the playground during a break in the rain.

The girls are enjoying basketball season. Here is a video clip of Emily playing... she took a spill but got right back up and made a basket!

Lauren gets a rebound and makes a basket towards the end of this video clip. Nicely done!

Saturday Night Play Date

Emily and Lauren invited their friends Ries and Abby over for a pizza/movie night playdate. Here is the foursome eating brownies and ice cream for dessert. 

Dance party!!! They had so much fun together! :)

Planting Primroses, Build A Bear, and Lay Ups Basketball Event

The girls went to the monthly kid's club activity at Al's Garden this weekend... the project was planting primroses in a plastic bucket. 

Girls filling their buckets with dirt. 

Lauren and her planted primroses. 

Emily holding her bucket of primroses. 

Grandma and Grandpa Rufener took the girls to Build A Bear this weekend. They had such a fun time! Lauren picked out a pink bear named Hearts and Emily picked out a white bear named Icy. 

Each stuffed animal has two outfits to wear... here is Hearts in heart jammies and Icy in a leopard print jumpsuit. 

Lauren and Hearts. 

 Emily and Icy.

The girls are going to play in a second grade girls' basketball league for the next couple of months. Today was the opening season event and the girls were excited to see some of their team mates!

Sunny Sunday

Lauren (left) and Emily (right) enjoying a sunny day at the playground. It's supposed to rain for the next week, so it was nice to go outside and play. :)

Ski Bowl and Snow Day!

We woke up early on New Year's Day to go skiing at Mt. Hood! We were originally going to go to Timberline but ended up going to Ski Bowl as it was less windy there. Temperatures were still chilly... in the teens with a wind chill factor of -1! 

Midway through the morning we took a break to eat snacks in the warming hut. 

Emily enjoying a hot chocolate. 

Uncle Lane is in town this weekend... the girls were extremely excited to see him. 

It snowed today! Lane and Tian came over to play in the snow. Lauren pulled our neighbor's daughter in a sled and Emily had fun throwing snowballs at Uncle Lane. 

Hiking at Indian Canyons

During our Palm Springs vacation, we also went hiking at Indian Canyons. 

The scenery was really pretty!

Girls resting on a rock. 

Taking a break to eat oranges. :D

Joshua Tree National Park

During our Palm Springs vacation, we took a day trip to Joshua Tree National Park. The girls liked this butterfly exhibit at the information center. 

We began our visit at the southern entrance to the park. The desert scenery was pretty, although Emily's first impression was, "This looks like a bunch of dirt and dying plants." :O

Girls at the cactus garden. 

This cactus was taller than Lauren!

The rock formations were impressive. 

Girls making their way through the rocks with Justin. 

These are examples of Joshua trees... there are lots of them in the northern end of the park.

Palm Springs Trip

Last week we went on a post-Christmas getaway to Palm Springs! We stayed at the Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort. They had a beautiful Christmas tree in the lobby.

We stayed in a one bedroom suite... there was a large living area with a sleeper sofa for the girls. 

Girls playing with stuffed animals before taking a trip to the pool. 

The girls LOVE swimming pools!

On one of the days, the girls spent over FIVE hours in the pool!

The girls always make lots of friends at the pool. One of their friends loaned them this giant inflatable dolphin. 

There is a wind farm in the Palm Springs area that we saw while driving around. The farm had over 3000 wind mills!

Pretty Palm Springs sky at sunset. It was a fun trip!