The bleak mid-winter isn't so bleak over here!

Our January started off with a trip to a popular park on New Years Day.  

We didn't realize that we would arrive just in time to catch the annual Polar Bear Swim.  I've never seen one, and it was hilarious! Lots of laughter and screams coming from those crazies! 

The girls looked so stylish in their new knitted hats from Jeff's mom! 

We brought along Brielle's car to drive around.  But we ended up carrying it more than using it. The girls wanted to run around and play at the playground instead. 

Beautiful view and a beautiful way to start off the year! 

What else did we do this month? .....

We kicked off the winter blues and Jeff and I went dancing one night.  The LDS Seattle Social Dance Club has monthly dances and we finally got a babysitter and went this month.  It was a blast, and we had a great time dancing together again! 

We attended our friend's 2nd birthday at the children's museum. Fun! 

(Brielle's hair is long enough to french braid!!)

I am still in Primary at church, and January is the exciting month where the children switch classes, and we add in new 3 year olds. It has been wild and fun in primary this month! 

I'm in charge of the bulletin board and got a picture of the new theme. Brielle likes to get on the podium and pretend to give a talk. :)   

One day I took the girls to a trampoline park near us.  They have toddler jump times. It was a blast! We will be doing this regularly for sure! 

Brielle likes to wear her tutu..it's fun to jump in! 

Both girls liked jumping and climbing in the foam pit. 

Sometimes we pretend our house is a trampoline park:

Jeff is doing so well at work! He loves his job, and his job loves him. :) 

About a year ago they opened up a 10th floor in the building for some more senior level Account Executives. It's got a gorgeous view when you walk in the front doors! Last week he got word that they had an office for him to move to...the last office with a window! He moved up and it's great up there with the fancy-pants. :) I can't wait to see it. 

Brielle & Rosalyn love animals of every kind.  They like to look at the ducks swimming in the downtown Bellevue park. 

We celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary! Yay! We decided to celebrate by taking a little trip for the weekend.  We thought it would be a fun chance to see something new and a fun experience for the girls.  Here's how it went down...

The day before we bought a bathing suit for Brielle at Walmart.  We wanted to go someplace where we could swim together! 

Brielle saw this suit and put it on right then and wouldn't take it off.  She paid for it this way and wore it around her neck for a few days straight, ha ha.  At least it felt that way. :) 

We looked up a bunch of places to go and decided on Suncadia Resort.  It's only about an hour and 20 minutes drive and up in the beautiful mountains near us.  Perfect.  

We got all packed up and the girls took naps while we drove.  Here's Rosalyn all ready for the drive:

We arrived in lots of snow.  We underestimated the amount of snow that would be there since we don't have any snow where we live! We weren't fully prepared. :) But we went inside and had fun in the hotel room.  Rosalyn especially liked jumping on the bed and playing with all the pillows:

We quickly discovered that traveling with two toddlers is more of an ordeal than we expected.  They were into everything and exploring everything, and were very active.  We decided to change them into swimsuits and go swimming.  Then we learned that the pool was not in the lodge and we had to drive to it.  So we packed them up in coats and drove through the snow to the pool where we had a great time swimming.  

But the effort of preparing them and driving and going through snow, swimming while holding both girls, and then re-dressing them was quite the ordeal by the end of it.  Jeff and I were exhausted...surely the girls were too, right? Nope...they were too hyper and wanted to run around the lodge. You'd think that would tire them out, right? Nope...we were up with them off and on all night. They wanted to party!!! 

None of us got much sleep that night since we were all together in the same room. It was wild, tiring, and hilarious and Jeff and I woke up and decided we didn't want to stay another day there.  It was a wonderful lodge...but we'll come back in 5 years. :) It just wasn't toddler-friendly. The playground was covered in snow, and there wasn't much for 2 busy toddlers to do. 

Here's the lovely view out our window:

Can you spot the rainbow? 

Goodbye, Suncadia Resort...

So we packed everything up again and made the trek back home.  We were all happier for it, and have a great memory of this wild time. :)

So we made the most of the weekend by doing things a little closer to home.

We went to the Seattle Children's Museum for the first time. It was AWESOME. 

They have a whole international play area and it was so cool.  Here Brielle is driving through Africa:

We liked the African drums:

And then taking Rosalyn on a trip through the Philippines. 

They had a Japanese section that totally reminded me of my childhood! So cool. 

It was a fun outing to Seattle...and perfect for the girls. And parents. :)