Birthday Weekend

Mom and Dad came up to help me celebrate my birthday this weekend. On Saturday night they treated us to a yummy dinner at Ivar's at Mukilteo Landing. Sourdough rolls, delicious salads, and superb fresh seafood were on the menu. Usually the views from this restaurant are terrific, however, last night it was cloudy and hailing. We could see the ferry docking and unloading, but not much else. Then we came home and had yummy Mint Oreo DQ cake. Our crazy March weather continued this morning with many of our friends in Arlington and Marysville waking up to a couple of inches of snow on the ground.

It was weird to celebrate without Alyssa, but she will be home soon. She has finals this week and will be home Wednesday. Then she'll be on spring break until April 1st. I got a lovely quiet dishwasher for my birthday from Forrest, and he and Noah also bought me the sweater and butterfly blouse in this photo.

Sunday started with a yummy breakfast at the Stanwood Cafe followed by a game for Noah at Skagit Community College. After the game my weekend of seafood continued with an oyster burger at the Conway Tavern. We had lunch so late that I am skipping dinner, but will probably have a piece of birthday cake later.

Noah Lettered

Skylor, Kaleb, Noah, and Shawn at the basketball banquet.

Noah reached his goal of lettering in basketball as a sophomore. He received the good news Thursday night at the basketball banquet. Noah and the other 4 swing players who played both Junior Varsity and Varsity lettered this year. My boy who rarely wears a jacket even when the temperature is below freezing has decided that he wants a letterman's jacket to display his letter. We're going to go look at the options he has available for for customizing his jacket today.

Look Who is in the Local Paper

Noah's basketball team participated in a Coaches vs. Cancer basketball game two weeks ago. Although the boys lost they game they were able to help raise more than $1200 for the American Cancer Society. The hospital had a booth with helpful information about cancer treatments and prevention. The local Relay for Life committee also had a booth with information about Arlington's Relay for Life event in June. I have been a relay captain for three years now. My teams have raised more than $5000. We are hoping to raise $2500 more this year. If you would like to see the slideshow of the pictures from the game please visit the following website. Noah is in several of them (he is in the center of the photo below).

http://www.arlingtontimes.com/sports/

January Birthdays: Mom, Dad, Alyssa

Last weekend Mom, Dad, and Alyssa came to our house to celebrate their January birthdays. Dad on the 21st, Mom on the 23rd, and Alyssa's birthday is the 30th. The weekend started with Noah's game at Lake Stevens Friday night. Noah plays JV and varsity. The JV team won, but unfortunately the varsity lost.

On Saturday while Noah was at practice the rest of us went shopping so Alyssa could spend her birthday money. Then Saturday night we had a delicious seafood dinner at the Anthony's in Anacortes followed by DQ ice cream cake at home with the neighbor girls.

Snow Day #2

Noah had Bradey and Shawn come over today to hang out, play video games, and go sledding.
They decided that the sled needed help to go faster so Noah brought out the WD40. After Shawn got them started down the hill he jumped on and all three boys went flying down the hill. I am going to make a big pot of pasta for dinner, and the boys plan on watching NBA games and raiding my snack cupboard. Once their clothes dry they might venture out again but I think they're in for the night.


I felt sorry for the poor birds yesterday so when Noah and I ventured out to the store I stopped at the local farm supply outlet and bought more seed and suet. Since I hung the feeders we have had lots of birds in the backyard. However, these birds look very well fed. They must be hitting other yards too.

January Snow

Tipper's first snow. He was more interested in coming inside to sleep on his chair rather than wrestle with Boo in the yard.

Most of yesterday we had no more than a dusting of snow. It looked like powdered sugar all over everything. By late afternoon the temperature had risen to 37 degrees and we were just wet here at our house near the water. However, just a few miles inland snow was around all day. When we went to bed last night several schools in the area had already canceled classes for today. My district chose to wait till morning. I woke up at 3:30 this morning and took a peek out the window and saw nothing but green grass in the front yard. But by 5:30 when Forrest's alarm went off the ground was covered, and by 5:45 I received my call that school was closed. Noah's basketball game is canceled for tonight, but the boys are practicing if they can make it to school safely at 11:00 AM. We let Noah drive a bit in the slushy slick stuff yesterday. Maybe I'll give him another driving lesson today after practice. Thank goodness for all wheel drive. Here are a few pictures of our beautiful snowy neighborhood.

December 2011

Here's the year end wrap up. December has been a very busy month. Between practices and games Noah has basketball 6 days a week. Alyssa finished her finals early and has been home since Dec. 5th. She doesn't not return to college until the 7th of January and her classes resume on the 9th.

On Christmas Eve we got together with our neighbors, the Collins family. The kids exchanged gifts and we enjoyed a yummy fondue dinner.

We had another Christmas celebration with the Lewis family with more gifts and Erin's yummy cheeseburger soup.


Our tree was on the small side this year since we chose to put it in front of the window so it could be enjoyed by the neighbors rather than placing it in the center of the room to take advantage of the vaulted ceiling height.Noah and Alyssa collaborated on the decorating of the sugar cookies.

Noah scores on a team from Vancouver, WA during Christmas break. Alyssa's long break will allow her to see 10 of Noah's games. She is the surrogate big sister of Noah's friends. 2011 ended with a grand party at the Bryson compound. Noah didn't sleep at all and has been dozing off and on all afternoon. I hope to do a better job keeping my blog up to date in 2012.