The first bit of news for tonight is that
our girls’ basketball team lost their second-round playoff game today and is
done for the season. I know that they’re
disappointed, but did very well this year considering that we really do have
one of the smallest teams in the league – and I’m talking about height, not
number of students. That disadvantage
showed up today, and while they kept the score close; they were never in the
lead and lost by six points. There were
apparently no last-minute swings in scoring either; and they pretty much just
kept pace without making up ground while playing from behind all game.
Rebecca let me know about the game; and
that was the first time that having my phone came in handy while I was away
from home at the winter festival in Maple Valley. That little adventure was very different than
any of our previous visits to that festival; mostly because of the light snow
that fell most of the time during the daylight hours today. That made the trip each way longer; and the
festival wasn’t nearly as busy as usual for the Saturday because of the
weather. It’s not that we had piles of
snow, because we didn’t – it just kept a lot of people busy with other
responsibilities or had others changing their weekend plans since the weather
will likely be less-snowy tomorrow.
The other issue with the festival this year
was that the weather has been so wildly varying around here that the maple
trees have been very confused. There was
some early sap runs in January, and it’s been hit and miss since then depending
on whether we were in deep freeze or un-seasonably warm spurts. Since that has affected new supply, today was
the better day to pick up maple syrup and other treats; but we regularly heard
that they expected to run out of local maple syrup to sell before the weekend is
out. Yes, there are other nearby sources
to draw on; but that just isn’t the same for some of us. We’re very loyal to our Maple Valley syrup!
We did have a lot of fun today; and I
especially loved spending the day with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden. The shows, games, and all of the rest of the
entertainment at the festival were great; and maybe a bit more fun getting to
do that without the usual over-crowding for some events – like the pancake
meals. Getting cold and damp while
walking around in the snow between venues wasn’t so much fun; but the twins and
their friends loved all of that too. I
lost several minor snowball fights; but was usually outnumbered four-to-one.
I’ve skipped the morning recap, but there
wasn’t that much going on before we headed for Maple Valley. There was a bit of a delay before we left
while Dad and I took care of a bit of snow work that included getting the
minivan cleaned and warmed up. As I
mentioned, the drive time was longer too; so we arrived in Maple Valley nearly
an hour later than we’d originally planned.
We made up for some of that time by not having to deal with big
line-ups; but that mostly just meant that we did more than usual; and we left
for home later than planned too. That
was again partly due to getting the snow off of the minivan; and it was after
four by the time we got home again.
We didn’t have extra family with us for
this trip because my aunts and uncles didn’t want to take my cousins out in the
snow; but we picked up treats for them too and will pass them along sometime
tomorrow. After getting the minivan
unloaded and the kids indoors and busy playing together; Dad and I went outside
again to shovel the driveway and sidewalks.
There wasn’t that much snow, so we shoveled instead of using the lawn
tractor and snow blower; and then we had hot chocolate or coffee to warm up
after we were done while having a chat with Mom in the kitchen. She was busy cooking dinner by then; so we
pretty much went from that break straight to sitting down for our meal.
Mom had gone with an easy dinner, so the
clean-up was easy too; and then I was in charge of keeping Ethan, Ehlana,
Naomi, and Aiden entertained while Mom and Dad went into the office to get some
work done. We hung out in my room and
the lounge and played games until Michael joined us once he was done work at
the Inn. It was movie time after that,
and we watched Big Hero 6 while doing some quality cuddling on the sectional
sofa. I’m including the four younger
kids in that because Naomi cuddled with Ethan at nearly the same time that
Michael and I were getting comfortable together; and Ehlana and Aiden were
eventually cuddling under a blanket together too – though it took them a
half-hour or so to get there from just sitting next to each other.
Don’t make more of that than there is –
Aiden is the youngest and most-shy – and cuddling at three or four is quite a
bit sooner than it would be for most young couples! ;^)
That was fun, and the kids loved the
movie. We followed that up with a
bedtime snack in the office with Mom and Dad; Michael and I took care of
getting all four kids tucked in for the night; and then we got to have a bit of
alone time in the lounge until he went home at midnight. Some moderately hot play time for two was
much more interesting for both of us than the movie we didn’t actually watch
was; and I sure hope that Michael is as happy right now as I am. I know that I point this out way too often;
but we do seriously need to find more opportunities for quality alone
time. I also know that isn’t going to
happen as we head into the two weeks leading up to March Break – especially when
we have tests and projects to deal with at school and Michael wants to keep
putting in extra time at the Inn ahead of our trip.
The good news there is that our trip will
so be worth all of that extra effort!
While Michael is going to do that, I’ve
actually decided to take the weekend off from helping out at the Inn this
week. I want to get a jump on my family
business work; we’ll be having a family dinner at the Inn tomorrow with Grandma
and Grandpa; and I also still want to be in bed early to get ready for another
busy first school week of March. That’s
also why I’m done with this update and plan on being asleep soon. This really has been one of those good days,
but I’ve had enough fun; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
