The boys enjoyed Math Night at Karshner Elementary School.  Teachers, staff and volunteers prepare games and learning aids.  The kids spend time with them learning how to make and use the aids.  The kids got to use the computer lab, eat pizza, and bring home some math manipulatives.  Thank you, Karshner staff!

So it turns out the snow did stick around…  In fact, we experienced a sequence of storms that caused a lot of damage throughout Western Washington.  We started with a couple days of snow and it looked like it was going to be fun.  The boys played outside, school started a bit late, and all was good.  After a few inches of snow, everything turned to freezing rain, which built up on the plants, cars, roads, house, and pretty much anything else.  And the wind blew.  About 300,000 homes and businesses lost power, including us.  Our electricity was off from Thursday morning at 6:30 to Saturday noon.  Life changes without electricity and with limited mobility.  And mobility was not all that useful since none of the restaurants or anything else had power.  We largely stayed home, read, and played board games and with non-electric toys like Lego’s.  It was a very good time for the boys to exercise these skills.  When it was all over (hopefully, it’s all over), Randy spent some time removing tree branches that had broken (mostly) off.  Then we ventured out and took some pictures of the damage.  Some places (as in one street over) looked as if a hurricane had struck.  Our old home had a tree completely uprooted.

We’re grateful to have our power back, but the close family time was also nice.  The boys were fantastic through it all.  Daniel had some glasses with a built-in flashlight (in case you’re wondering what he’s wearing in some of the pictures).  He used the glasses to build his Lego chopper in the dark.

Note: we combined the new pictures in the same slideshow with the previous snow pictures, so both this post and the one right below use the same slideshow.

Sarah & Kyle gave us a membership to the Pacific Science Center for Christmas.  When the girls were younger we loved going there, so it was gratifying that she (they) got this gift for us.  We took the boys for our first visit and, knowing we will go back with some regularity, we took our time with a few exhibits rather than trying to take in the whole thing.  We watched an IMAX movie (The Adventures of Tintin – 3D); you’ve gotta love the glasses!  We all enjoyed the day tremendously.