Fun in February!

It’s been another couple of silent blog months - but if my sweet sister can find time to put up about a dozen posts whilst winding down her four children’s school years, prepping and selling their house, and planning a cross country move - certainly I should be able to find a few free moments to catch up our own relatively calm lives a bit.  No rhyme or reason to this story: just February adventures.

Nomi Ann and Papa Kay bought us a membership to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium for Christmas this year.  While the PDZA is certainly no Henry Doorly Zoo - its location is beautiful and  closer than Nebraska.  This was our first chance to use our new pass. Eila enjoyed watching the big kitty cats.

Here kitty, kitty!

A

At 14 months old, Eila is positively the terror of Sacrament Meeting each Sunday.  Most weeks we need to take a walk around the building once or twice to get the wiggles out before attempting Sunday School and Relief Society.

Catch me if you can!

Every tot needs a place to park themselves when she gets home.  Since Eila kept stealing Zoe’s bed we decided it was time for some munchkin sized furniture.  She seemed to get the hang of it pretty quickly.

“The Mangler” busy at work.  All board books with moving parts have been removed from Eila’s reach for the foreseeable future.  

February can be gloomy in Washington, so anytime we get clear skies we go outside as much as possible.  One of our favorite weekend adventure spots is the Chambers Bay Park in Tacoma that comes complete with a pedestrian bridge across train tracks, an off-leash dog park and beach, and a pier that jets out over the water when the tide’s in.

Life’s pretty sweet.

Another February Wilhoit tradition is when Adam ships me off somewhere in the state to manage one of the Washington Junior All-State choirs.  While the original plan was for Adam and Eila to come and enjoy the wonders of Yakima along with me, Eila came down with a good case of the stomach flu.  An executive decision was made that the very LAST thing I needed to bring to town crammed full of young musicians was a stomach bug - so they stayed home and partied without me.  

My charges.  2016 Jr. Mixed All-State hard at work. 

Clearly Eila was plenty entertained without me.  When the cat’s away...

The best part of coming back from Yakima was finding my Valentines waiting for me.

Some women ask for chocolate and flowers for Valentine’s Day.  Me?  "Can we PRETTY PLEASE get a storage unit so that we stop drowning in our own stuff?"

Room to spare!

Another great part of February is spending Presidents Day as a family.  This year we celebrated by going into downtown Tacoma to explore. We started with lunch at Freighthouse Square, then hit the Children’s Museum, and enjoyed mass transit.

Eila’s first ride on the Tacoma Link

A visit to Tacoma’s Children’s Museum was fun, but busy!

Ahoy, mateys!

Joyful in January

The key to a successful blogpost is usually some sort of a common thread to tie all the pictures together.  All I’ve got for January, however, is Joy.  The joy of fun, family, and of course, food.  

Pretty much the minute we arrived home, Eila decided she really wanted to mail herself to the holidays in Omaha.

FedEx or UPS?  If it fits I sits!

This is actually a really momentous photo - though I didn’t know it at the time when I took it.  Eila’s daycare misunderstood a message and went cold-turkey off of bottles to sip cups during the day.  Not wanting to send our munchkin too many mixed messages we followed suit and stopped giving her bottles, too.  This was, in fact, her last bottle of milk.  (Psst - don’t tell daycare that she’s still getting a binkie at bedtime when she’s home.)

Goodbye old friend!

On the other hand, there’s nothing momentous about this picture - I just love this face.  It’s usually accompanied by some pretty good nose snuffles.  

Our daughters try to look alike, sometimes.

Mid January brought the NFL playoffs.  Thanks to Great Aunt Kay and Uncle John Eila was well-outfitted for the occasion.  Unfortunately our little 12 didn’t bring the Seahawks much luck - but she sure looked cute playing the part!

Adam worked hard to explain the finer points of football strategy to Eila.  

Cute?  Yes.  Pickpocket?  Also Yes.

What do you mean I can’t have any gum?  I have six whole teeth!

And sometimes we just go shopping to kill an hour before bedtime. 

Only YOU should shop for shoes.

Omaha Christmas 2015

2015 was an "Andrus Christmas.”  Kara has already blogged about many of our adventures with beautiful photography and storytelling -so I’ll keep this fairly short and let the pictures do most of the descriptions.  OK - fine...really I’m just being lazy and don’t want to commit to an in-depth post :)

Christmas morning - small to tall!

Santa Spoiled!

Looks like Eli’s going to enjoy his non-pink bike!

Adam looks excited by his new Lego book...ALMOST as excited as Eila looks by the video camera!

Papa Kay wasn’t quite as impressed by his new butter cutter as we were.

Eila, on the other hand, LOVED her new baby doll (at least as much of it as she could see through her conjunctivitis)

Speaking of a Baby Doll - check out how ours has changed from one year to the next! 

  

2015

2016

The current plan is to torture Eila yearly with this enormous bow.  I figure it Adam can squish it on his noggin’ then we stand a chance of it lasting until Eila’s 18th birthday.

Eila’s taking a magic ride in her scarf box from Aunt Kara!

Christmas just isn’t Christmas without delicious food - and we did PLENTY of eating over the holidays.

Mmmm - apples. 

Talia looks like she’s ready to sample some of her baking.

Papa Kay’s enjoying the power of the turkey cutter. 

And Uncle Jason understands that there is no pie such as that which is made from Apples.  

NomiAnn and Papa Kay carried on a tradition of providing beautiful, matching Christmas clothes for the cousins.  We were still pretty under the weather and thus not up to the task of ensuring perfect pictures.  This was as good as we could get.  

We all had such a good time in Omaha.  We played, ate, relaxed, and laughed all around the city.  I was so busy enjoying myself that I barely took time to take pictures.  Here are a few quick ones to recap a few adventures, though!

Art time at the Joslyn! 

Creighton Bluejays Ladies Basketball Game!

The game atmosphere was positively electric, right Talia? 

Christmas Eve snuggles as a family!

Rollerskating with the cousins.  Eila enjoyed the psychedelic lights while enjoying her bottle. 

New Year’s Eve at the Zoo! 

Cousins and the SAC flight museum. 

Captain Eila requesting permission to take-off.

With so much activity and entertainment - it’s no wonder we all ended up in some version of this position at a variety of points during the holiday.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a...well, you get the idea.  Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving in Helena 2015

This year was a Wilhoit Thanksgiving, and what better place to spend it than in Helena, Montana with the Grosch family?

Not eager to drive over the multiple mountain passes between Puyallup and Helena during the snowy season, we opted for an entirely different form of danger...air travel with a new toddler and a pug on the busiest travel days of the year.

Eila was pretty proud of her sisterly traveling companion.

Adam was pretty proud of both his little ladies.  

I was just happy to have an excuse to cuddle my munchkin.

Plane selfie!  We were desperate to find something to keep Eila entertained on the flight.  

I was just happy to get a chance to try out the FlyBaby again!

We were so spoiled to end our adventure with a delicious home cooked Thanksgiving meal.  On the menu; a genuine Turducken!

Kiss the cook!

Eila’s teeth aren't quite ready for Turducken, yet, so Adam was on for dinner duty.

Sharing is caring - and Franklin was even willing to share his apples with Eila in the real spirit of the holiday.

After dinner Aunt Leya introduced our youngest to Maggie.

Black Friday brought a day full of zero sales tax and screaming bargains.

Eila didn’t get to go on the shopping adventure - so she found her own entertainment.

Adventuring often leads to tub time.  

The next day was a day to lend some service to the Grosch family.  They have built an enormous Shop near their home and it’s finally ready to move in.  Thank goodness for great dads and little brothers who were ready to use their muscles.

A home for the big toys!

Meanwhile back at the ranch...

Oma was in charge of the munchkins.

Oma’s house has great stuff!  Who else would have a wind up toy collection to keep a rambunctious munchkin entertained in her high chair? 

After a while we got a bit of cabin fever - so we headed out to enjoy some beautiful Montana weather.  But first, it was time to bundle up.

Eila wasn’t eager to put on her snowsuit at first.

Franklin, on the other hand, was a ready and waiting snow minion.

A ride in Franklin’s sled improved both Zoe and Eila’s attitudes.

Mongo, as expected, was a big ol’ puppy romping through the snow.  

Our last day in Montana, before our flight out, was simply time for family and picture snaps.

On the catwalk...Such confidence!

A perfectly timed moment for two cousins.

Oma and Opa venture out for a walk in the beautiful sun.

Daddy’s girl

Zoe insisted on another ride in the sled.

Such a kissable face!

Mongo and Zoe wait for us back at home.  

All too soon, it was time to return to “real life.”  On the road home...

See you again, soon, Montana mountains!