birthday weekend

So we kicked off our family birthday week with Jeff's birthday. We went to a local pizza place for dinner:
we found tiramusi at the grocery for a cake:

and cupcakes for the kids, since they aren't a fan of coffee and since we thought that if each kid had their own candle to blow out that Jeff could blow out his own candles, but we were wrong.

As soon as we finished singing happy birthday Lance leaned over and blew out Jeff's candles despite me yelling "NO" when I realized what he was about to do. We continued the celebration on Sunday by driving to a nearby ski resort and hiking around on their nature trails. The views were incredible:

We did have a bit of a scare. We took a trail down to an overlook and then took a perimeter trail around in hopes of connecting to another trail to make a loop. The initial trail had other hikers on it, but the perimeter trail was deserted and was a little creepy especially since the trail map mentioned that several trails were prime bobcat habitat and to beware of bears. At some point on our journey I noticed there was what I suspected, bobcat scat (poop) which put me a little on edge. Then we got quite a scare, so much so that both Jeff and I got goose bumps. The perimeter trail runs below a mountain ridge and at one point we came up on a turkey vulture and scared it so it left its roost to fly away. We heard the flap of the wings and the movement up ahead of us and though I can't describe it, it scared us, we thought it was a bear or bobcat. Jeff and I both started making a lot of noise in hopes of scaring it away and the kids of course started screaming and crying. I guess what made it scary was we were enclosed in thick brush, well actually rhododendron shrubs, so we really couldn't see our surroundings at the time and heard something very large move right in front of us. After the incident we were ready to get off the trail that seemed endless. We did something stupid in normal situations, we left the trail once we got out of the thick brush, and headed up to the top of the mountain. Normally this isn't smart, but since we knew all the houses of the resort and roads were above us we knew that the only way to get back to the car was up. Despite not seeing any houses when we decided to start out on our own we spotted some right away and walked back to the car. Turns out we were almost to the trail that would have taken us back to the car if we just would have kept going, but we were too freaked out and tired by that point, it was starting to look like it might rain or storm.

We got back to the car and drove to a city nearby and had dinner at Chipotle and went shopping at an outdoor store. We then headed home and just missed two severe thunderstorms and got home just as it was starting to rain.
So we had yet another breath-taking animal encounter, fortunately this time though we weren't in any real danger.
So despite being terrified and feeling lost, we had fun, I am so thankful that the kids are old enough to go hiking and enjoy being outside adventure, I am looking forward to even more adventures to come.

it's been awhile

Life is at warp speed and despite the fact that I haven't bee getting much sleep, I also haven't had time to compose a thought.
I have had many a blog posts to write, but to actually sit down and type hasn't happened.
Let's see what's happened lately.
1- Lance finished up his last year at preschool and we have preparations for Kindergarten, so exciting, scary, and sad.
2- I have been incredibly busy with work projects which had been non-existent until the beginning of May.
3- I have been riding the roller coaster of potty training with Lily, she has got pee down, but the other is a whole other story and due to events such as preschool summer camp, we keep taking steps backwards and go back to pull-ups, very frustrating.
4- I am currently in week 2 of 7 weeks of every day intensive grad classes, or week 1 of my 2nd one. It is a lot of work, but I will be done with graduate school July 29th, which is very exciting, but kind of sad too, I love learning and I have made friends other students who I may not see once classes are done, you get kind of attached when you spend HOURS with people every day for weeks.
5- With grad school finishing up I am looking to go back to work, not sure yet whether full or part time, but that is kind of scary, Lily isn't quite 3 and I want to be there for her, but at the same time I kind of want to go back to work, I enjoy adult interactions, using my brain (not that I don't now, but with teaching I would be using my science brain), a paycheck, etc. Though I may REALLY enjoy having morning to myself and may not want to work, maybe I can get done all of the things I have always wanted to do but never have.
6- My grandmother celebrated her 99th birthday on June 3rd and then 6 days later passed away, it happened very quickly and was kind of shocking, though when you are 99 it isn't too surprising. I am sad that now she is really gone, though due to dementia she has been gone for years.
7- I have pink eye, viral pink eye and have had to wear my glasses and will have to wear my glasses until I am symptom free for 48 hours. This has been very difficult for me and the explanation would take a whole post, but basically having to wear my glasses has really brought out my insecurities, I am shocked how insecure I have felt in my glasses and how different I am, must find time to write more. I must say after wearing my glasses for 4 days I REALLY want eye surgery.
8- Not only do I have pink eye, but I also had a sinus infection and this cold or allergies are driving me bonkers, I can't wait to feel better again, I have been so congested, have had headaches, and a sore throat and a decongestant works, but I have trouble sleeping when I take it and I haven't figured out what is the lesser of two evils.
9- I am so thankful that this summer I broke it down and got a pool membership, best $370 every spent, bring on the 90+ days because we are ready.
10- I always like to have even number of items in lists, but I can't think of any. So I will hopefully find time to blog once again because I have a lot to say and I just need to find the time.