Mid-winter break round-up

I forgot to finish out what we did for mid-winter break.  Oops!

On Thursday I took the kids to a local park that is also a working farm.  These little guys have become passionate bike riders, and they wanted to take those bikes to ride around the park.  I was glad to oblige!  There is a trail for walking and bike-riding that takes you to the farm where you can walk around and look at the animals in the pastures.  We saw horses, goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese.  While walking around the pasture we saw some trails that lead to other parts of the city's trail system.  I didn't have a map of the area nor had I ever seen one, so I didn't feel up to that adventure.  But I did let the boys ride their bikes over the little bridge that connects the trails.  It was a hard bridge for them since it was hilly and narrow, but they liked it.  I decided to let them try it a second time.  Joel navigated it successfully, but Evan got into trouble coming down the bridge and trying to turn onto the gravel trail.  He had a major wipeout.  He scraped his knee and caught close to his groin area on the handlebar.  We had to walk up a pretty big hill to get back to the trail that would take us to the parking lot.  He didn't think he could make it, but he did!  I was pretty proud of him for persevering.  (Joel also had a wipeout much earlier in the ride but his wasn't as bad and he recovered pretty quickly.)  We got back to the van as soon as we could and decided to come home for the day.

The next day we took a trip to Issaquah to visit Boehm's Candies.  We took a window tour and saw the candy makers in action.  Then we had to buy a few to try, too.  I let each boy pick out 3 pieces and it was agonizing watching Joel try to decide.  The boys enjoyed it more than I feared they would and we are all looking forward to going back in the summer when we can go inside the chocolate factory!  After that we went to Target to let the boys spend some money.  They had been looking forward to this for a long time!  Evan had told Joel that he would buy him a Lego set if he won the "Super Bowl" they played against each other in the front yard one day last week.  Joel said he would buy Evan some candy just because.  Picking out the Lego sets and candy was almost as hard as picking out the Boehm's candies, but we made it.

On Sunday we visited the same church we had visited the week before.  After the service they have a snack and fellowship time.  We got to talk to quite a few people and were some of the last to leave.  We were also invited to lunch with the families we were talking to, and they settled on a dim sum restaurant.  We hadn't eaten at one before, but we were pleased with their choice!  It was great to be able to visit with them some more.  All of the kids sat at their own table with an older girl who helped the little ones get their food.  Apparently our boys tried a lot of the foods.  I know that they had fun with the other kids!  It was neat to listen to our "hosts" order all of the food in Mandarin.  I was sitting next to the pastor of the church and when the food arrived, he explained it all to me and helped me get the food if my chopsticks weren't working.  It was so yummy and we all left stuffed!

It was a little hard to get back into the routine on Monday, but it was good to do so.  The boys have enjoyed being back in school, and I finally got back to working out in the gym this week.  We are trying to find a "normal" routine here in our new home.  It seems like we are getting a little closer every day.