We got more snow! Almost two inches! Rock was stoked, DeA was not so excited.

DeA is finally to the point of recovery where she can start exercising. She is thrilled.

Ryker had two games in Yakima over his birthday weekend. He did most of the freeway driving and DeA did well distracted in the back.

We hit up Mod Pizza for a late pizza dinner.

They were ecstatic. 

A quick stop on Coastal so that Ryker could look for clothes and Jens could see some chicks.

The Yakima rink looks to be a converted potato cellar. 

It was colder in the rink than outside it. 

Ryker got a lot of ice time and played well. He was checked and sent flying in the first game, he looked like a cartoon character because arms and legs went everywhere. In the second game, he gave the goalie glove an extra little smack and a big kid cross-checked him off his skates from behind so hard that he ended up in the face-off circle on the opposite side of the rink. He claimed that it didn't hurt, but the next day he was complaining that his back hurt.

Jorge and Tamara Barrientos came to watch Ryker's game and then out to eat at Miner's together. It was so great to spend time with them again.

It wasn't a super late night after dinner, so DeA made Ryker's chocolate eclair dessert for his birthday. It all was going well until she dropped the bowl in the frosting, but she recovered well.

 

DeA Schooling and Jens B-Ball

DeA's Family History class was pretty intense and brutal and heavy. She still got an A.

The cat isn't allowed in the house, but the kids love bringing the cat into the house to bug their mom.

We had a great temple trip with the youth. Ryker got to baptize for the first time and did well.

Yeah, they were so quiet and reverent. 

They are always so excited to go down, and all crash on the way back.

We passed a guy selling strawberries, so we had to make strawberry shortcakes.

We finally had some snow stick on the ground!

I'm not sure why Leo Puppy had shorts on, but he was not a fan.

We drove up to Omak for Jens' game, and it was snowing heavily when we got there. DeA was very excited.

Jens played well and made some buckets.

All the computer use and driving has DeA all stoved up, so she took time during halftime and between games to stretch it all out.

Baller

Rock's 18th B-day and other stuff

Rock celebrated his 18th birthday by leaving home. He drove to Spokane to fly to SLC to spend a week skiing with his uncle Derek.

Yeah, when he leaves for college it is going to be a smooth transition for DeA since she already feels like he is never home.

Mom made sure to tell the primary kids what she thought of their singing abilities, but Luca wasn't going to listen to that nonsense.

Ryker sure enjoyed the Super Bowl this year. Seahawks!

Jens has been ballin' out this season, and is learning to use her focus face more to push around the other girls.

Ryker can't eat without Leo Puppy trying to beg for food.

Ryker wanted to drive Nama's car for his driving test, so I had to do a firearm sweep of the vehicle before the examiner did.

He passed with a 92!

He had to brag to Hampa about how well he did and to line up borrowing Hampa's truck until Ryker can find wheels of his own.

Sofia came with Nama to one of Jens' home basketball games.

Jens worked very hard to run her plays correctly.

Sofia wasn't super thrilled when DeA grabbed a random cachetona baby and suddenly Sofia wasn't the baby anymore.

 

Hockey and Hockey and Early Birthday

DeAndra says that she loves teenagers, but I'm not sure she loves the videos that the kids take of her:

The Winthrop Tourney is one of our favorites. The outdoor rink is cool, it's not three hours away from home, and we usually play well. I had to miss the Friday morning game because of work, but he played well and they won big.

The big problem at the rink is you can't take good pictures through the glass. Trust me, he's out there somewhere.

There he is!

Everything in the Methow closes by 9pm, which makes dinner after an 8pm puck drop a little difficult. After trying three other options, we ended up in Pardner's, a gas station/convenience store owned by some old friends from church. The clerk was very helpful and friendly, and recommended putting nacho cheese sauce on the six-hour-old spicy chicken sandwich that she sold me for half off. It slapped more than it should have, so much that I had a second. 

The hotel room was in the basement, but it was surprisingly cozy and nice.

They had a cute lodge where DeA worked on her homework while I read.

The Saturday game was against a really good Canadian team. We gave up a goal early, and then played even from then on

Ryker scrapped and bodied up a few times, it was fun to watch. We ended up losing 1-0, and the Canadians went on to win Sunday 5-0, so this was the defacto championship game (like the NFC Championship this year).

One of the moms took professional pictures of the game and here are some with Ryker.

We hit Three Finger Jack's for some burgers and Korean pork wraps.

We hustled home to build a birthday cake for Rock before heading to La Brisa for dinner

Salvador is a new friend from church that cooks at La Brisa. He came out to say hello and get pics with the birthday boy and Javi.

Sofia was happy to eat all the beans in the restaurant.

We went home for cake and ice cream and another beautiful round of Happy Birthday for Rock.

Sickness and Basketball

About the time I realized that our kids didn't get really sick in the fall, Ryker busted out a 101+ fever and missed the championship rounds of his tournament. He was pretty, pretty sick.

DeA was also not 100% while recovering from her surgery, the sister missionaries made sure to make her feel loved.

Basketball is going well for the Jens. She's learning how to balance her sweet nature with her mom's desire that she bully the smaller, weaker opponents.

She plays parts of two games each night, and it can wear a Funzee out.

Wears her right out.

A few weeks ago, Leo Boy was wearing a fly Capybara hat. I told him that I had seen capybaras (or carpinchos) in person. He didn't seem to care and walked away. A short time later, he came up to me and meekly asked if I could take him to see the capybaras. I told him that I would love to, but that they were in Argentina so it would be kind of hard. He said okay and went back to Rissa. A few days later, Rissa said that out of the blue he said how excited he was to go to Argentina with me to see the capybaras, so that I had better figure something else out. I had hoped that his capybara phase would pass, since the petting zoo in Tacoma that has some only lets you see them if you are over 10, but then he showed up with yet another slick set of capybara threads. 

Ryker had pick-up game against Spokane. It was chippy, physical, and he got launched on an illegal cross-check, but he said that he had fun.

Ella starts the home MTC this week before leaving for southern Argentina for her mission. Jeffrey and Aleasha celebrated with homemade empenadas and alfajores and tortas fritas. This was my attempt at making an empenada for the first time in 20 years.