Happy New Year! Jared and Jack kicked off the new year with something none of us has ever done: a Polar Plunge. I would absolutely have joined them, but somebody had to stay warm and dry with Alice so I volunteered for that job this year. Here they are after plunging quickly into Lake Stevens. It hasn't snowed at all this year so it could have been worse, but they assured me that it was QUITE cold in the lake. They ran in, dunked, and got out as quickly as possible to be first in line to receive a free Polar Plunge Lake Stevens sweatshirt. Jack was the youngest kid I saw doing this. I'm not sure he dunked his whole body, but he did dunk his face all the way in and most of his hair was wet so he gets 5-year-old polar plunge credit. Here's Jack, and Jared to his left, running back to the beach:
^^New Years' Eve playing Left-Right-Center with the Lamberts.
^^Alice on her first day of a pretty rough sickness this past week. She was very into listening to music on these headphones.
^^If one of our children EVER falls asleep anywhere other than their bed or mayyyybe a car seat after bedtime, you can rest assured they must be quite sick. Poor girlie had a fever, bad cough, and runny nose for days. I haven't slept through the night in a week because she hasn't. Luckily she seemed on the up-and-up for the first time yesterday.
Jared and I had a date night this week where we made cute little vision boards for 2024. We had charcuterie while we wrote down dreams and goals and how we'd like this year to feel. Then we got on our computers and found/printed 5-10 pictures representing those things. Then we just taped them onto a half poster board, wrote a few words alongside them, and taped them up in our bedroom so we'll see them daily. It was a great date night! I'd love to do this every January. Jared hopes to take some oil painting classes this year. I want to start more traditions and do a lot of paddle boarding on PNW lakes this summer to make the most of our time living in this part of the country.
We also loved playing Mario Kart with my family and on our own after the kids went to bed several times this week, which was so much fun. Big thanks to my parents for getting us Nintendo Switches for Christmas so we can all play together. We treasure these types of activities living in a different state from everyone else in my family. Here's to new traditions and applying to lots of Utah jobs this year!
