We aren't much for Valentine's Day normally but somehow this year it stretched into a week long event. Every year we make heart shaped pizzas so we did that a few days before knowing Jon wasn't going to be home on the actual day. Before he left on his trip we let the boys open the stuffed animals they receive when we adopt an animal at the zoo in their names. Reed choose a giraffe for the 3rd year in a row and despite Kieran choosing a Lion and the zoo making a mistake and sending a kangaroo he was more than happy too. The day before Valentine's K and Lyla had a party at preschool that I dropped pizza off for and I managed to get a few silly pictures before heading back to work. Once the day finally arrived Reed handed out Valentine's to everyone in the house he had secretly made - he left one on Jon's nightstand for when he got returned and even the pets got in on the action.
We had a trip planned to Avila to celebrate Pepe's Birthday but since it wasn't going to be until after his actual Birthday C and Tio hosted a family dinner to celebrate. By the end of the night it had turned into a Pepe vs. Reed dance battle that had us all giggling (apparently I was laughing too hard to take any pictures of the scene).
Our weekend in Avila got off to a bit of a bumpy start when Pepe and Jon's flight was delayed and almost cancelled but we managed to make the best of our waiting around by playing some hilarious rounds of telephone with the kids. The next day was perfect beach weather and the kiddos loved getting some time in on the sand. For Pepe's Birthday we gave him an excursion at the dunes. This sounded super fun in theory but we quickly realized we might not be sand dune people. Once we all made it through our hour in one piece we decided that we had given Pepe an appreciation for life for his Birthday instead! We finished off the Birthday celebrations with an amazing dinner. Somehow Lyla and Zach (who are usually night owls and will run on fumes for hours) both slept through almost the entire dinner. I don't think the weekend was exactly what we had originally envisioned but it ended up being a lot of fun in totally different ways.
A few more things that were sprinkled throughout February - lots and lots of rain, one of the storms was pretty crazy and even blew one of our neighbors' redwood trees over. Grandpa's college roommate came to town for the Farm Show and the boys and I got to go out to dinner with him and hear about all of the latest and greatest things he's doing at his organic dairy. With Jon traveling so much it gave me the opportunity to spend some evening and weekend time making a quilt for Auntie Amanda's soon to be new baby girl. It was really fun making something so feminine after the last few have all been for boys. We also spent an afternoon with G-Momma. We brought games to play inside because of the weather. Reed insisted on being on her team and then wouldn't explain anything he was doing to her. Since the weather was a little nicer than expected we got some energy out and took a stroll all around the grounds where she lives. Of course Kieran made a couple guest appearances at HMC and his masterpiece was a piece of art he made for Lyla featuring animals that are pink.
