Presidents' Day Weekend

Quite the weekend. And a new housemate for Fina - a leopard gecko from Scales 'n' Tails, all from a "let's get fish" comment a day or so earlier. The saltwater fish place, Reefkoi Corals, was very interesting, too, but a bit out of budget (for now). See below for other happenings this weekend...

We got more snow!

AJ tried the Cinnamon Bread recipe. Quite good!

Nathan spent a few days with us during his visit
back from Poland where he's doing Ukraine aid.

That's what they chose!

The Calistoga Glacier was regenerated somewhat.

And that's not everyone.

The Leopard Gecko is in her new home.

Matt, Fina, and Papa did the refresher...

Presidents' Day!

Valentine's Day

Quite a bit going on today (see all the pics below). It was also Cheap Date Night, the 11th Anniversary of the troupe's first performance on Valentine's Day 11 years ago. And to top it all off, they've already announced a Snow Day tomorrow!

The "Calistoga Glacier" is a mere fraction of its former self
when first formed back in 2022 near the base of our driveway.

Happy Valentines Day!

Fina sang Valentine-grams all day.
And her Cheap Date Improv team
had a performance in the evening.

One of her senior photos and a photo from 2008.

Nana's canine Valentines.

The littles scored big at school today.

Chiefs Win the Super Bowl!

38-35 over the Eagles. Lots of other stuff this weekend, below:

The Nipomo Fosters sent us this pic!

Birthday presents continued...

At Marigold before the show.

Post dinner, Nana and Papa enjoyed
"Picasso at the Lapin Agile" at the Millibo Art Theater.
Jamie was in this play in 2014, check it out.

Our annual trip for Super Bowl snacks!

Meanwhile, work on Jonny's Lego kit continued.

Matteo 3-D printed the parts to this car for Jonny.

And everyone got a chance to hold the baby.

Wrestling, Birthdays, Deer, Oh My!

Lots going on again this week. Four of the boys have wrestling going on. Fina is in rehearsal for Spelling Bee and Improv as well as all manner of other senior activities. Birthday week. Valentine projects at school and at home. And more snow, complete with deer.

Jarrito Loco in Monument - uniquely good!
Jarrito means little pot, and they're everywhere.

All those "clubs" hanging from the ceiling are
for crushing a food item (which I've forgotten).

Matteo printed this desktop trash can for Tracy.

More snow yesterday which brought these 8 deer to town.

Celebrating the twins continues...

Nana made these special desserts
for Family Dinner. The topic was, "Don't
put an obstacle before a blind man."

Winter Swimming

Pool day! And everyone got a shot at the Grill's new pretzels. AJ's been after one of those pretzels for a couple of weeks now.

Jonny's full-immersion theater.

Breakfast: second seating

Barria tacos. Wow! (yesterday)

TECO Model Train Show

Papa, Griffen, and AJ went to the TECO Model Train Show today. What a hoot! By far, the winning attention grabber was a Boxcar Race put on by the Youth in Model Railroading (they have a Colorado Springs rep). Never saw that done before! We spent half our time there participating in this race. The truly amazing thing was winning a show door prize: one seat on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway! Just so happens that we've been planning that trip for these two for some time now. All the photos are here.

They often have a "scavenger hunt" which
does keep their attention.

There was a rock climber on the cliff at left.

First time I'd seen an entire layout of monorail.

Rocky Mountain Railroad Heritage Society
(Jamie does their website.)

We bought a boxcar for them to race.

AJ/Griffen's car is in the middle.