Mayor 43

For the Mayor's birthday, Grammy dropped off a loaf of fresh homemade bread.

When the family was all back together, the Mayor cooked up a delicious clam feast.

Unrelated to anything, a sad announcement that The Mandarin finally succomed to the ravages of time.

Midwinter Break

Over midwinter break, the hobbitlings got the chance to go down to the Cabbage.

GranDma engaged Chef Eejee to help with some meal preparation.

Boookie doing manly stuff with Apu.

GrandMa sent Seimi and Eejee home with a whole case of Pringles!

Otter and Otter B at the window in the cabbage, wondering how Harry the Raccoon is doing back home.

Harry looking out the window and wondering how the otters are doing.

Meanwhile, the Mayor and Hobbit Wife got to hang out.

The Hobbit Wife finally got to visit a point on Whidbey Island that she has looked at from the other side of the water for many years.

Here is the Mayor pulling up the geologic map on his phone and discovering just how old these formations are!

It was a wonderful break for all!

Cars Nap

The Hobbit Wife has long enjoyed what she calls a "cars nap," where she dozes while one or more of her children drive matchbox cars on her, like a massage.

The tools of massage. If you've never tried it, you're missing out.

Valentines

The Hobbit Wife and the Mayor managed to catch Ninja Grammy making a pre-dawn delivery.

Seimi and Eejee turned the candy into a battleship.

Taking Flight

 This past weekend, Boookie got the chance to go up flying for the first time, and now has 1 hour of official logged time in the cockpit.

Boookie was "smooth and skilled" in the words of the flight instructor.

Boookie took this photo while the flight instructor had control.

Boookie taxiing and taking off in a Cessna 172S. And yes, he was in the pilot seat and at the controls for takeoff.

Many years ago, around the same age as Boookie, the Mayor got to experience flying in a small craft. 

Miscellaneous

Seimi and Eejee like to create their own unique spin on household chores. Here they are attacking the carpet with foam weapons.

Here they are using a pair of condemned pants as a garbage bag.

Here is Seimi posing with his LEGO Bismark battleship.

And here is a LEGO steampunk flying contraption.

Here is Eejee with a smaller-scale model of the USS Fletcher destroyer.

Eejee created an apartment for one of his stuffed animals out of Jenga blocks.

Here is Jenga Minas Tirith

Somebody resurrected the hideous satsuma orange creature and he is once again haunting the fruit bowl, growing uglier by the day.

The Hobbit Wife and the Mayor discovered this unusual but beautiful ice formation in a parking lot pothole while going for a stroll one cold morning.

Hex Mountain Snowshoeing

Boookie and the Mayor got a chance to do some real snowshoeing, which took them to the east side of the Cascades for a 6-mile trip.

The weather was perfect - cold and snowy, but not too cold.

We turned around close to the top of the summit once the winds hit about 50 mph

All in all, a beautiful day for an amazing hike!