The Great Thaw

It has been snowing and snowing and snowing some more around these parts. That's not to say we aren't used to feet and feet of snow around... but a record snowfall in the greater Seattle area in my lifetime at least. We were out at Z Grandparents for Christmas and there was nearly 2 feet of snow! wow! It made for a bit of a nail biting ride to get to our traditional Christmas Eve and Christmas festivities but in the end all was a success and besides one power line falling and nearly taking out Uncle Matthew and Aunt Colleen we all made it to and from with little to no incident.

Claire and I took this picture on the 22nd of December after more snow had fallen.. imagine a few more inches totaling over a foot on Beacon Hill. Today brought 50 degree temps and a single clear path has been formed to get off the hill. Our non 4 wheel drive vehicle will soon be hitting the road again!

Claire is growing by leaps and bounds every day it seems. She is sitting up on her own quite successfully, has been eating a buffet of fun foods and is so close to crawling! She scoots around backwards for now and continues to roll over and over to get to other toys, the kitties and the puppy. Here she is in the sink we used to fit in!

Today with the big thaw occurring we ventured out to REI and picked up a new stroller that will fit our lifestyle a little better, drove by a house we are interested in possibly putting an offer on and made it to Marymoor finally! Breck was SO excited. Here's Breck up on a big snowball in the middle of her favorite fetching field. Breck just loves to climb things :)

It was a beautiful thawing winter Saturday in the Northwest. The holidays were fantastic, full of family and wonderful 1st's with Claire. Daddy Herrman and I have decided that next year we'll be taking the two weeks off around the holidays to soak it all in and really enjoy the season with Claire and the family. It just snuck up on us so quickly and flew right on by. We are trying to take everyone's advice and cherish these moments... but at this rate she'll be off to college next month - its just flying by... it is unbelieveable to us that she will be 6 months old in just a few days! Where has half of a year gone?