Comfortable?

 I think Maggie is comfortable... you?

Easter 2026

Easter was on General Conference weekend this year, so it was an early egg hunt for us.

Emily was so excited and was out looking for eggs and treats first things!

While the boys sauntered out to find their easter baskets, Emily was off like a rocket!

 

She found her basket without problems

Owen's basket, on the other hand, was on TOP of the playset and required some climbing and effot to retrieve.

Checking out the baskets before collecting the eggs

Owen and Kai search for eggs

Kellen and Kai worked together to find hidden stuffs

Everyone got some real eggs and some plastic eggs which were filled with candies and stuff.

We had pretty eggs we decorated for the Easter Bunny to hide

 

Layin' out the loot.

Emily was most excited for the new, pretty dress she got

Happy 14th Birthday, Kellen and Kai

Happy 14th Birthday, Kellen and Kai! 

They are full-on middle-of-the-road teenagers now. They are best friends and never quite worst enemies.

 Both:

-have found joy in writing short stories

-complete their school mostly on time and without direct supervision or having to be told to, though they do still need a regular check in to make sure all the boxes are checked and completed

-really like to stay up late and sleep in (many school days they need a nudge out of bed at 8:00 from Mom)

-have begun taking showers every day on their own volition (yay!)

-shake hands on Sunday with everyone they meet. They carry around a small finger counter and compete with each other for who can get the most handshakes

Kellen:

Height: 68 inches (5ft 8in)

Weight: 126.0 pounds

-still loves baking (cookies, especially)

-goes out on his own to seek out friends to hang out with

-doesn't LOVE playing the piano, but seems to enjoy playing the fast pieces he has learned

-is not afraid of speaking in front of people

-has serious drive and motivation when he finds something he wants to do

-wants to be a dentist when he grows up

Kai:

Height: 67.5 inches (5ft 7.5in)

Weight: 121.2 pounds

-still loves reading, though is now often found playing video games with Kellen

-will go out bike riding on his own to explore the neighborhood and visit their "collection station" in the undeveloped parts of a nearby neighborhood

-loves Scouting and has goals of achieving Star rank by January 2027 (currently is 2nd class and receiving 1st class 2 days after turning 14, 14 months after joining scouts)

-has been reading to Emily while working on getting the Reading Merit Badge

-loves space and exploring and learning about space, stars, galaxies, astronauts, etc.

This year was a family birthday celebration year. The first gift they received was tickets to the Spokane Symphony's John Williams vs Hans Zimmer performance 2 days before their actual birthday. Though we don't have pictures from that night, Kellen, Kai, Mom, and Dad had a great time experiencing the live performance of songs like: Superman, ET, Harry Potter, Jaws, Pirates of the Caribbean, StarWars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Interstellar, and others.

The boys open their ticket envelopes for the concert

Mirror messages for Kellen and for Kai

Door decor to wake up to

For his birthday meal, Kellen wanted to go out to breakfast, so we spent a Sunday morning brunch at Jenny's Cafe in Spokane Valley.

For Kai's birthday dinner he wanted fish and mashed potatoes and homemade bread.

Kai wanted a cookie-dough ice cream cake for his birthday treat, but Kellen wanted frozen yogurt. So, Mom made Kai his own 3d print solar system cookie-dough ice cream cake with chocolate cake.

And the following day (March 23) we went out to Frozen Yogurt for Kellen's birthday treat.

Kellen enjoys the frosting from off the candles of Kai's cake.

Kai wears one of Emily's mermaid earrings as a... decoration.

Birthday cards fro Grandm/pa Varga

Opening gifts and joking around

Kellen got a drone

Kai got Free Skates- they're like ripsticks for each foot individually.

He had been asking for these and was surprised and pleased to received them.

Red Mountain

This year, we drove across the border to Canada to visit Red Mountain. It was only 2.5 hours away, and they had plenty of snow.
We made our on-mountain reservations back in August when their winter specials went live and we ended up with a slope-side condo, so at night we were facing the slopes and could watch the cats lay down the corduroy. It was so beautiful. We would sit in the hot tub on our patio and just enjoy the view while warming up and relaxing after our ski day. 
The lifts stopped running at 3:00 for 2 of our days, but the last day they stayed open until 3:30, which was great for us! We had so much exploring to do and had a great time getting to know the runs and getting a feel for the grading system of the mountain (green, blue, black).

We're not sure what this was all about, but Emily's cheek was so pink/white when we stopped for lunch one day. Weird!

View of the condo from the slopes

View of the slopes from our balcony

Hot tub on our balcony (serviced regularly by the on site staff)

Dinner one night, picked up from a local (overpriced) restaurant.

Verdict: It's still better to bring our own food, freeze-dried or not.

This was a (funny) sign we saw on sight.

Ski in/Ski out is epitomized in this picture 

We skied RIGHT UP to the back door of our condo and walked our stuff into the inside gear storage locker.

Emily and Dad get on a lift together

Look who we found on the slopes!

And- funny signs in the on-slope bathrooms.

Kellen and Kai wanted to try out the Double Black Diamonds on our first day, but we held them off until the second day when they solo'd the Chute Show. They took a radio and headed off on their own. We only just *happened* to hear them yelling at each other as we skied by the Chute Show down the slope at the bottom of the mountain backside. We stopped and watched them complete their daredevil run, ready to call up ski patrol (or kick off our own skis and run up the hill) if needed. Fortunately, they made it down safely and lived to see it again the following day.

Night skiing- they only had the tow rope and terrain park open for night skiing, but we had a great time on them nonetheless. Next to the terrain park you could get going SUPER fast! Mom tracked herself at 45 mph on her Slopes App!

Kai hit some jumps

Emily loves doing the jumps, too.

Owen gets good air

 

Kellen runs his jumps, too.

Boys tackling groomers and moguls by themselves.

Sometimes we have small (and large) yardsales.

Dad and Emily workin' the mountain.

Kellen found this monstrous icicle at a Flyin' Phils on the backside by Topping Creek Chair.

At the top as a family.

Owen kickin' in on the ground havin' a great time.

This sun reflection showed up on the back side of the Chute Show and was too beautiful to pass up

About half way down "Get Up Stand Up" (which took Emily 30 minutes to get down the first time (mental block to be overcome) but quickly became her favorite run, and Dad's favorite run, too) there is this little warming cabin. Sometimes people just gather inside to have a drink or cook up some chicken. Literally, one day Owen went inside (while Mom and Dad waited outside to make sure he was safe because we didn't go inside but there were lots of skis outside and we didn't know who exactly was inside or what they were doing (eek)) and he found a group a dudes cooking up a chicken and passing it around. The following day we stopped by to check it out and there was noone inside, but it's a fun little warming hut.

 

Mom and Dad skiing at night

Mom, Emily, Owen on the lift

Mom and Emily on the lift

On the last day for the last run of the day (and trip) we went up Motherload Chair (which only services blacks) and tried our hand at a groomed black on the face of the mountain, Main Run. The boys had been wanting to get up to the frozen waterfall since they first saw it, and we finally made it happen. We stopped on the trail, where they shed their skis (and board) to climb up to the frozen water and say they reached it.