How have you been?

It's been a while since I posted.  No reason, really, except that I have let other things take up my time.

We have really been enjoying having friends over at our house almost every evening.  It is fun to grow relationships with people.  Don't you think so?  I love people and I love getting to know our new camp family.  I am so thankful that I do not work outside the home these days, and I get the chance to open our home to people on a daily basis.  It really does warm my heart that our house can be used for a place to come and relax and just build friendships.  I think this might be what I was created for!

Micah's parents, brother and our niece Lauren and nephew Elathan came to spend the long weekend with us.  I cannot tell you how nice it is that we get to see Matthew and Elathan more frequently now, and how nice it was that Micah's parents drove the LONG 19 hour drive (our niece, Lauren, helped) to see us.  It was fun to just be able to hang out and show them around our new home.  They should be arriving back in Texas as I type this.  That is one CRAZY LONG drive, and I am so glad they made it safely!

Here are some pictures to catch you up on what has been going on:

Ben getting ready to hand out Valentine's.

Grace doing her Valentine's.  She asked me if we were going to have a Valentine's party, and I realized that I had better make that happen.  We had a fun day making and handing out Valentine's and goodies to the camp staff.

I am a bit cheesy when it comes to Valentine's day.  (You can thank my mom for this!  She always does this too!)

Micah got his own sack of goodies!  (When you live on a mountain and forget to grab a basket to put your husband's Valentine stuff in, you improvise!  Thanks Trader Joe's for having great, sturdy paper bags!)

One of our art projects last week was marble painting.  I LOVE marble painting, and now that I only have two students, we can marble paint as much as we want!  LOL!

We have our very own, resident cosmetologist on our staff, so she gave Grace and Ben Valentine haircuts!  (Doesn't she look so grown up?!)

And here is Ben with his cool new cut!

The weekend was GORGEOUS, so we were able to take our family up to Boucher Lookout which is the highest point on the mountain with an old lookout tower.  Here is a link to the history of the

 lookout:  http://palomarsp.org/lookout/intro.htm

I did not touch up this sky at all!

Looking through the binoculars.

Matthew getting some really great photos.

Our beautiful niece Lauren!

So those pictures were taken on Monday, and this is what it looks like today...Tuesday!  CRAZY!!!!!  We are expecting anywhere from 12-20 inches of snow in the next three days.  So, here is my man in his new Palomar jacket getting ready to get the ice off of our satellite so that I don't have to miss American Idol.  (Priorities people!)  Oh, and he gets to go "snow plow" the night away too!  Mountain living...never a dull moment!

So that is how we have been.  I hope that you have been great as well!