The boys had their last day of winter break yesterday.  I was on duty with them as Stuart was back to work.  Logan and I started the day early with an orthodontic consultation in the morning.  We arrived at the office and we were the only clients there.  We were given a tour of the office, then they took some pictures of Logan’s profile and teeth.  The orthodontist sat down and took a closer look.  He gave me an overview of what the treatment plan would be for the next many years.  Afterward, Logan and I returned home and found Connor enjoying a breakfast.  For this last day, other than having some video game time, I also had a few things planned with the boys.  We went grocery shopping, then I had them done some math, reading and writing work as practice.  We also took a short walk to get our steps in.  This marked an end to a relaxing two-week break.  This morning, all of us, except for Logan, had difficulty getting up and out of bed.  But we all went to work and school as usual again.

    Stuart had studied the trails at the local county park, Quicksilver, but we ended up not going there with the Kaos yesterday.  Since the storm had not arrived yet, we decided to check out one of its trails this morning.  This one was less steep than the one we had visited before, but it was on the opposite side of the mountain.  It took 18 minutes to drive there and it was a bit windy.  When we were getting close to the destination, Logan said he was not feeling well and asked for a bag.  Once he threw up a little and got out of the car, he felt better and we started our walk.  The hike took us into the valleys; the trails were beautiful and were not too difficult.  We saw some horses on the way and some eagles flying in the sky.  We finally made it to one of the old mining structures at the 1.4 mile mark.  We took a brief stop, then turned around for the return trek.  Connor started to complain about his legs being tired, but with some distraction, he made it back all the way.  Logan did well and basically led the way with Stuart the entire time.  It was nice to explore our neighborhood, and we hiked three miles.

    We met up with the Kaos at our local hiking park yesterday afternoon.  All four kids were motivated and ran up the hill quite fast.  They continued in good pace throughout the mile hike, and we made it to the playground quickly.  After the kids played for awhile, we finished up the short hike and returned to our house.  The kids ran off to play upstairs as soon as we arrived home.  They also played a game of Monopoly Jr all on their own, so we did not interfere at all.  Connor had been asking to have “hotpot”, so we had chosen it for our dinner.  Michelle helped me get the preps ready, then the four adults started cooking and enjoyed eating first while the kids continued to play.  They had fun the whole time and were giggling while they were eating too.  After dinner, we had some dessert before our guests left to go home.  For the evening, the boys were being good hosts; they shared their toys and told us that they would be happy to clean up afterward. 

     We were invited to the Gopals for a new year eve party starting at 6:30pm.  The boys were so looking forward to it that they began counting down three hours prior to our departure time.  We arrived at the party right at the start and most people arrived shortly thereafter as well.  The kids quickly delved into the food and settled down in front of the TV.  It was cute that all the kids sat themselves nicely into a half circle.  After some TV watching time, the rest of the night the kids scattered everywhere in the house.  Connor usually hung out with Logan and Rohan wherever they were, but sometimes we saw him checking out what other kids were doing.  Most adults stood and chatted by the kitchen the whole night; Stuart’s and my legs were getting sore.  Before we knew it, it was 10 something at night and some people had started to pack up to leave.  We ended up hanging with the last group of people and left to go home around 11ish.  Logan wanted to sleep during the drive home, but Connor helped us in keeping him up.  We showered the kids and it was just about time to ring into the new year.  We took a selfie and counted down to the new year.  We watched a clip of fireworks together, then I read one book with them.  The boys made it past midnight, but they were out within 30 seconds after being tucked in.

    Despite going to bed late, the boys woke up 7:15am and 7:30am this morning.  They also did not seem to be tired the entire day.  They played a good game of basketball with Stuart in the morning.  Connor was full of energy like he usually is, and Logan played aggressively too.  They played well offensively and tried to get rebounds.  In the afternoon, they also played one of their invented game “rocket ball” in the front of house for a long time.  Stuart and I decided to move up the bedtime early; with the activities they had done, the boys fell asleep quickly.