Where is Spring???

So we have been wanting to work in the yard, really, but it's a bit hard when there is snow and rain all the time and it's cold! So we've been out walking the dogs as well as getting ready for our trip in April.
Here we went out with Eric, Emily and Chester for a nice walk in Barber Park where the kids got to run and play quite a bit.
Our girls:

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Aika, Ceecee and Chester:

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The new spring Scentsy catalog is out and fun filled with new smells and warmers. I donated some Scentsy baskets to the Susan G Komen auctions. They turned out so cute!

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Last weekend it actually snowed! We went for a walk to let the girls play in the white stuff one last time (we hope) before the spring and summer take hold.

CeeCee loves snowballs!

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Last weekend we also obtained a fun new toy. After seeing Watchmen at the theatre we were tooling around downtown and stepped into a shop where we found the record player we had been eyeing online. It's a cute little number, portable and has a usb port that we can hook up to the computer and record tracks from album into MP3s. It is sweet.

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Yesterday we went around to all the thrift stores near our house and picked up some great vinyl. We found a copy of Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison which we are listening to right now. It's amazing how fun the sound of vinyl is when you have some old blues albums to put on.
Well, we're counting down the days until we leave for our trip, down to 27 now. We'll spend the next couple weekends getting prepared and resting up then it's off to the tropics. Take care!

Another late winter week

Well, it is still cold here but the snow has ceased for the most part and every once in awhile the clouds clear out and we are reminded there is blue sky up there.

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This past week we've all been working on getting over our colds. The car didn't want to start on Tuesday and we had to get some work done on it over the course of the week. Friday night finally came and we went to a nice potluck and met some neat new people. Saturday was beautiful here. Jordan and I took the girls out walking with our friends Amy, her dog Lebowski and our friend Nicki and her dog Nali.
Amy, Lebowski, Jordan, Nali and Nicki

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CeeCee sitting like a good girl at my side while we were out walking by the river

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We stopped to rest near a neat old tree and like the monkey she is, Jay climbed on up.

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The tree

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Saturday night Jordan had a babysitting job. Cobi and I didn't know what to do with ourselves so we called our friend Eric up. The three of us went out for burgers and beer at where else, Burger and Brew. It was a fun evening visiting and being out on our own.
Sunday we relaxed, did chores and spent time getting things in order for the week. We hope you all had a great week.

Love abounds

We hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day weekend. We finished out the week very busy with attending more Special Olympics events. We were able to visit the figure skating finals however, it is very difficult to take pictures of figure skaters. :) Here are a few pictures of the competitors:

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This is Timothy .... He is a skater from Canada and my favorite. Here he is warming up:

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And here he is in his final routine where he had such great energy and was having so much fun. He skated excellent and his finish was enthusiastic! He took the gold medal for this routine! :)

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We were also blessed to attend the closing ceremonies. This event was a little strange, more of a party for the athletes with us as spectators. It was heartening to see though as the bands played, all the country colors mingling with each other in a great sea of different flags and colors. We could learn so much from this!
On Thursday evening Jordan had a Valentines day dance at her school. She looked so sweet and yet so grown up too. She is such a beautiful girl.
Getting ready:

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On Valentine's day we had a very nice family breakfast:

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Then spent the day watching movies and relaxing. In the evening, Jordan went to babysit and Cobi and I watched an old Audrey Hepburn movie and had a very nice dinner.

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The rest of our weekend has been spent relaxing as a family. Playing aggravation and we are heading to see the movie Coraline this afternoon! It is chilly here, snowing still and we are so ready for spring. Only 53 more days until we leave for Aruba! Yeah!

Winter Fun

Ok, so it has been just about a month since I blogged last and so much has happened. I found out two of my girlfriends are expecting, which is hard for me sometimes but I am so very excited for both of them and can't wait to play with new babies. One will be a second time Momma and the other is expecting her first! Yeah. We have spent as much time as we can find relaxing at home in the evenings and on the weekends but still seem to be pretty busy.
Cute kids at home: Oscar and CeeCee

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We went up to winter carnival in Donnelly last weekend and attended the parade as we try to every year. Cobi drove both ways as I had some dental work done on Friday and was on pain killers off and on all weekend, I slept the whole way up! The weather was better this year as it was sunny and a bit warmer but it is still a mountain winter carnival! We had fun looking at all the sculptures and the parade is always great. Then of course, there's carnival food. :D
Christie and I goofing off:

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This was the grand prize winner, you could walk inside of it and it was really greatly detailed!

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The king and queen inside~

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Looking back at the entrance, yes that's a slide for kids in the foreground! :)

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Here comes the parade:

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Emma and Shelby in the parade excited to be throwing us beads!

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This is a backhoe they dressed up in green tarps to make it look like a dragon. The theme this year was fantasy. :)

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This guy was just chillin in the parade.

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Tropical feelings abound even in these temps :)

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We found a Chargers fan in McCall! Can you believe that?

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The fish who grants the golden wish:

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And one of the coldest Margaritaville's I could imagine~

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Sculpture of Summer fantasy I guess. :)

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This is candyland in snow and ice!

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This one was probably my favorite. It was a giant tree with several trunks with character faces in them that had a very tall castle sculpture on top of it. It was huge!

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the top:

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Some of the faces:

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We've all shared a cold but are starting to mend from it, poor Jordan getting it just this weekend. About a week ago, we received a great gift and are headed to ARUBA in April, (62 days!). We are all super excited about going shopping for swimsuits in a couple of months.
Cobi and I each made pages on facebook and are finding people we haven't talked to in a decade. We're hoping to phase out our myspace page but still have a few friends who don't have a fb and don't want to lose track of them.
Jordan started babysitting this weekend. She watched two sweet kids - a 6 & 4yr old and is watching a 2 & 4yr old next weekend. She did great and is enjoying having some spending money as well as saving for her own pocket money in Aruba.
This weekend has been really fun so far. I connected with my old best friend in high school on Saturday and we went for a very long walk, then had lunch at the house with the family. It was so great to get to talk with her and to redevelop the special relationship we had when we were kids.

The 2009 Winter Special Olympics are in Boise right now. It truly is an amazing event. Friday the delegates from the Jamaican floor hockey team came into my office downtown and we all got to meet them. They are such sweet kids and said it is really cold here, hah! One of my coworkers and I took a walk downtown that afternoon at lunch and reveled in the international feeling our little city has adopted. There were people everywhere downtown. We even met a sweet German woman who is here to watch her daughter figure skate. We took some pictures of her in front of the egyptian theater and city hall for keepsakes.
Cobi, Jordan and I went downtown Sunday to meet up with Eric & Emily and Em's family to watch the figure skating. Outside the ice rink there is an olympic village set up with all sorts of booths with information, pictures and swag about Idaho and the US.
The Olympic flame in the center of the Grove downtown:

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Ice sculpture near the entrance to the ice rink:

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As you walk around there are people of all nationalities speaking all sorts of different languages. It is really awesome. The figure skating was so heartwarming to watch. These athletes give it their all and are concentrating so hard you can feel it. It really is amazing.

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This was my favorite skater, he had so much concentration and determination. He skated great and then was so full of grins when he was done. You can purchase felt flowers to throw on the rink so we threw one out for him, he did great!

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Another skater in the second category up, she was super cute, from Canada.

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As the venue is downtown I look forward to watching the figure skating on my lunch hours this week! We will head to the awards later in the week and also try to catch some of the floor hockey one evening at the fairgrounds.
We hope that everyone is doing wonderful and we'd love to hear news of what you are all up to!
Much love, the Idaho Grazianos.

Happy New Year!

We hope that everyone is having an awesome start to 2009, we have been. Our holiday was relaxing until the fireworks at midnight that really upset the girls and we had to convince them they didn't need to save us which took a bit and then we got some sleep.
Jordan and I went out shopping with her gift cards this weekend and she has some great new school clothes. They have this "vintage" section in juniors where they have patterns of all the shows we watched as teenagers. Vintage? WTF!

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Friday night we joined some friends at the Japanese steakhouse for dinner to celebrate our friend Joanne's birthday as well as ours. The food was delectable and we enjoyed the show, just like Benihana's in Socal, with good sake!
As a family we have been spending much time playing board games and watching movies as well as relaxing in our comfy new bathrobes.
Sunday we went driving up in the mountains and stopped at a hot spring which we luckily had all to ourselves.

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Must have been the 0 degree weather that kept the traffic down. It was so beautiful out and we saw many deer and elk.

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This Momma and baby didn't seem too bothered by our truck, more interested than anything so we took some pictures before steering around them.

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This is Idaho, so serene. Up near Garden Valley.

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This next week will be a long one. Back to the grind for us all. Jordan has school and we have work. We wish for everyone peace, love and magical dreams.
Happy 2009 from the Idaho Grazianos!

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