Is it Spring Yet?

I am not a winter kind of gal. Sure, I enjoy the occasional snow fall (and in Portland, occasional is the word) and this winter it seems snow has been a rather constant. Except for those of us living here in Southeast Portland!!! Some snow in the rain is about all I seemed to have seen here in January. Now up at my work.....snow seems to make weekly, if not daily, appearances in January and February. Check out my friend Diane's blog on the events of last weekend, beautiful sights indeed! But I am tired of winter. Tired of extremely cold rain, tired of the only time spent outdoors involves wet and mud, tired of hats and gloves wherever we go, and tired of constant grey skies. I need a little brightness once in awhile!

Well, someone must have been listening to me whine and got tired of that as well. Because Saturday turned out to be quite a remarkable day weatherwise and managed to inspire me with some extra energy. Andy actually spent the morning running errands (and yay! I didn't have to go!)so I actually got a lot of cleaning and airing out of the house. I just totally felt the need for all windows open and a good airing out of things. By the time lunchtime came, Andy was home so we all ate and then headed outside for a little bike riding. It felt like it had been sooooo long since the kids had been on the bikes and obviously I was right. We had to adjust the seat on Matthew's bike since he was practically eating his knees! :)

The boys started out with coats but that soon ended and so did the training wheels for Matthew. OK...so he can't ride the bike yet without them but he was super willing to try and him and Andy spent a good portion of their time outside working on bike riding.

Mason tired out pretty quick and of course ended up down for a nap later on. We all went inside but I had planned on a nice long walk for me but Matthew decided to join me. I had planned on going to Mirador but I wan't sure if the walk there would be a little much for Matthew. He was a trouper though, and gladly walked down there with me. I had some cash set aside (I'm rather embarrassed to say for how long!)and had wanted to buy some sandwhich wraps for Matthew's lunches. They are called wrap-n-mats and are rather nifty little ways of wrapping up your sandwhich without having to use plastic baggies. I had seen them before and had wanted to get a few but I had also wanted Matthew to be able to pick out his own. So he did (his is very patriotic themed, stars and stripes!) and I also bought a shower curtain. Bright red and non-plastic and chemical-free! I left feeling quite pleased with myself and had hoped to make it back to the other end of Division street for a coffee at Stumptown but we ended up at Starbucks just across the street since Matthew was getting tired at this point and also really needed to use the bathroom. So after snacks and coffee it was back home and needless to say....Matthew slept really well that night!! ;)