Snow, Downpours and Rainbows

It's not very often we see snow flurries on our weather app! Sadly, we didn't get any snow at our house, only rain and a bit of hail. But nearby, lots of our friends and family did get flurries!

The snow level fell pretty low, where the lower hills got a dusting that "stuck" for a couple of days. This is a hill above Sylmar, near Granada Hills when I was taking Cora to Logan's house for D&D. 

I believe this was a heavy hail on the wood chips near the mall.

Incredibly, we got about seven inches of rain in 24 hours. Good thing we have all those usually dry river beds around town. Definitely don't want to be hearing about water restrictions or drought this year! We've received way more than our 17 inch yearly average of rain, and the season isn't over yet.

Stace, Violet and I went on a drive and spotted this snow in Placerita Canyon - this is by the Waterfall Trail. Would have been pretty cool to hike back there but it was super muddy and COLD, obviously!

Placerita Canyon

We've spotted some gorgeous rainbows lately!

Poppy Pleasure

Violet asked if we could go to see the blooming poppies with Liana. Colleen was aware of some pretty areas in Castaic, so we met up with them on Monday, a day off from school for the girls for President's Day.  At one spot, we saw a couple of killdeer running around! Unusual and pretty birds for us in our area.

We found some! Not far from here, we saw a little group of seven deer! And quail as well.

To cap off the fun, we stopped by Foster's Freeze, the last one in our area and scheduled to close soon because they're losing their lease. I love chocolate-dipped ice cream cones, which are hard to find.

I promise, Violet does smile in real life.
 

Violet Fun

While I was babysitting Ellie on Friday, Grandpa took Violet to her mounted archery lesson. 

We always appreciate it when Grandpa brings his good cameras out!

And on Sunday, Violet went with them on a whale watch, as her Christmas gift. They saw hundreds of dolphins and they even saw a whale!
 

Sunday Stream Adventures

 

Nick and Melanie brought Ellie up on Sunday so they could see the new Marvel movie. Stace and I took her to Placerita Nature Center for the first time, where we walked through the center and then had a walk and stream adventure.

"Come on, Auntie Lisa!"

Uncle Stace helped her walk across the stream on the rocks. So fun!

Eloise had a lot of fun throwing sticks and watching them float away, and throwing rocks and watching them splash.

When we got home, Cora and I took Ellie to our little park. 

Week in Review

Hart's girls and boys soccer teams have been VERY good this year, both winning league easily and moving forward through the playoffs. Stace had wanted to watch the boys team, but they normally play during the week at 3 p.m. 

On Saturday, the boys team had a playoff game at Hart, so we went over and watched half of it. It was exciting, ending with a Hart win in penalty kicks!

And I got to see my friend Dinorah, whose son is on the team. 

Our front ornamental pear tree is blooming beautifully right now!

On Friday, I babysat Ellie on Friday afternoon and took her to their nearby park, where she went up and down this slide over and over. She's getting to be such a big, strong girl!

After Nick and Melanie were able to get out for a couple of hours, Melanie took me (and Ellie) out for a belated birthday treat. We ate very well at a Spanish tapas place and the beautiful Americana shopping center.

On Saturday night, JT and Jim and the kids met us at Vasquez Rocks, where the local astronomy club was there with an event with the big telescopes to see the night sky. It was cold but an interesting experience together. We then stopped at McDonalds for a treat before going our separate ways.
 

Winter/spring are the prettiest here. Violet and Liana took these from our hill.

For Valentine's Day, Stace and I met up at lunchtime and got a special heart-day coffee drink at one of my favorite coffee places, Havana Savannah. 

Celebrations

 Cora and a few of her friends celebrated her birthday on Saturday with an escape room and lunch, while we got together with family on Sunday.

The group managed to escape from "The Hideout" with 9 minutes to spare - pretty darn good! 

We then went to Vincenzos a block up the road for lunch. 

There was lots of laughter! 

After lunch, I took Cora and Logan to his house for D&D, as he is the Dungeon Master for their long-running Curse of Strahd campaign.

The preteens had their own table.

On Sunday afternoon, we met up at MB2/Mountasia with Grandma, Grandpa, Ellie and Mel (Nick was working).

Cora and Stace had another epic battle of axe-throwing. 

And we had a round on the go-karts, while Ellie and Mel and the grandparents played mini golf.

16!

We now have a 16-year-old!

Our 16-year-old is beautiful and smart, a talented actor/singer and Dungeons and Dragons aficionado. She loves Critical Role, Murdoch Mysteries, and participating in an online written role play story with her friends. She has a small number of people she'd call friends, but she is loyal and excels in discernment.

As the girls get older and older, it's strange as a parent because we have such clear memories from these ages. At 16, I got my driver's license and had a part-time job, filing paperwork at the tax firm. Stace started his apprenticeship and college soon after turning 16. He'd been driving around his Pop's building site in a small van, and had a car, before we was able to start driving at 17.

Cora isn't anxious to get her license, and hasn't studied the handbook to take the initial permit test. Of course this is perfectly fine; many teens these days aren't in the hurry that my generation was to start driving.

Cora had school on her birthday, so it felt like a normal day, with some additional hassle of people acknowledging her special day in annoying ways.

In the evening, I picked up Stone Fire, her favorite, and we opened gifts. I'd like to think her favorite gift was this basket of all her favorite snacks.

Week in Review

I took an evening walk and enjoyed this stunning view. What a blessing it is that this is accessible from my front door!
 

Seb got into a fight with a black cat - we saw it running away - and apparently was bit on his paw. As soon as we discovered the wound, we knew it meant stitches.

Back to the vets, and back to 10 days of wearing the cone. Good thing he's so lovable.

I love our hawks.

Cora didn't have D&D the other weekend, and we were home, so I tortured the girls by forcing them to play a game with me. We got out Settlers of Catan, which is a good game, but since we don't play often enough, it always takes a while to refresh ourselves on the rules. 

Cora is forcing Violet to complete a trade she wants her to make. Seb doesn't know what to think. Stace wasn't really asleep.

We went out to brunch with Kelly and Yass, and enjoyed copious amounts of food. Otto's cafe for the win!