Xander and Clare

Valentine goodies!

Clare at her second-to-last after-school Math Club meeting of the year.

A picture of Clare's P.E. class that I swiped from the school's Facebook page.

How Clare entertained herself for HOURS on our long, traffic-snarled drive to Portland for Xander's D-Block tournament. (He rode with the rest of the team in a van one of the families rented.)

Playing video games in Carson's room (picture texted to me by Carson's dad).

We snuck in a quick breakfast at Mother's, a big Portland favorite of Mike's and mine. The kids' first visit!

Finally got to use the Nike gift card Grammy Eve got him for Christmas.

The Nike Employee Store was a zoo, but both kids got a few things they wanted/needed and X actually left without completely emptying his bank account.

The team heads to the D-Block van from the hotel.

Well-deserved post-game burgers and shakes with Josh.

X and Nick take a break from non-stop video games in Ashton's room to get a hot chocolate at the front desk.

Michael and Clare hit up the Portland Science Museum.

Smiling after a game that went well for X. Unfortunately, his team was inadvertently placed in the Division 1 bracket, when normally they play Division 2, so they didn't win a single game that weekend. But X had some strong games and lots of 3s, so he was feeling pretty great overall. He's now moving on to play with a Squalicum High School feeder team (along with 7 of his D-Block teammates). Go Warriors!

Waiting for pizza.

Playing arcade games...

...and pooling all of their prize tickets.

They ended up with over 3,000 tickets between them!

Turned them all in for tons of candy.

This is how we found Dad and Clare when we got back. I guess the science museum is tiring!

After X's last D-Block game.

Taya's daughter Emily got her free tickets to the NBA All-Star Game in L.A. -- and sent back hats for Xander and Clare!

X getting to see some of Emily's behind-the-scenes videos from the weekend.

Clare and her Yeti Competition teammates.

Grammy Eve surprised me with a giant box of decorative pillows I coveted while we were shopping together in Des Moines last month!

This one is a big favorite with all of us. :)

So proud of this kid!

At the 5th annual West Coast Meat Loaf Bake-Off. Would this finally be Michael's year??

Xander predicting a "W" for Michael, after four years of trying.

And he won! It's good to be the (meat loaf) king!

The heir to the throne.

Klayton came over after school to play video games on his birthday, so naturally there had to be brownies.

Heading out for some post-basketball pizza with the Winters.

Xander had his buddy Caiden over to play video games.

S'mores!

Goofball.

Someone hacked into my phone.