"This is the night - tonight - Everything's gonna be - alright"

These pictures are all from Buck's school. He and his classmates like to climb the giant mounds of dirty snow and slide down them or throw snowballs off of them. They are all squinting because it's also VERY sunny here. Our weather is similar to Denver or Salt Lake City (only about 10 degrees colder at any given time). It sounds freezing (and probably looks it from the jackets), but the sunshine is really amazing.

King of the mountain (mound) 

Buck is 4. His friends are a mix between 4 & 5. This is by far one of my favorite ages of my son. The only things I don't enjoy normally have to do with his turning into an actual "boy" - like his ability to use sarcasm on a regular basis, his love for the phrase, "Ok, whatever," and the fact that he loves to moon me (yes, the 'show your naked bum, moon).

Does it ever seem that life crashes into you like waves? I mean, real life where life-altering things are happening (not the make-believe drama of youth). My sister-in-law's mother passed away after only a month of being diagnosed with cancer. My entire family is very shaken up by it, and the saddest thing to happen in a while is the fact that we couldn't get down to her funeral in California yesterday. It's so difficult to spur-of-the-moment travel with 2 small children. Death is one of the only things that has the ability to stop time for the living, I think.

Another difficult thing happened on RKZ's side of the family - still too fresh to be posted about - but a life-altering thing and I just wonder how all of this happens at once. I'm guessing that it's my age. 40 is the new adulthood, I guess. And the Duchess is famous for saying, "Everything happens for a reason and it will all work out." She's always right, by the way.

And today, my Grandma Jody turns 94.  She is beautiful.