February started out with a belated birthday trip to Ruby's Spa for John's birthday.  It was the first snowfall for us so was pretty awesome sitting outside in the saltwater pool with steam rising and snow falling.

We had some pretty views of all the snow for a few days.

The robins, thrushes and hummingbirds were all crowded around here in search of food.  More robins and thrushes than ever are enjoying the red berries off the hedge.

The kids came over for a snow day at our place.  You can only keep the snow in pristine condition for so long when the kids are here.

Then back to California we went for Gabe's birthday.  9 years old!!!

Jimmy used to paint.  He painted all kinds of things, scenery, modern art, faces.  But for some reason, he stopped painting.  Once he moved into his new home, I noticed they have art classes for the residents.  I told him there was a painting class, he seemed excited to go, but when it was over, he was really disappointed because it was so basic.  I suggested that he get back into painting the way he used to do it.  I sent off to Amazon to have an easel delivered.  Then we went out and bought some paints and brushes and canvas.  I expected a small one, maybe 8X10, but he surprised me by wanting a huge one...20X36!  I can't wait to get back there and see what he is painting.

While we were there, we received a call that John's Mother, Cleo had passed away.  We headed for home to be with the family, especially his father.  We heard the roads were closed about 2 hours from the closing, John had me call ahead and get us a hotel.  I was so glad we did, because when we checked in, there were people being turned away.  The manager said that the power had been out all night and day and just now come back on, so our room would not be ready for about an hour.  Not a problem, we figured, we would just go get some dinner.  Well, that was not as easy as it sounded.  The roads were high with snow and we discovered that the whole town was closed from the power outage.  The first place we saw was right next to our hotel, a Jack In The Box.  We could see people going up to the door and discovering they were locked.  But the lights were on and there was a line at the drive through.  So we worked our way into the line...and waited...and waited.  Finally the lead truck moved on through.  The next car pulled up, we waited.  While we were waiting, we joked that they were probably closed.  Well, it came our turn...and they were closed!  But the line of cars behind us was growing.  We drove around and finally found a gas station open, we went in hoping to find something...along with everyone else.  The place was packed and we all were snapping up whatever we could find.  We ended up with way more food than we could even eat.  I bought things to eat the next day in case we got stuck alongside the road.  We drove back to the hotel and ate our cold dinner in the truck while we waited for our room.  Once we were in our room, we sat and watched the cars that were still lining up and waiting their turn to discover the drive thru at Jack In the Box wasn't open.  It made us laugh, mostly because we had fallen for it too.

The drive the next morning was not bad at all.  The roads were clear, with a little snow alongside.  But you could see vehicles that had slid off the road and some that had rolled the night before.  Sure glad we had stopped for the night.  And we didn't even eat the food I had stockpiled for the drive home. A Valentine's Day to remember.

I arrived home to these pretty Valentine flowers from Jessi and the kids.

Dennis and Abby are in Korea visiting this little girl for her 7th birthday.  There is still hope that she will someday join them in California.  Happy Birthday, Ye Won!!

And last but not least, Happy Birthday to Jessi! I know, if I had picked the 29th that leap year, you would only be 9 ¾ years old!  Sorry, my mistake!!!