A monkey. A squirrel. One happy family.

Happy Easter from the Williams Thompson crew! 13 is not too old to be excited about dyeing and hunting eggs, thank goodness. Alexander Hamil-egg. Enough with the pictures, mom. Let's hunt eggs! On the hunt. Ella spots an egg in her under construction fort/hobbit hut. Ella tried to tease Annie with a kiss, but Annie was not having it. She bolted right after I snapped this picture. Sisters. XO!

Eight years? Where does the time go? This little squirrel... ...is now this big squirrel.

Watching the musical Hamilton in Chicago this spring was magical. The only thing more magical was watching our girls watch Hamilton. The Hamilton soundtrack has been the soundtrack of our lives for months, and the voices in the live production did not disappoint. The staging and choreography were clever, energetic, moving, kinetic - it is an night we will not forget. Ham 4 the fam. (We all got Hamilton t-shirts for Christmas) Before the show! The next day I forced the family on a winter death march to Shedd Aquarium . (1 mile didn't sound so bad, but the temperature was about 40 degrees colder than the day before.) The Bean at Millennium Park Being silly at Shedd. Ramen! (Excited about food and also that we discovered how easy it is to use Uber in a big city - no more freezing hikes!) Fancy hotel lobby. We loved Chicago, and can't wait to return. There's a million things we haven't done. XO

We're kind of over-scheduled right now. I'm learning a new job, and Ella has robotics club and school musical tryouts and her first final exams. Spencer is busy closing loans and checking Ella's Spanish homework, and sweet Annie has her music lessons but is otherwise kind of along for the ride. In the middle of all this stuff, I looked at the calendar and realized we had just a three-hour window on a Sunday morning to get a Christmas tree from Starr Pines Christmas Tree Farm in Boonville (where we ALWAYS get our tree) if we wanted to get a tree before mid-December. I needed a tree. I was going to have a tree, by God. We need a little Christmas, right this very minute! During that three-hour window on a Sunday morning, it rained. And then the rain turned to slushy snow and back to rain. And dear Spencer gritted his teeth, grabbed our favorite Christmas music CD for the car, and drove us all to Boonville. The silver lining was that there were no crowds to deal with, no line...

In this anxiety-ridden time in our country, I am trying to feel gratitude for my family, our home and health. I also need to remember not to take these things for granted and remember that when my neighbor is threatened, so am I. Do no harm, but take no shit.

The Columbia Grand Teton/Yellowstone Adventure is a summer trip developed for students in Columbia Public Schools. Ella, with generous help from family and friends, raised half the cost of the trip. She spent a week learning about mountain and glacial geology, wildlife tracking, forest fires, Yellowstone ecosystems, and outdoor skills.