January? Where did it go?!

I'm still convinced that January just started- I don't know how it can be February already.
We had a busy and fun January. We took a few days on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend to drive up to Ukiah to visit our friends the Douthits. Their daughter Kira is almost four months old, and the last time we saw her was when she was a week old. So we thought we'd go see how much she has grown since then, and the change was amazing! Jenn says that at three months old Kira was as big as a six-month-old. She smiles a lot and enjoys being outside.Kira had fun hanging out with Logan on Sunday morning while Jenn made us yummy chocolate chip pancakes. Around noon we drove over to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, which is the private Buddhist school where Jenn taught last year. It's a lovely campus which features dormitories for the resident students, a large temple, and a wonderful vegetarian restaurant. We really enjoyed our lunch and our walk around the campus. After we finished lunch we drove up to a redwood forest outside Ukiah for a short hike. The road up there was really winding, so I didn't feel so good by the time we arrived. But the fresh forest air made me feel much better. It was really chilly in the forest, but so beautiful. Kira was really happy to hang out in the carrier with Jenn as we hiked along. Here's a picture of the four of us that was taken by Chris and Jenn's friend who came along for the hike: And for the random cute Clark photo of the month... Clark is really funny when he decides to put just his front paws up on the couch. He'll stand there for ten minutes or so and chew his bone while he stands up. We keep saying he's the strangest dog ever. I worked a few weekend days in January, but luckily I wasn't scheduled to work this weekend. Yesterday we spent several hours landscaping our side yard. We've been meaning to do this for a while, and I'm so excited that we finally started. I forgot to take a "before" photo, but I'll go out to take a "during" photo tomorrow. We pulled lots of weeds, covered the ground with weed preventing fabric, and then got a half ton of gravel to put on top. A half ton sounds like a lot, but we'll probably need at least another ton to cover the whole area. Needless to say, Logan and I are both sore today from the work.
Today we had my parents and grandmothers and our friend Heather over to our house to watch the Super Bowl. My dad and his family are from Pennsylvania, so we were all rooting for the Steelers, and were on the edge of our seats during the last quarter.
Clark LOVES my dad, so he was thrilled to hang out on his lap for a while. Yes, our 67 pound dog is sure he's a lap dog: As I've mentioned before, Clark's not too sure about having additional people in the house, but he did really well today. He calmed down quickly and was happy to chew on his bone while we watched the game: We don't get much chance to use our tall bar stools, but Logan and I enjoyed sitting on them today: My mom and two grandmas on the couch: Up next: finishing the side yard, working on the front yard, and getting ready to finish the garage. And for fun, a trip to Tahoe in a few weeks to have Clark see the snow (if there is any!)