One Leg Viking Turns 40.

The Christmas lights did eventually come down. But not before we started lacrosse,

got away for our annual not-skiing MLK weekend (at our fave, the Chesapeake Hyatt),

saw Wicked at the Kennedy Center,

and replaced our Christmas decorations with Chinese New Year's ones. The Lunar New Year has long been a big crowd favorite.

We spent lots of only-moderately-chilly winter days catching up with old friends: from the Desjardins' annual Starlight disco,

to a DJ visit, and a Stewart fam trip to the reopened Air & Space Museum.

(We also spent a terrific winter day at the new Entertainment Nation exhibit at the National Museum of American History, which is a strong recommend.)

Ford tried miso soup (which went about as well as expected), and we got a Maryland amount of snow.

And our wrestling season finally ended. Unceremoniously

although not for lack of enthusiasm.

But the highlight of this winter was celebrating Seth's 40th, an occasion for which we dispatched to sunny (and weird) Florida.

The kids and I road tripped, and got in lots of roadside attractions and some north Florida beach time

before catching up with NC friends at Busch Gardens,

where the girls rode the scary rides, the boys rode the baby rides, and we all rode the river ride approximately 70 times.

It was good practice for our paddling adventure with April and Gunnar at the magical Weeki Wachi Springs, where actual manatees swam under our paddlboards.

We were lucky enough to be joined by the North Dakota contingent, and we all enjoyed warm resort pool days, backyard fun,

and copious amounts of red meat and Tito's. Cheers to 40 years for our One Leg Viking!

It's tough to top long weekends in the Sunshine State, so we celebrated Fat Tuesday at home, and spent a lazy weekend recovering with laundry, lacrosse, Whole Foods runs, and the theft of my bicycle by this big girl.

Prince Ford wishes everyone a happy Lent season, and is enthusiastically counting down to Easter and spring.