January Fun

A few happenings from January...

My heart soared when I walked in to Lily's room to see them watching a movie together on her iPad.  So incredibly sweet!

 Ryan took Mia, Lily, and Lily's friend Emma went to see Frozen 2 in the theater one afternoon.  Our family loves any trip to a theater!

 We brought so much honeybaked ham back from the beach with us which meant really, we didn't have a choice but to make green eggs and ham (plus starfruit and biscuits) for dinner one night.  Thanks Dr. Seuss!

 Ryan and Mia had a very fun daddy daughter date to Chuck E Cheese one evening; Mia won a ton of points!

 Granna and Papa took a trip to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl Parade with Sid and Elaine.  I loved this picture of them, so I had to include it.

 The girls had a lot of fun making sidewalk chalk designs one beautiful afternoon.

 Mia and I had a date night one evening, and she really wanted to make a cake from scratch.  We have a delicious recipe for vanilla cake and cream cheese icing.

 She decided on rainbow layers instead of ombre.

 It turned out so cute (and incredibly delicious)!

 How fabulous is this!

It's a chilly but beautiful and fun month!

End of 2019

On the 30th, we left Clearwater Beach and drove over to Gulf Shores.  We wanted to enjoy a few days of rest and downtime, just the four of us.  Since Mom and Dad were taking a trip to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl Parade, no one was using the condo over the New Year.  We were happy to have this opportunity.  It was just what we needed.

Mia set up her new telescope from Randy.  We got a close up of the moon and several stars.  We also saw the Blue Angels practicing one afternoon.  They were mostly over the ocean, but at one point, they flew right above us.  It was really cool!

 We ate in most meals, but we had to visit Lambert's one day to catch a roll and enjoy a humongous drink!

 The coolest part of this trip was getting to visit the Gulf Coast Zoo where you can actually play with kangaroos and sloths!  You can also play with reptiles, lemurs, or anteaters, but we choose the other two.  It was amazing!  We enjoyed our time with Crash, Marmalade (the one we're petting in the picture below), Vegimite, and (one other I can't remember).  We were all so surprised at how incredibly soft they are.  This was super cool.

 We also enjoyed feeding and petting Sylvia the sloth.  Her friend, Herbert, was there too, but he slept the whole time.  They were both really cute though.

 Of course, it's a zoo, so there were all sort of cool animals to see.  They also have a ton of animals you can feed and pet.  We had a great time doing this.

This was a fun little adventure to add to our time in Gulf Shores.  Otherwise, we rested, played games, watched movies (and lots of football), and read.  It was a wonderful end of the year!

2019 has come to a close.  It's been a great year for our family.  The picture below has some of my favorite memories from the year in it.  We've taken some fantastic trips, both for fun and for mission purposes.  It was wonderful to see the girls try out volleyball and acting together this fall.  Ryan has started back to school, and he's working on his PhD now.  We've made lots of memories and deepened relationships.  We have more blessings in our lives than we count.

It's hard to believe a new decade has begun also.  We are so incredibly thankful for all the gifts that God has blessed us with in the past.  We pray that we use those gifts to the best of our abilities to honor Him and point others to Him.  I can't wait to see what this upcoming decade has in store!

After Christmas Fun

The day after Christmas we drove down to Clearwater Beach to spend a few days with Grandpops and Grandma Jan.  We were thrilled that Nick, Alli, and Brock were there too.  Jan's 5 younger siblings, their spouses, children and a couple of grandchildren were coming in town too, so we got to see everyone!  These were a fun (and noisy) few days!

Mia couldn't wait to go out fishing on Grandpop's boat.  He surprised her with a tackle box of her own which had lots of hooks, weights, and line in it.  It was a beautiful day as we got ready to set sail; there was even a gorgeous rainbow behind us.

 Grandpops taught Mia how to cast a line.  She took to it quickly!

 We were out for a couple of hours, and in that time Mia caught 17 fish!  They were mostly black bass, but there were a few puffers and grunt too.  At times it felt like she would throw her line and then reel something in!  Ryan and I had fun fishing too but we were not quite as successful as she was.

Thanks Grandpops!

The next day Jan, Nick, and Alli took the girls swimming up at Carlouel, so Ryan and I had a little date to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.  This was made famous by the movie Dolphin Tail a few years ago as it told the story of Winter who had lost her tail.  Ryan and the girls visited here on spring break a couple of years ago, but I wasn't on that trip.  I was really excited to go.  It was really neat to see Winter, her friend Hope (also featured in the movie), and several other cool sea creatures like sea turtles, river otters, sharks, fish, and pelicans.

 Seeing this dolphin perform was lots of fun too.

The next morning Lily and Grandma Jan joined us for a boat ride.  Another gorgeous day!

On our last evening together, several of us went to the beach for the sunset.

 It was absolutely stunning!

We enjoyed these few days together with so much extended family who we very rarely get to see.  What a great post-Christmas vacation!