My Kind of Town

We couldn't wait to get back up to Chicago!  Grandpops and Grandma Jan invited us up for a long weekend.  Mia gets a little nervous as she flies, but Ryan caught this sweet face from behind.  Lily made us laugh with her expression.

 One afternoon we walked over to Maggie Daley Park which the girls always love.  There are so many fun things to do here!  The girls both choose roller blades this year.  They went around the track for about 30 or so minutes and finished with very happy and red faces.

 On Saturday evening we enjoyed the Navy Pier fireworks from David and Jan's home.  It's so fun to look down on fireworks!  They had a great display that we all enjoyed.

 Stan's Donuts for breakfast never disappoints!

 Taz always loves when we visit.  She's so sweet!  We also met Luna on this visit who belongs to Nick and his girlfriend, Allison (or Ali...no one could decide).  Luna is a little more skittish but she did pretty well with Lily.  Lily certainly enjoyed hanging with them both.

We all fell in love with Ali; she is so sweet!  She and Nick took the girls and the dogs on walks each evening which they loved.  It didn't hurt that they stopped at Molly's Cupcakes each time too!  We loved that Ali framed each of these pictures for the girls too to remember their time together.  They can't stop talking about how much fun they had!

 Ryan and I had a date night one evening, and we decided to go to the Peter Lik gallery that has opened in the city.  He is an amazing photographer.  We were thinking about getting a small print, but we fell in love with this gorgeous and stunning picture of the Great Wall.  It's printed on a special paper that has crystals in it, so the sky actually reflects the light off of it.  It's truly spectacular.  On an impulse, we decided to invest in it.  We can't wait for it to be delivered to our home; it's amazing!

This was a more laid back trip than we often have in Chicago because we made the choice to simply enjoy being with family instead of running from place to place (even though it's a great city with lots of fun places to see).  It was a wonderful trip that we loved.  It's always great to visit with David and Jan, and we loved getting to see Nick and Ali on this trip too.  We can't wait until our next visit!

2019 New Smyrna Beach Trip

We had a shortened week in New Smyrna this year.  Ryan came home from Lebanon on the Saturday that we normally drive down.  The girls and I were more than happy to wait for him to get home!  He went to bed early after a quick dinner; he was exhausted.  I did his laundry and had everything else packed and ready to go.  On Sunday morning, we watched part of our church service from home, and then he packed up his items for the week.  We dropped Decker off at Bark Avenue and started our drive down.  It was a very smooth ride, and we made it in before dinner.  I'm always happy to be back at the beach!

I feel like every year I take fewer and fewer pictures of our time here!  Here are a few of the ones we took though.  The girls enjoyed sitting down with their feet in the water one afternoon while they snacked and read after playing in the ocean.  What a great way to relax.

 Lily and I had fun playing in the ocean one afternoon.

 Mia is an awesome boogy-boarder!

 Uncle Randy had his work cut out for him as he helped Mia, Suz, and Karson on the big round raft one afternoon.  They loved it!

 Randy and Mia worked hard for well over an hour trying to get her kite to fly.  It came really close a couple of times, but it just couldn't take off.

The pool gave some fun and cool relief too!

 Mom and Dad with our family after hot dog day.

 Mom and Dad with all their grandchildren.  We are so thankful for these wonderful grandparents!

 The 66 of us who made it down this year.

 Wayne treated us all to dinner at The Garlic one evening which was a nice and delicious treat.

 Randy and Georgia are always so kind to play the birthday money game after our family breakfast.  Randy comes up with a creative game each year, and each kid ends up with around $40.  How awesome is that?!

 One evening a lot of the kids went to ride go-carts.  Mia couldn't wait!  She was tall enough and excited to give it a try.  She did really well, and Lily and I had fun cheering her on from the sidelines.

 After the first round on the go-carts, Lily, Johnathan and Davis went with Georgia to play putt-putt which she really enjoyed.  Mia went around a few more times on the go-cart track with the other kids.  She also took a turn in the batting cage which she loved.  She was socking a lot of them!

 After all that fun, we went to Aunt Catfish for dinner.  It was a late but very fun evening.

The four of us took one afternoon to go see the movie Yesterday which we all enjoyed.  We ate lots of yummy Manny's pizza and Greek salads too and overall had a lot of fun.  It was gorgeous weather this week which was a big help.  We ended up leaving on Friday evening so we could get on back and avoid the Saturday traffic.  It was definitely a good decision.  We got home about 1 in the morning, but we slept in then had the day to do laundry, go grocery shopping, and simply rest up.  On Sunday, we had church and a whole bunch of errands to run, so we were very grateful for that extra day.  Another NSB (short) week is in the books!

Summertime Fun

We've been enjoying such a fun summer!  Here's a little sample of some of it.

This summer I have been intentional to take at least one day a week off from work to spend with my family.  It's been great!  One day I took the girls swimming at mom and dad's neighborhood pool.  We took the girls' massive floats.  Mia has an ice cream cone and Lily has a cupcake.  Honestly, the cone is taller than me, and the cupcake can practically wrap around me.  They are so much fun!

 Cuddle time before bed!

 Mia hard at work making breakfast for dinner for us one night.

 I helped make the bacon, but she made us some delicious scrambled eggs, cut up strawberries, and prepared wonderful mini blueberry muffins.  I loved that she was creative and served them in this basket!

 Such a cutie with this new hairdo!

 I was icing my back one evening while it was bothering me.  Decker didn't take any excuse for throwing his toy to him.

 The girls and I had a couple of fun game nights while Ryan was out of town...Harry Potter Clue, Sorry, and Monopoly.  This round of Monopoly apparently wasn't Mia's best.

 Two great cuddlers.

 I took the girls back to school shopping which we all have fun with.  They couldn't wait to get home to start dividing everything up and labeling it.

 Bug playground afternoon!

 Mia got a little tangled while she slept one night.  It made me giggle to come in and only see her sweet feet sticking out.

 Cuddle time for us three!

 Ryan had a fantastic trip to Lebanon one week in July.  The team worked with Heart for Lebanon to serve Syrian refugees, and then our team served the Heart for Lebanon organization by running a conference intended to give them rest and reflection.  Ryan always enjoys this trip.  They one tour day as well, and they went to Baalbek where there are some amazingly well-preserved ruins.  He had not been to this city before, and he was grateful for this opportunity.

 He loved this lady making fresh manikish each morning at the hotel!

It's hard to believe summer is winding down.  School starts back very soon!

All Sorts of June Fun

Our summer started off with a bang between the girls' camp and our cruise.  We've had lots of other fun too though.  Here are a few pictures from some of those fun moments.

Ryan took Lily and her friend, Avery, to a Braves' game one evening.  It was a beautiful evening and they had a lot of fun.

 Our friends, the Harvey family, were also at the game, so Ryan connected with their dad and visited their seats.  Liam is in class with the girls, so it was cool to hang out with him some.  They made it on to the big screen!

 Ryan made our family a brisket one day and OH MY GOODNESS it was amazing.  Seriously one of the best things we've ever eaten.

 Mia (in her awesome Lane's BBQ hat) agreed the brisket was amazing.  We enjoyed Lily's mermaid cupcakes for dessert afterward too.  What a great food evening!

 Happy Father's Day to Ryan!  Mia and Lily (and Decker) are so fortunate to have this amazing guy as their dad.  He is the glue that holds our family together.  We are so thankful for him.

 Liz, Josh, Amy, Liam, and Linley came for a visit over Father's Day weekend.  We went to the aquarium and enjoyed hanging out with one another.  On Sunday, our family joined Mom and Dad at First Baptist Chattahoochee for service which was lovely.  It still feels like home to me there.  Afterward, we ran home to change, grab the rest of the family, and headed over to Mom and Dad's house for a cookout.  Randy and Georgia met us there too.  It was fun to have everyone together to celebrate some great dads.

 I was so excited to host a baby shower recently for Alex Yapel, the daughter of our good friends Slade and Kim Casey.  It's been several years since my peer group was having showers all the time.  It was fun to do this again!  I enjoyed getting everything set up and ready, so we could help Alex get ready for the new blessing that's headed her way.

 The girls and I went to the library recently and found they have a whole section where you can check out musical instruments; we had no idea.  We found this awesome floor piano!  The girls had a great time playing with it for the week we borrowed it.  Mia learned to play Baby Shark on it while Lily figured out Hedwig's Theme.

 Last weekend, the Fox family invited several families over for dinner and hanging out.  It was wonderful to be in fellowship with them.  Not only did we have delicious food and lots of great catch-up conversation, but we had a wonderful time of singing praise music and talking through fear and what the Bible says about it as Brian is getting ready for a lesson he's teaching.  The kids all had fun hanging out together too.  What a fantastic evening.

 Ryan took the girls to Whittier Mill Park one morning for a breakfast picnic and some playtime.  Decker came too, and I think they all had fun.

 We made these Lemon Passionfruit Blackberry popsicles from one of the Piquant Post boxes I received with Hawaiian flavors (what a great Mother's Day present!).  They were actually pretty tasty and were definitely a fun way to end the evening.

I think it's safe to say we're all enjoying our summer!