End of School Year and Another Mini Trip

My Lovies are finishing up their coursework this weekend, and are preparing to take finals next week. After that, summer break will be upon us. I’m hoping to have more time to blog over the summer, and more time to take pictures with my new camera.  I got a Canon Rebel for Christmas, and so far taking pictures with it has been really fun!

My nephew got married last weekend, so we got to spend some time on Lake Michigan, one of our favorite places on earth.  I will NEVER need an ocean.  I’d take Lake Michigan over the ocean any day.  There is just something about it…it’s so special to us. We were able to take a walk on the beach, stick our feet in the water, walk on a pier with a light house, watch the boats come in off of the lake, and experience our first sunburn of 2014.   It was a great weekend, and we got some nice pictures.  I’ll share them with you…

My three Loves outside of our hotel…

My Lovies at the boat marina that was next to our hotel…

My Love at the marina…

Me at the marina…I loved the white adirondack chairs!

My Love and I at the marina…

        My Lovies on the beach…       

             

A walk on the pier to the lighthouse. You can see Morgan in the dark outfit at the back of the group…

Sticking our feet in the water…super cold!

So….after this coming week I will officially have a junior and sophomore in high school! Time is going way too quickly.  The kids are growing up way too fast.  I love these moments we get to spend together in places we love.  There is no one on earth I’d rather spend time with than these three people God has given to me to live life with!

I’ll be back soon to post our summer shenanigans!

Spring Has Sprung…

I don’t know about you, but I was SO ready for spring this year.  We had one of the worst winters imaginable, and it seemed to go on FOREVER. Finally spring seems to be here.  Soon my lilacs will be blooming, the lawns will need to be cut again, and warmer weather will be here.  I can’t wait!

Life gets a bit busy in the spring.  The kids are in the final weeks of school and are preparing final papers and getting ready to take final exams.  This will be the first year in a LONG time that we get to take a whole summer vacation.  Since the kids are participating in the virtual academy this year, I don’t have to catch up on anything over the summer! WOOHOO! They have gotten great grades this year and have worked hard.  It took some getting used to for me to just be a supervisor, but I was still able to weigh in on some brainstorming for essays and helping with subjects that were difficult.  I actually wish we had done this sooner.  I love that I can still have the kids home, but I’m grateful that the burden of teaching is off of me.

A few weeks ago we went on a mini spring break to one of our favorite places on earth.  While we were there we broke out our new camera and took a little family photo shoot.  We got some fun shots, and I thought I’d share them here.  Morgan took a couple with her camera as well.  She took a photography class this year, and really enjoyed it.  She is becoming quite the little photographer!

Let’s look at some pictures! My darling Lovies!

My man and his silly kids in the background…

My Love and I strolling along the river (Morgan took these!) Her photo shoots always include a kissing shot, and she says things like, “That’s great! Keep it going! How about another one!” So funny…

               

Another shot of my precious children…

One of my favorites….I love him!

A pretty pine cone…

My Lovies again…

            

And a family shot taken on Morgan’s camera with the timer…Parker is leaning over.  He is really over 6’ tall now, and has passed his dad up!

One more of my Love and I…

Lots going on in the next few weeks, so hopefully I’ll get a chance soon to post! Hope you all have a wonderful spring/summer!

Last Lazy Days of Summer…

It is August, and we are soaking up the last weeks/days of summer.  As usual, this one has flown by! We packed a lot into this summer, and made some great family memories.

Here is a small picture recap of our summer…

My Beloved and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary and got to have dinner at a local restaurant we’ve always wanted to try…                                         

      We went on vacation to our favorite place on earth…

Went to our favorite amusement park with two fun new cousins…

We got to see Mr. & Mrs. Kirby together for the first time…such a great couple!

We took our school pictures on the beach and pier…

We got a family picture taken by our favorite marina…

Our beloved AZ cousins came to stay with us for a couple days…

We had lots of fun on the lake…

We saw relaxing sunsets…

We visited a chocolate factory, and celebrated Oma’s 80th birthday…

          

We had a cousin photo shoot…

We went out for midnight milkshakes to ring in Charlie’s birthday…

And then had a super sleepover with the cousins…

The Four Musketeers were together one last time…

We had a family reunion…where we enjoyed great food…

And took a big family picture…

That’s our summer in pictures! We only have a few weeks left before our new school adventure, so we’re soaking in as much as we can.  We’ll enjoy ourselves right through Labor Day weekend, then it’s back to the books!

I hope you have enjoyed your summer as much as we have!

A Little Christmas Disappointment…

We had a lovely Christmas as a family this year.  Probably one of my most favorites ever.  We had my extended family the Saturday before, and the members of Andy’s family that have anything to do with us were out of town, so it was just the four of us.  I LOVE that! We had all day Christmas Eve and all day Christmas Day to ourselves.  It was fabulous.

We had planned to drive to Pennsylvania the day after Christmas, to visit my dear friend Deeds, who comes to the states from England every other year.  Two years ago she made the trip to my house, and I finally got to see her in person.  This year it was my turn, and I can’t tell you how much we were looking forward to this.  I was going to get to meet her extended family, take her family photos again, and spend more time with her than we got to last time.  I was looking forward to getting a picture of the two of us together.

Christmas Day, the route we would have taken got hit with a winter storm named Euclid.  I’d like to know when we started naming winter storms…just seems weird to me.  By Christmas night,  after reading the weather reports, we made the horribly difficult, and VERY disappointing decision to not chance the trip.  My poor girl immediately dissolved into great alligator tears.  She was SO looking forward to this trip.  I wanted to cry so bad, but I didn’t want to upset the kids…so I waited until I was by myself that night.  Words can’t describe how sad we were…

Andy and I wracked our brains to come up with something to make this up to the kids…as if anything would! We decided to book a room an hour north of us in the same hotel we spent our wedding night and 1st anniversary.  We’ve been there a few times with the lovies too.  It is beautiful, and has several fun pools, waterslides, indoor putt putt, and an arcade my lovies really enjoy.  Thankfully they had a room available, and we went for it!

We encountered no snow on the way up.  It all started once we were up there.  It snowed a bit up there, but home was hit with 5-6 inches while we were gone. I was so glad we were spared seeing that, because I think it would have depressed us more,  knowing the snow was what ruined our trip.  We wouldn’t have been able to enjoy the snow.

The kids ended up having a blast…we spoiled them rotten while we were there, letting them stay up really late, and letting them do things we don’t always allow at home (soda pop at meals, arcade games, late night snacks, etc.).  I think we succeeded in making up for the cancelled trip, and giving them something else to enjoy instead.

What this last minute trip did for me was to solidify in my mind how much I love these three people God has entrusted to me, how grateful I am that He gave them to me, and how much I LOVE to spend time with them…just them.  The kids thanked us profusely for taking them, and it made us all feel so much better.

Here are a few pictures from our trip…

 

          

            

We came home to 5 inches of snow, and a completely blocked driveway.  After several minutes of shoveling, we were able to get our van in the driveway!

I hope you all had a great Christmas.  Ours was wonderful, and we had a great time away, though we wish it had been in Pennsylvania!