Rock Climbing

Our elementary youth group went rock climbing after church one Sunday.






Bella wanted to give it a try, so she tagged along with us.




He made it up!


The kids all reminded me of little monkeys going up the wall.










Good times and blistered hands. . . but all in all a great event!

Andy turned 39!

39 and looking fine!


The boys and I were glad to have Andy and Bella back just in time to celebrate Andy's big day.


Singing 'Happy Birthday".


Blowing out the candles.


Present time!






Andy's parents were able to make the trip down to celebrate with us.


The countdown is on to the big 4-0!

Spring Break

When life gets busy, it's easy to let the less-than-urgent tasks slide. That's what I've done with this blog this past month. School projects and life responsibilities have needed my attention these past several weeks, but I'm happy to say that I turned in my last assignment of the semester yesterday. This has been my busiest semester yet and it feels so good to have it behind me. And now it's time to give some attention to the things that I've neglected - like updating this blog!

Our new furniture arrived!


We're definitely getting a lot of use out of the reclining feature!


Curtis made himself a tasty snack. I love when the kids take initiative in the kitchen.




One day over break, I took the boys and their friends to Urban Air. The kids love it there.








McDonalds for dinner.


Movies and sleepovers. The boys were quite the night owls that night. Once midnight rolled around, I was spent. I started another movie, assuming that they'd all fall asleep sometime during the movie. It turns out they were up until 3am! Big time oops on my part. Curtis took a nap the next day.


Curtis is ready to go, but Mabel says, "not so fast!"


The boys got invited to dinner at Applebee's. . .




and roller skating. It's fun to find another set of brothers who are the same age as our boys.


Meanwhile. . . Andy and Bella were on a church mission trip to North Carolina.


They worked on restoring homes that were damaged in recent hurricanes.


Bella had so much enthusiasm in her voice when we talked on the phone that first night. She didn't know what she'd be able to do, but they put her to work and she learned some new skills!




This mural was painted at the base of operations. The gray portion has a double meaning - it looks like the doppler image of a hurricane and also like a circular saw.


Work crews that have come through are all signing it.


Andy and Bella arrived home on Saturday, March 23rd. . . just in time for Andy's birthday the next day!

March Randoms and Great Wolf Lodge

Read Across America Week: On the Friday of that week, the kids had a Hat/Pajama Day at school. They spent the whole school day reading. The school had a goal of reading 1,200 books that day and they did it!


I got to spend a day with my favorite two-year-old. He is seriously the sweetest little boy that I know!


The things I will do to save a few dollars. Taking this photo entered me into a drawing for free shipping for some books I was ordering. The good news is that I won!


Working out is always more fun when there's someone to do it with.


Bad photo, but a beautiful sunrise that morning.


We're officially on Spring Break, so we returned to Great Wolf Lodge again this year. I didn't take too many photos since my phone and water don't mix. But we definitely had a great time. I think there is something special that happens when a family gets away from home to do something fun together. There is a different kind of bonding that occurs as we create new memories together.












This bathroom tells the story of a family who had a great day at the waterpark.


There is an arcade at the lodge as well, so after drying off that night, we went down to play some games. This little bowling alley was a hit.






There are different programs at the lodge throughout the day. At 9pm, there is a little goodnight story and song. We went to this last year and the song became somewhat of an ongoing joke that we sang throughout the year. I was hoping they wouldn't have changed the program, because I wanted a recording of that song. They didn't! This program is definitely geared towards kids who are younger than ours, but it was worth it to attend and get the recording of that song!


Breakfast in bed!


Andy's birthday is coming up. One of the things he wanted was a new gym bag. Andy started doing CrossFit last month, so he wanted something to keep his stuff in. Each of the kids had different ideas about which bag he should get.




Spring Break continues through this week. Yesterday morning, Andy and Bella left for a trip down to North Carolina with a group from our church. They are helping with restoration after some hurricane damage. As our kids get older, I'd like to find more and more opportunities for them to serve. It's a great way to increase their awareness of different needs around them, to experience the joy that comes from helping others, and to open their eyes to how good they have it. I'm looking forward to hearing all about their time down there.