Back to real life :)

Well, we are back from an amazingly awesomely fun vacation with my family.  I titled the post this way because our kids did not want to leave Florida!  I told them it is not real life to be played with 24/7, swim multiple times a day, eat out all the time and have CONSTANT fun.  Ha!  They seriously LOVED Florida. 

 

Our condo this year (which my parents rented from my dad's boss) was simply amazing.  We were in the "penthouse", and it had 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms, really high ceilings, a master bedroom the size of an apartment and beautiful décor.  We LOVED it. 

 

The condo also had an outdoor and an indoor pool, which was great because we had some rainy days.  What a perfect place to stay!

 

(some of you probably already saw my sis Jill's blogpost about our vacation, so check it out!  She might have added more detail).

 

Here is the view from our balcony:

The condo was so huge that Nathan was able to have his own "prayer/devotion room".  This is where he would take all the kiddos to do devos and pray with them.  I always appreciated it when he did this!  What a good daddy :)

Our kids were always up bright and early!  We weren't always super happy to see them at that hour :) 

Our kids loved, loved, loved the pool.  We spent LOTS of hours at the pool!!

(Halle practiced her swimming a lot in FL, and she did so great!  She swam all the way across the width of the pool, which was very great for her!)

she was pretty proud of herself :) 

We also loved going to the beach!  I had to choose to be joyful, though, sitting and playing in the sand.   It is NOT my favorite thing, to get all sandy.  But I need to be a joyful example to my kiddos...so I tried to forget about all the sand that was (and some probably still is) inside my swimsuit :)

The guys did lots of fishing.  I love that Kaine is at the age where he is able to hang out with the "guys".  He fished with them, played in the waves while they fished, went out crab-hunting for hours at night with them, and also served as the "ball-boy" while they played tennis.  Of course, my dad and Nathan played tennis with him, too, but he was really content to just watch their tennis matches and get the balls.  What a sweet kid he is, and such a blessing!

(I love this pic of everyone cracking up at Nathan.  He had an idea--or maybe it was Aaron's idea!--to smush the meat out of these ladyfish to make "ladyfish patties"...yuck!)

Here is the first "ladyfish patty"...but needless to say, we scrapped that idea.  Nathan was severely outvoted!!

We had some GREAT family time with our kiddos...

And some great couple time with Nathan and I!  (major kudos to my parents for watching all 7 kids one evening so that Nathan and I and Aaron and Jill could go on dates!  Thanks, mom and dad!!)

(I love that I am holding a pink Minnie mouse phone in this pic) :)

And, our kids LOVED spending so much time with their cousins and grandparents!  It is so wonderful to see them interacting and playing together more and more as they get older. 

 

Now, we are back to real life :)

 

What a fun trip! Thank you so much, mom and dad, for taking us to Florida...we can't begin to tell you how much we loved it and appreciate everything you did for us!   

we are still here!

Just in case anyone wondered :) 

 I think it has been 2 weeks since I last posted.  Crazy!  We have been enjoying FLORIDA.  Our vaca is almost over, so there will be many more pictures to come!  In the meantime, I just wanted everyone to know that yes...we still exist :)

  

we are so domestic :)

This summer, Nathan had a great idea to create a garden behind our villa!  I know most everyone who reads this blog will probably laugh at this, but I have NEVER done any gardening before.  It is very new to me!  (and she is going to be a missionary, you ask??  I know...I am thinking the same thing!)

 

Since we didn't arrive at the villa and get our garden started until very late in the spring, and we will be leaving mid-August, Nathan planted the veggies that wouldn't need much time.  Therefore, we have a TON of radishes and a TON of lettuce!  Praise the Lord for the lettuce, but I don't really feel the same about the radishes :)

 

Kaine and Halle have been helpful, too.  They are learning how to recognize when to pick the veggies, and also how to clean/wash it.  It has been great for them!  And by the way, Nathan is the ringleader of all of this--I still don't know the first thing about gardening.  I am slowly learning, though :)

It is really pretty exciting to go out and cut lettuce for our supper.  I like feeling like a pioneer woman :)  Thankfully, we LOVE salad!

end of the season

A busy part of our summer is now OVER!  As much as we love going to Kaine's games, we are glad to have a slower schedule now.  As we look ahead to next summer, we foresee it being even busier, though...because Halle is now excited to play tball!  She would be in a different league than Kaine, so that would be twice the amount of games...so we will have to talk about it :)

 

Here are pictures from Kaine's last game...which they won!  I think their team only won 2 games the whole season (is that right, Jess?) so I was so glad they won this last game. 

 

It was so fun to have our family come and support Kaine.  He was a very well supported tball player!  Both sets of grandparents came to all of the games, along with Aaron and Jill at a lot of them...and throw in some great-grandparents and Kaine had his own cheering section :)

 

 

What a fun month.  Thanks again for coaching Kaine, Nick...you did a great job!  We are excited for next year :)

Just a couple of 30-year olds at Cedar Point :)

Nathan and I were able to go away for a couple of days earlier this week.  It was a very much needed break!  Thankfully both of our parents were more than happy to help us out with our kiddos :)

 

When trying to decide where to go, we tossed around some ideas.  Then, Aaron and Jill came back from Cedar Point talking about how much fun it was, and we thought...why not?  It had been like 10 years since we had been there, and it really sounded like fun!  So that's where we headed!

 

Here is my studly hubby...we headed straight from church in Leo up to Sandusky. 

Hubby bought me some chai!  I LOVE my chai.  It is the best.  What a great way to start our drive!

When we got to Sandusky, we went golfing!  It was SO MUCH FUN.  Seriously, maybe my favorite part of our trip.  The weather was perfect and it was just really fun.

I was a little skeptical of what our hotel would be like...we bought a room on Priceline.com, and it was called Maui Sands.  It was a Hawaiian themed hotel with an indoor waterpark.  It was actually a pretty nice place, especially for the price!  The rooms would be perfect for our family...there was a little room added into the room with 2 sets of bunk beds.  It was decorated to look like a beach cabana or something...kind of neat!  Very unique, at least :)

We were right down the street from Coldstone, so we hit that  up the first night...I amused myself by taking pictures of Nathan while the poor boy was trying to eat his ice cream :)   By the way, I had the BEST Coldsone combo...coffee ice cream with hot fudge and heath mixed in.  SO amazingly good!

The next day, we headed to Cedar Point.  Like my title says, we felt so funny being there by ourselves!  It was really fun, though, even though it had been years since we had been there.  I can't handle all of the rides quite like I used to, but it was still very fun.    We did a LOT of waiting in lines, though--it was pretty crowded!

Sadly, about 5:00 it started raining--hard.  There was no sign that the rain would let up, so we decided to leave :(  Haha, I love Nathan's "sad face" in this picture!  So funny.  And really, we weren't that sad.  We went to Applebee's for supper and we had a great evening together!

 

 

Such a good time!  Thank you, moms and dads, for making it possible!!  

He is such a good sport!

Oh, the things a daddy will do for his little girl. 

 

So thankful that Nathan is willing to do this stuff with our kids, while I can just sit and take pictures!

 

grandma noni

This is my sweet Grandma Leona (better known as "Grandma Noni" to most people).  She turned 97 this week! 

 

What an amazing woman.  She took care of my grandpa for years, after an accident paralyzed him from the waist down.  And I should mention that he was about twice her size!  Like I said, an amazing woman.  She loves her family SO much, and we love her so much.  We are very thankful that God has given her so many years! 

 

We love you, Grandma Noni!  So thankful that we can spend this summer near you!