Portland

I was so fortunate to grow up in a church that had a lot of children. Some of the girls I grew up with there, have become some of my closest friends. Over the years, we have spread out all over the country. So we decided that once a year, we would all meet back up together for a little vacation. It started with just a few of us in Pittsburgh. The following year, we met up in Toronto. And this past year, we traveled to Margaret's house in Portland, Oregon. Not everyone can always make it, but hopefully we will continue this tradition for many years.

Oregon is a beautiful state. Almost everywhere we went, I was amazed by the surroundings. We had so much fun catching up, eating yummy food, hiking, and just being together!

This last picture is a little creepy so I'll keep it small. Jackson has a snack and I was able to feed it while I was there! Very fascinating to me!

Easter and Trinidad 2017

Easter is typically the holiday where I get to host both sides of our family. It's always a busy day as I'm usually doing music for all three services at church, then coming home and getting dinner ready for everyone! I always have a lot of help and everyone pitches in with the food. By 9:00 I'm ready to crawl in bed!

Here's a little collage of the girls trying to find their baskets. They're such good sports because they have to wait till after church to get them!

Allie was so kind and thoughtful to make this poster for the whole family for Easter!

We did our annual Easter egg hunt! I asked the girls if they think they're getting too old for this. I should have recorded the answer... a resounding NO!

For Spring Break, I went with our youth group to Trinidad again. We had such a fantastic group of students. They worked hard and loved well. We went to schools, nursing homes, orphanages, and put on a VBS in a very poor neighborhood, all with the sole purpose of spreading the Gospel. What an amazing trip! Here are some snapshots from our trip:

Highlights from 2017

Over the Next couple weeks, I am going to attempt to update this blog. I have all of 2017 to catch up on, so it may take me a while. I'll focus on the highlights! So here is my first round:

The Month of Birthdays!
We always try to have a combined family party for the girls, with dinner cake and ice cream!

Up first, Allie Katherine, turned 10 (double digits!) on the 2nd! This was a day after getting back from Florida. She was hoping we would be able to celebrate in Florida, but we wanted a day to recover before jumping back in to work and school. Allie is fortunate to always have a day off on her birthday! We celebrated with dinner of her choice and some gifts. We love this kid. She's kind, thoughtful, intelligent, and a great listener!

Ava turned 12 on the 20th! That's just crazy. In some restaurants, she's not even on the kids menu any more! She has blossomed into a lovely young lady. She loves youth group, jump rope, running, and softball. She is super responsible and works hard to get things done. We are so proud of this beautiful girl!

Hannah Banana turned 8 on the 26th. She continues to be the comedian of the family. She is also very encouraging, loving, and kind. She loves to read, play games, and snuggle:) We love you so much Hannah!

Christmas 2016

I think I got through Thanksgiving 2016 on my last post. Now it's March of 2018. Sheesh. That just shows that I'm more present in real life, than here on this blog...right!?

For the first time ever, we decided to travel for Christmas. We went to Florida and stayed in Davenport. Our condo was pretty sweet. It had a really fun water park that we spent a lot of time at.

This was Christmas day! We had a big lunch at IHop and then spent the day at the pool. It was very bizarre. Did not feel like Christmas at all!

We spent a day at Venice Beach swimming and searching for sharks teeth. It was a beautiful day!

We had a pool side movie night.

Hands down, the funnest part of the trip, was spending the day at Universal Studios. We are big Harry Potter fans! The only bummer is that it was one of the busiest days of the year. So the crowds and the lines were annoying!

It was an amazing day! The girls had a blast. We got in 20,000 steps and were completely exhausted.

Mike and Ava and my parents went and swam with manatees. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures from that. We also went to Disney Springs and had lunch and shopped. That was a chilly day. 

Joey even came up and spent the day with us at the pool! 

New Year's Eve, we drank butter beer and watched Harry Potter and relaxed. We left New Year's Day to head back home. It was such a fun vacation. I'm not sure that I'll ever travel during Christmas again. It didn't feel like Christmas. And that's my favorite holiday. But we still had a wonderful time!