Saturday, April 7, 2012

Spring Break in Florida!

We had a great spring break at my parents' place in Florida this year.  We have visited them at Christmas, but never at spring break time.  It was a great week to be there as the weather was perfect--warm and sunny every day!

We drove this time and drove through the night both ways.  The kids did great and were awesome travelers! 

We spent our days at the pool, the beach, bike riding, playing games, and just relaxing.  It was a great week and it's always hard to adjust back to "real life."  Here are some pictures from our fun week:


Grandpa and Miriam headed out on a bike ride...

They encountered this guy partway down the block.  His shell was probably about a foot in diameter, so he was a good sized turtle!

We were in the pool every day that we were there!



On Monday afternoon Casey and I drove to Orlando to visit our friends Tom and Tricia and their boys.  Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Karen and the kids got McDonald's and took it to the park to eat.



Of course they also went to Dairy Queen for dessert!

We spent a couple afternoons at the beach too.  The water was very nice and we had fun looking for shells and sharks' teeth and playing in the sand.











Grandpa, Casey and Peter had a boys' outing one morning.  They went and watched a bunch of old guys fly their remote control airplanes.  Peter thought it was very cool!

We had dinner at Sharky's on the Pier one night for dinner.  We walked out on the pier while we were waiting for our table.




Esther and I went on a bike ride with Grandpa one morning.  We were trying to find the alligator that lives in this pond, but we couldn't find him.  We still enjoyed our bike ride!

More beach time!


Aren't they adorable?  Aunt Karen got them to pose for this picture, but she said they were fighting most of the time while they were standing there.   :)


The boys went and explored a bit one morning...

...while the girls checked out the shops in downtown Venice and enjoyed some yummy pastries.

We saw lots of geckos!

This cute little girl learned to swim while we were there!  She went from hardly wanting to be in the pool without her life jacket on the first day, to swimming all the way across the pool by the end of the week!





We are already looking forward to our next trip to Florida!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Psalm 23

Peter has been learning this in school and decided to recite it to us tonight.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Tulips!

Our tulips are blooming.  Yes, it is only March 25, but our weather has been so amazingly warm (even hot), that the tulips apparently think it is May already!

After church we took some pictures of our beautiful kiddos with the beautiful tulips...








GEMS Mother-Daughter Night

This week was mother-daughter night at GEMS.  The theme was "what not to wear" and Esther and I had a great time planning our crazy outfits and accessories!  It was a fun evening, and the main part of it was spent making a duct tape purse, which was a great craft.


Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Fun at the Park

Tuesday was absolutely beautiful, so Miriam and I went to the Kroc Center playground with Renee,  Ty and Cassie.  They had a great time playing and Miriam and I actually got a little sunburned, which doesn't happen too often on March 20!


Friday, March 16, 2012

Father-Daughter Banquet

Tonight was the annual father-daughter banquet hosted by the local Christian radio station that we listen to most of the time.  Esther and Casey went last year and had a great time, so they were excited to go again this year!  The musical guest this year was Chris August.  They went with 2 other dad/daughter pairs from church. 

It was a great time. Other than Casey having to give up the chocolate cake so his daughter could have it.....

Here they are dressed in their finest!  Casey took Esther dress shopping again, and I think they made a great choice.  She looks so beautiful in it!