Dave's 7th Birthday and Other Festivities

We celebrated Dave's birthday the Saturday after Thanksgiving while the Smiths were still here.  






Dave and his Pokemon cake!

Blowing out candles and ready for presents. :)










As you've probably figured out, Dave is REALLY into Pokemon right now.  We even got him a binder to store all of his cards.  His top interests right now are probably playing video games, watching YouTube videos, annoying Ike, and having nerf gun wars with his friends.  He's still doing well in school and seems to like it (as much as a 7-year-old likes school I guess!).  I can't get over that he is 7 already...the older they get the older I realize I am getting!

Hanging with the cousins.

Dad and Kyra came up for Dave's birthday along with Liam and Gavin.  They were all pretty pumped for a group photo.

Cute.











Sunday we went to have Thanksgiving with the Sievers family in Logansport.

Great picture kids.








And finally, we went Christmas tree hunting that weekend as well at Jalapa Pines.  We love going here for our tree and I think we picked a pretty good one this year!

Who gave that kid a saw?

Dave and the beautiful Christmas bush that he found.

Got our tree!














Had a great time hanging with the Smiths while they were in town...can't wait to visit them in Florida here soon.  Especially after this ridiculous weather we've been having lately!  Ready to be out of negative temps here soon.

Thanksgiving 2016 and Grandma Bertie

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving out at Grandma Bertie's this year.  I am truly thankful for that because just a couple weeks after we celebrated Gma Bertie passed away.  I've been putting this post off for a while since it's still so fresh, but we were able to celebrate her life last week and it was a day full of laughter and memories.  This picture of all of us is just a portion of her legacy...6 kids, 13 grandkids, 6 great-grandkids (so far) and a life truly well lived.  She was a wonderful, faithful woman and she will definitely be missed by many.

















We spent most of the Thanksgiving day out on the farm, and the kids had lots of fun running around even though it was pretty chilly outside.





Dave, Caleb, and Sophie.

I love Dave and Sophie's friendship!

Playing in the back room.

Brooklyn was less than thrilled with Josh the entire trip.














She loves her Aunt Mel though.  :)

















Ike in the awesome ski mask Josh found in the basement.  Dave's been wearing it to school since it's been so cold lately.













So it was a great day of hanging with family, and I'm so glad for it!  Bertie was a very special lady and her legacy of faith and family lives on.

Halloween 2016

Halloween was a little more low-key for us this year.  Cottages decided to hand out candy this year so we were able to go to all of them and some houses for trick-or-treating.  It was so much fun and I think the cottage students had as much fun as our kids!

Ike as an army guy.  He only went as this because he got that new gun on vacation and wanted it as part of his costume.

Dave was Steve from Minecraft.  A last minute head was made by my friend Theresa because the one we were going to use got thrown away in fall cleaning!

Check out Dave peering through the eye.

Dave and the Frys, Bennett and Elli.  Cuteness.

3 army guys and a Steve.

A big group of the kids going around.




















Awww, look at those smiles.  They got so much candy I had to carry their buckets at the end.

Picture from the preschool field trip.  Bennett and Ike had a blast!

Rest of Charleston Trip

Wrapping up the rest of our trip in this post!

On Friday, mom took the kids to the aquarium with my aunt and uncle while the rest of us went lighthouse hunting.







Morris Island Lighthouse.  You can't get to it anymore, but can see it from the end of the island we stay on.
















Josh and his very upset crab friend.














I had no idea sand dollars were actual creatures.  #notamarinebiologist

Tony and Ben with the lighthouse.

Picture from the aquarium.

Tony, Ben, and I on Rainbow Row.

Out to lunch at Husk.











Gamma and Ike at lunch.

Enjoying the sunrise.

So beautiful.

I took a very long walk one morning that ended with this view.

Selfie.

The kids loved the pools the tide left behind.

Lounging.

Typical picture nowadays.

Our last sunset.

Boys on one of many Pokemon walks with Gamma.

Ike selfie.

Last sunrise picture!










Loved Charleston as usual and can't wait to go back!  It truly is the perfect relaxing/exploring balance that I always try to find on vacation.  Here's to next time Folly Beach!

Charleston-Magnolia Plantation and Fort Sumter

Since I'm having a hard time remembering what order we did stuff in and I don't have the energy to actually figure it out (thanks strep throat!), I'm just posting what I feel like posting today.  :)

We headed out to Magnolia Plantation one morning and it was gorgeous!  I will say that I could definitely do without the swarms of mosquitoes (apparently we have Hurricane Matthew to thank for those).





Family picture. Cuteness.

Seriously, so beautiful.

I can't get enough of live oaks with spanish moss!

Josh spied this little fella from the animal lookout tower.

View of the house-we didn't go inside, just enjoyed the trails and nature.
















Look at these cute boys.  They did really well on this adventure!










Even though my family has been to Charleston tons of times we had never been out to Fort Sumter, so we were all really excited to check it out.   We had to wait a bit for our boat, so the boys did a lot of pokemon hunting and we took some photos!

Had to get a pic of the cool Charleston bridge.

Tony and Ben.

On the boat ride over.

Checking out the ruins.

It was so beautiful from the top!

Boat ride back!

Selfie of me and the boys one morning.

Grandpa Dave and Ike hunting for treasure.  Uncle Denny's metal detector was a huge hit.

Fancy dinner at FIG with Tony and Ben.  Huge shout out to Gamma for keeping the kids so we could do adult dinners!












Dinner menu.  My favorite thing was the cottage cheese and burnt eggplant.  Sounds crazy but was ridiculously delicious!