Bowyer Smith Christmas 2023

For Bowyer Christmas this year we all met in Indy and stayed with the Smith clan for the weekend. Upon check-in we had Brooklyn telling us our assigned rooms, she's so cute!

Everybody got there pretty late in the evening so we had dinner then hung out. 

Dave and the fruit basket, he was strangely pumped about this.

Singing carols before opening up presents.

We hung out and took a walk around their neighborhood, then it was time for gingerbread decorating. We all struggled then Josh, Barry, and Chad judged.

 

After this Josh and I headed home because he was on call and the kids spent the night again then went to church and made their way back on Sunday. Great visit, we always love getting together!

Quick Evansville Visit

We finally had a free weekend without robotics or Esports so we headed to Evansville for a short visit. 

Dave was very excited to make Philly cheese steaks on grandpa's blackstone.

Ike and Buster hanging out as usual.

We had a super nice morning-here's Josh and I on a walk.

Ike tearing it up on Gamma's karaoke machine. 

Mom was watching her friend's dog this weekend and the kids loved having her around. 

And we hid 50 tiny ducks all over her house. She has so many left to find still. 

 

Dave Turns 14

The years are absolutely flying by-cannot believe Dave is 14 now! His birthday was pretty chill this year since it was the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We went to dinner with Josh's parents at Jefferson Street Barbecue which Dave very much enjoyed (well we all did, ha!).

They surprised him with a new wedge of some kind (I can never remember the names of these random golf clubs!). 

He got another golf club from us as well, again I believe it was a wedge. :) As for a Dave update I'd say the main thing is that he love love loves golf. It's basically all he talks about. It's been so cool watching him find something he is so passionate about and he's gotten pretty good at it in a short period of time! He still loves playing video games with his cousins and friends and enjoys a good board game as well. He's doing remarkably well in school and has done great in his E-sports and robotics this year. 

Here are the boys with their new advent calendar and ornaments for the year!

 

Thanksgiving 2023

This year Josh's grandparents hosted us for Thanksgiving-they're usually in Florida but had to stay back this year because of a hip surgery. We really enjoyed getting to spend the day with all of the family and of course the boys were super excited to get some extra cousin time!

Playing switch sports the night before. 

Josh really knocked it out of the park with these turkeys!

Quick family pic before heading to Logansport. 

 

The food was delicious and their house was packed to the brim! Wonderful day to visit and catch up with everyone.

Early November Happenings

 After our busy October, we slowed down a bit for November which was very nice! We missed the fall cookout/celebration of Grandpa Dave's birthday so we had some family over on a beautiful day after we got back. 

November started robotics competitions as well. Here's Ike at one of his league competitions at Northfield.

Ike and some of his friends needed to work on a school assignment so we hosted. They made flaky salt from regular salt, pretty cool actually!

We really had some beautiful weather days, the kids and I took frequent walks.

Josh and Dave heading to one of their last rounds of golf for the year-twinning.

This one is kinda gross-Ike dislocated his finger a little but no worries Josh popped it right back into place! :)

And we got our Christmas lights up! We didn't turn them on until the week before Thanksgiving but we made sure to get them up on a warm day.

Halloween and End of Gardening Season

The kids threw together some costumes this year-Ike was a dinosaur head and Dave was a meteorologist on location. 

Ike went trick or treating with friends in Wabash also and went as Draco Malfoy.

I harvested the last of my garden. Lots and lots of hot peppers and a few more tomatoes. 

I love campus in the fall-the trees are so beautiful. 

And then it snowed, ha! Wasn't too bad but man it was early!

Folly Beach Part II

Wednesday morning everybody but Ben and Josh went out to see the end of the island to watch the sunrise at Morris Lighthouse. It's so beautiful out there!

Then Tony and Ben headed to Savannah for the day and everyone else but me went to Top Golf. So I had some nice solo time!

After we hit the beach of course.

Then Josh and I went out for another date night. Oh the luxury of vacation! This time we went to R Kitchen in the Ashley area of Charleston. The concept of this play was so cool. The chefs get ingredients and decide on a tasting menu that changes every day then cook everything in front of you. 

Meanwhile, Tony and Ben were back from Savannah and met Gamma and the kids for dinner at Chico Feo on Folly.

Thursday was another chill day. Beach and relaxing. Oh and pickleball!

Sunrise crew this morning.

For sunset we went to the west end beach.

Friday was our last day-lots more beach time and then we did an escape room while it was storming. 

This was the warmest day (it was cooler than normal, but still nice) and the kids got Gamma into the ocean. 

This escape room was hard! We beat it in the last couple of minutes. 

Came out of the escape room into a storm that turned into a beautiful sunset and rainbow. 

Awesome way to end our trip! We stayed at Charleston Oceanfront Villas and had a great experience. By far the nicest place we've been on Folly. Can't wait to go back!