A Getaway!

Brad and I were super blessed at the end of September to travel with the other pastors and wives from KoK to take a few days to retreat together in Hilton Head Island, SC.  It was an incredible place to take a few days break from the norms of daily life.  The house we stayed in was beyond amazing, the beach was beautiful, the weather was perfect, and NO KIDS came along!!!!  (Thanks again to Dave and Kay!!!)

{the view from our bedroom}

{this made me a little nervous}

{a couple days later Brad and I spotted this across the street from the house}

{It’s always nice to get away together!}

{The amount of creatures we saw was amazing – and made us miss the kids since we knew they would love it all.}

{After our all the quick time in Hilton Head was done, Brad and I drove to Atlanta to take advantage of a couple of extra days away and visited several different Atlanta spots.}

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vacation (pt. 2)

Tuesday was the day we were most excited to share with the kids.  One of our favorite things to do in the 3 years we spent in St. Louis for seminary was to go to the zoo.  We went there regularly, and after having kids said that we would one day take them there.  Whereas our local zoo has great indoor exhibits and puny (at best) 0utdoor exhibits, the St. Louis zoo has amazing outside exhibits.  We decided we’d do the zoo on whatever day happened to be the coolest in our days in St. Louis.  We weren’t the only ones who picked the coolest day!!!  It was busy but not unbearable.

Because of our zoo pass we were able to get a pass to several different extras for a total of $20 for the whole family.  We skipped a few of the extras, but we took advantage of the endless carousel rides, train rides, and visited the manta ray touch tank with it.  We would have done the children’s zoo and 4D motion simulator, but we ran out of time and energy.

The animals we saw were great.  There were 2 lion cubs who were putting on a show as they playfully fought with each other.  The baby and momma camel were cute but in need of a major haircut.  And although I couldn’t get the kids to touch one, I got to touch a manta ray.

It was everything Brad and I hoped it would be for the kids.  They had a great time, and so did we.  I can’t wait for the next time we get to go back!

And, because I love flowers and they were in full bloom all over the zoo, I have to share one last picture.

 

my favorite visitors

a couple weeks ago my parents braved the flooding detours and headed our way for a much needed visit.  it had officially been over 6 months since we’d seen them.  it’s definitely fun to have the biggers to get super excited with me as we anticipate their coming two or three times a year.  although i didn’t have a thousand things planned this time around we still seemed to be on the go quite a bit.  i was super thankful for my mom’s help in some of my sewing projects i’d been stalled out on.  we also made our obligatory trip to a flower nursery.  mom and i spent a couple of hours at the zoo with the kids which is always fun.  we also did a first and got a baby sitter while they were here so just brad, myself, mom, and dad could go out to dinner together.  why we hadn’t done this on any previous trips is beyond me because it was a lot of fun to get out with just them.

ruffle pants and flower shirt

It’s day #8 of Brad being gone, and I can proudly say I survived.  He’s currently in the air on his way back from the mission trip to Mazatlan, Mexico.  It’s been interesting at time, but I and all three kids still seems to have come out of it unscathed.  I’m thinking it’s going to be pretty close as to whether Jilly or I will be more excited to have Brad back – man, does that girl love her daddy!!

Faced with the daunting task of 8 days being a single parent (I’m not cut out for single parenthood!), I knew I needed something to make me look forward to his time away.  I decided a sewing project would do the trick.  There are so many cute clothes out there that I could never dream of affording for Jilly and Laurel.  I was curious to see what I could do with a sewing machine, a pattern, and some fabric.  I went out before he headed out of town and picked up what I needed and although it about drove me nuts, I waited for him to be gone before diving in.

Here is the result of my attempt:

I learned a LOT!  And, I still need to go back and fix a couple things.  Overall though I was pretty excited about how it turned out.  Best yet, my highly opinionated about her clothing two year old was excited and willing to wear it.  Now if I could just get her to stop calling the pants her pajama pants  . . .  🙂

I hope later this week to make another top to go with the pants – I hate when pants only go with one thing!  I have to wait for my mom to get here though to give me a hand and share some of her sewing knowledge.  I’m super excited though!

An etsy page has crossed my mind, but I’m not sure at this point.  I feel like I still have so much to learn and am having fun making stuff for my own kids to enjoy wearing.  But who knows . . .

trucks, veggies, and flowers aplenty!

we took a quick, last minute, over-night trip to the farm a few weeks ago, and we couldn’t have been more pleased with our choice.  all five of us had a great time.  and it was just the little bit of a getaway that we’d been needing.  it should hopefully be the first of many quick trips down there in the next few months.  with nate and jilly being a bit bigger now, it fun to see them making memories that will stick with them over time.  so with uncombed hair nate and jilly:

washed and played with some of brad’s old trucks,

helped pull some radishes from the garden,

enjoyed grandma’s many peonies,

and weren’t ready to go home less than 24 hours after getting there!

been busy

lately:

the skies have been fairly blue

the grass is greening

the leaves are budding out

the perennials are making a comeback

which means we’re:

going on walks

lots of walks

rolling in the grass

fighting the wind

and loving every minute of spring’s return!

a snipet of heaven (for me at least)

just a couple weeks shy of having lived here for four years, i finally got to go to the botanical gardens.  we went last monday while my parents were still in town, and it was a gorgeous day.  although i think i’d love it even more with out kids in tow, i’m glad to know what’s there and that it’s worth go back to.  here are a few of the pictures i took.  (i’ll try to get around to sharing some of mom and dad’s another time, but right now i’d like to be heading to bed shortly.)

oh yeah, we were there too.  i can’t help it, i love flowers and especially photos i’ve taken of flowers!

(they had a scavenger hunt for kids)

(we tried for a family pic, we got one, but still not the one i picture in my head.)

. . . how does your garden grow . . .

our memorial day weekend was spent enjoying having my parents here in town.  as is a norm when mom’s here around this time of year, we flower shopped.   i’d been itching to get a flower garden started, but decided to wait once i knew she’d be coming to visit.  she’s good at putting it all together.

{nate was super anxious to help in every step along the way!}

{mom was amazing – from tearing out sod, to picking flowers, to placing and planting them – amazing!}

{i did my best to help out along the way and look busy  🙂 }

{it felt good to have everything planted!}

somehow i didn’t end up with a finished garden picture.  i’ll get one soon and post it.  it looks really good, and i can’t wait for the plants to get a little bigger.  i also still need to pick up some mulch to finish it off and hopefully retain a little more moisture to save myself from watering daily.  i’m super excited to have some new and different things that what we had at the old house.

seward and waco

yesterday was a full day.  for the first time in a long time i was up , breakfasted, and showered before the clock read 7:30am.  we were on the road towards seward bright and early.  brad preached at the concordia chapel service, and we then waited around to take some of our k0k’s students to lunch.  afterward we headed a little further down the road to waco to make a long overdue trip to see gma and  gpa knorr.  a shy nate was quickly comfortable after a trip to the shop with great gpa to get an old toy combine and a few others out.

he also remembered from our last trip out there (over a year ago) the table top tennis game.  (his memory is scary good sometimes!)

it would have been a more productive game if a certain little someone wasn’t an expert ball snatcher.

gma seemed to enjoy watching the kids have a ton of fun and find a little bit of trouble to get into.

jilly learned timeouts take place no matter whose house we’re at.

the peach trees were blossoming and looking gorgeous.  my outside picture taking came to a quick halt after stepping on a snake in the yard.  after that we headed inside and stayed inside!!

hopefully it won’t take us another almost 15 months to make it back out there!

heat wave

i’m slowly returning to the land of the living and along with me, my camera.  i’ve hardly taken any pictures of the kids lately.  i just haven’t had the energy.  in my picture taking hiatus jilly apparently has reached the stage of refusing to look at the camera.   urgh.  at least she’s not hiding from it though – that stage with nate about killed me.

can i just side track for a minute and share that it is currently 87.1 here according to weatherunderground!!!  amazing first day of april!!  (and totally not an april fools joke.)

in baby news – he/she growing.  about 2 inches long now!!!  for the time-being we’re referring to the baby as “gunther”.  we called nate “marvin” and jilly “dos” until we shared their true name at birth.  next week gunther will be beginning to grow finger and toe nails!!!  with the previous 2 i knew early on boy/girl – just a gut feeling which was confirmed to be correct.  this time i’m clueless.  my first trimester symptoms seem to be total combination of the previous two exhaustion (both), headaches (jilly), nausea but not actually getting sick (nate), constant sinus issues (neither).  hmmmm . . .

this weather makes me want to tear up some sod and plant flowers.  unfortunately you have to buy flowers if you want to plant flowers . . .