15th Anniversary

Last week, on 1/19, Mark and I celebrated our fifteenth anniversary.  It’s hard to believe that many years have passed since we got married that snowy evening in 2002.  We celebrated that evening with a great dinner of filet, scallops, and a wine from the year we were married that we actually got on an anniversary trip we took a long time ago. We polished dinner off with a red wine chocolate cake with amaretto whipped cream.  Not a bad dinner for a weeknight!  :)

   

 

Our real anniversary celebration came on Saturday.  We planned a day date (thanks to Mousey’s help in watching the girls) to hike Raven’s Rock, then a stop off at Dirt Farm Brewing, followed by dinner out.  The weather was supposed to be relatively warm for January, which was good, however it was super foggy.  It actually made for some cool sights while hiking closer to the summit of Raven’s Rock. 

   

The hike was fairly challenging, but we loved it and Cayenne was also very happy to be along.  Once we reached the top, you’re supposed to have an amazing view, however once we got to the top, all you could see was a sea of fog.  It was kind of creepy and cool at the same time.  You know the rocks drop off and there’s a vast landscape below, but we literaly couldn’t see anything past several feet of the rocks.

We planned to eat lunch at the top of the hike, but we had to eat pretty quickly because it was quite cold and windy at the top, but we refuled then headed back down the trail.

  

  

Nina saw this picture of the twisted tree and thought it looked like the head of a dragon.  I loved her creativity, and now when I look at it, all I can see is dragon! 

After the hike we popped over to Dirt Farm Brewery which was right down the road from our hiking location.  Then after a refreshing sample taster of some of their brews, we headed back home to get cleaned up for dinner.

We finished our date day with a Mediterranean dinner at Neyla.  It was a new place for us, and we loved it!  We had such a great meal, and it was the perfect way to cap off an awesome day celebrating our anniversary.  Thanks again to Mousey for watching the girls for us all day.  That was really a treat and my type of way to celebrate an anniversary!

  

What Would You Do for a Candy Bar?

It’s no secret that the Simpsons like their sweets.  All of us.  It’s also no secret that the girls hit the candy jackpot on Halloween.  One of the things they got was a full sized 3 Musketeers bar.  Nina asked the other night to eat it, and I told her that we’d probably split it up and she could eat it 1/2 at a time.  She really wanted to eat the whole thing at once, so I half jokingly said, “sure, if you can run two miles,” and she took me seriously.   So…the next day after school, Nina and Lyla went to the track behind their school and ran two miles.  

I tallied off their laps with my clipboard (yes, I was working very hard), and after dinner they earned their full sized candy bar!!  Since that afternoon, they decided they wanted to run two miles at least once a week.  Last week they went back out and did it again and this week they plan to do it tomorrow.  While they’re not getting candy bars each time, I’m glad that they’re doing it now to be healthy and keep active over the winter!

  

Speaking of being active, the family has joined me in practicing for one of the poses I needed to do for the newest Body Flow release that I had to teach.  The pose is called Crow Pose, and it’s mostly a pose that challenges balance but it does take arm strength as well.  I was the one who had the hardest time finding how to balance on my hands without tipping forward or back.  Nina said she thought it was pretty easy, and that makes sense for her since she’s great at handstands.  Lyla and Mark didn’t seem to have much of a problem with it either.  Unfortunately, they weren’t the ones that needed to do it in front of a class, but finally I found my balance, and I was one happy bird!

 

 

Winter Break

Christmas came and went in a flash. It’s always a bit of a bummer once Christmas is done.  There is so much going on from the time school starts until Christmas, then everything kind of slows down for the more uneventful months of January and February.  The girls had the week between Christmas and New Years off from school, so we decided to get in a little fun around here.  We went bowling one day, tried out Top Golf another day, and the girls got their first crack at climbing a 30-foot rock wall at a place we went indoor swimming, did a little shopping, spent some time with friends, and generally just hung around.  The photos were all taken with my phone camera, so they aren’t the greatest.

 

While Mark had been to Top Golf before, this was the girls and my first experience there.  It’s a cool concept and we definitely had a fun time there, but it’s a pricey way to spend and hour or two (if you’re going in the evening), but fun nonetheless.

   

Nina and Lyla both took on the challenge of climbing a 30-ft rock wall.  We were at a location where they could do both the rock wall and indoor swimming, so we decided to do the rock wall first before they got too wet and tired.  They both made it to the top!

 

   

 

Of course we visited our favorites of Chick Fil-A and Sweet Frog over the break, and Cayenne got plenty of snuggle time and attention with the girls home.

  

We celebrated the end of 2016 with Mark’s homemade sushi for dinner then we went to a friend’s house for the rest of the evening.  Cayenne and I were the only two still awake when it officially turned 2017, so I’m sure you can guess the type of new year kiss I got! 

  

The kids went back to school on Tuesday, the Christmas decorations are down, and we’re getting back into the routine again.  It was a fun holiday season while it lasted, but all good things (extra food, wine, cookies, activities, late nights) must get reeled back in at some point, so happy 2017 and here’s hoping it’s sunny and 80’s by March 1st!

Christmas 2016

This year there was a lot going on leading up to Christmas - shopping, class parties, lots of baking, etc, but Christmas is always one of my favorite times of year, so despite the volume of things going on, everything gets done (or done enough not to worry about it anymore), and we all get to gather and enjoy time with family and the celebration of the birth of Jesus.  As is tradition, we get together with the Blands for Christmas Eve dinner, and every year Aunt Jeanette has us posing for a family picture with some sort of Christmas accessory.  This year we looked particularly lovely in Rudolph noses!

The Wiliams family hosted Christmas Eve dinner this year, and while the adults were hanging and talking the girls had a great time giving each other mini-makeovers and preparing a ballet dance.

 

It was an awesome evening.  We had an amazing dinner and a great time with family.  All went back to their houses that night and got ready for Christmas morning.

We came down on Christmas morning just before 7:00, and Cayenne was actually the one most pesty about opening her presents first.  She smelled the Busy Bones through the package and through the wrapping, so she was very anxious to unwrap her present and get a Busy Bone!  

  

The girls, Mark, and I enjoyed opening our stockings and our presents - it was a fun morning.

  

  

After we finished at our house, we got dressed and drove over to Mousey and Poppy’s house for more Christmas.  While Lyla waited for the Williams family to arrive, she of course visited the neighbor horse.  Lyla loves horses and would love one of her own, but since that’s not happening any time soon, she takes any opportunity she can to visit with and pet horses. 

 

We had a wonderful Christmas breakfast together then sat down for more gift opening.  Even the dogs got into the fun! 

 

  

  

The girls had spent the night at Mousey and Poppy’s about a week ago, and while they were there, they prepared a Christmas story play that they were going to perform for us on Christmas morning.  It was very cute and they did a great job!  Layne was a sheep, Lyla was a camel then a shepherd, Ryleigh was Mary, Nina was the angel, and Emme was the innkeeper/director of the show.  

  

We finished off the time at Mousey and Poppy’s by carrying on a tradition that has been in my Mom’s family for decades.  PB used to explain it that when we all had birthdays, we got together to celebrate the birthday with cake and singing of the happy birthday song.  Since Christmas is Jesus’s birthday, we had a birthday cake for Jesus and sang happy birthday to him on Christmas.  My parents are carrying on the tradition now that PB is gone, so we had cake and sang happy birthday to Jesus. 

We arrived back home Christmas afternoon and kept things pretty low key for the rest of the day.  Nina worked on building her Lego set for the rest of the day and Lyla “rode her new horse” for the rest of the day.  

 

We are so blessed to have more than we need, good health, and lots of love in our family.  It’s a gift in itself just to take a few moments to reflect on that, and more importantly to know that the birth of Jesus has the potential to mean so much for everyone.  Christmas is truely a wonderful season, and we wish any who are reading a very Merry Christmas and a relaxing and enjoyable finish to 2016.