Trip to Florida!!

We were so lucky this year to be able to take a trip down to Florida!!! Back in June when we went to Utah, we had that unexpected 4-hr emergency layover, so they gave us $150 vouchers per ticket (5), so we were able to use those to go to Florida! I believe our total spent on the flights/baggage was $40. Awesome! We got to fly out of the Cincinnati airport for the first time and had a NONSTOP flight. Wow. We are living large.

I flew out with the kids a couple days before Jeremy, so that was a bit scary, but they did great! Thanks to bungee cords and my awesome helpers, we made it through just fine.

It wasn't super warm while we were there, but we still had a great time! The kids and I stayed with Grandma and Grandpa in the condo they were renting for the first two nights, and then when Jeremy came, we stayed with Wendy for the next three nights. These pictures are in a bit of a jumble, but here they are...

I love my sister!

Poor Jeremy got SHINGLES right before we came (he didn't find out until the kids and I left), so he was pretty much out of commission all weekend. Not exactly the beach vacation he envisioned, but luckily he has recovered. He was in a lot of pain and discomfort, so he mostly stayed in bed all weekend. The rest of us had a lot of fun though! (Sorry babe). On Saturday we drove up to his cousin Lydia's new house and they took us on a boat ride! They live right on the water and it was fun to see their new house and catch up with them. They are a lot of fun and have been really good to us. We miss having them in Cincinnati! Sadly, this is the only picture we took from the boat - a dolphin!

 The kids loved playing games and Shannon was a sweetheart with Grace (as were all the kids).

 The pic below is right before we left...we were sad to leave! We had a great time. We don't spend enough time with the McNivens so it was great to have a little extra time with their family. My kids look up to their cousins so much!

 This was the first morning in Grandma and Grandpa's condo...we were all reading trying to stay quiet.

 Hello gorgeous!

 It was a little chilly, so we were grateful for Wendy's wind-blocker.

 Grace was happy!

 Sleeping on Grandma...

 Crazy kids swimming in 60 degree weather.

 Connor buried himself and Grace kept trying to uncover him.

 Farewell!

Snow!

Well this has been a very unusual winter. We have hardly had any snow and it has been so warm and nice! I think it's been great. The only complaint from the kids is that we haven't had very much snow to play in! The week after Christmas break we finally got an inch or two and the kids made the most of it! They were gathering snow from all corners of the yard so they could make a pile big enough to build a snowman. We had a bunch of neighbor kids involved in the efforts, but they eventually gave up and sloshed around on the trampoline in their snow gear. It was fun to watch them! (Inside my warm house with Grace, of course.)

 The creepy birds came too.

 "I'm frozen".

 

New Years with the Nowlands

Grammy and Papa came to visit us late Christmas night! (Technically early on the 26th, but whatever). We were excited to have them come since it was their first visit together! They are so busy and it's so far, we don't get to see them nearly enough. We had a wonderful week with Jeremy home in between Christmas and New Years and did a lot of fun things.

The first day they were here was very warm. I think there was a storm rolling in, hence the dark clouds, but it was actually quite pleasant outside.

Also one of the days George and Jeremy took the boys to a fossil dig place. They brought home lots of rocks!

 Then Grammy and the girls and I met them at the Cincinnati Zoo! We'd been wanting to see their light display but never made it before Christmas, so luckily it went on through New Years. It was fun to see!

We also ate very well all week! This was one of the nights when I made Shrimp Pad Thai. Yum!

 The kids love to have Papa tell stories. He is a good story-teller! 

 And here's a chubby baby just because she's adorable.

 We also went to the Nature Center one day. We had a great time watching the birds. Jeremy's parents are so great about slowing down and creating learning experiences and really enjoying things. We've been to the nature center lots of times and never bothered to explore the Visitors Center or look out at the bird feeders. They got us some bird books and the kids have a bird pamphlet they can check off when they see new birds. It's been lots of fun!

 New Years Eve was a fun culinary celebration as well. Grammy went to Jungle Jim's and got some gluten-free tempura mix and made us some delicious tempura! We had a feast! I also made a few other snackies we didn't really need, but we ate them the following days.

 Grace approved!

 Then we watched the London fireworks at 7pm with the kids. That works for us! We actually did end up staying up until midnight but didn't notice because we were hard at work on a puzzle. (And I have no idea why Anna is wearing shorts. We do not live in Florida).

Oh, and George had a great idea of having a Graeter's sampling party! Yes, please! We try to convert everyone to our favorite Cincinnati ice cream!

I'm realizing now how pathetic it is that we have more pictures of food than people...I'm going to blame Jeremy since he took most of these pictures...hehe. Yummy tamales.

 After New Years, they left to go do some research and family history, and when they came back, they told us they had discovered some ancestors that lived in our very town! In fact, they think they may have even owned the land our house is built on. Isn't that wild?!? They were a prominent family back when Milford first became a city and owned land down in what is now "old town" or "downtown" Milford. They found his gravestone in a cemetery just a few minutes from our house.

He was also friends with the Mr. Pattison, whom the boys' school is named after. Pretty neat stuff!