A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 48 Recap

The playroom downstairs is a mess 90% of the time. It drives me mad. But it is moments like today that I capture them playing with their toys and it makes it all worth the mess. Olivia was down playing with her American Girl dolls and Isaac was working on rebuilding his wooden train set and then pulling busses up beside it.  

Right before Thanksgiving, we found ourselves in Ft. Wayne as Jeremy and I had appointments to renew our TSA pre-check. While we were so close, we decided to burn up the last of our our gift cards from the failed 'year of experiences' Christmas gift of 2020. We took the kids to SkyZone to burn off their energy. One of their favorites is the wall. The ninja warrior zone is cool, we like to watch them battle on the beam, and Olivia enjoys just jumping and trying tricks. Most of the time Jeremy and I join in the fun, but we were just there to watch today since we were burning up the gift cards. 

Thursday was Thanksgiving. I was in charge of the dressing, the pumpkin pies and of course, the cut out cookies. We attempt to always be over to Maw and Paws before 11 when Santa is on the Macy's Day Parade. I sent Jeremy and the kids this year since I was having a melt down with my new hair.  I'll eventually get this hair down right?! I hope so. We took pictures of our family and Jeremy and I cut the turkey as we always do. Tradition. Since Isaac and Olivia are the youngest and only little kids on this side, it was pretty quiet. We stayed all day this time since we weren't going to the Coder side until the next day. 

Olivia is totally into doing her American Girl doll's hair. She set up an entire beauty salon in the kids bathroom, complete with a sign up sheet and prices.  Not sure how they're paying, but I don't ask questions. I just snuck in to take some photos, but she caught me when the flash went off. 

We headed over to the Coders on Friday for Thanksgiving #2. Jeremy had to work, so it was just me and the kids. Arick was also home deer hunting, so we got to hang with him as well. Everyone but Brittney was home for the holiday. It was so nice to have everyone in one place again. The most interesting part was when Emelia asked Granny to tell her some facts about her for something she was writing for school. This led into her telling us about her jobs in high school which included working in a department store. She also said the first time she met grandpa was when her and friend were waiting in line for the ferris wheel at the fair and he and his friend ask if they could (cut in line- boys!) and ride with them. But that's where they met! 

I was trying so hard to go all of 2021 with under 40,000 miles on my SUV.  But I had to drive my SUV this weekend to Attica and it happened on the way home. So close! I was about half way between Upper Sandusky and Lima on 30 and so I took out my phone to capture the moment. Not too bad for having it for three years and only putting 22,000 miles on it. I know it's because I still drive the car to work most days and anytime we are traveling far.  

Finishing up the break found us on a spare of the moment trip to Cincinnati to Top Golf. Again, we have gift cards, but still we drove there just for TG. Olivia typically has dance on Sunday's, so when we found out that morning that dance had been cancelled, we decided to take off and do something fun. Our family LOVES Top Golf. Olivia had a great day and kicked some butt in the second game. I stink, but enjoy seeing how much fun all the rest of them have. Isaac continues to get stronger and better every time we go. It's fun to see him hit further and his excitement when he gets lots of points. Jeremy is the only one who plays the games correctly.  The rest of us just get up there, wack the ball, and hope for lots of points! 

 

A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 47 Recap

Well our first snow hit the ground this week. Olivia took no time at all to dig out her snow pants and boots and get to work. When I say there was barely enough to make a snowman, you can see from the picture she did the best with what should could. I love that she still loves to go out and play in the snow. 

Wednesday i did something drastic. I had a hair appointment hours before I needed to be at the airport to fly to Seattle. So naturally I did what every person who won't see family or students for 10 days does... chopped off my hair. I came to Lisa with an idea. She shot down some of my pictures saying my hair wasn't thick enough. Fair enough. We settled on the finished product here. I found it to be OK... but no turning back now. I hope it grows on me- literarily. 

This year NCA is in Seattle. My co-author Jamie was suppose to travel with me, however he daughter was sick so I went by myself. I typically don't do conferencing by myself. EVER... I tried to talk mom into coming with me the week before, but plane tickets had went up to $1000, so she declined. After my new do, I headed up to Detroit to fly out. Only 1.5 miles from my exit we came to a stand-still for 45 minutes. I got too nervous and bought the next ticket out to Detroit because I figured they wouldn't check my luggage. Turns out they will and they said to NEVER do that- buy the next ticket because on Delta if you miss your flight they'll automatically bump you to the next flight if there is room. Whoops. 

When I got to the conference and looked through the program I was excited to see that my long lost buddy Walton and Aaron were there. I quickly text her to see if we'd be able to at least grab dinner one evening. It was so great to see them again and catch up on her new adventure outside of ONU.

Isaac and Olivia requested that I take Kisses and Wiley with me and snap some pictures of their adventures in Seattle. So from ticketing at Delta to Seattle shenanigans, they told me they had a blast. And Isaac and Olivia enjoyed getting the photos of what they were doing while they were home at school.   

Seattle was fun. The conference was great. It was the first conference in person since COVID so I was excited to see people and learn things in person again vs. on Zoom. Of course no conference is complete without some fun mixed in.  I had been to the Marketplace before, but I had never been up in the Space Needle, so I saved time to do that. They had a pass that got you a ticket to the Space Need and the Chihuly Museum. The Space Need tested my fear of heights for sure. The glass moving bottom was just insane. Both were very cool experiences that I'm certainly glad I took advantage of while in town. Check out the amazing photos and videos I took below.