Ft Collins, Colorado

A few weeks ago I was able to get out of town for a little vacation. I went to see one of my best friends from college, Amanda, and her new husband, Geoff. It was wonderful! Just being able to relax and only take care of myself for a few days was amazing. I would recommend that to ALL you stay-at-home-moms!

I flew into Denver on a really clear day! The snow-capped mountains were beautiful. Amanda picked me up and we drove to Boulder to relax at the Celestial Seasonings Tea Room. We took the little tour of the factory and then just chilled-out, drank free hot tea, and caught up on life.

On Sunday I was able to help Amanda with her Kindergarten Class at church, sit it on their membership class, and then worship. Its always nice to have a break from your own church and experience how God is working on the other side of the country.


Monday I went with Amanda to her new job at a school doing the K-5 before and after school program. Monday night's at the Olmstead's house is pizza and tv night! We ordered pizza, watched some of Geoff and Amanda's favorite shows, and then they attempted to make brownies. I'm pretty sure all they had to do was add water and bake....but it seemed to be a challenge:)

Amanda took me to "Old Town" in Ft. Collins. We had fun wandering in and out of the shops and posing for fun pictures on the walking streets...




On the way back to the airport to say our sad goodbye, We pulled over to take a few mountain pictures. Of course I've seen mountains before but seeing the range covered in snow during the winter was a first for me!



Thanks Geoff and Amanda for letting me visit! I had a wonderful little vacation and look forward to hosting you when you get the chance to come to Florida!

Sea World

At the end of January we took a little trip to Orlando. Joel had a bunch of meetings while we were there but in our spare time we were able to visit with our good friends, the Osorio's, and we took Evan to Sea World for the first time. He wasn't really feeling very well the 2 days that we went so I'm looking forward to taking him back again when he can enjoy it more.

Sea World, Part 1:
Joel was working so Evan and I went by ourselves in the morning....


Trying to touch the sting rays...


Watching the dolphins swim...


Sea World, Part 2:
Joel had an evening break from work so we went back and spent a couple more hours....




Wahoo! We can ride some kiddie rides....


We ended our day with the Shamu Show....pretty impressive!


Tori, Ryan, and Owen were able to come spend the evening with us! We gave owen his late birthday/Christmas present...

The boys were able to play a little before taking a bath and heading to bed....

Trucks

Evan is fascinated with trucks. I asked him today what his favorite truck was. He told me his favorite is a tractor. Although it probably doesn't fall into the "truck" category, you will often find all of his tractors at the "construction site" right along side his other trucks.

Some of his other favorites...

"Giant Excavator" - "He makes big piles of concrete."

"Bulldozer" - "He scoops and crawls at a creep and makes piles"

"Roller" - "It turns, turns, turns"

"Garbage Truck" - "It dumps the dirt and the garbage. The dirt is inside the garbage."

Christmas

My entire immediate family was able to come down to Florida for the week between Christmas & New Year's! It was a lot of fun, and a little crazy, to have everyone here at once but I'd definitely do it again!

I have SO many pictures but wanted to share a few of my favorites from our time with family...

Fishing with Grandma & Grandpa...



Eating Santa's sprinkles...


Gator Basketball...

Playing in the yard...

At the park...



And New Year's Eve....

Thanksgiving '09

I thought I better get my Thanksgiving Blog done before Christmas gets here...

Evan and I flew in to Chicago the week before Thanksgiving so that we could meet my new nephew, Nolan. We spent the weekend at my brother's house. Evan and Cameron had a blast together and I got to snuggle with the new baby:)


Mom, Jodi, and Pax drove up on Sunday to spend the day and then Evan and I rode back down to mom and dad's house with them. The minute mom walked in the door ALL the grandsons were on her lap...

I was only in central IL for 3 days. My parents are used to having Evan and I for at least a couple weeks when we're in town! But I guess a little time with them is better than no time at all:) While we were at Mom and Dad's house, Grandma & Grandpa Bridgwater came to visit us.

They brought Evan a firetruck which Paxson enjoyed too....


And Grandpa brought a little wood dancing man which entertained Evan for awhile....


I was able to spend an ENTIRE day with my sister! When was the last time that happened? Jodi and Evan started to make pancakes until we realized we didn't have any eggs....oops.

Paxson is hilarious. I love how anytime he sees the camera he automatically offers up his best "cheese"....




We took Pax and Evan to the library where they were both on their best behavior as the lady sang about turkeys and pumpkin pie. We checked out some books and then just ran through the aisles of books for awhile....best part about being at the library, right?

Mom came to Jodi's for the afternoon to watch the boys so we could go see New Moon. I gave Jodi an assigment about a month ago: Read Twilight, Watch Twilight, Read New Moon. She did great...I think she was in the last chapter of New Moon when I arrived! We LOVED the movie and I'm actually going to see it again on Thursday:)

Being in Illinois for only a short time makes it completely impossible to see everyone that I would like to see but I always try to make at least one visit to see my Grandma Edi...


3 Days in Southern, IL....

Amazingly, I have NO pictures of the actual Thanksgiving day. Evan and hitched a ride with Joel's cousin, Jason, and his wife, Andrea, from Champaign down to Tamaroa. Evan did great on the 3 hour car ride except for when I told him Jason might put him in time-out if he kept kicking the back of his seat. After a few seconds of only his lip puckering and tears forming in his eyes....he let out a full-forced cry. It took me awhile to convince him that Jason was really a nice guy. Jason dropped us off at the Searby Cabin where Linda was waiting for all of us to arrive. John, Jessi, Jack, and Josie pulled in only a few minutes behind us and then Joel and Mark arrived from Birmingham about a 1/2 hour later. We had a traditional Thanksgiving Supper "homemade by Publix and Walmart."

On Friday morning we had "Thanksmas" with Joel's parents and brother. Sometimes its just easier to Christmas with one of our families a little bit early rather than trying to cram everything in at Christmas time. Evan and Jack ripped into their packages and Josie worked hard on hers. I think we were all thankful for the gifts that we received and for the time spent with family.





On Saturday, the entire extended Searby family met at the Friendship Church of Christ in Tamaroa to celebrate Granny and Grandpa's 65th wedding anniversary. Someone even brought a recliner to the church for Grandpa to sit in....


Since the whole family was going to be together we went ahead and did the BIG Searby Thanksmas too. Evan and Jack had fun opening their gifts:



Joel, Evan, and I drove home on Sunday...the worst possible travel day of the year. But after 15 hours we were happy to be back in our own home in Gainesville!

Camping

Kelly did such an awesome job blogging our camping trip that I'm not even gonna attempt to top it. Go to her blog by clicking here and then you can enjoy the couple extra pictures I posted below:

In addition to tie-dying to get ready for our trip, we also baked cupcakes and decorated some for Halloween and some for UF....


Superman and Supergirl...


Kelly forgot to tell about the animal invasion we experienced on Saturday night. Its quite normal to see deer running around the campgrounds during the day but you gotta watch out for the armadillos at night!!! They were not scared of us and would come right up to our camp looking for food. This one thought the remaining steak juices were appealing and decided to help himself. I know, gross huh? We were sure to burn off all the armadillo germs in the fire before we made our toast in the morning!