San Francisco

Trevor went to San Francisco for a three-day work conference. He spent his days busy in the conference, while his evenings were spent exploring the city. He put a lot of miles on his shoes, as he walked from place to place, braving the many hills. He enjoyed seeing the sites, but was saddened by the depravity. He saw drugs, homeless people, and alternative lifestyles on nearly every corner. He was happy to return home...

Mother's Day 2016

This year for Mother's Day the kids made be breakfast in bed featuring "heart shaped eggs in the basket". It was quite tasty. They lavished me with homemade cards, Kaylee bought me some flowers and Kianna made me a new "Best Mom" t-shirt. Their thoughtful gifts were very special. We went on a family bike ride in the afternoon and had my family over to grill out for dinner. My mom had been begging for some of my chocolate fondue, so we put out the whole spread. It was a very nice day. I am blessed!

Bloomsbury Farm

Trace and Zach Flender

Trace's 1st grade class had a field trip to Bloomsbury Farm, so I decided to tag along. It was fun getting to know some of the kids and parents in his class. Trace really enjoyed feeding the farm animals. It was a good day.

Our New Backyard

We absolutely LOVE our new backyard, as we jokingly call the trail behind our house. We use it almost daily for walks, runs, and/or bike rides. Our new backyard also includes, Dry Creek and Thomas Park. The creek is just a short walk from our house. The kids and their friends have waded in the water. Thomas Park is a 15 minute walk from our house or a 5 minute bike ride. The kids really enjoy playing on the playground there. They also have a great splash pad and sand area.

Our new backyard also includes wildlife. We frequently see deer, turkeys, geese, and ducks. We have an orchestra of frogs living in the drainage pond behind our house. The kids have had a blast playing in that area and catching tadpoles. We are so blessed by our new location. It feels like we have a very large play area in our new backyard.

Our New House

Our new home

Barn door leading to the office

Living Room

View of living room from kitchen

Kitchen/dining room

Mudroom

Upstairs bonus room

Master Bathroom

Master shower

Trace's bathroom

Kaylee's room

Kianna's room 

Screened Porch

We moved into our new house on Friday, April 22nd, which also ended up being the day my dad and Sue returned from Arizona. We were super blessed to live in their home for the winter and now we are beyond thrilled that our house is finished. We were able to use their return as a little leverage. The cement for our sidewalks were literally poured the morning we moved into our house. It was a mad dash to meet our closing date. It has been a stressful process with all the decisions we have had to make, but we are very happy with the finished product. We absolutely love the trail behind our house. We anticipate using it a ton. Now to make this house our home. Let the decorating begin...

Weekend in Galena

Our little cottage

Hiking at Eagle Ridge

Lunch at Vinny Vanucchi's

Grant's House

Trevor left me on the side of the road while he went and got the car. I felt a little silly sitting there...

Trevor and I decided to celebrate our 13th Anniversary by returning to Galena, IL. Grandma Becki volunteered to watch the kids for us and off we went. We rented a little cottage at Eagle Ridge Resort for the weekend. We had a great time relaxing, eating, hiking, eating, shopping and eating some more. It felt like we ate our way through Galena. We had fun exploring the shops downtown and came across a couple of vintage furniture pieces for our new house. We found a red mirror for Trace's bathroom and a lime green accent table for the living room. It was a great trip.

One unfortunate thing that happened while we were gone, was that Kianna came down with a full body rash, along with bright red cheeks, just hours after we left. We initially thought it must be an allergic reaction to some new essential oils she tried. However, Benadryl was not helping at all, besides making her sleepy. By Sunday, Bryker came down with the same rash, which is when we realized they had Fifth's Disease. Trace and Kaylee would get it too, as did I. Trevor had it when he was a kid, so he was spared. Unfortunately, it was one of those things that is worse if you get it as an adult versus as a kid. I only had the rash a little bit, but mostly was laid up with full body aches and full body arthritis. In some people the arthritis never resides, but thankfully mine went away after several weeks. The joys of life...