Staycation wrap up

I pretty much succeeded in wearing everyone the plumb out on Monday, lol
so they were glad that Tuesday's surprise itinerary was not as full. : ) It was also raining out so we got off to a slow start.
Fun thing number one was to do a little clothes shopping.
 -Except the boys somehow all bought head phones and not clothes. Hmmm, how did that happen?!
Then we headed off for some miniature golfing and go cart riding. It was about this time that Hubby realized how bad off his back was and that he needed to head home. : (
It was sooo sad. Dad makes the fun happen around here!
We were all gloomy for awhile and then tried to have fun.

 Zac and I were hole in one buddies so we posed for this:

The go carts were closed due to the weather which worked out because the guys didn't want to ride them without Dad anyway. Next on the list was lunch at our favorite pizza place. We got it to go and headed home to spend time with Dad. We rented Life of Pi and Wreck it Ralph (loved that one) and had a quiet evening at home with lots of comfort food like popcorn, nachos and sundaes.

 The last day of the staycation was suppose to start off with segway riding, at the beach,

which we were thankfully able to reschedule until hubby's back is feeling better. Next on the list was indoor surfing.

 This was Joy's third time going there and she's really got the hang of it now. 

The boys decided they aren't big fans of indoor surfing. 

Next, came lunch and gourmet cupcakes! Yum! Then we headed back home to Dad and then off to church.

It was a great 3 days even though it didn't turn out quite like we planned.
We bonded, we made memories and recouped from care-giving. : )

~Hubby missed work for the rest of the week recouping from his back injury and taking trips to the chiropractor. He's doing much better now, PTL! Hoping this isn't the end of his Frisbee golf/bowling career! lol
~Becky

Scenes from the staycation

The staycation turned out to be really terrific and slightly tragic all at the same time. (more on that later)
We definitely made some memories!
 Each morning the kids woke up to breakfast and a surprise itinerary for the day.

I'd bought several Groupons, so the activities were half off. (yay!)

Anyway, Day 1 was our favorite!
We found the best Frisbee golf course ever!

We decided we wanted to use regular Frisbees because Hubby has been playing Frisbee with the kids for YEARS and they find them much easier to throw than the official Frisbee Golf ones. (I'm not good at throwing either kind) ; )

This guy has quite the arm!

The kids got a big kick out of my throws and got lots of pictures of me looking like I believe I can fly. LOL

Oh my! 

Here is the champ and reigning Frisbee king! : )

Loved the hills and the massive trees!

Didn't love the pond...

where Andrew's Frisbee landed.

It was slimy and gross

but that didn't stop Nathan from trying to save Andrew's Frisbee so that he could keep playing with us that day. So close but yet so far. (there was a drop off) 

Then Zac came up with a plan...

and teamwork saved the day! 

Andrew got his Frisbee back and we continued playing! 

I had no idea that we would end up playing for four hours but we did! Then the next stop on the agenda was to a famous strawberry farm for milkshakes. I guess when the Food Network says a place has "the best drinkable dessert" in the U.S. you should expect a line, but we didn't and it looked like it would take an hour and a half to experience any kind of strawberry yumminess  so we changed the plan and headed to lunch.
Then we went to the ice cream stand that is famous in our neighborhood for their milkshakes

No fresh strawberries in them but that was OK because we are big fans of peanut butter and chocolate shakes. ; )

Next up was bowling!

Then we experienced a major fail using a Groupon I'd purchased for our dinner. Oh my word. I did not research this restaurant enough before I bought it. It basically turned out to be a bar and not appropriate for family dining. (I found out later that they have the word L-U-S-T in their phone number!) So, we didn't actually eat there after all. I'm sure that will be a family joke in years to come.

And then we saw

And LOVED it.

And at some point either when he was doing this

or this

My hubby tweaked his back and his staycation fun came to a screeching halt on Tuesday, poor guy!

More tomorrow!
~Becky

This meal was a big hit

and soooo easy!
I can't say that I've ever cooked with Dr. Pepper before, but it won't be the last time. This spicy pulled pork  from the Pioneer Woman was so good. -But then everything she makes is and my family loves her!
I made the cilantro slaw to put on top.

Then I got to thinking that I should have a soda themed dinner sometime! (sorry, but I just can't say 'pop' no matter how long I've lived in the South) ; )
 I can make this Dr. Pepper pulled pork and my BFF and her fam can come and bring her apple dumplings made with Mountain Dew! Cute huh?

My brother-in-law is on his way to the airport and I'm happy to say that putting our house back didn't take 7 hours after all. Just a solid 4.
Stay-cation and spring break start Monday!

~~Becky

Our second graduate

Another one of our babies

is graduating from high school!

I just finished sending in these pictures of Nathan for our state's home school graduation ceremony.

So proud of who he is!

And I know I'll be a puddle of tears on May 26th. I'm excited to see the plans God has for him and how they unfold. We are blessed to be in the process of sending one more awesome 'arrow' out of our 'quiver!'

~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

Meditating and praying that my family and I would:

"Watch, stand fast in the faith, 
be brave, be strong. 
Let all that you do be done with love."
1 Cor. 16:13-14

~Becky

Joy and the bakery

Joy had the interview at the
 very cute,
 very tiny,
vintage bakery
 on Friday that we were praying about and it went well.
She ended up staying for three hours and learning all kinds of things from the owner.
Sounds like she will be interning there this summer! She's so excited. In the meantime, she has a few things to practice. Like, making things out of modeling chocolate. Here are her first attempts which I thought looked fabulous.

And she has a foam cake to practice frosting. It looks like soo much fun.
We are so excited to have our very own Cake Boss in the making! ; )

~Becky

Caring giving season coming to a close

We've been caring for my hubby's brother for the past 4 months (he's a stroke patient and has paralysis on his left side) and on Saturday our turn will end and he'll head back to CA to stay with some friends and then some family members for awhile.

Friday we will be packing him up and cleaning. On Saturday morning it will be 'all hands on deck' to help move Joy and all her furniture out of the family room and back into her bedroom. (which is where he stayed) The process of moving her into the family room and making her room into his room, took more than 7 hours. I'm really hoping that the reverse is somehow much faster. We also have to store everything he uses when he's here up into our attic. It will be a big day.
Sunday we will attend church and on Monday, we will start our vacation! Yahoo! -We like to take a 3 day vacation after we get done care giving. We look forward to it the whole time. It is a special time to reconnect and it is a time to process what we've just been through and most of all, to have some FUN together. The kids didn't want to go away this time, so we are trying a 'staycation' and plan to do all kinds of fun things all over our city. (and we think our city has some pretty fun things to do in it) I love that I don't have to pay anyone to dog sit! : ) We are pretty excited and it just happens to also be spring break, which works out perfectly for our college guys.

The one thing that I will ALWAYS remember about this season of care giving will be the difference the prayers of our church family made. Our last turn, was honestly, a very painful time, and I wasn't sure I could ever take another turn again. But then I decided to trust God and try it again and lots of people prayed....
And I'm so happy to say that this time things were much better. God is so faithful!

~Becky