End of Year Camping Trip

December 29-30, 2014

 On our way home from Dallas, we stopped at our favorite camping spot in Flynn. We had a great time playing, fishing, boating, and staying warm by the camp fire.

 Kerry had been working hard during the past few months to get his shop put together. He had some work contracted out, but Ryan came and helped with some of the work he did himself, and even brought one of the young men from the ward to help one time. This was the first time I got to see its progress and it’s looking pretty good. It was a favorite place of Jared’s to play while we were camping this time.

 Ryan and the boys caught and released some fish, just keeping one.

We weren’t quite prepared for how cold it would be there, so we decided to only stay for one night, instead of the two we had intended, but we still had a fun time!

Ward Christmas Party

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Near the first of December our ward put on a Christmas dinner. At the dinner there was a ton of amazing food: two or three different kinds of everything, some great entertainment from each of the quorums and auxiliaries, and also… pictures with Santa provided.

 Throughout the morning we had been preparing Jared for this opportunity to meet Santa in person and sit on his lap. We talked to him about what kind of gifts he’d want and so on. By the time we got to the church we thought he was ready and excited. Well, all our preparation didn’t really translate when it was time for him to go sit on Santa’s knee. He pouted the whole time; and Karl wanted off before he even got on. It was so funny and sad all at once.

 We did get Jared to whisper to Santa what he wanted, “Iron Man toys,” before he got down. He did talk about the experience afterwards like it was a good one, so I think he’s glad he got to sit with Santa. But, after a week or two when the picture results were sent out, they were pretty hilarious to see. The photographer took nine tries, we saved them all, but here’re just a few.

For the Christmas party, I made an Apple-Cranberry Pie and a Banana Cream Pie. They were the only pies so they were both gone before I got to the dessert room. Ryan was disappointed about not getting any of the banana pie, one of his favorites. So I fixed both our pie needs by making our family our own banana cream pie the next week. J

Weekend with the Davises

December 27-29, 2014

We didn’t know of very many people who we knew, who lived in Texas when we first got down here. But, we were glad to know of at least one family who we were related to, and one who were old friends (both to Ryan). So, just after Christmas, we made the trip up to Dallas to see our relatives, Ryan’s cousin Betty Jo and her family.

They were such great hosts. Trevor gave up his room for our family while we were there, which was great, because he had a huge bed. Jared and Karl loved having big kids to follow around and play with. Jared especially liked to play with Daisy, who was to closest to his age, but he also loved playing with Trevor and his Star Wars Lego toys. The older girls, Kylee and Natalie, were great with helping me with Karl and showing him fun things to play with.

They had an amazing theater room, so we took the chance to watch The Lego Movie with them. Ryan fell asleep the last time we watched it in Evansville, so I was on his case to make sure he’d stay awake this time, but he couldn’t do it. He fell asleep again. Oh, well, I guess he’ll just never know how “everything is awesome” when you stay awake to watch the whole movie.

The Davises had some fun things in their backyard, and Jared liked playing on this seesaw with Daisy. Meanwhile, Trevor entertain Karl inside, because it was very cold outside while we were visiting.

We had a great time getting to meet some of the family for the first time and getting to know Betty Jo and Darin better. They were a lot of fun and we look forward to hopefully seeing them more while we’re living in Texas. J