Summer... where did you go? (And update on life)

Literally, the title says it all. Life seems to be FLYING by right now. I can't believe that summer is over and that my firstborn started kindergarten this past week. Not to mention that in about 10 weeks, we will be adding another child to our family. Life is moving fast!

We had a great summer, though in went by fast. In June we took a trip to Minnesota to visit my sister and her family, as well as friends. We had a few days up in northern Minnesota visiting some of our favorite Minnesota spots (and restaurants!). We came back to Colorado on fire- literally. The fire in Colorado Springs was insane. I have never in my life seen anything like it; it was hellish. We were put on pre-evacuation status, and thankfully did not have to actually evacuate.

Hiking Gooseberry Falls in Minnesota. Levi was on my back.

World's Best Donuts- Grand Marais, MN 

Levi playing at the lake in Minnesota.

Cousins! Teddy Bear Park.

Though we did lots of fun things this summer there are so many things we never got the chance to do - because it seems that summer just flew by in a blur of appointments and naps and playdates. Next summer I am going to make a list of the things we want to do so that we can be a little more intentional about doing some of the fun things that are close that we so often forget to do.

Silas had a little surgery at the beginning of July. He was born tongue tied and it was never corrected as a baby because it didn't cause any problems. This spring we came to realize that being tongue tied was effecting his speech and decided to have the surgery done to correct it. It was a simple procedure- and the recovery happened amazingly fast. Literally, he didn't miss a beat. We walked out of the hospital- less then an hour after surgery- and he wanted to know where we were going to eat breakfast. We are so thankful it went well! Silas started kindergarten last Wednesday and LOVES it. He loves bringing a snack each day. He loves all of the "specialist" classes- he was very excited for today (computer day!). His teacher seems very sweet and the class size is great- not too big, not too small (I think 18 kids). He is only attending half day kindergarten- so he is done by noon each day- which I think is making it an easier transition for me. :)

Silas- all prepped and ready for surgery.

First Day of Kindergarten

Eliana is FULLY POTTY TRAINED. It happened in June- and we are so proud of her! She really needed to learn on her time table it seems. But now that she has it, she has it. Some days, a little too well. Last week I told her she needed to go to bathroom before she went to swimming lessons (so it was about 4:30PM). Her response? "Mom! I already went today!" Yep, she had been to the bathroom one time all day- and thought it was ridiculous that I would ask her to go again. :) She can hardly contain her excitement for her baby sister to be born. And asks just about every day when she will be coming. :)

Eliana at swimming lessons

Levi just turned 18 months old and has just started making some improvements in walking last week. Up until this point, he has showed really no interest in walking. He was just last week evaluated to see if he needed physical therapy (which they said he did). And now he is starting to get brave and take 3 or 4 steps here and there. And Saturday? He fell out of an arm chair in our living room. After much crying, I took him to urgent care. They did x-rays and found that his bone had a buckle fracture. In babies, it's very uncommon for bones to actually break because they are still softer. So his little arm is now splinted- and will be put into a cast on Wednesday. In the meantime, crawling is basically impossible because he can't put any weight on his wrist without crying. So he has started to walk even more. The only problem is that the walking is so new that sometimes it leads to falling- and falling on his hurt little wrist. :( On the plus side, he now has a good little weapon to defend himself against Eliana and Silas, who are less then thrilled when he hits them with his splinted arm. :)

Levi with his little splinted arm after leaving Urgent Care.

I am almost 30 weeks pregnant now- and feeling pretty good. A Walmart employee told me I looked "HUGE!!!" Yes, as you can imagine I was slightly less then thrilled, especially because I am not huge! :) I am actually measuring a little small right now, possibly because the baby is still breech. We have another ultrasound in 2 weeks and are hoping the baby will NOT be breech so that we can confirm it is a GIRL! Right now the baby is very active- which I am thankful for this pregnancy more then ever.

And possibly the MOST EXCITING news in our life right now is that Luke has a new job. Seriously. So exciting- so thankful. Luke started his new job this past week at Woodmen Valley Chapel as the Tech Director. Woodmen is the church I have been attending for Bible Study for the past 2 years, so I am already somewhat connected there and some of our best friends attend there too. It's a church we are excited about attending as a family. They have a children's ministry that we feel good about putting our kids in; we trust that they will be cared for, loved, safe, and taught about Jesus. It's closer to our house (thus cutting our gas bill in half each month- which will be a great savings!). It will better provide for our family financially and the benefits are great. We finally have health benefits for our whole family! We are so thankful to see how God provided this opportunity in His time; it was definitely a God thing and not something we can claim any part of orchestrating. My parents were over for dinner a few nights ago and my dad commented to Luke about how he just looked happy. Happier and more relaxed then he has looked in a long time. And that is how he feels. We feel like God has brought us to a great place and we are so excited to see what He has planned.

Late Night Ramblings

Well it's late, and I feel like I have fallen off the blogging bandwagon. I have a few random things I want to write about, so here it goes!

When I heard the news of Whitney Houston's death, I was overcome with sadness. There have been plenty of "stars" that have died over the last few years. But for some reason, her death really struck me. Partly because she was too young. Partly because she has left a daughter with no mother. I know that Whitney Houston grew up in a Christian home- and got her start in music singing in the church choir. Her life is an example of how our world (and Hollywood) can so easily eat you up and spit you out. Her life was destroyed by addiction. Addiction gets ahold of your life and so often, it doesn't let go. I heard one of her more recent songs this weekend and it encouraged me. I pray that Whitney Houston knew Jesus and even though it seems that addiction ultimately destroyed her life, I hope and pray that she is with her Maker.

On a lighter note, we started potty training Eliana in earnest yesterday. I have heard many times to wait until your child is ready. Well she wasn't. But we were. She melted into tears when I told her that she was going to get to wear a princess pull-up. She wanted a diaper. She did not want to be a big girl. After attempting to reason with her, I convinced her to try it. Over the next few hours she ran to the potty more times then I can count. Nothing. About 4 hours later, it happened. She peed in the potty. (And during those 4 hours kept the pull-up dry, I might add). And it's all been up hill from there. She has already completed one line on her reward chart for going potty, and seems to get it. No reminders are necessary, and sitting her on the potty when she doesn't want to sit there is pointless. She goes when she is ready and managed to be accident free all day. Tonight another victory. She pooped in the potty- and for those of you who know our first child, who will remain nameless, it was months before he did that. She may or may not have gotten a small handful of jelly beans and two more stickers on her chart. It's been a big couple of days around here!

And today, Valentine's Day. I love Valentine's Day. Making cookies with my kids. Making valentines for friends and family. Valentine's Decorations. It was a (mostly) great day. Silas had a fun Valentine's party at school. We did our weekly Target trip with my parents and had lunch there afterwards. Luke brought home some beautiful red and white tulips for me. Tonight, we had a fondue dinner. The cheese fondue was delicious and very similar to one that we like at La Fondue. We had a cooked chicken tenders, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and bread to dip in the cheese. The kids were not fans and stuck to Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets, carrots, and fruit. We had chocolate fondue for dessert- so good! We had strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, cookie dough, Snickers, rice krispie treats, and rolled wafers to dip in. I have a doctors appointment in the morning and I am hoping my cholesterol is not checked. I am glad we only do this fondue dinner once a year- I love it but it's so heavy and full of fat. I feel like somehow I *must* work out tomorrow. Hopefully it will actually happen! :)

A week of milestones

This week started with me spending part of Sunday night in the ER. Probably not my favorite way to start a week. As you may remember, I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism in the fall. Up until this point, I haven't been on any medicine for it. My hope has been that it is just a postpartum issue, and will eventually go away. I don't have great insurance so I didn't want to spend money on something that could resolve itself eventually. And, for the most part, I have felt like I could live with it. And honestly? My favorite "symptom"? The weight loss! I have been able to eat like mad and still lose weight. It's been great! The best post-pregnancy weight loss program ever is definitely hyperthyroidism. Some of the other side effects haven't been fun though. So this weekend, I had some symptoms that led me to feel awful, so I googled "Can you die from hyperthryroidism?" Yep, I really did. And you know what? It turns out YOU CAN! I had some symptoms of a thryoid storm, which left untreated, kills you. I tried to weigh out if I should go to the ER, because I knew it would end up costing us a bundle of money. And since I wasn't sure what the problem was, I wasn't sure it was worth it. But I ultimately decided to go. It wasn't worth the risk. So arrived at the ER a little after 2:00AM. And of course, it was a busy night there. The guy being wheeled in behind me was cursing and moaning. And his leg? Dangling! Very broken!

I had a great nurse who had to do an IV on me. And I hate IV's. For some reason, it's hard to get IV's going on me- normally I end up have multiple veins blown during the process. I waited a couple of hours before the doctor checked in on me. During that time I attempted to sleep on the gurney in the cold, brightly lit hospital room. After doing blood work, it was deteremined that I was not having a thryoid storm but did need to get on thyroid medication soon. I will be seeing an endrocronolight next week.

So the first step to finding out of the hyperthyroidism is a postpartum issue is I need to stop nursing so that my hormones can start to get back to normal. With Silas and Eliana, I was done nursing by the time they were 6 months old. We started supplementing with bottles early on since I was going back to work full time. And as many of you may know, once you start supplementing with formula, it's a slippery slope. With Levi, he had a few bottles early on, but after the first month he was exclusively nursing. Fast forward 8 months, he absolutrly refused to take a bottle. We tried every night for a few weeks and he screamed his little heart out and eventaully I gave in. So this week, I decided we needed to try bottles in earnest. And on Tuesday? Levi bit me twice while nursing. Thankfully he only has one tooth, but when it comes to biting, that is one tooth too many. So Tuesday night, his only option before bed was a bottle. He drank 1 ounce. 3:00AM rolls around and the crying begins. I told Luke that it was really all him that night- because I knew Levi wouldn't take a bottle from me. So Luke tried. A half an hour later, there was no luck. Just one very unhappy baby. Luke put Levi back to bed and Luke fell promptly to sleep (he's not use to these middle of the night feedings). Well Levi IS use to these middle of the night snacks. So he proceeded to cry for what seemed like forever. Twenty minutes later, I got him up. And he drank the entire bottle. We had won! I was elated- but then realized that just because he did it once, that didn't mean the next time would be a piece of cake. But you know? It was! He has taken a bottle easily since then- both pumped milk and formula. It's a milestone for sure!

Silas had speech therapy today and I had to work. So Luke took all three kids to the appointment by himself- seriously, Dad of the Year. At the end of his appointment, his wonderful therapist told Luke that she would test Silas next week because she thinks he is where he needs to be for speech. So it's looking like next Thursday will be his last day of speech therapy. Another milestone!

So the next milestone still needs to happen. I want to potty train Eliana in the 6 days. I am sure some of you think I am crazy, and I am. I am just ready for her to not wear diapers though. And she is ready to on some level. She talks about it all the time- she just needs to actually do it.  This precious girl has a mind of her own, so this is not something I can force her to do. I have to convince her that it's her idea. We will see how it goes!

Operation Christmas Child

For a few years, we have been participating in a project called Operation Christmas Child. OCC provides Christmas boxes to thousands of children through out the world. For us, it's a perfect opportunity to let our children learn and serve. People who live in the United States of America are RICH compared to most of the world. Check out the Global Rich List- it's an interesting website that helps put into perspective how much money we make compared to the rest of the world. Americans, by in large, are in the top 1% of the world. Over half the world lives on less then $2 a day- less then what many of us might have spent on coffee this morning.

I want our children to grow up with the realization that we have much to be thankful for. We are thankful for our home, for heat and water, for our beds to sleep in, for food to eat, for the freedom to go to church and worship God, for jobs, for cars, for health insurance. We are blessed. And I want our children to grow up being thankful- and realizing that there are many people throughout our world that don't have some of the most basic things, like clean water.

We started talking to Silas two years ago about how some children in the world don't get any Christmas presents. So we got a shoebox, took Silas to Target, and he picked out things for boy his age. We picked out some basic "need" items: a toothbrush, toothpaste, a bar of soap, a washcloth, a comb. Then we picked out "fun" stuff: a coloring book, crayons, a small toy, a shirt, candy, sunglasses, a flashlight... you get the idea. And the neat thing about it was that we were able to get Silas involved- and let him pick out things he would want to get himself.

So this year, we involved Eliana too. We went to Target and the two kids picked out all sorts of stuff to pack in their shoebox, so that a child somewhere in the world would get a present for Christmas. I put a picture of them in their shoebox. They are going to color a picture too. We want the children who receive the boxes to know they are loved. And that another child across the world picked out these gifts for them.

A girl at the Bible Study I have been attending grew up in what is now the Republic of Georgia. When she was a child, she received an Operation Christmas Child box. She was able to tell our group how much it meant to her as a child. It was neat for me to hear her experience- and to know that this very little thing that we do, does make a difference in a child's life.

If you would like to be a part of this, act quick. The last day to drop off  boxes is November 21st. I would encourage everyone to be a part of this project and help make a difference in the lives of children around the world.

Here is the stuff that Eliana picked out for her box.

Here is the stuff that Silas picked out for his box. 

To happy kids with their Christmas present boxes for a child in need.

Three Things on Thursday

1. Busy. I feel like that describes my life right now. I need a day to slow down, rest, and get things done around our house. Maybe this weekend!

2. Conflict. I am not a fan of it. I would rather deal with a problem then pretend it doesn't exist. But when dealing with it, I still always get that sick feeling in my stomach. Because I don't want to hurt somebody's feelings and I don't want to get hurt either. How do you deal with conflict?

3. Luke took some pictures of this kids a week ago. And I am loving them! Here are a few:

Three Things on Thursday- Kids Edition

1. Silas... I cannot believe this boy will be 5 in January! He says funny things every day that crack us up. Lately, when we tell him something, he will say, "You've got to be kidding me!" Always makes us smile. He is loving preschool- and the new friends he is making there. Today at school they had a Pumpkin Party. He dressed up as a firefighter. They paraded through the offices and had special activities. After school today, he told me, "Mom, this is a really fun day!"

2. Eliana... She is 2.5 going on 16. Seriously, this girl was born with a little attitude. But she completely melts us too. She is very sweet and lately has been completely enamored with Levi. When he wakes up from a nap, she runs to him and says, "Hey little guy! How are you doing?" She loves her dolls and continues to be a pack rat with about everything. I am hoping to start potty training soon. She has zero interest at this point, but I would love to be buying diapers for only one child. Silas was very motivated by candy and a reward chart when potty training. Eliana could care less. See? Kids from the same parents can be completely different!

3. Levi... This little guy is growing bigger by the day! He is 7 months old now, which is hard to believe. He is the first child I have exclusively nursed, and this week we have tried giving him bottles. It. Has. Not. Worked. Our other babies have always taken bottles, so this is new for us. We will continue trying and hopefully he will take a bottle some day soon! Levi is sitting up on his own. He isn't super excited about baby food. He has no teeth yet. And he is the happiest baby ever. His smiles light up a room!

Road trip to Minnesota

Last Saturday the kids and I embarked on a quick, last minute trip to Minnesota. My parents were going to hold some meetings for the new ministry they are involved in. And me and the kids? We were going to have fun. Play with cousins, visit family, soak up some fall weather, collect fall leaves, and of course, eat!

The drive to Minnesota takes about 15 hours without stops. We were set to leave on Saturday morning at 9AM. My parents had our van and were planning to pack up and come pick up me and the kids. Well Saturday morning we awoke to SNOW! Yep, on October 8th. And it was snowy pretty hard. So my parents eventually arrived at our house. And our van? The "Check Engine" light lit up on their drive over. So we unloaded and reloaded into their van, which was not a quick process. (Read: 3 car seats). We got on the highway, and found out the highway was closed due to an accident. At that point, we completely rerouted our trip and drove through Kansas and north to Iowa. We arrived on Sunday night, ready to not be in the car for a few days. The kids did great on the drive, which I was happy about.

So Luke wasn't scheduled to arrive until late Wednesday night, so I was a single parent for a few days. And during that time, I learned that I never want to be a single parent. It's tough work- props to those of you who do it day in and day out.

Two lessons learned while on our trip:

~Don't pack attempt to pack light. That means that you will end up doing laundry on vacation- maybe more then once. I don't have a ton of clothes that fit right now thanks to my hyperthyroidism. On our car ride to MN, Levi's dirty diaper leaked onto my jeans. I washed them. The very next time I wore the jeans, he had another dirty diaper and you guessed it. It leaked onto my jeans again. Two leaky diapers all week- and both times on the same pair of jeans- that happen to be the only pair of jeans that actually fit right now.

~Don't bother trying to keep your kids out of classes or the nursery before a trip. You might think by doing this you will be more likely to have healthy kids for your trip. Wrong. I kept the kids out of numerous things last week because I did not want them to get sick while we were on vacation. Guess what? All 3 kids got sick with a nasty cold that included a fever. Guess who is sick now? Luke and I. Seriously, I heart winter. But I do not heart all of the sickness that comes with it.

There were more lessons I wanted to blog about, but I can't remember them anymore.

I saw some friends while in MN, but the best thing about being in MN was just spending time with my family. I happen to have one of the greatest families in the world. And it completely stinks that we are spread out over all over the country. I cherish the time I spend with my siblings- and for my kids, their cousins. We had a great week with Kelly and Corey, and my nieces and nephews.

On Friday, we went to the Children's Museum in Minnesota. It's a fun museum, probably the best that we have been to. While we were driving to meet my sister and her clan for dinner at Cafe Latte (which was my 3rd visit there in 5 days. And for the record, I would have happy to go every day!) Anyways, on the drive, I asked Silas if he liked Minnesota or Colorado better. He said, "Minnesota!". I asked again... but threw in California. And I honestly didn't know what his answer would be. And he said, without hesitation, "Minnesota!" That is my child! But his reason for liking Minnesota the best is because of the Children's Museum.

One of the benefits of driving to Minnesota was we could bring lots of stuff home. We went shopping at Trader Joe's, Byerly's and Cub and brought home lots of our favorite things we can't buy here. We also visited two apple orchards. I think we brought home 50 pounds of apples between my parents and us!

We drove through the night on Friday, home to Colorado. Poor Luke spent only 48 hours in Minnesota, and then 20 driving. It was my crazy idea to drive through the night. And it was hard for Luke and I. But it was definitely easier for the kids. We did pull over in Iowa, and we slept in a parking lot for a few hours. And the sun arose, and we started driving again. We stopped at McDonald's for breakfast because we are die hard Monopoly fans. We WILL win some year! It was the busiest McDonald's I have ever seen for breakfast. There were only a few tables open. Lots of senior citizens! We were quite the sight, as the kids walked inside in their pajamas, with messed up hair and crusty noses (the kids, not us).  We were thrilled to be home last night. Silas isn't sure he ever wants to drive to MN again because "It's SO FAR!"

The kids said lots of funny things on our car ride. The best was yesterday though. Eliana collects everything. I am constantly telling her to not pick up things on the ground (like cigarette butts). Yesterday in the car, she was throwing a fit because Silas had her empty fruit snack wrapper. Silas looked at her and said, "Eliana, don't be a hoarder! Throw garbage away!" Amen!

All in all, a fun but very busy week! I have feel like I have fallen off the blog bandwagon. I want to go back and blog about the last 2 months, but have realized that is never going to happen. I will do a few brief recaps and move on!

Terrific Tuesday: Vacation Edition

Our second to last day in San Jose was packed with fun. It started off with breakfast with friends. After breakfast we headed to one our favorite parks. This park was within walking distances of where we lived. We often walked to the park after dinner so the kids could play. We had Eliana's 1st birthday party there. We have many happy memories there- and the kids were exited to go back.

After the park, we went to Los Gatos to meet with up with some friends at the fountain. We had lunch and the kids splashed in the water. Simple things like this are things that I miss the most.

The kids aren't the only ones who like to play in thefountain- I do too!
I love chasing them around- I just try to stay somewhat dry!

Reagan, Maddy, and Eliana

Next, we hit the road for Watsonville. We were thrilled to find out that Gizdich was still picking strawberries. I convinced Luke that I had to take some home with us. We arrived and the fields were practically empty. But the strawberry bushes were full of huge, red, juicy berries. They were so good! In a half an hour, we picked 10lbs of strawberries. Luke looked at me like I was nuts and I know was silently wondering how we would get all of them home...

Yep! The strawberries were delicious!

The strawberry fields of Watsonville... 

Now how are we getting to get these home!?!?

Next stop was Capitola! Capitola is a little town south of Santa Cruz, right on the beach. It has a cute little downtown with shops and restaurants. It will always hold a special place in my heart because it was where Luke and I had our first date... Anyways, we grabbed pizza at Pizza My Heart, and walked down to the beach to eat. A cool breeze was coming off the ocean and it was a beautiful start to our evening...

Our final thing for the day was the Santa Cruz Boardwalk: Take Two. We met our Boardwalk friends (Brian, Marny, Maddy, and Reagan). It was basically a repeat of the last week. Lots of rides. Time for the adults to talk. Fair food (cotton candy, corn dogs, soda, ice cream). You know, healthy stuff. I thought that Silas might enjoy going on the sky ride from one end of the park to the other. When I suggested it, he was excited. And so were all of the other kids- and me! But Luke, Brian, and Marny weren't particualarly thrilled. Luke took one for the team and went. Luke rode with Reagan and Silas. I rode with Maddy and Eliana. Maddy was screaming at the top of her lungs at Luke- just calling him name- for no particular reason. Half way through the ride she looked at me and said, "I'm so funny!" It was so innocent and cute; it cracked me up.

Maddy and Reagan on the airplanes!

Silas driving the Pepsi truck

One of the rides that is the kid's favorite is the race car ride. The cars ride around an oval shaped track, and the cars whip around the end of the track and the kids go sliding in their seats. Their expressions always make us laugh!

Eating ice cream at 10PM before heading home! 

When we go to the Boardwalk, we always intend to leave at a reasonable time. And that never happens. We are lucky to leave by 10PM- and then we will have an hour drive home. This night was no different. We quit the rides at 10PM and then went to ice cream. Who sugars up their kids before bed? We do! Because that is what vacation is about!

Goodbye Boardwalk! Can't wait to come back again!

Cousins

Luke snapped some pictures of the kids the day we left. The sun was high in the sky and it was stinking hot out! Trying to get 5 kids to look at the camera and smile is nearly impossible. Our kids sure love their cousins- we wish we could see them more often!

NorCal: Redding

Disclaimer: I am so behind on blogging right now! And now that I am blogging about our vacation over a month later, I am forgetting details. The rest of these vacation posts will be heavy on the pictures. My vacation blogging will be done in the next day or so. Sorry they aren't super exciting to read, but I am blogging about it capture the memories for us. :)

After we spent one day in San Jose, we hit the road and drove to Redding to visit family. Most of Luke's family lives in that area. His sister, Janelle, and her family came to Redding too- so we were able to see almost everyone. 

We had a great time visiting. We stayed my in-laws house, up in the mountains. Much fun was had- four wheeling, hanging out with cousins, a campfire with s'mores, and of course, lots of eating! We spent time in Redding visiting grandparents and swimming.

Grandpa reading with Silas and Eliana.

Riding the 4 wheeler! 

Our niece, Maggie, who is 4 years old
getting ready to ride the 4 wheeler.
She is hardcore. :)

Eliana swimming.

Cousin Zech swimming.

One day while we were there, we went to Brandy Creek Lake to go swimming. This is a placed that Luke's grandma used to them swimming when they were kids, so it was fun to go back to a place with memories for him.- We had a great time! I love swimming in lakes- and we thought the kids might enjoy it since the waves were a little overwhelming when we were at the ocean.

Eliana- 2 years old

Maggie- 4 years old

Silas- 4.5 years old

Jadon- almost 6 years old

All of the kids with grandma and grandpa!

Santa Cruz Boardwalk: Take One

One of our favorite things to do in the summer during our last year in California was go to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Every Monday and Tuesday night during the summer, all rides are $1. Sodas, hot dogs, and cotton candy are $1 too. Warning: the hot dog tastes like $1- not good. On the other hand, cotton candy?!? Delicious. I always get a bag (or two).

Our Santa Cruz Boardwalk pals are some of our best friends, Brian and Marny, and their two girls, Madison and Reagan (also known as Lala). (Side story: Silas and Reagan are the same age- and best friends. When Reagan was little, she couldn't say "Silas"- so she called him "Lala." Silas evidentally thought, that was what they called each other- so they both call each other "Lala"- and I think it's adorable.) Brian and Marny were high school friends of Luke's- and friends of mine since Luke and I started dating. They are like family- and their girls are like nieces to us.

We had one day in San Jose before we went to Redding to see Luke's family. So we went to Santa Cruz! We met Marny and the girls downtown, and when they kids saw each other, they ran to each other. They hadn't seen each other in over 8 months- and yet it was like no time had passed. They reconnected immediately. We met Brian and grabbed dinner before heading to the Boardwalk.

Our evening at the Boardwalk was great. The kids had a blast going on ride after ride. And the adults had a great time talking and catching up.

Maddy and Levi at dinner

Brian and Marny 

Silas on the Whale ride...

Maddy and Eliana on the Dragons... Maddy
was Eliana's ride buddy for the night.

Reagan and Silas on the Helicopters