Morgan's Birthday Hike

Grace made him the sweetest birthday card. Looks just like him. 😃

 Most of the family was still in town so on Morgan's birthday, which was the day after Thanksgiving,
we hiked Ladder Canyon in Mecca.

 This hike is a favorite of ours and it's always fun to do it with people who've never been, like Roy & Laura this year.

A few of the ladders were damaged (or gone) from the last flash flood so climbing was a bit sketchy at times.

 Zach likes to think he's a fireman so this hike is totally up his alley. 😄

The slot canyons are really cool.

 Eventually, we all made it to the top.

A family that hikes together stays together. 💕

 Chrissy, Ben, and Shawn have hiked this one before but they were game for it again.

 Roy took these next few shots of Zach with his camera.

 Sigh... He likes to live life on the edge. 🙈😱 

And this is why I have gray hair. 😂

Beautiful scenery.

 All 10 of us finished with no injuries.

Hiking is one of my favorite things to do so when the whole family wanted to do it, I was stoked. 

We don't typically shy away from sketchy adventures and this one was one of them. We knew going in, some of the ladders were out of commission but call us crazy, we still wanted to see it for ourselves and try it out. Little did we know, the most memorable part of the hike was before we even got started. The road to get there was washed out and unless you had 4 wheel drive, you'd probably get stuck in the sand. Well, that's exactly what happened. Morgan's truck got stuck! Part of the adventure was shoveling the sand out and pushing the truck together.

Zach still talks about getting stuck in the sand. He didn't like it at the time but now, he thinks it was cool!

Great memories with the family!

Thanksgiving

The girls were in charge of the chalkboard sign and they chose this as the verse of the week.

 So thankful for my 3 turkeys.

We hosted Thanksgiving this year and when everyone got into town, they went to solve the mystery of the Forgotten Pharaoh at the Escape Room. Lots of fun and success for this crew of clever archeologists!

 Back home and relaxing in the backyard.

 Aunt Mary Jo and her favorite "little pistol." That's what she calls him.

 Hanging with the big cousins. We missed you, Kyle! He was busy working a new job.

Can you believe Shawn is 25, Christina is 18 and Mitchell is 19?? CRAZY!!

We also missed Lucy who got sick and had to stay home. Bummer because she always does so much for us when she hosts. I wanted her to be able to relax this year but instead, she was sick at home alone for 3 days while taking care of the dogs. Wait... maybe that IS a relaxing vacation? 😂    

 Roy and Laura brought their "kids" and Zach had a ball with them! 🐕🐕

We also celebrated Morgan's birthday since it was the next day.

The scrumptious Red Velvet cake was made by none other than my girlfriend, Jill.

Thanks so much, Jilly!

I remember not long before Morgan's mom died (it must have been right before the holidays), she told me she was so grateful that we didn't have any drama in our family. We don't have relationships that would make the holidays difficult like some. She also hoped her children would continue to get together even after she was gone someday. I assured her we would but had no idea how quickly that time would come.
This was our first holiday without mom OR dad.

It still feels weird. I can still hear her voice and see her smiling face. I can see her with her apron on, joyfully serving and preparing whatever needed to be done. The holidays are a time when all of her kids and grandkids were together and that's what was most special to her.

Now that dad has passed too, we had a choice of gathering anywhere this year. We thought about renting a large cabin in Big Bear but ultimately, everyone decided to come here.

The holidays can be a stressful time, especially if you're hosting but when I started feeling that way, I tried to remember and honor the example of my dear sweet mother in law. More important than food, decorations, or comfort, she loved and enjoyed her people well and that's the "feeling of home" she gave everyone.

I'm still a work in progress but I'm grateful for the opportunity to grow, stretch myself and learn to love my people well, too. We're thankful that everyone wanted to come here this year. We made some fun memories, laughed a lot, and got to spend a few days enjoying conversation, meals around the table,
playing games (like ping pong in the garage and competitive Catch Phrase), and discovering our new normal without mom or dad.

We hope we did them proud.

Zach's Soccer Season

 Back in September, Zach started soccer. 

I've waited all my life to be a soccer mom!

 Daddy and son.

Warming up.

 Look at him go!

 Daddy ended up being the "unofficial" Assistant Coach for the season because it turns out it's hard to keep Zach on the field. 😂 

 He'd often wander off to another game that was going on or sometimes, he'd just lay down to look at the grass. It was cute for the first couple of games but to be honest with you, after that, it was just plain work.

 Or, he'd walk off the field and want to play with his sisters.

 It was a constant struggle to get him to stay on the field and be engaged with the game.

Come on, buddy.

 Walking off the field, like a boss. 🙈

Somehow, he managed to score a goal one game. ⚽

 Team Avengers.

This is a miracle photo to get five 4 year old boys to stand still and smile.

Daddy is standing just out of the frame so Zach doesn't run away. 😜

 It's a good thing he's so darn cute!

Zach's soccer season lasted 10 weeks and boy, did we learn our lesson. We had high hopes coupled with fairly realistic expectations but it became clear quickly that it was just WAY TOO SOON for Zach to start an organized sport. It's not that he hated it (other than the early game time of 8:00 AM), he just didn't care about participating in the game for more than a few minutes. Nevertheless, we prevailed as a family and made it to all 10 games. Big kudos to daddy for never giving up and finishing what we started. At this point, we're in no hurry for Zach to begin any kind of team sport until he's at least TEN! 😜 

Two weeks later, the girls started their first soccer season and thankfully, that's a totally different story!

Oh, Zach... You're certainly a handful but we love you so so much, son.

Operation Christmas Child

You know the holidays are approaching when we start packing shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.

 Don't let Zach's smile fool you. It's still not easy for him to pack a bunch of toys to give away to another little boy but he's learning.

The girls have been doing this since they were 3 years old and it's grown into one of our family's favorite service projects. For the last 5 years, the girls have been asked to encourage everyone in our church to pack a shoebox. This year, instead of making an announcement at all 3 services, they got to shoot a video.

What a privilege it is to encourage others towards Christ.

So proud of these two!