75!

Happy 75th birthday to my dad! He is a very special father, grandpa, husband, and friend and on December 26, 2020 we celebrated his special birthday (remotely). When I think of my dad, I think of his love for my mom, us, flying, and rock-n-roll. He and my mom have been very happily married for almost 54 years, and they have loved and supported each other and my brother and I though all kinds of life over the years. Before I was born, my dad was a pilot in the Air Force Reserves, and his love for flying has stayed with him throughout his life. He has retained his pilot’s license so he could fly and enjoy the skies.

My dad in his old uniform.

My dad also loves rock-n-roll and playing guitar. Growing up, he had lots of guitars, and he enjoyed playing them all. I used to love listening to him play when I was younger, and he instilled a love for good classic rock in me at a young age (though I didn’t appreciate it then). My first concert was Joan Jet, and I remember vividly riding with him in the old Mustang GTs listening to The Rolling Stones, The Cars, ZZ Top, and many other great classic artists.

Above all, The Rolling Stones are my dad’s favorite, and a couple years ago he was able to go to the farewell tour with my brother in LA!

Here are a few old pictures of my dad from when he was maybe a teenager or young adult. I can really see my brother in him.

My dad loves the sun, I see where we get it from :).

My parents love trying new things. For their 25th wedding anniversary, they went to Denver and tried skiing and white water rafting for the first time. Throughout their almost 54 years of marriage they continued trying new things and following their dreams, which has lead them to some exciting places.

My parents have loved living in Hawaii the past 7 years, it was a long-time dream to move here after retirement.  They loved being locals exploring the beauty of the island and slowing down the pace of life. They are planning to move back to Florida later this year, to be closer to family and friends, and will have fond memories of their time in Hawaii.

Grandpa Art loves his grandkids, this is him with everyone as babies. Caleb.

Benjamin

Eliza

With our family living overseas for the past almost 8 years, that has also taken my parents to Kuwait, Jordan, and hopefully post COVID to Turkey. I love this picture of us from his and my mom’s visit to Kuwait in 2014.

As a gift, we had a photo collage made for my dad, full of memories from over the years.

Happy 75th birthday dad, we love you and wish you many more years ahead!

Merry Christmas!

We had a quiet and relaxing Christmas. We usually celebrate as a family, so this year looked mostly the same as years in the past, with the bonus of lots of extra family time leading up to Christmas.  On Christmas Eve morning, we woke up to a surprise snowfall.

The boys were so excited and wanted to go play at 7am. Eliza opted to stay home and watch cartoons with daddy.

It looked so pretty.

Caleb wanted to make snow angels. Benjamin only had sweatpants and a sweatshirt on and was pretty cold!

Caleb flew down the slide, it was slick.

Afterwards, we drank hot chocolate and changed into warm clothes. Later in the day, we made cut out cookies. Benjamin was a good helper rolling out the dough. This rolling pin has designs on it so we made some of the cookies with pretty patterns. 

Taking a break to watch the snow fall.

Nathan went for a run in the forrest later in the day and took some pictures. The trails looked so pretty covered in snow.

We had ham, rolls, glazed carrots, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie for dinner. 

Our family’s tradition is to give the kids matching pajamas on Christmas Eve. This year it was dinosaurs.

Quiet house ready, for Christmas morning. 

We woke up on Christmas Day to this beautiful sunrise.

We always make cinnamon rolls, bacon, and egg casserole for breakfast. 

Excited kids ready to open gifts. Eliza changed into a little Santa suit that was passed down to us from a friend.

They opened their stockings first. Everyone got new toothbrushes, chapstick, beef jerky, pencils, snow globes, and some candy.

The kids received nice gifts from family. They boys were really good with helping Eliza figure out what to do. She wasn’t too into opening gifts, and she enjoyed playing with her toys while the boys opened gifts.

Eliza loves babies, and she received a cabbage patch kid that she carries around all day. They have a distinct smell that will always stay with me and bring me back to my childhood. I loved those dolls when I was younger.

Fitting for Christmas, Caleb is learning Ode to Joy in piano lessons. Enjoy!

Hope you had a joyous Christmas.

Last day of school...winter break is here!

The boys finished school for the year and are on winter break for the next few weeks. We are really proud of their flexibility with remote school, and so thankful for their teachers and school that have done a great job with online education. The boys each have 3 zoom calls a day for various subjects and then finish the remainder of daily assignments during the day. They still need guidance and help, but they have become so much more independent. Eliza sometimes likes to say hi to their classmates, and will pop in from time to time.

We celebrated the end of school and start of winter break with ice cream from a favorite place near our house. We brought home a variety of flavors and the store gave us cones.

The boys have been wanting to sleep together, so they had a slumber party last night. They were awake pretty late talking and woke us up at 4:30am talking and Caleb was reading! There will be naps in store for all the kids today :).

Winter break ends on 4 January, and we were hoping they would be able to start going back in-person  part-time again after the break. However the government recently announced that online learning will continue until 22 January with a 3 week break following, so we think they will have remote school until at least 15 February. In the meantime, we will enjoy the downtime and have some fun!

Lockdown Fun

 We have been on lockdown and curfew the last few weeks, and it will last until at least the end of the year. However, I use the terms lockdown and curfew lightly because thankfully it is not overly restrictive for us in many ways. Restaurants are available for delivery or pickup and grocery stores and pharmacies remain open. During the week, from 9pm at night until 5am in the morning, people need to be home. Weekend lockdowns are from Friday night - Sunday morning. The biggest impact for us is that every day of the week,  kids under the age of 20 can be outside between 1-4pm. Fortunately, our neighborhood is very lenient about the kids playing outside of the curfew hours, so we often play outdoors past 4pm without any issues. For the most part, things are the same for us, though it will be nice to get out and explore again on the weekends. Here are some pictures of the last couple of weeks.

We are fortunate to have many large patches of grass for the kids to run and play ball.

Nathan makes the kids do races...they are getting plenty of exercise!

One day we went out during the 1-4pm timeframe to get ice cream.

Seeing the swans in the pond.

Benjamin loves doing cartwheels and handstands. He practices all the time!

One weekday when Nathan was off, we went to Emyir Lake during the 1-4pm period. It is just a few km from the house. We tried going to the lake several weekends ago, but it was so busy and traffic was backed up about half way to the lake, so we were glad to be able to go during a weekday when people were at work. The smaller buildings you can see at the top of the hill is our neighborhood.

Over the weekend lockdowns, we mostly stay indoors and play, and slip outside for a short run around break in the afternoon. 

It’s been nice to slow down some more, and we are all enjoying Nathan being home more during the week.