April's Unexpected Adventures
Little did we know the month of April brought about adventures that we had not planned on, but they proved to definitely be memorable ones. Gods plans are for sure greater than our own!
Hanging out with this sweet girl!
Adventure #1 that was unexpected was Mike getting influenza which wiped him out for about a week! Due to this happening I ran the Race for Grace for him and then also ran the kids to a birthday party, our churches Easter celebration, and then to both of their soccer games. Let's just say this adventure reminded me how much I value Mike and I as a team!
Picture day for this dude for his first year of Riverdogs! Incredibly thankful for his personality and care free attitude. Also thankful that Mike and I chose to put him in this program as I feel he will be learning so much this year about baseball!
Mike was still sick at this point:(
Unexpected adventure #2 was that Joden got a paper from school about raising money for Jump Rope for Heart. He took it upon himself on a Friday night to walk the neighborhood and raise money on his own while Mike was sick on the couch and I was at soccer practice with Reeve:/ We did not discover that he did so until the following Monday when he came home with these animals. This adventure led to a great conversation about how your parents need to be with you when meandering door to door to raise money for things!!!!
Thanks to Kacey Koch we started a book club last year with some gals from church who are such great friends! For us this is not only time with God, but time to support each other through the journey of motherhood--I love these ladies like my own sisters:)
Joden got a letter from his teacher about how she was proud of his reading progress this year. When I went to tuck him in that night a smile came right to my face when I saw where he placed the letter on his dresser. It obviously meant a lot to him and he wanted to put it somewhere special. Thanks to Mrs. Myers for loving my child and showing him that you care:)
Roughly a week later Mike headed back to work! I told him he needed a back to work photo:)
Unexpected adventure #3 was that my grandmother had her 3rd stroke and was put on hospice. She ended up passing away several days later. Although death of any loved one is not what any of us enjoy going through, it was a whole lot easier knowing that my grandmother was an amazing Christian woman who was headed straight to her eternal home!! This woman taught me many, many things--two of the most important ones were love and the other was kindness. I truly feel I have a lot of her traits as I am a lot like my father:)
In the days after her passing these were two items Reeve created at school. Ajorl is angel:) Her note says "I love you because I hope you love us and I hope go to be a angel."
Always trying to engage my students....so we chunked their review for their test and they had to then go share with each other in a group.
In the midst of all the sickness and chaos it was my 32nd birthday! In order to celebrate we went to the brewery in Hastings and then enjoyed dinner at Odyssey. It was delicious and the time spent together was wonderful!
So Mike and I celebrated the day before my birthday on Saturday night. Then Sunday morning I was not feeling well-unexpected adventure #4. Even though I did not feel the best I wanted ice cream because it was my birthday:) I did go to Prompt Care just to make sure I did not have Influenza. My test came back negative, but they at least gave me Tamiflu!
The next day was Monday and I survived a day of work feeling like crap. As the day went on I was doing somewhat better. We took off right after work to drive all the way to South Carolina to be there for my grandma's funeral on Wednesday. Our plan was to drive all through the night and hopefully arrive at the beach house with my family 24 hours later. Me just starting out the adventure below!
Next picture was about 4am. The kids slept most of the night, but we needed gas. Everyone was still surviving!
Mountains in Tennessee-I had no idea it was so mountainous.
We finally had to just stop and get out of the car-I was struggling to stay awake and we were super hungry! We enjoyed some food and Uno at a Cracker Barrel.
After resting up it was my turn again while Mike got some rest! At this point I was starting to feel stinky, gross, tired, and delusional.
Joden was getting goofy and Reeve fell asleep with the water bag on her head with about an hour left to go in the trip:)
Almost to the beach!!
We finally arrived and the first thing I did was shower, we then ate dinner, and then the kids of course wanted to go check out the beach. For students down in South Carolina it was spring break. The weather was beautiful and the beach was super busy due to kids being out of school! It was another great surprise that we had definitely not expected.
My sisters and I with my niece Avery.
After some much needed sleep, we headed to a small town, Allendale, which is where my dad grew up. Mike was a pallbearer so I snapped a few pictures for a memory!
Here is our crew! This was my dads mom so we got to see all of his brothers and our cousins:) It was a beautiful celebration of my grandmothers life!
After the funeral we headed back to the beach and ate right by the water! It was peaceful:)
On our last day there we were able to enjoy the beach, which was another unexpected surprise! The water was a tad chilly, but of course the kids did not mind:)
Friday morning we began our adventure back. On the way home we spent Friday night in a hotel in the St. Louis area. We were very glad we chose to do so! It made the trip much more bearable. We ended up back in Grand Island around 3:30pm. One thing this unexpected adventure taught us is that our kids can handle the car trips so we will definitely consider it for future journeys!
The next day was Easter so we slept in a tad and attended late service. Of course the kiddos enjoyed their Easter baskets.
Family selfies after church:)
Avery ran track at the school I work at so I enjoyed getting to see her running!
Reeve and I took advantage of a warm evening to use some of their Easter sidewalk chalk!
Snapped a photo of my kids doing literature circles, which is how we are ending the school year!
Some of our first Grand Island friends invited us on a party bus to raise money for Big Brothers, Big Sisters. My mind was telling me nooooo you will be tired on a Friday, but my heart was saying it will be fun and it is for a good cause. So, we of course said yes and enjoyed our time with great friends!
Working on the bun for her upcoming dance recital!
3 on 3 league to raise money for our basketball players. This year my good friends coached a team of 3rd graders, which had their daughters and also my niece Delayna on the team. So, I enjoyed getting to watch them play!
The night we were on the party bus our sitter took them to the Gates Fun Fair. So thankful she was willing to do so as the date got moved from when we thought it was and we had plans already. Luckily she was a Gates Gator so she knew what it was like!
She won face paint...
The next week on Friday then was Reeve's 6th birthday. We celebrated by painting at Happy Brush and then enjoying dinner at Fuji! Can't believe, like all moms say, that she is already 6!
A final unexpected adventure was Uncle Dan coming down to turkey hunt with Mike. Of course the kids wanted to sit with him for movie time! They love Uncle Dan lots as he is a lot like their dad:)
Again, the best part of unexpected adventures is they are typically God's way of reminding us all that we are not in control and good or bad we often walk away thankful for each and every adventure!
