Florida with Friends (part 2)!

We were so lucky this spring to get to go to Florida two times. Jon had two conference down there, and we tagged along for both. This second one was in Bonita Springs, which is near Naples. The weather was gorgeous. We enjoyed time by the pool, at the beach, eating ice cream, shopping, and hanging out with old friends! My favorite part was watching the dolphins jump in and out of our wake as we ferried to the beach. Kylie's favorite part was the water slide. Brooks' favorite part was making mud holes with Bennett! And Jon's favorite part was lounging by the pool. Everything was amazing except for the flight home. That was quite an adventure. It took the kids and I (by ourselves-Jon was on a different flight), 13 hours, 3 planes, 2 mechanical delays, and lots of snacks to finally get home at 1:30am! It was wild, but it was all worth it! :)

On the way to Florida.

Brooks did not want to have his picture taken!

At one point, our friend, Chris, lost his fancy Ray Ban sunglasses.

It turned out that Jon had taken them by mistake thinking they were his cheap look-a-likes!

Brooksie being Brooksie.

We drove to a nearby ice cream parlor called Kilwins.

It was delicious!

Kilwins for the win...Right, Brooks?!

L to R: Brooks, Bennett, Annabelle, Kylie.

My boys watching the dolphins on the way to the beach.

Brooks and Bennett playing in the sand!

The dads and the little girls enjoying the Golf of Mexico.

These three cuties were all born between October and December of 2012.

They were so fun to watch!

L to R: Brooks, Bennett, Graham.

The girls!

L to R: Annabelle, Halle, Blair, and Kylie.

Singing on the elevator on the third and final late night!

L to R: Brooks, Bennett, Kylie, Blair, Halle, and Annabelle.

On the final leg of our journey home, around 11:45pm, Brooks finally fell asleep!

April Adventures!

April was another fun, but busy month. We moved on the 4th and traveled to Florida on the 13th. All of the other days have been spent trying to get the house organized. I'm sure we will get there eventually! Here are some pictures of our April adventures:

Jon's older brother, Tony, and his family came for a quick visit on their way to Florida for vacation.

We took them to our favorite restaurant, Harvest, and gave the kids their very own table.

It's a total game changer!

We also went to the zoo with them and got some nice close-ups of two of our favorite animals.

This is Hank the elephant. 

He's the largest elephant in captivity, weighing around 15,000 pounds.

We moved on April 4th!

This was leaving our rental house.

Brooks being silly.

He has a ton of toys stuffed into that hat.

Love when they love each other.

Kylie dressed herself, and I thought she did a great job.

Brooks with his bestie, Alexander, at another friend's birthday party.

Kylie has been learning about bugs at preschool.

This was one of her recent art projects.

Kylie had her bestie, Addison, over for a play date at our new house.

They had a tea party outside on the patio.

Kylie and Addi are on the same teeball team this summer.

We haven't started games yet, but we had the opening ceremony recently.

Teeball/Baseball opening ceremony.

This is what Brooks did to himself at the opening ceremony.

Kylie also had her spring program/VIP night at preschool last week.

She did a great job singing.

Here she is posing by her artwork that was on display.

It's the watercolor masterpiece in the middle.

Kylie with Addison and Annelise and their class rainbow machine!

Kylie and Addison's little sister, Gwyn, posing as animals on Noah's ark!

Happy Easter 2016!

Happy Easter from Kylie and Brooks!

Easter this year was extra fun and special! Jon's mom and dad came to Columbus to celebrate with us and Greg and Kaaren. Kriss did all of the cooking, and we enjoyed a delicious brunch at our house! We loved hosting a holiday!

We enjoyed two Easter egg hunts. 

The first was on Good Friday with my Bible study friends.

It was a cold day, but the kids loved it!

On the Saturday before Easter, we prepped a lot of our brunch.

Brooks helped with the quiche!

Our Easter table!

Kylie eventually found her Easter basket!

It took Brooks a little while too, but eventually he spotted it!

Then we had another Easter egg hunt in our backyard!

We had a beautiful, warm, and sunny day on Easter!

It was glorious!

We hope you had a wonderful Easter too!

March Activities!

I'm so behind on blogging because we have been pretty busy around here. On top of our normal activities like preschool, gymnastics, and swimming, we have been traveling quite a bit and WE MOVED! Yay! WE are loving our new house, but I have been spending most of my spare time trying to get things unpacked and put away. I've also been painting our basement, which has taken me a lot longer than I thought it would. The good news is, we are starting to feel settled, so hopefully life will go back to normal pretty soon. I'm going to play catch up now, so here are a few pictures from March...

Playing at castle park!

Kylie, Cristian, Brooks, and Alexander being statues in the windows at preschool.

Celebrating Jon's 33rd birthday!

Kylie modeling her new apron from Super Grandma!

My parents came for a visit in mid-March.

This is my dad and Jon in the hurricane simulator at COSI.

Playing at COSI.

This was also at COSI...Lifting a car.

We had some warm weather when my mom and dad were here, and were able to enjoy a day at the zoo.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Kylie and Brooks posing like leprechauns. 

Kylie modeling her heart glasses from Elias, Espen, and Bergen.

Swimming!

Cuddling with Grandma Susan!

We dyed eggs in preparation for Easter.

Kylie made this picture.

She said, "Mommy is the bride, Angrid (Ingrid) is in purple, and Mia is in pink." (wearing undies on her face)

We enjoyed COSI with friends.

These girls have such a cute friendship.

Relaxing.

I wish this wasn't sideways.

It's a letter that Kylie mailed to us from preschool.

It says, "Dear mom and dad, Thank you for snuggling."

Batman!