Walking On Water

One of the highlights of our trip last week in Panama City Beach was the paddleboard tour with Gabriel from Walkin On Water Paddleboards.  It was so much fun.  I would highly recommend it and we will definitely do it again when we come back.  

Sydney did really well on her own board. (It was the most challenging of the boards he had out there.)  Hannah and Cullen both got to lounge on the front of the two larger boards. It was a great tour. Gabriel gave you the just the right amount of instruction without being overwhelming and he was very patient too. He spent extra time with Sydney in the beginning to get her comfortable.  Hannah rode with Corey on the way out and me on the way back.

Gabriel also provided just the right amount of history about the Camp Helen State Park during our tour.  Interesting tidbits of info:

• ·         Lake Powell is made up of both salt and fresh water and one of the largest coastal dune lakes in the North America.
• ·         Camp Helen was a company resort from the mid-1940s to the late 1980s.  Some of the buildings have been restored and I felt they were very reminiscent of the Dirty Dancing set. 

Next time, we will plan to allow more time to walk around and take in this hidden gem. 

Another tidbit of info, Gabriel's ‘day’ job is a fireman and you can tell he has a passion for SUPing.  Love what you do and you’ll never work another day in your life…I need to work on that.

Back to blogging...

I can't believe I haven't thought of this blog since 2010. Journaling is something I struggle with but always say I want to get better at. So here's my attempt to hold myself accountable. Starting today, a post at least once a week for no one else but me. Time goes by too fast and we get too busy to forget the moments that make us smile on a daily basis. I'm blessed to have many reasons to smile daily and some of those moments will be captured here.

Soggy Moon

Sunday night on our way home from a trip to the mall, dinner at Ruby Tuesdays and Wal-Mart, Hannah looked up and noticed the fog around the moon. “Look at the Soggy Moon!” she said. It took me a minute to realize what she was talking about until I look up in the sky and felt like I was looking at the moon without my contacts in. It was a blurred, distorted yellow blob in the sky. Corey had mentioned it was a foggy, cloudy night on our way out of Wal-Mart. Hannah must have heard him say foggy but instead of using that word she replaced it with soggy which is probably much more familiar in her vocabulary considering she has a bowl of Golden Grahams pretty much every morning for breakfast. It reminds me that children may not always hear exactly what we’re saying but they are listening.

Last week Hannah and I were on our way to get Sydney from school after work. We had already covered our normal how was your day/what did you do today routine and we were both quietly listening to the radio. About a year ago, I started listening to 88.3 The Wind most of the time we are in the car. It’s a Christian radio station that focuses on “clean air”…always positive, always uplifting as their slogan promotes, and it truly is. I have thought of it mostly as a way to ensure I don’t have to worry about depressing news or bad words while the girls are with me. (It seems our media is very focused on desensitizing us with what is now tolerated on TV and commercials all hours of the day.) I find myself listening to 88.3 Wind even when the girls are not with me. I love the music and I’m amazed how God works through this station to have the right song played just when I need to hear it. Back to last week when Hannah and I were on our way to get Sydney, the song “This Man” by Jeremy Camp came on, two lines in the chorus go, “Would you take the place of this man, Would you take the nails from His hands”, Hannah asks me, “Mommy is he talking about the nails in Jesus’ hands?” Wow! I listened to the song a little closer the next time it came on and nowhere in the lyrics does it mention Jesus by name. I may just be a proud and biased mom, but I was amazed that a 3 year old made that connection. It reminds me that our little ones are always listening, watching what we say and do and what we allow them to watch and hear. I’m thankful to have Hannah’s question from that song about Jesus as a reminder of how important it is to always be mindful of what I do and say.

Conversation with Hannah

On our way home from the Y last night Hannah was talking about what she did in the Kid Zone:
Hannah: I saw a baby.
Me: Was it a real baby?
Hannah: Yes.
Me: Was is a baby boy or baby girl?
Hannah: Baby boy.
Me: Was he a sweet baby boy?
Hannah: He smelled.
Me: Did he smell good or bad?
Hannah: He smelled...hmmm...weird.
Me & Sydney: Laughing
I guess that new baby smell doesn't really appeal to a 3 year old or maybe he did have a poopy diaper. It really cracked us up though, I don't know that I had ever heard Hannah use the term "weird" before.

I hope you were sitting down

It's true! It's an updated post...more than a year overdue. I wanted to post some pictures of our trip to Colorado over the Christmas break. We had so much fun with Corey's family. We had a little trouble getting there after a big snow storm hit Kansas City and Kansas State pretty hard. We ended up staying a night in Hays because they actually closed down I-70. Well it was closed until right after we checked into our hotel, if we would have kept driving we would have been fine. But we didn't know, and it's much better to be safe and warm in a hotel with an indoor pool than to chance being stuck on the highway in sub freezing temps.

I was so proud and thankful at how well Sydney took to skiing. We put her in ski lessons the first day at a place called Ski Cooper. It's a smaller place about 30 minutes from Beaver Creek and half the cost of lessons there. Syd was right at the pace I like to go when we skied at Beaver Creek the following two days...sticking to the Greens, taking on a easy Blue now and then. I think she will probably leave me in her snow spray next time we go. Which is fine with me, Sydney loved skiing and I'm glad that Corey has someone who can share his love for of it. I'll schedule myself a massage next time and meet them at the bottom of the slopes with hot cocoa and a beer. :)

Hannah loved spending her days with cousin Cullen, Grammy and Aunt Julie. We all met back at the end of each day to have dinner prepared by a different family each night and fun games afterward. There were 11 adults and 3 kids total in 3 different condos. The rooms were Candy and Terry's Christmas gift to all of us this year and what a wonderful gift it was. We will keep those memories with us for a long time.

We laughed until we cried playing games most nights and one particular night when we were playing Catch Phrase, guys against girls, it was down to the last clue and you knew it was the last clue 'cause the timer was beeping so fast. Corey was delivering the clues and not having much luck, "Another name for Big Foot, Big hairy monster, Hairy creature", he was getting some guesses but none were the one he needed. The girls thought we had this round in the bag then Andrew, who been in the bathroom, throws open the bathroom door with his pants half buttoned, yelling "Sasquatch! Sasquatch!", just as the buzzer went off. Needless to say the boys ended up winning that round, but we will take the loss for that one. It's a moment that will deliver side splitting laughter years to come...just at the word "Sasquatch!".

P is for Pumpkins!

We took the girls to an Outdoor fall store this afternoon to pick out some pumpkins and other fall decorations. The girls had a lot of fun deciding on which ones would get to come home with us and be a part of the front porch fall extravaganza. Hannah really enjoyed her time there and the wagon ride throughout the place. She was crying for "mo' pun-kins" when we left.

Where's Waldo?

This picture is funny for two reasons. The first is Hannah and the dress she wore to church this morning. This was one of Sydney's dresses and for some reason the dress is size 18-24 months but the hat is 6-12 months. It was never an issue with Sydney because she was not a big fan of hats. Hannah on the other hand, loves hats and insisted on wearing this too little for her hat to church this morning. Secondly, have you found Sydney? She sometimes has a little trouble sharing the spotlight and even though Corey tried to get a picture of Hannah alone... Sydney still somehow managed to get part of herself in the shot.