{Thanksgiving 2017}

"Have we not reason to be filled with gratitude, regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves? ...

"How blessed we are if we recognize God's handiwork in the marvelous tapestry of life.  Gratitude to our Father in Heaven broadens our perception and clears our vision.  It inspires humility and fosters empathy toward our fellowmen and all of God's creation.  Gratitude is a catalyst to all Christlike attributes.  A thankful heart is the parent of all virtues." (President Uchtdorf)

I love Thanksgiving for a lot of reasons but the most important is the fact that we collectively take a little time to stop the frantic pace of life and just be thankful.  It's a great way to begin looking toward the holiday season - considering all our blessings as we celebrate the greatest blessing to all mankind, Jesus Christ.  

Spending the extra time with the family, eating some of our favorite foods and just having nothing to do is a really nice feeling!

Since we are away from family this year we celebrated with Pinedo's (let's be honest, they are family!)

Holly and I collaborated and came up with a plan that did require a lot of preparation and effort BUT I didn't feel overwhelmed.  It's a pretty impressive feat to pull off a successful Thanksgiving dinner!

>>>The setup<<<

>>>The Chefs<<<

>>>The kiddos<<<

>>>The picture that captures how we best felt at the end of the day<<<

>>>The way the men contributed the most<<<

>>>The person I am most grateful for everyday<<<

Happy Thanksgiving :)

{Girls Weekend}

A much needed girls break happened this weekend as Emilie came into town for a visit.  It's always fun to catch up with her - we are the kind of friends who don't talk forever but can pick up right where we left off when we do get together - and she has proven a true friend by visiting every place we've been assigned so far (you people who came to visit us when we lived in Vegas and Hawaii I'm looking at you - visiting South Dakota will show the depth of our friendship! hahaha :) 

We enjoyed catching up, eating delicious food, and listening to the Hamilton soundtrack.  Admittedly, I am the only one who enjoyed listening to the Hamilton soundtrack, but there you have it - a true friend lets you listen to broadway rap and doesn't judge you.

She treated the boys to a trip to the Aquarium and Butterfly House - they LOVED it!  Calvin was terrified of the butterflies which made the whole trip even more enjoyable for us :) He did love the fishies though, and he bravely pet the sting ray.  Wesley was wreckless and carefree - nothing even phases that little dude!

Petting the starfish (or "poop" as Calvin kept calling them)

There is a little baby shark camped out on the top and the sting ray swam right up to - he didn't hang out as long by us though!

Calvin loved seeing Dory in real life!

I'll be honest I was also a little uneasy around some of those huge butterflies...  Not scared like Calvin but I'm not a big fan of any creature fluttering around me and I especially don't want it landing on me.  

Calvin's response to butterflies everywhere was "I WANNA HOLD YOU" while screaming and ducking away from them.

It was a fun outing for the kids (despite what Calvin's face in that last photo would suggest). 

That weekend we road tripped with Holly to Minneapolis for a girls trip!  We left the boys with Mike and Mario (who were great sports about letting us have our weekend).  We had a blast but tried to make a plan before we left - we have discovered that the three of us are all babies in the family which leads to an attitude of "I don't care what we do" and when you have three indecisive people who are pretty much okay with anything, sometimes NOTHING happens!  BUT since we had a plan and we stuck with it I feel like we ended up getting to eat / do / see a lot of fun stuff.

Minnehaha Falls - halfway frozen (as were our bodies after we visited them).  But they were gorgeous!! 

Juicy Lucy burgers at Matts.  They did not disappoint!  One of my favorite Minnesota finds!

Shopping at Mall of America (although the real shopping was done at an underground target and Ikea - HOURS and HOURS of shopping - I could get behind that!)

Emilie posing in front of the cherry spoon statue - a pretty cool shot of the Minneapolis skyline in the background!

Those were some of my favorite shots from exploring the twin cities in Minnesota!

It was a fun weekend - I'm glad for tiny little breaks like these <3

{Rapid City Trip}

This past week Mike had a doctor's appointment he had to go to at Ellsworth AFB.  We decided to make a small road trip out of it and took the boys for an overnight stay at the base!

We break out the DVD player in the van for our trips and they seem to love it.  They did SO good on the ride there & back.  Even though it was just a short little jaunt it was such a nice trip and I enjoyed every second of it with the boys in tow :) 

Our first stop was the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota.  It's a pretty big venue with some fun corn themed art.  Plus it's in the middle of nowhere so it makes for a nice place to stop to break up the drive.  The boys both enjoyed riding the big tractor they had there!

Wall Drug Store in Wall, SD is also a great place to stop.  It is a little town pretty geared toward the tourists driving through and stopping there!  It is famous for giving out glasses of ice water during the depression to anyone who needed water.  The kids enjoyed romping around and we had some tasty doughnuts there.

A stop by the historic Mount Rushmore just happened to work! Even though it was FREEZING we loved it because there was only 2 or 3 other people there (and judging by the size of the parking available I'd venture to guess it gets pretty busy during peak season).  Calvin enjoyed the "faces on the mountain" and talked about them the rest of the trip.

On our way out we stopped at the Outdoor Campus West building.  We really the the campus here in Sioux Falls and the Rapid City one was also nice - it's the perfect pace for the boys (and the perfect price for us - free! haha :)

It can be nice to escape reality even for only a short time and spend time with the kids.  Travelling is probably the best way I can think of to do that.  Here's to more trips in our future!