Since I did so horribly at blogging this year, I am considering my yearly review as my catch up post! New years bring new resolutions and hopefully I will be better at documenting our fun family adventures in 2019.
{January}
Starting off the year with some pictures from the Outdoor Campus here in Sioux Falls! It's a lot more fun to go here when it's warm, but even in the winter they have a lot of delightful little activities for the kids to do. This trip we got to see some squirrels eating their breakfast.
Ah, the roller coaster that was primary this year... So optimistic when taking this picture and we had NO idea what we were in for. Suffice it to say - the change from three hour church to two hour church this year is SO nice.
One of Daddy's co-workers has all the ice fishing gear and invited him to go along for a trip! It's a true South Dakota experience to go ice fishing. Luckily we didn't lose any small people - Calvin especially loved this outing.
January also brought an AMAZING family cruise to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Amber Cove, and Grand Turk. I blogged pretty extensively about this at the beginning of the year - but here are my top 2 pictures from our wonderful getaway.
The photographers onboard would take your cabin number and upload any pictures to your account... Grant and Mike took this picture and gave them my parents cabin number as a joke. To this day it remains one of the best pictures in Perkins family history.
{February}
We started February with frigid temperatures - by the end of the winter we were eskimos!
Only one thing to do when it gets that cold... stay inside and hunker down! We did a lot of that this winter :S
But sometimes, South Dakota does get it right!
A little family ice cream time at Culvers (because we are crazy and still eat ice cream even when its sub zero temperatures outside).
Reynolds Sunday best! Love these handsome little dudes.
Parenting win!!! Got the boys ice cream cones while running errands. By the time we had arrived back at our house Wesley had eaten through half of the wrapper on his cone.. this is proof that he will eat ANYTHING!
When I'm trying to have a moment to myself to go get the mail and I turn around to see these two tracking my every move...
The next group of pictures documents an awesome trip we took with our friends the Pinedos! We went to the Mall of America and took the kiddos to the Crayola Factory. The boys were all mesmerized by the different activities there - so fun to see the world through their eyes!
March
A bathtime selfie (why are hooded towels the cutest thing in the universe?)
This garbage truck represents the first time Calvin pooped in the potty... I never knew what true joy was....
Girls date with Holly! At this point in the year the Pinedos were starting to plan their migration back to Arizona so we were trying to squeeze in all the time we could get with them.
DADDY'S BIRTHDAY!
Dad's birthday was extra special this year! We had been missing him a lot because he was working in Fargo every week so we only saw him on the weekends for the first three months of the year! We are truly blessed to have such a great Daddy in our family.
Another parenting win!! Got home from outings with the kids to discover I had put two completely different shoes on the Cal-man. Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this...
~A CELEBRATION OF MAXWELL~
Maxwell turned 7 this year and we enjoyed celebrating with him. Two great birthday celebrations in one month!
A couple more super relatable parenting memes that are noteworthy for remembering the good times this year...
Bubble magic in the bath! We often get out the bubble machine and the kids really love popping soapy bubbles while they play in the tub. Bubble machines are great for inherently lazy parenting. ;)
First Easter Egg Hunt EVER for these two boys! Sioux Falls First Ward Primary did a great job. Calvin really loved it, Wesley was a little unsure of what was going on but ultimately really enjoyed eating all the goodies he found.
Moved the boys into the same room and upgraded to a pretty cool racecar bed! They both love using the bed and take turns sleeping in it.
April
~Wesley turns 2~
We celebrated Wesley's second birthday in April. His favorite gift was the glow in the dark Thomas Train. He is such a sweet little guy and we are so happy he is part of our family!
Some photos capturing the icy winter landscape in our neighborhood.
This was the biggest storm of the year - April 15th!! I remember because it was on our 7th wedding anniversary and Mike spent half the day plowing the driveway. A far cry from the way we spent the day seven years prior getting married in Hawaii!
Calvin likes games just like his Dad!
~A trip to Utah~
These are my cousins the Deans / Oppermans. They were blessing their baby girl Clare and we were really glad we happened to be there that Sunday to see it!
Christophersons came too!
Beautiful Colvin nieces of mine :)
It's no secret that Wesley is one spoiled and loved little boy. He enjoyed the extra attention from his Grandpa Mike and Grandma Marilyn!
Sleeping over with cousins - the best! Quincy is the oldest cousin (on the Perkins side) and he takes such good care of Calvin.
Couldn't resist a trip to Krispy Kreme.
Lots of playtime with cousins - swimming, playing at the park - whenever we could get together with them we could.
The boys LOVED a trip to the Hill Air Force Base museum!
This was a special trip because it was the last time we would get to play with Bugsy. She got a pretty huge tumor and had to be put down later this year. She has been in our family for such a long time and it was hard to hear the news! Such a mild mannered and sweet puppy.
~Celebrating Wesley and Lola~
This was our family get together to celebrate Wesley and Lola's 2nd birthday! They are about 3 weeks apart so the celebration fell right in between their birthdays. They are both little cheeseballs and we love them so much!
Lunch with my Aunt Bonnie, Mom and Aunt Carole - three beautiful women!
These were taken on our drive home - trying to make our trip adventures last as long as possible. Even our rest stops are fun :)
Martin's Cove was really cool to stop at and feel the spirit of the area. I love teaching the kids about their heritage and even though they might be too little to understand it now I hope they know they have amazing angels watching over them!
The reason Mike is not in many of the Utah trip pictures is because that trip was for him to go get PRK done on his eyes! It was done in Texas at Lackland Air Force Base. It helped his vision somewhat but he still has to wear his glasses to see some things. He got to spend some time with his Dad who came to assist him during the recovery process. Look at those sexy glasses!
Our last month with the Pinedos as our neighbors! We really miss them!
Stroller fun in the driveway - anything outside was pretty great as the weather started to warm up!
Zoo trip with some lovely ladies from the ward! We live by some really great people.
Calvin and the Milo man
One of the sweetest things about Calvin is how he ALWAYS wants to help his Dad with projects. He is obsessed with how things work and he'd rather look at the lawn mower engine with Dad than play with any of his toys.
More fun at the Outdoor Campus ... warm weather = time to be outside as much as possible!
Just doing some "light reading" :~)
Exploring the new bike trailer - lots of adventures in this!
When Calvin puts on his underwear unassisted ðŸ˜
The next sequence of pictures comes from a girls trip Holly and I took to Chicago! My birthday gift this year was tickets to see the musical "Hamilton" - since Mike didn't want to see it we decided to make it a girls outing! It ended up working out perfectly as this was just a week or two before the Pinedos moved... so we really enjoyed our time together!
~Notre Dame~
I love seeing different college campuses- since we were pretty close to Notre Dame we drove out to North Bend and walked around. It was very picturesque and since school wasn't in there was hardly anyone around which was kind of cool.
We went out of our way to get some delicious chocolate at the South Bend Chocolate Company - it did not disappoint!
Chicago style pizza was good! I had never had it before - supposedly Giordano's is one of the best places in Chi-town. I am still partial to New York pizza, but it was not bad!
We went to Wrigly field and saw a Cubs Game! Neither of us really cared much about baseball but it's a really cool stadium and we both stuffed our faces with hot dogs and nachos - it just seemed like the American thing to do!
~Hamilton~
This was the highlight of the year! I loved it SO much... knowing about it since January and planning on it for an entire six months only made it that much better!
After the show we got to meet Miguel Cervantes who played Alexander Hamilton in the show... amazing!
The Chicago boat tour was a great way to see all the really cool architecture and city sites (without having to walk a million miles, so that's cool)
Saying goodbye to our girl trip adventures... until next time, Chicago!
{Summer - June, July, August}
I'll keep my summer months fairly short since I already documented them in an earlier post... here are a few favorites -
Swimming at Sanford Wellness - always a blast!
I included these four pictures of Wesley because it makes me laugh every time I see them... the little dork!
Bike rides around Sioux Falls Trails
TeaPot Days!
Lots of trips to the Great Plains Zoo!
Calvin got strep, Mom got tonsillitis, Wesley got pink-eye, Dad got .. lucky to not get any of it! There were a rough couple weeks in the middle of our summer.
These cute little faces....
Family afternoon at Palisades Park! It was really beautiful!
This is the monster truck at Scheels. I included it because Scheels is one of the hot spots that both of our kids LOVE going to. We often go there and just walk around because there are so many random little things for them to do there!
More bike trail fun!
Happy 4th of July!
Sunset on Independence Day... one of the best all year.
Playing on the back patio in the water - any water time was a great treat for these kiddos
Fixing the car with Dad - always the helper
Another Great Plains Zoo day - look at those cute little hats
Target practice at the Outdoor Campus
More watertime
Mike had a PT test he had to go to in Omaha, so we made a family trip out of it. We stopped at the Winter Quarters Temple and Visitors Center to start our trip...
After Daddy passed his test we spent a Day at the Omaha Zoo! The boys really loved the train ride.
These are the missiles that were near lodging on Offut Air Force Base - every time we drove past them the boys asked if they could touch them, so before we left we made a special stop for them to touch the "rockets."
Grandpa Jim came to visit! One of our favorite spots to go in Sioux Falls is Falls Park, so we went there to get some fun pictures of the boys.
Grandpa coming to church with us was a highlight of the visit.
A celebration of my baby turning FOUR! He was beyond spoiled that day and he loved it.
Grandpa Mike and Grandma Marilyn also came out to visit at the end of the summer which was another highlight of our year. Anytime we get visitors to hang with is pretty specials to us (especially the grandparents!)
Wesley did Kindermusik classes with Mommy - he LOVED them so much. He is definitely a little musician at heart.
More water fun!
September
Calvin was the "Ranger of the week" for his preschool because it was his birthday month. He really enjoyed getting to choose pictures to put up that told stories about his life.
One of our favorite afternoons we went to 'Country Apple Orchard' and saw the animals. It was a fun fall activity - the midwest is a great place to live during the fall :) We haven't had a really decent fall season since our last two assignments were Las Vegas and Hawaii, so we are soaking it up here :)
A corn maze was another fall bucket list item - we loved tromping around and the weather was perfect that day!
The boys attended Central Baptist Preschool in the fall - these were there adorable 'school photos'
{October}
Our main event was the annual for Mike's work during October. We have been to 5 annuals so far and this one was easily the best! They held it at a resort in Lake Brainerd, Minnesota - 'The Gull on Madden Lake.'
There was childcare during the day so the spouses got to go get spa treatments and do art classes - it made it really feel like a vacation!
Fall in Minnesota... it is really something else!
This was the view from the room we had at the lodge.
The theme was cats for Mike's group of MEPS workers. "ROL-y cats" as an inside joke (if the recruiters send someone to MEPS and they are disqualified for something they disclosed to the recruiter then the recruiter gets a ROL .. blah blah blah) It was a clever joke but it takes too long to explain :S
My first watercolor from the spouses canvas class!
Sioux Falls got MEPS of the year so that was a pretty cool award for Mike to accept! : )
~Halloween~
Farm animal theme for us! I thought it was funny that I was a cow and I was pregnant..
Calvin and Hobbes for Dad. It was such a cute costume idea but Calvin kind of felt like he didn't get to dress up when he saw all the other kids in their costumes!
The Hauptly's came for a visit shortly before Halloween too! We love Sam and Rachel and are pleased we live within visiting distance of each other. They are also expecting their 3rd baby ( a little girl) about a month after our boy is due!
These were the family pictures we got this year... as things always happen when family pictures are meant to be taken we were sans Dad (through absolutely no fault of his own, let it be known). Each time I tried to arrange pictures it rained, someone got sick, or some other crisis happened. I didn't really want to get family pictures when I am huge and pregnant so I guess we will go for our official picture after the baby is born in April :)
November
~A trip to Utah and California~
This is another subject which I just blogged about a lot, so I'll just include a few pictures here, even though the trip home for the holiday was definitely a HUGE highlight of our year!
December
We kicked off the month of December with a Christmas Duet/Trio Recital at First Presbyterian - all of my students did wonderful! It was a fun recital to be a part of.
Gingerbread house tradition - it still lives :)
The kids experienced the magic of Santa and some really fun Christmas games at the "North Pole Carnival."
Another random Santa encounter at one of the Sioux Falls Rec Center play groups! Santa randomly appeared - right as Wesley was throwing a temper tantrum no less - it worked as a great deterrent for the fit!
For Christmas Daddy built the boys a toy house that they adore. It was a quiet and peaceful Christmas this year - and the next day we got a bunch of snow for them to shovel.
2018 was a wonderful year - with another member of our family joining us in 2019 we are anxious to see what adventures are coming!
Happy New Years!
