Welcome to Miami

The day after David's birthday my Lutheran Stud and I hopped on a red-eye flight to Florida where were met up with some dear friends who used to live in Colorado. The flight was long and exhausting. Did I mention that we arrived at 6am on a Sunday morning only to find the airport almost completely deserted? Coffee. Why wasn't a coffee shop open when I needed it? Then we had to wait until 10am for a ride to pick us up to take us to church. During that time Starbucks did end up opening, but I was seriously still a zombie after not sleeping on the plane or in the airport. Not to worry though, after church we found another Starbucks, but it was also lunch time. The fine gentleman at the restaurant we popped into gifted us margaritas and the margaritas kept coming. I didn't know how to handle that. Coffee or margarita? Or both?  After checking into our condo, finally, we decided to explore Miami just a bit and ended up at a lovely Turkish restaurant complete with belly dancing and a guy who offered us some free "mary jane" when he found out we were from Colorado. The view from our condo was beautiful! We could even spy on the people in the pool or the lack there of. We did end up meeting some interesting guys in the hot tub that were on a vacation from France. Once our husbands entered the conversation we knew things were not going to end anytime soon. Politics and religion were soon the topic of conversation. It didn't take long before Mandy and I got hungry so we took off leaving our husbands for another hour or so before they arrived back in our condo. We decided, since it was late, to just get a small meal of Mexican food from the restaurant we went to when we first arrived. We had a coupon for free guacamole so it totally made sense, right? Well, as it turns out when we sent our husbands to pick up dinner it seemed to take quite a long time before they returned. We were starting to fall asleep to Hart of Dixie. Somehow while our husbands were waiting to pick up our food they were given free shots of tequila while they waited and then they got to talking to the hostess and owner of the restaurant over more tequila shots. Our food finally arrived minus the guac. Mandy and I still aren't sure what happened there. I guess it was free tequila or free guac. Hmmm. . . . Our mornings were filled with coffee and getting ready for the day while our lovely husbands searched for fun things for us to do or maybe they were checking email and working on vacation. Who knows?

     

Beach time was all I really cared about after such a snowy, cold winter and spring that we had. One day we packed a cooler full of drinks and snacks and stayed at the beach pretty much all day. We even had time to get buried in the sand and take a nap. The sun in Florida is definitely easier to handle than Colorado's sun. It must be an altitude thing.

Our husbands did and a little snorkeling and picked up a bunch of sea shells for us. I brought a bunch home for the kids. 

We walked down the beach and ran into and nude beach. Yikes! It wasn't too far off from Trump Towers.

After a long day at the beach we were famished. We found this cute little restaurant in a little strip mall. The food did not disappoint. Here's dinner!

We sat outside and walked along the dock while we waited for our meal. The dock was shared by some other restaurants nearby. It was just our luck when we walked by a little bar and outside were two ladies taking in a little hookah. They were quite friendly and offered up some of their hookah to us. Strawberries and champagne was their flavor and it was quite interesting. After that little pit stop  it was time for dinner.

  

Our waiter, Nick, was great! He's from Serbia and for some reason he really liked us. Just as were were about to leave he showed up with a couple desserts and orangecello shots on the house! How could we refuse? Then our friendly husbands began talking to people at the table next to us and we found out that one of the guys owns a cigar company in Nicaragua. Guess what happened next? Yes! They gave our husbands cigars.

For our last full day in Miami we headed to South beach to do a little exploring. We walked through some old hotels and saw some pretty cool architecture. 

Our trip to Miami couldn't have come at a more perfect time. After being stuck inside or freezing cold outside doing chores we were ready for some warmer weather.

Spring?

     

We got a short respite from the snow and a lot of it even melted. It was a good thing because my sweet little goddaughter came out from California for a little visit.

     

I also planted some garlic in the fall and noticed that it was starting to sprout. We needed to get some water on them so they could keep growing. Our sprinklers were blown out in the fall and we still hadn't started them back up yet, so there was no water getting to them, except from the snow that had been falling. Our chickens were even getting tired of being cooped up from the snow. They couldn't wait to get outside or see what I was cooking up in the kitchen. Do you know how creepy it feels to have chickens spying on you while you're washing dishes? Cousin Adam also came to visit, so we were happy for some sun since we had some work for him to do outside and inside of our house. There was also time for a little frisbee. I think the boys purposefully threw the frisbees on the roof so they could retrieve them. They've learned to climb the big pine tree in front of our house. It makes for an easy hop onto the roof.  Even all the mud in the field was drying out and we were able to get into the field to check out the wood pile. It definitely didn't disappear over the winter, but it looks well seasoned? The field looks more cleared out than it did in the fall. The children worked really hard over the winter and sold a ton of firewood. Now we've got to get this cleared out so we can plant a garden.

April Flew By

April began with the celebration of David's 8th birthday and we continued the partying with two more birthdays that month. Our foster boys turned 6 and my husband, stayed the same age he thought he was last year. His old age is a making him forget how old he really is.

Our Easter was pretty low key. We arrived to church earlier than normal to help with the pancake breakfast. Then the younger children hunted for Easter eggs and my husband preached a wonderful sermon. Later that evening we had a smaller crowd over and enjoyed supper and dessert with the Clemmers and Sampers!  
To close out the evening our children performed my favorite song from The Sound of Music. Enjoy! It's so sweet.


Our church softball team went out with a bang! By the end of the season I'm pretty sure the last team we played was a little shocked at how well we kept up with them.

At the end of April our friends, the Fienes, came out for a visit. Katie was a real trooper and listened to my girls read to her at the same time, attended baseball games, and even went to speech therapy with me and one of my foster boys. We did make it out to do a little shopping and hit up Starbucks. The last day of their visit we took them to Estes Park and we had dinner at Hans', now favorite Estes Park restaurant, Cheesy Lee's.

For as long as I can remember we've constantly been searching the MLS or Zillow for houses. My husband has flipped a few, and we've always been interested in a home with a bigger lot. Back in March we saw a home that we were interested in buying. By the end of April we decided to put our home on the market and start wheelin' and dealin' on the home we looked at back in March, thus begins the crazy that has become our life recently. Stay tuned for how it all went down. 

Valentine's Day Happened...

February seemed to creep up quickly for us. One minute it was still January and the next we were planning a get-together with friends for Valentine's day. We have a great group of homeschooling families in the area that we don't see nearly often enough. We tried to get together to decorate cookies for Christmas, but this mess happened and we never had a chance to get together.

Since we were feeling better in February we decided to host a little Valentine's party complete with cookie decorating.

Some new friends moved to town recently, so we invited them over, too.

The kids had a great time making messes masterpieces.

There were even a few cookies left for us moms to decorate a few cookies.

Clearly, they're nothing like Kellee's cookies, but you've got to start somewhere, right?

The children even created Valentines for their friends too.

Everyone went home with full bellies, decorated cookies, and a bag of goodies!

And, since I put this plastic tablecloth on my table clean up was a breeze!

Thanksgiving

If you stop by our house and we haven't seen you in awhile, watch out! This is what happened when Mike and Laurel popped in to say and "Hi" and drop off some Pyrex. :)

We had some new friends over this year and our kids had a fabulous time together!

I put Mandy in charge of setting the table, so if it's all wrong blame her, not me. ;) She and Rachel even folded the napkins. Aren't they cute?

We stuck the little kids in the kitchen so they could make a huge mess if they so pleased.

Our new friends Wendy (and Shawn) just moved to Fort Collins and strangely enough, they are friends with our old friends, the Andersons, that moved to California a few years ago. They are also friends with my stalker friend, Rachel. It's definitely a small world when you're Lutheran.

Dessert was defintiely plentiful that evening. If you wanted something pumpkin you had several choices, if not, your only other choice was the apple pie

that my daughters, Rebecca and Rachel helped me make. It was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

We had little doggie guests too, and they were a huge hit with the kids as well as vacuum cleaners. My floors have never been cleaner!

The party didn't end with Thanksgiving day. The Clemmers stayed over, Mandy and I slept in, and then it was off to do some Black Friday shopping. We even dressed similarly and didn't plan that.

A Dynamite Party!

Back in November we hosted a Napoleon Dynamite/Nerdy Thirty party for our friend Reena! The crazy, funny thing about all of this is that Carlos and Reena met each other online, for those of you who have seen the movie, Kip and LaFawnduh's relationship is quite similar.

Napoleon Dynamite quotes could be found all over our house.

Of course the party wouldn't be complete without Tots and milk, right?

 Reena requested Tres Leches cupcakes for her birthday! They were pretty tasty.

If you've seen Napoleon Dynamite then you know that the party would not be complete without a piñata!

Reena actually crafted it herself using cereal boxes. Isn't it awesome?

 It's a good thing we started with the little kids because once the big kids got a hold of the piñata madness broke out. Chapstick and erasers started flying everywhere!

There were a few gentle older children too, but not too many.

We only gave Reena a few candles to blow out because we weren't sure if she could blow 30 candles out in one breath.

My thrifty husband found his costume just minutes before the party. He makes quite the Napoleon doesn't he?

We set up a photo booth similar to the one in the movie and everyone had a chance to mess around in from of the camera.

We had the movie on in the background during the party. Napoleon's dance routine is something else! We spent a little time trying to duplicate his moves, but I don't think anyone came close.

Happy birthday, Reena!! We had so much fun celebrating with you.