State champs, friend visits, and special outings- yay for spring coming!

We are enjoying the temps warming up and being outside more- yay for spring! We have had some fun weekends and activities lately and are grateful for it! We visited our good friends (the Ragsdales) in Garner and enjoyed quality time with them. We just hung around, talked, played games, went for a walk, and got ice cream. Love that we can still see them somewhat regularly even though they live 2.5 hours from us now!

Go Dutch! Our local high school made it to the state championship. We had no school Tuesday for the quarter finals and won, though we didn't go because Kley had work things he had to stay for. We had no school Thursday for the semi finals, and Kley went down for it. The girls and I would have gone, but we had piano lessons and my parents were staying the night on their way to Rapid City to visit my grandma, and my other grandma who lives by us came for supper too, and I'm glad we could get together with all of them. They won that game, but had they lost, that would have been a big driving day to then have the girls wake up for school the next day. But, since they won, we had no school Friday for the championship game and we WON! State champs! The girls and I drove up Friday for that game and it was so much fun! What a fun atmosphere and experience. Kley especially loved it because he was on the team last time they won back in 2005. The Ragsdales also drove down for the game and we got to sit with them!

We ended up driving back right after the game, so there and back in a day, but I'm glad we did because all of our family there was either gone or busy, and we had already had some things scheduled back home for Saturday. We had our church swim party, which was lots of fun! I forgot to take a picture while there, so I snapped this beauty in the Culver's parking lot afterwards. A fun outing with friends plus not cooking? Big win!

That afternoon, before the swim party, the girls got to do the NWC dance camp for a couple hours where they learned a dance and performed it for the parents. What fun!

Go Norah, Lucy, and Ellory!

I am still learning how to use my new camera that I got for Christmas, and my tech consultant (Kley) wasn't with me when we headed to the game because he was already there, so the settings are messed up in this shot, but so be it I guess. Norah worked hard on this poster and was so proud of it! Unfortunately they wouldn't let her bring it in because it was "too big" but they saved it for her and she got to bring it back home. Go Dutch! I love that the girls had fun wearing all our purple gear and going to support! Who knows if we would win again while they are in their school years, so it was so neat they could experience it!

Florida trip 2025- part 3.

We packed a lot of fun into our last couple vacation days! We visited the Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park and enjoyed seeing all the different animals- seals, sea lions, otters, penguins, turtles, crocodiles/alligators, manatees, and dolphins! The sea lion and dolphin shows were very cool!

The shows were funny and educational together and very well put on- so fun!

One afternoon we went on a dolphin cruise, kind of last minute, and it turned out to be great! The boat was so fun and they played lots of fun music, and the views were amazing and we got to see great dolphin sightings!

Please enjoy these photos of Kley cutting loose to YMCA on the boat. We joked that he would be great at leading tours like this. :)

Check out these amazing sunset sights!

Love this family of mine and so thankful for this trip!

View of where we stayed from the boat.

I did not get good pictures because it happened so fast, but the dolphins were jumping out of the water so close the the boat and it was so so cool!

It was a beautiful day and such a fun boat ride!

More ocean and pool/hot tub time! We also ate at AJ's Seafood and Oyster Bar after the dolphin cruise (right next to it), and that was good too. Our last night we ate at The Back Porch and that was amazing- so good! We went to Shake's for ice cream one night also and that was so delicious. Basically everything we did was so great and fun and what a special week we had! Thank you, God, for the blessing of this trip and for family!

Florida trip 2025- part 2.

We went to the gator show at Fudpucker's one night and ate there afterwards and that was fun! A strange name, but a unique atmosphere (like you can sign your name anywhere on the walls!) and great food! They had several gator options (not of the gators in their own show there, they wanted to make sure you knew that :) and Kley had gator tacos! I tried a bite and you actually couldn't tell it was any different than chicken or fish tacos. I had shrimp tacos and they were amazing! We ate breakfast and lunch in our condo and went out for suppers, which worked nicely!

Petting an alligator!

Our two middle days on the beach were amazing! Upper 60s and not windy, so it wasn't super hot, but warm enough to wear your swimsuits and be out there and enjoy it! The adults thought the water was cold, but the girls couldn't care less and they loved it! There was a hot tub too, which was very nice to have when they did get chilly.

Love you, Kley!

So special to watch our girls enjoy the ocean. :)

Shell hunting, wave riding, and enjoying the beach!

Digging holes and building sand castles. Fun to have Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Kayla there to play too!