Until 2025

Here we are, in Fort Lauderdale.

Tomorrow we will board our first cruise boat! Hopefully we all feel a bit extroverty….because holy moly. Bring on the people, activities, and noise:) And the sun, beaches, and fun!!!

Muah ….bye 2024!

-Mom

13!!!

Tomorrow…..tomorrrow this guy will be 13- ok now it’s today/) He’s gone from flying airplanes, to zooming down mountains, to climbing every rock, to learning how to build a robot, to being more cautious when adventuring, to struggling to honor tech boundaries, to learning how to monitor himself, from having AJ as his best friend, to learning to make new friends, from driving his sister absolutely crazy, to seeing moments of connection with them, from saying legit “everything” that’s on his mind, to first filtering comments through his brain.

The next few years are going to be very exciting for him. High school is coming, joining a tackle football team, joining jazz band, navigating which friends go to which high school, etc. I’m here for it all!

Love you Ryk,

Mom 

Christmas Time

Family comes visit-& cousins reconnect.

I get to have solid time interrogating/being curious about nieces and nephews!

We have fondue!

We find snow!

We do the latest trend while we wearing matching pjs 2 days in a row.

We wear our Santa hats and watch The Polar Express….and Spirited….and Red One.

We open presents quickly, and enjoys our gifts.

And I can’t help but feel how quick it all goes.

Twas a good Christmas season:)

Mom 

Interrogation Day...

 

Dempsey helped me plan and place the elves tonight....

after she CORNERED me in the bathroom.....

LOCKED the door....

and said while immensely giggling "Dad, I need you to BE REAL with me."

"Do you and Mom buy the Christmas PJ's, or NOT?"

Me: "Ok here's the deal..." (scrambling for a way out...)

"We have the boxes and bags downstairs in the basement.... because.. 

...because the elves told us they don't want to carry that extra weight...

...and so all I know is we set the empty boxes and bag outside around mid-day...

...and the elves comes by sometime and next thing I know, I hear a doorbell...

...from there all I know is same as you."

Oh the giggles!

Emanating from behind Dempsey' bright and amazing smile...

and from my own silly Dad mouth...

And so it went! First the elves on Xmas eve, then straight on to the elves who visit our house every December! 

Eventually she absolutely tortured and coerced an absolute full confession out of me! Real CSI interrogation here!

Next was the easter bunny, just confirmed what she already knew. 

And then leprechauns! And no pots of gold!

And then she turned a shade more serious.. a Shade!

"That just leaves the BIG GUY... Santa Clause!"

Me: (Looks at naked wrist and reaches for the door) "Gee look at the time!"

"Fine.. but you've got to give me a real, genuine, big hug."

(long sweet hug, a twinkle in my eye as my youngest just grows up a couple years in my arms..)

"Yes Dempsey, even the big guy."

....

She just keeps on smiling.. processing it with a crazed doll-face...

Me: "It makes the world feel a little less magical and exciting huh?

"Yeah..."

And we both agreed we wished all of these mythical entities were indeed real.

"Take me to see where you put the elves."

And I did, and we both had a chuckle..then I had wonderful idea: 

"Dempsey do you want to help me move the elves to a new spot tonight?"

"Yep," and starts moving to grab them without missin a beat...

We hid them AJ's room, both staring directly at him and pointing. Only we can make the world magical... and it is indeed still a little magical..   -R

Ultimate Disc-AJ FTW!

The first picture has absolutely nothing to do with this post, with the exception I think it speaks to how AJ feels about me most of the time. I must be doing my Mom thing right! AJ had his Ultimate Disc Banquet a few weeks ago. Russ said it was pretty awesome the amount of love that his teammates and coaches gave to AJ and his JV team! Many shared that how well the team did was a "pleasant surprise!"

AJ got an award for "Natural Leadership", which seems fitting since he was deemed the JV captain-without even playing the support! 

He's super ready for it to start again:)

Let's GO!

-Mom

Annual Christmas Tree Hunt

Hi-ho-hi-ho it's off to the mountains we go- 2024!

We headed to get our Christmas tree and we decided to switch it up and go Saturday to avoid delays on Sunday. I guess LOTS of people had the idea and the Christmas tree parking lots were packed! We unfortunately had our friends get stuck, which then resulted in us pulling over and the ranger telling us to go and "pick out our tree." What she failed to mention is that she wanted us to get our tree AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. We legit got hollered at, and therefore we had our tree cut down within 10 minutes. We weren't able to play in the snow like we usually did. We also didn't get our hot chocolate! We didn't sled. We didn't throw snowballs. We didn't take our time. SO NEXT YEAR....we will be BBQing and taking our sweet little time since we missed out on that this time. 

We did enjoy tubing-and of course on the last run AJ got knocked out of his tube and landed on his back. He was pretty shook up by that. 

The adults went out on Saturday night to a distillery and had some pretty yummy food. We were pretty exhausted from the epic day. 

On Sunday-Russell and Ryk went to Winter Park and hit the slopes. AJ, Demps and I stayed back and packed up the Airbnb. I was so impressed by AJ and Demps. They were so darn helpful in packing everything in the truck:) Us three, along with Kevin, found a beautiful hiking spot and went on a mile hike. Kevin got exhausted, Dempsey made some fake-AMAZING-snow drinks, AJ was a trooper, and we got some lunch-the other 2 and headed down the mountain.

We got home in time to get the tree up and even got it decorated! For 10 minutes, we were quite proud of the tree that we snagged. 

Love this tradition!

-Mom

Christmas Party Season

We just got done with our work Christmas parties! They happen to fall back-to-back this year, which was slightly crazy! But...now they are done! We went to Russell's Google work party and it was quite the event. Lots of appetizers, drinks, aura readings, performances by dancers, themed buildings (x3), RomCom Trivia, and epic people watching! Russ and I had a great time doing all the things!

Then we hosted my LPMS work party the following day. Despite Russ thinking he could/should/would switch the dishwasher with the new one less than 2 hours before our party start time, it went super well:) Lol. Funny but not funny, if you know what I mean. I created a list that we all worked hard to do the week of the party as to not overwhelm us on Thursday or Friday! We probably had close to 60 people show up-maybe one of our better turnouts! It was such a great time-traditions lived on- and laughter was had;)

The next day we had a robotics tournament for Ryker and now today we had our first day off! I slept close to 11 hours, and Russ and I didn't roll out of bed until 1030am. To say we are a bit exhausted is an understatement. Tis' the season for all the fun! 

-Mom

More Demps

A few things that I want to remember about Demps:

• We got her a bar for her room. I found this sheet by her bar...."Good pump up songs..." She is determined and I love it! Plus, I'm 99% positive I have created many of these lists.
• We went to Wicked together. I told Dempsey "I hope it isn't cold in there." She told me, "If it isn't, we can just hug each other."
• The first picture is Demps being SO DARN awesome helping me cook 100+ cookies!

She's the best!

-Mom

11

 This girl is 11! 11? 11? 7 more years until she is an adult? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

She loves Vanilla Bean Frappes.

The bar is her favorite, and I'm feeling like getting her a bar at home is one of our best gifts yet! #yaygymnastics

We are currently in the era of DEMPSEY-where did you put the shirt/shoes/jacket/flipflops/makeup that you borrowed from me??? AND as much as it drives me nuts when I can't find things, I'm INSANELY grateful that this is my life. SHE is my mini-me so much! 

She LOVES LOVE animals so hard. If we ever have the chance to go check out animals we are there as quick as possible! 

I'm so proud of her growth! She loves to share that she is "shy"...however you can see in an above photo how she was SUPER brave-joined student council and was giving a presentation to 1st graders on gratitude! IF that isn't perfect-I don't know what is!

I was able to go have lunch with her at school for the first time on her birthday this week. She was super happy to have me, and I just want to soak all that in. I know that this won't be always.

We kept the pool open so she could have a birthday party with the pool! It was 86 inside the pool, 50 outside! It was such a fun time for her!

Demps. Love you so much! So grateful you are in our life! 

Love you love love you,

Mom

Alpine

I thought I posted about this awhile ago...but I guess I didn't. 

We introduce you to Alpine Street! 

This is our AirBnB that we worked really hard on. Russ bought it and did a ton, and then when it was summer we joined in. It has been going super well...in fact the current person staying there actually said that this "might be the best place she has ever stayed." 

The kids did so much.....cleaning the roof, opening boxes, preparing bedrooms, unpacking the kitchen, putting together chairs, painting things, putting on new latches, etc.

We are sure proud of this place!

-Mom