Pop up vacation

Whilst Max and Ellie were off at Young Life camp, we took what Clair called a pop-up vacation. It’s called a pop-up vacation because when we came home from church, I asked them what we should do today and while they were thinking about things we could do locally I decided we should head to New York City. After about five minutes of denial, they were both in!

 We went to New York City for one night! We left Sunday afternoon and came back late Monday night.

We stayed in Manhattan and made the most of our time there.

Sunday night we went up to the upper west side for dinner and walked back to our hotel after dinner seeing the site getting some ice cream. I’m just enjoying the liveliness of the city

Monday we started the day going to the math museum, which Claire enjoyed very much and so did I. Then we had some lunch at a cute café in Soho and proceeded to go to the ice cream museum where we had nearly 10 different servings of ice cream whilst exploring a fun child like museum. After that, we walked a little bit and visited the Ghostbusters firehouse before heading back to the hotel to collect our stuff and head out of town around seven.

It was a long ride home, but we made it home just before 11 where we checked on our kitties got showers and proceeded to bed.

It was a fun little trip. 

Here’s a great example of why we had to go to the math museum when Max and ellie were not with us. Claire is interested in looking at how you get the pink wheel to turn, but it took 1000 turns of this little knob before it would happen. Obviously we finally walked away from this after about 15 minutes. She really enjoyed getting to be hands-on and understanding of each exhibit.

Max turns 15

While we were in the Outer Banks, Max celebrated his 15th birthday. We celebrated him in the morning with a special breakfast of bacon and cinnamon buns, and some gifts and then spent the day at the beach.

In the evening, the whole group went for burgers. Paul decided we should play a joke and give Max the bill for everybody and he handled it quite well returning it quickly to the waitress and sending it to me.

Max is funny and he thinks on his feet very well. He has a response to everything in the moment sometimes without actually thinking it through and to his detriment. He’s working hard on his physical fitness, both strength and running. He is trying to be better at school. He’s strong and tall and he helped around the house a lot lot. He’s a great friend  and everyone loves being around him!

Beach trip 2025

I am thankful for this tradition and for time with my family and friends. We had a lot of great beach time this year. 

We checked out the acquarium in Manteo this year and everyone enjoyed it. 

Summer 2025

I do not write these blogs near enough. 

I can’t believe four months have passed. So much is changing fast around here. 

We had our annual Outter Banks beach trip nearly a month ago. We were in Kitty Hawk this time and it was great! 

Erika has graduated High school. She’s studying to be a nurse and working full time already as a nurses assistant. 

Emily has graduated High School and is off to Penn State this fall! I’m excited for her and so happy she choose Penn State over WVU :)

Ellie has her learners and is a rising senior in high school. She’s working as a life guard this summer a couple days a week. She enjoyed her final year at young life summer camp. This year it was in Virginia. 

Max completed freshman year and is actively working on fitness, speed and growing like a weed. He measures in a 5’9.5” today at the doctors. He’s mowing the lawn this summer and wishes he could work elsewhere. He’s applied for a few fast food jobs but hasn’t heard anything back. Max also went to young life camp. It was his first year. He was nervous but had a blast!

Clair is a rising 7th grader. She completed spring rec softball as an all star with top batting stats. She’s playing summer tournament ball and preparing for year two of college math camp. 

I love coaching this summer all star rec team. We had our first tournament this weekend. We won 1 and lost 2. I learned a lot. 

Time continues to fly. 

I’m still not working full time and I love the flexibility it gives me as a mom. But I’m actively working to change this for financial security. 

First ever softball tournament at bat! 

Our team! 

Max and Ellie before they left for young life summer camp which they loved!