Monday, January 8, 2024

Florida 2023

February 11-18

We were so excited to take the boys to Florida this winter and, thankfully, they were equally excited!

Love looking at Mason's lists!



The morning after we arrived at our condo on Marco Island, the boys went to a bait shop for a pole, lures and bait for the week!

They were hopeful to catch some new kinds of fish.

The first couple of days were quite windy.  It was fun to see the ocean from our balcony and be so close to the water.



They used sand fleas and frozen shrimp for bait.

Shell collecting started!




The boys played tennis nearly every day and loved it!


Mason really enjoyed making sand castles. 

Mason found tiny live clams on the shore in the sand! 



We bought a couple of boogie boards for the boys to play with in the water.



Nathan found a live octopus in this shell!










Happy Valentine's Day!  Enjoyed a day on the beach, chocolates and time together with our boys!  

We had a great view for watching the sunsets!

Everyone enjoyed our morning of charter fishing.  We fished near lots of mangroves and everyone caught fish! 









It was also fun to see dolphins swimming near our boat!



The boys each had one keeper which we had filleted and cooked at a nearby restaurant for our lunch!





The view of Marco Island from the top floor of our condo unit.  We stayed on the 1st floor.





Everyone loved the jet ski tour with dolphins!






We stopped on a remote island.






Dorian accidentally caught a sting ray!


The boys named this bird "Iggy." It wouldn't stop following us and begging for bait!





It was fun to see a couple of geckos!


Our week together went by very fast.  We enjoyed the warmth, the sunshine and we will treasure our time spent with each other!
 

February 2023

 

Nathan, Dorian, Mason and Grandpa enjoyed their Saturday at Trout Fest!  
Ice skating, cross country skiing, and ice fishing.






Levi enjoyed ice skating with his class.
The new front door looks great. It let's in a lot of light, but not any drafts!

The deer that Levi shot last year is finished and it looks amazing in his room!

Found this on Facebook and thought it was quite true of our winter.  So many snow days this year!
We took the boys to Mount Kato to go skiing for the day!

January 2023

2023.  A new year.  

A good reminder to be still and remember that God has everything under his control.


Awesome work on creating a sailboat, Levi!  Love how it turned out.

The boys have been enjoying trying some different recipes on the new smoker!


Mason played in a couple of basketball tournaments.  Nice work, Mason!

Wow, that was a challenging 3D dog puzzle, but you were very persistent and got it finished!

4th grade parent visit day!

Ice fishing at Spirit Lake and staying at our cabin.



Mason went snow shoeing and ice fishing at Sandy Hollow with his class.


Dorian and Parker participated in an ice fishing fundraiser on Emerson Bay.  And they made the leaderboard!!!  Proud of Dorian and all that he has learned about ice fishing over the years!


Recovering from shingles.

Newsies Jr. was fun to watch. We were impressed with how Levi fit the role of Mr. Joseph Pulitzer, the newspaper owner, so well!  He put in a lot of time going to practices and we're proud of him for doing such a great job!