Every week we did a little more work down behind our house, and it started to become one of our favorite spots to hang out.
Cooking s’mores with friends:
Heading out super early in the morning in fuzzy pajamas to get a fire going:
Oliver dancing whimsically around while tossing sticks into the fire (for the record, he did know that I was filming him. I’m not sure if that makes this better or worse?):
Other April things:
Making dinosaur creations out of pancakes:
Covering books with contact paper out on a blanket in the sun while listening to General Conference. I remember I took this picture to send to my sisters; I feel like a higher percentage of my childhood memories than would be considered normal involve covering huge stacks of paperback books with contact paper. We had so many books at our house (book order days were like Christmas!), and my mom wanted to get them all covered to help them last longer. She would bring boxes of books to piano lessons, dance lessons, anywhere she had to sit and wait, and those of us who were sitting and waiting with her were put on book duty. Those were the days.
Here’s Henry after winning our family’s March Madness bracket contest. He had picked Villanova to win it all, and they ended up beating North Carolina at the last second with a 3-point buzzer beater. We let him stay up past his bedtime to watch the game, and there were lots of exciting moments.
He knew exactly what he wanted to get with his $20 prize:
Everyone’s always in the mood for a little basketball after watching the tournament:
Here’s Cindy riding a bike for the first time. We were at my sister’s house when she decided she was ready, hopped on her cousin’s bike, and headed off down the path. There was none of the holding on, running after, secretly letting go, crashing, etc. that is usually involved. She had done a few years of her strider bike instead of doing training wheels, and I think Striders make for the easiest transitions to bike riding ever.
Testing out her friend’s bigger bike the next week. In her red rain boots. I realized it was probably time to buy her a bike at this point. I am happy she has such supportive friends, who will not only let her borrow a bike, but will run along beside her while she rides it.
Other new skill learned in April – golfing. In 2015 our new thing to learn was fly-fishing, and in 2016 it was golfing. Daniel already knew how, but Tristan, Oliver, and I all got clubs and we started going. We were terrible but we loved it, and it became a fun new hobby.
Tinfoil dinners and Dutch oven peach cobbler down by the fire pit. Sometimes it’s fun eating like you’re camping without actually going camping.
The view from our front porch after a storm. We live in such a pretty place. The mountains amaze me every time I look out the window.
Fun outdoor activities in April:
Baseball for Tristan, Oliver, and Henry. Soccer for Lizza.
Running through sprinklers with friends:
Fly-fishing:
And lots more hanging out down by the fire.
We love our big tree. We never knew how cool it was until we got everything cleaned out around it and then Spring came and it blossomed.
Last April thing: a Miami trip for me and Daniel. Every year we pick a place for just the two of us to go on vacation. 2016 was our ninth year. So far these have been our trips:
2008 – New Orleans
2009 – Boston
2010 – Philadelphia
2011 – Washington, DC
2012 – New York
2013 – Portland/Seattle
2014 – San Francisco
2015 – Singapore/Malaysia/India
2016 – Miami
2017 – Hawaii, Panama, London/Paris (someday I will blog about this)
2018 – Singapore/Thailand (someday I will also blog about this)
So, back to our 2016 Miami trip. First we flew into Tampa (so we could go to a baseball game at Tropicana Field). Before the game we hung out in Tampa a little, and then drove to Clearwater Beach and rode bikes and walked along the water. I had been wanting to rent bikes to ride on one of our trips for a long time, and it was just as fun as I was imagining it to be. (Something that was not as fun as I was imagining it to be was chopping off half of my hair right before this trip)
Then the baseball game – Tampa Bay Rays vs. Cleveland Indians. One more baseball stadium crossed off the list!
The next morning we drove four hours to get to Miami. Some friends had told us about a really good taco place in Miami, so we drove straight there for lunch. We got this great picture of us eating tacos.
This was the fun view from our hotel room:
After we checked in to our hotel we drove down to South Beach. We decided it would be fun to walk from the middle down to one end, and then all the way back to the other end, because we like doing stuff like that.
Here we are on one end:
Looking back across the whole beach – I drew a little red arrow so you can see the point way in the distance that we were planning on walking to next.
Somewhere in the middle on our way back:
All the way over on the other end of the beach. It took us forever and for some reason the sand was really hurting our feet but we were brave and strong and finally made it.
That night we had Cuban sandwiches at Versailles in Little Havana:
The next day we went on a sailboat out to Biscayne National Park, a group of islands just south of Miami. It was my favorite thing we did on the trip. It was just the two of us, the captain, and one other guy on the boat.
We docked the sailboat on one of the islands and got out and walked around. Then we got to use some paddleboards to go explore all around a nearby mangrove forest island. It was crazy and amazing, but I don’t have any pictures of that part because this was back in the olden days before I had figured out how to buy a waterproof case for my phone.
Sailing back.
That night we went to another baseball game at the Marlins Stadiums (Marlins vs Braves):
And walked by this fun street down by Miami Beach:
The next day we drove to Key West. The drive there was kind of fun, but overall Key West wasn’t as neat as we thought it would be. I guess I imagined it a lot prettier with a tropical island feel, and it wasn’t really like that. We still had fun, though.
We went snorkeling (the water was freezing!):
And we ate at this fun restaurant where the food was excellent. We also walked around Key West and got really good ice-cream cones.
The next morning we drove back to Miami to fly home, but first we stopped at this great little restaurant where a live band was playing Neil Young songs and I ordered key lime pie for breakfast (I felt strongly about not leaving Key West without eating any key lime pie).
That’s it for April.
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