January 2024

January has somehow already come & gone! We ended the month with a bang--celebrating my 40th birthday in Maui! I will do a separate post with a plethora of vacation pictures soon. :)  Other highlights of the month included Derek's trip to Tokyo for work (his third time to Japan in the 18 months since we've lived here & his first of four very long-distance trips that he'll be taking in the first 2.5 months of 2024}, spelling bees, the start of Shelby's first school basketball season, and last but certainly not least Shelby's first church camp & baptism. It was a busy, busy month! Also of note, we are now at over 100inches of snow for the season so far...crazy!!

{post-spelling bee celebration at Cold Stone for a fabulous performance by Hadley!}

We wanted to try our hand at making funnel cakes after reading Mr. Lemoncello's Very First Game & Derek knocked it out of the park!

A rare & valuable penny played an important role in the plot of Mr. Lemoncello's Very First Game, which spurred a renewed interest in our coin collections.

Hadley is our handwork afficionado & she added another handwork hobby to her arsenal this month! The Eagle River Spinners meet monthly at our library, and we stopped by their meeting this month. They loved showing Hadley the ropes, and she is eager to go again at the end of February! 

{Derek was in Japan, Shelby was at camp, and I was sleeping in....and Hadley made pancakes entirely on her own!}

{Shelby was the spelling bee champion for her school!}

{Brady & I reading while Hadley was in her gymnastics class}

{snow removal}

{Migration}

{fun at the trampoline park!}

{how lucky are we that these are our views on our walk around the neighborhood?!}

And last but not least, a few pictures from Shelby's weekend at church camp.

It's hard to see, but in the background of the picture below are almost all of Shelby's buddies from Youth Group. Two other girls from her small group were also getting baptized on this night, and it was so special to watch them celebrating together & encouraging each other.