Pacific Coast Highway, Part 2

Posted on April 1, 2019 by jlcleve

Day 4: We spent most of this day driving the beautiful coastline and making various stops to gawk and take pictures.

Day 5: We needed a day at the park and at the beach after our day of driving. Ethan tried hollandaise sauce for the first time and I committed to trying to make some this year!

Day 6: We spent this day doing a little more driving and then visiting my cousin, Caleb, at college. Sadly, I didn’t take any pictures. Oops. We were engaged in good conversation and sight seeing at Biola. So much fun to see him there!

Thankful for the gift of vacations with this crew, even when attitudes don’t match the beautiful scenery all the time. 😉

Pacific Coast Highway, Part 1

Posted on March 31, 2019 by jlcleve

Over our Spring Break we opted for a 5 day trip to drive the Pacific Coast Highway – starting in Santa Cruz and ending in LA. I had no idea what to expect as Mike is our trip advisor, planner, and researcher and I do very little prep for these excursions other than to pack everyone. =). Anyway, he did a wonderful job organizing another fun trip for us. We will want to do more of this drive someday – the sights were unreal!

Day One: early morning flight, a stop at Apple (where Micah lost another tooth) and Google and then a late night swim with Daddio

Day Two: we took a walk to the beach in Santa Cruz and explored that pier and saw seals before heading onward to Monterey where we played at the beach and then had the very best clam chowder ever for dinner. We also saw otters at dinner!

Day Three: Monterey Aquarium, 17 Mile Drive and Pebble Beach

I’ll do the final two days in a separate post. There are a lot of beautiful pictures of this coastline. =)

Weekend of Skiing

Posted on February 18, 2019 by jlcleve

We went to Breckenridge for a weekend of skiing last weekend with some friends of our from church. This was our first time up for the season. We both commented multiple times how glad we were that we had scheduled this…about three months ago…because life gets so busy that it never would have happened if we hadn’t had the foresight to plan early. =) The Dads split the kids up and enjoyed skiing Friday and Saturday. The Moms spent time relaxing, but also giving breaks to kiddos as needed.

In the evenings, we played games, watched some shows and played a lot of pool and foosball. Micah and his buddy spent a good amount of time in the hot tub, too. AND, ate a whole lotta good food.

On Sunday morning, the Dads got in a bunch of runs by themselves. It was lots of fun!

Solo-parenting in January

Posted on January 24, 2019 by jlcleve

Both Mike and I did some solo-parenting already this month. As I already mentioned, I traveled to Atlanta to help my sister with the trade show there. I left on Wednesday afternoon and was back on Sunday early evening. Micah and I made some overnight oats ahead of time so that their breakfasts would be easy! I also assigned the boys various homeschool assignments and they spent both days finishing their lists. One day I even got a text from Mike saying that the boys finished their assignments before their snack at 10 am! They spent much of the rest of that day building legos while listening to an audiobook. They also had a snowstorm and a lot of food delivered to the house! LOL. I was glad to see that the boys had all gone sledding in the snow.

Here are a few fun pictures from my time in Atlanta!

We spent Sunday evening with Ashley and Zach so that we could *finally* meet Baby Joshua. And then soaked up some Daddio time before his trip.

The following evening, Mike traveled to Minnesota. The boys and I had a busy week! We started the week with CC. Then, Ethan got his eyes and teeth checked. I got my eyes checked and my hair cut. Both boys had lessons in piano and drums. We had cadets and kids club and CBS. And we had lots of school and fun in the meantime (especially drawing pictures).

While Mikey was out of town, we hosted cousin, Meredith from Michigan. The boys were literally jumping up and down at the prospect of having her over and have been asking every day since if she could come back. =)

The Great Midwestern Tour: Pt 5 Missouri

Posted on January 22, 2019 by jlcleve

The boys and I drove to Missouri on New Year’s day. We met Mike at his dad’s house as he had flown to Minnesota for a wedding on New Year’s Eve. Again, our travels were smooth and we enjoyed some audiobooks (Matilda and the second book in the Wilderking Series that we loved so much). We loved spending time with Grandpa Russ (and his two dogs) for a few days before heading home. Some highlights included shooting BB guns for the first time, taking the dogs on recons with Grandpa Russ and playing lots of games. The boys also started their January challenge of reading out loud every day for 10 minutes – it’s been a huge success and lots of fun!

We loved our annual tour of the Midwest. It was wonderful to spend time with our family and friends. What a gift to vacation/mostly-vacation for 20 days over the holidays! Hopefully it’s not something we take for granted!! Thanks for celebrating with us, all you Midwesterners. =)

The Great Midwestern Tour, Pt 4 continued

Posted on January 21, 2019 by jlcleve

We had lots of fun in Wisconsin. One day we painted pottery all together. Another day was spent mostly opening gifts and playing games. I think the pictures tell the tale better than I ever can, so I’ll just go with those:

There was a whole lotta books and pajamas happening:

grandchildren, 8555

And a lot of snuggling/reading:

And also a lot of gaming/puzzling:

And eating:

And general merriment:

Next up: Missouri!

The Great Midwestern Tour: Pt 4 Wisconsin (the second time)

Posted on January 21, 2019 by jlcleve

We were back in Wisconsin for Christmas Eve. That night we pretended to be shepherds on the night that the angels came to tell them about the birth of Jesus. We had a bonfire, roasted hotdogs/brats and ate meats, cheeses and figs. Then we made s’mores! =). It was so much fun to imagine what that night might have been like.

The rest of that week was quite relaxing. At first it was just the Cleve Crew and my parents, but by the following weekend, my siblings and their families were back in town. We enjoyed “Narnia” at their church, ate lots of yummy food, and played lots of games.

Mike and I snuck away for our annual date with Cass and Adam, but we didn’t get a picture that evening. The following day we got everyone together at the botanical gardens (that might not be the right name…) in Milwaukee. Between the two of us, we snagged way too many cute pictures of Ethan and Hana together. Their friendship is especially sweet! It was great to be with them again!