Evening Walks

One of my ALL TIME favorite things to do is to take walks around our neighborhood in the evening as a family.  We've probably taken about a million since we moved into our house almost 3 years ago.  We have a certain route and it takes us a little over 30 minutes.  Some weeks we take three or so walks a week and some weeks we're doing good to get in one.  We usually take our walks after dinner and then come back and start getting the kids ready for bed.  It is such a relaxing time for me to just enjoy being outside and getting to chat with Bert while the kids are all strapped in and enjoying the walk as well. Our neighborhood has a couple of really big hills in it, but for the most part it is an awesome place to take walks. We have a pretty big neighborhood (a little over a hundred houses) and on most walks we see several of our neighbors out and about.  We love catching up with the ones that we are closer to and just saying hey to new neighbors.  Everyone likes our red wagon and many people have made comments over the years about wishing that they were being pulled around in one.:)

We started letting Claire ride in the wagon a few months ago and it is now her favorite place to ride.  And by "her favorite place to ride" I mean that she pitches a fit if she doesn't get to ride in it.  Thankfully her big sisters think it's a treat to get to ride in the stroller (since they almost never do anymore) so they take turns getting to ride in it. 

I know that as the kids get bigger our nights will get even busier (activities, homework, church), so that's why I'm cherishing these sweet walks with my family, and we take them every chance we get.  

A Day Trip to See Friends

Last Saturday we headed out for a day trip to see friends.  We started out the day with a FROZEN birthday party for Emily Dickerson.  Emily's mom (Misty) has been one of my best friends since kindergarten.  They had a visit from Elsa at the party and my girls were super excited!!  Elsa read them a story, sang them a song, gave them all hugs and just generally made a bunch of little girls very happy.  

They also got to dress up like their favorite FROZEN character which also was super fun!  Let's just say I was asked many, many times that week "how many more days until Emily's party?" 

After the party we headed over to Dahlonega to catch up with some other long-time friends, Nathan and Lenore Nix. Nate, who was also the best man in our wedding, and Lenore have 4 little girls. The last time we got both families together was about 5 years ago (Emily and Katelen were babies).  Bert's seen Nate a couple times since then, but it had been way too long since we all got together.  

The girls had so much fun dressing up, playing with play make-up, and jumping on the trampoline.  It was fun to see them all playing together.  

And here's our group picture!

Front row (from left to right):  Josie (7), Katelen (5), Emily (5), Hannah Watts (3), Hannah Nix (3). Second row:  Claire (18 months), Hope (almost 2).  You can see that our kids are very close in age. There are only about 2 months between Katelen and Emily as well as Hannah and Hannah.  Our Hannah was SO excited about Hannah having her "same name!"

It was a fun day of seeing friends!  God has blessed us with some wonderful people who encourage us and point us to Christ and we're thankful.