Dusty and I went to Okoboji with my family over Mother’s day weekend. We had a really great time and reminisced about our childhood memories. Dusty’s family had a cabin in Minnesota and he spent many summers fishing, swimming, boating and relaxing. My family had a place in Spirit Lake and I too spent many weeks there doing some of those same things.
This weekend another one of our flower girls got the chance to try on her dress for the wedding. Gracie is three years old and full of all kinds of energy. Before taking this picture I asked Gracie to smile, she instantly squinted her eyes, leaned to the side and gave me the biggest smile. She’s going to be a perfect flower girl, not only for her cute pictures but also for her great dancing moves. We are getting really excited for the wedding with it being a little over two months away. We’ve been busy these past few weeks getting things ready. We met with our pastor, ordered our invitations and scheduled our engagement pictures to just name a few things. Everyone has been so wonderful. We are so lucky to have such great family and friends. We can’t wait to see you all.
I found this picture and wanted to share it with everyone. It’s a picture of our five flowergirls from Christmas at our place. Dusty had taken some of the kids on a walk so I could clean the kitchen before we opened Christmas presents. One of the girls wanted hot chocolate when they got back and Dusty just couldn’t help himself, he made them homemade hot chocolate. Seeing this picture really gets me excited for the wedding.
I have been waiting for Christmas since July. Over the past few years I’ve been collecting things to decorate for Christmas and finally have a place big enough to have it all out instead of rotating things every other year or so. Poor Dusty had to put up with me asking if I could decorate since before Thanksgiving. I finally got the chance after coming back from Thanksgiving at his father’s house.
Here is a great picture of some of the Christmas decorations. We have huge 14 ft. windows so everyone could see our tree from outside. Dusty was CEO of Curb Appeal and made sure that we had enough lights on the tree. We ended up going to Walmart one night at midnight to buy more white lights so I could start putting on decorations. Our big tree is decorated in silver and red. The two smaller ones in the living room are decorated in family ornaments and the other is Santa Clauses. Dusty’s grandma has given him an ornament every year since he was born and so one of our trees has all of those ornaments along with other ornaments I’ve gotten from my mom and from my grandma.
Dusty and I hosted Christmas at our place this year for my father and his family. My dad lives in Oklahoma with his wife Debbie along with my step sister and her family of six. We were lucky enough to have them home for Christmas again this year. My dad and Debbie stayed at our place while everyone else stayed with other family members. Christmas Day we had everyone over for a late dinner and the opening of presents.
After spending a few relaxing days in Vail we drove a couple hours to Colorado Springs to meet Dusty’s family. Dusty’s Aunt, Kristin, plays in the marine band and was able to reserve some cabins at a camping ground. There were almost twenty-five us, either members or friends of the Davidson’s, who stayed in two large cabins. The camp ground was wonderful. It is ran by the marines and meant for their families. It was very beautiful and high in the mountains. In fact, it was so high up in the mountains and so far from civilization that there was no cell phone service.
Here are some highlights… we went hiking in the woods around the cabins with the kids, paddle boating in the lake, trading off on cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner for everyone, white water rafting, cave of the winds, cards, quilting, a trip down the mountain for warm clothes and ice cream, and lots of popcorn.
During one of the lazy afternoons the kids found some little friends who wanted to come out and play… or at least the kids wanted them to come out and play. They found whatever food they could to get the little critters out of their hiding place.
