Lake Louise

We were blessed this past week to travel to Canada with Mike's family to celebrate his parents 40th wedding anniversary. What a blessing to witness Mike's parents commitment to God and each other and of course an added bonus to visit Canada. We started our journey by spending one night in Lake Louise. To say God has made some beautiful things is an understatement. When you read about God's creation in Genesis you can not even fathom what he really created until you get out there and see it. What a blessing to show my kids what our God has created for us to enjoy.

As we were driving to Lake Louise we say a rainbow, what an assurance of God's promise and that his presence was with us.

Here is Abby and Will with their two cousins Libby and Marie as we wait at Calgary airport to get our rental cars.

The view of Lake Louise from our hotel room

On Lake Louise cayaking with our family, it was a crisp and clear day.


More pictures of our stay at Jasper to come, the pictures do not capture all that we saw but they are pretty close.

Show us your life-vacation

I have been blessed to be going to Sanibel Island for the past 10 years, it has been wonderful. Sanibel is so family friendly and very relaxed.

Besides the beautiful beach and ocean, there is a pool that keeps the kids entertained.


Of course it is a great time for family as well, our kids have so many great memories and traditions that have been developed there.

Lastly it is a great vacation spot because we have grandparents with us who love to help and so graciously let us stay with them.
I look forward to many more vacations there as well. I also look forward to new vacation spots. In October my parents, brothers, sister-in-law, nephew and my little family are headed to Disney World, I know that will be a special vacation as well.

July at Lake Erie 2009

Well we had another great July up at Lake Erie. We were there 10 days and the weather couldn't have been better. I took my camera but left the memory card at home. Thus the only pictures I have are the ones I captured on my Flip video camera. I am hoping that all those who took a million pictures of my kids will forward them along to me. The picture above is of Abby and Will at the Fourth of July parade at Ruggles Beach. They got to deck themselves out in red, white and blue and we played some good ole american songs on our kazoos, it was truly an experience.

We also headed to Cedar Point for one evening and the kids rode the Frog Hopper again. They had so much fun and they road the Jr Gemini all by themselves for the first time!!

We feel so blessed to get to go to the Lake several times a year. We got to watch fireworks, take a boat ride, relax on the beach and Mike and I even got a date night. Thankyou Lord for the great family time we experienced over those ten days.

Sanibel 2009

Well we were fortunate enough to go to Sanibel again this year. This was Mike and I's 10th year together and Abby and Will have gone since birth. We always have a fabulous time but it is usually a ton of work because the kids have been little and required so much attention. I am happy to report that this was the first year it actually felt like a family vacation and I am forever grateful. Thanks to my inlaws for allowing us to come and stay with them in the condo they rent, it truly is a blessing. We stay at Pointe Santo and it is super family friendly. It has a pool for the kids, easy and quick beach access and a clubhouse with daily crafts for the kids. This year I ran into a mother of one of Abby's pre-K classmates from last year, how random is that.

The flight to Sanibel was perfect, we had a great parking spot, we didn't bring car seats this time(rented them for an unknowingly insane amount from AVIS, just got the bill!!), the kids pulled their own carry on bags and we ate dinner at the airport and the kids were perfect. We arrived Friday night this year instead of Saturday which was a huge advantage as we got all day Saturday to enjoy the Island. The kids loved the pool and swam well with their swim vests and Abby was even able to swim short periods of time without it. The water was very comfortable in the pool which made playing in the pool with the kids even that more enjoyable. Thankfully my father in law loves to swim and he helped alot in the pool as well. Mike's cousins also played in the pool with the kids and took pictures with their waterproof camera, hopefully I can post some of their awesome pics soon.


We were able to go out to eat with the kids several times this year because they are much easier to entertain now. Nona and Papa took the kids to Cheeburger Cheeburger, then we all went out to The Bubble Room on Captiva and The Sanibel Grill. All the food was great. Mike and I went out to eat with his sister and her husband one night to Traders and I got the Sea Bass, this was my first time trying Sea Bass and it did not dissapoint.

I will continue to post some more pictures and other funny stuff from our great trip in the next post.

I'm still here

Just got back from a wonderful trip to Sanibel Island with the inlaws, aunt and cousins. It was a blast and will post pictures soon. Have some funny stories as well. Just wanted to encourage people to pray for Stellan and visit his mommy's blog for the full scoop, just click on the button to the left. His mom has a great blog and Stellan has been through alot in less than a year. Pray for his heart rate to stabilize and for his mommy to get some much needed comfort, advice and rest.