Cirque Du Soleil "Dralion"

Justin gave me tickets to Cirque Du Soleil for Christmas this year! We had PERFECT seats and had a great time! It was amazing to watch... it made me want to get up and do it with them, they made it look so easy!

Here is a picture of a "Dralion" (half dragon half lion). It was fun to watch these things dance around the stage.

This girl was NUTS! She balanced on one hand and did all sorts of tricks switching from one hand to another with out even a twitch.

The hoop was fun to watch too! No strings, nets, or harness! Incredible, she made it look so easy and fun!

The juggler was awesome too! He juggled 7 balls total one of which was a heavy gold ball, which being a different weight than the others could throw anyone off. Unreal!

I loved watching the couples dance from the curtains hanging from the ceiling. You really felt the connection and the passion of the performance.

I think the trampoline piece was my favorite. It brought me back to my childhood when we used to try and do cool tricks on our trampoline. I kept expecting them to fall or crash into eachother, but thankfully they never did. Thank you to my wonderful husband for bringing me to this incredible performance. I had tons of fun watching in awe of these marvelous athletes.

Just Keep Swimming...

We had SO much fun at the Aquatic Center the other day with Auntie Manda, Tanner and Blake! It helps keep summer alive to be able to go swimming in the Winter. Milaya has been asking to go for quite some time now, so we thought it was a good idea for all of the kids to get their wiggles out for the day.

It was quite a task to get everyone ready at the same time, especially when Pierson was running around getting into everyone elses business...but it was well worth the wait!

It was a handful at times, but SO much fun!

The tire swing was fun, but I don't think Pierson liked it as much as the other kids. He preferred to run up and down the stairs and to go down the slide.

I think Milaya had the most fun showing everyone how she could go under water. She is getting so brave, I love it!

Hopefully we get more opportunities to go before winter is over so we can "just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."

Ice Sculptures

This past weekend we went Downtown Holland to watch an Ice Carving Competition. It is truly amazing to see what people can do with a block of ice!

We got there a little early and it was FREEZING! We had the kids all bundled up, so I don't think they got cold.

We went to Kilwins to warm up with some AMAZING hot chocolate and mocha. When it was time to start I wasn't expecting to see the whole process of the carving, I just thought that we were going to see the finished product. It was neat how they did it! They start with a piece of paper on their ice block and etch out their design.

Then they pull out the "BIG GUNS" to knock away some of the bigger pieces they don't need. It is very fascinating to watch...if you are a creative person at all like I am, it peaks an interest real fast. I kept thinking, that would be awesome to try to do!

There were SO many different scultpures to watch come to life, but we ended up getting too cold so didn't stay the whole time. We came back the next day to take pictures of the finished products though.

All in all we had such a great time, just being a family together. Of course when we came back Pierson was sleeping, so we couldn't get any pics of him with the sculptures, but that's okay...I know he was there and he needed his sleep anyway!

Milaya SO badly wanted to see a swan, so she finally got her wish. I was showing her pictures online of what we might see before we went and since a swan was one of the pics I showed her, that is what she wanted to see. She was so cute when we found one.

This one was a fun one too! We took our family picture with it, minus Pierson because he was sleeping, would've been better with him in it. I know we'll have many more opportunities for family photos. I am just glad we get times like these to be together!

Stillness

Earlier this week I took a trip to the Saugatuck Dunes State Park. I was having a stressfull week and needed some serenity in my life, even for a momemt. The kids were clearly going stir crazy because it's been too cold to play outside, and lets face it, I don't really like to go outside in the winter anyway. So I decided that we should go somewhere without a time limit, without rules, and without any cares. So what better place than my favorite place, Saugatuck Dunes. I know what you are thinking, how can that be peaceful if you have to drag 2 small kids along, when one can hardly walk in his snowsuit? Call me crazy, but I even took the dog along and invited my sister with her 2 small children as well. We had 4 kids under the age of 4 with us and a dog. I was very proud of myself for even remembering to bring my camera along.

So when we got there we took some group shots, and right when I was going to ask my sister to take a picture of me with my kids...the batteries fell out of the camera! UGH! No worries, I pulled out my phone and took pics with that...until the battery died!!! Are you kidding??? Luckily my sister had her phone and we got some really cute ones! Anyway, we started our hike down the trails and had a blast.

We found cute places to take pictures and just purely had fun in the stillness of the forest. After we turned around we noticed that Blake had dropped his pacifier somewhere and contemplated turning around to find it. We figured with everything else that had already gone wrong, what's one more thing, right? We decided not to turn around but to keep our eyes open for it on our way back.

You know, it's funny...even through everything that went wrong and could've ruined the trip, I never once felt angry about it. Of course I was upset at first, but I was so happy to be with the people that I love in the place that I love, that NOTHING mattered to me at that point.

We walked, took short breaks, walked some more, played with sticks, tried to climb trees...you name it, it was purely a GREAT time. The trees were beautiful, the air was crisp, and the silence was amazing! You couldn't help but be in a good mood. The kids were troopers too. Nobody whined, cried, or threw fits. It was exactly what everyone needed. Drake too! He LOVES going to the dunes and I just love seeing him so happy.

We even ended up finding Blakes pacifier on the way back. Someone found it and set it on top of one of the trail marking posts. I'd say, for being the middle of the day, right about the time when everyone should have been taking naps, we had some pretty happy kids

I think all in all, every one had a great time! The kids played hard and we went quite a ways.

Needless to say, it didn't take long for them to crash on the way home!

My goal for this year is to remember all of these little things that make my heart smile