Adventures in La La Land

Yesterday got away from me and I never got around to blogging, but I'm here today to make up for it.  1. Did you notice my new blog layout? I've been wanting to change it forever, but couldn't figure it out until this week. Never fear, you're in the right place and will continue to be provided with riveting content - just in a more aesthetically pleasing manner.  2. We went to Great Wolf Lodge in January with Luke and Esther, their kids, and my parents. But Ruby got sick and Esther had just torn her ACL, so they went home early and it was kind of a bust for them. When we saw another Groupon pop up this summer, we decided to try for round two and went again with the same gang on Thursday. It went much better this time and the kids had a blast! Sidenote: I discovered a fun new feature on my new phone. There was a kid on the floating wood slice in the background of that picture, but I was able to "erase" him from it! Here's the original picture: Isn't tha...

1. Good news: My new phone arrived on Monday and I'm back in the 21st century! I did not feel "so refreshed" after being phone-less for a weekend. I was delighted to feed my addiction again on Monday afternoon. When we switched to Visible last year, I was so sad that I couldn't bring my Google Pixel with me. But they're accepting Pixels now, so I quickly snapped one up. It's a newer version than my last one, so it's a learning curve, but you can't beat that camera quality!  2. I was able to break in the camera immediately since Monday was Halloween. It was the warmest/mildest Halloween in recent memory, and we made the most of it (along with the rest of the town - holy cow, it was busy!). As my family continues to grow, it's getting harder and harder for us to work around each other's schedules. It worked out that we had a fifteen minute window where we could all meet at Niki's for a quick cousin picture. It went spectacularly bad. Lol. At ...

1. Justin finished out his soccer season with a tournament in Ohio this week. He left Tuesday night, and got home yesterday evening. I think they ended up in 2nd place, but two of their three games ended in shoot-outs! I'm glad I wasn't there. I can't handle that level of intensity. Haha. Overall, they had a great season. Justin does get paid a bit for coaching, but honestly between gas money for all the practices/games and the three days he took off of work for the tournament, we'll be lucky to break even. Mostly, he coaches because he loves the game and he loves to invest in the lives of his players - even if he did come upstairs this morning and greet us all with, "What's lit, fam?" Too much time spent with teenage boys! Lol. 2. The kids had fall break on Friday, and Lucy's been begging to have a sleepover, so we decided to take advantage of the day off by inviting 4 twelve and thirteen year old girls over Thursday night! So.much.giggling. I don...