Around the Midwest in 12 days...

8 airplane rides (2 up, 2 to and back from Iowa, and 2 more home!) and three states later (not including our layovers)- phew! What a good trip! It was almost all planned out, but we had some good surprises and randomness, too.  Here's a summary of our trip in pictures :)

 

On our first full day we went to a lake in Indy to swim and cookout with my (Shauna's) family. It was Everly's first time to swim in a body of water like that and she had a lot of fun. 

She also enjoyed smashing watermelon all over her face!

That night, we took Everly to our friends' home to stay for the weekend while we traveled to Iowa to visit with a supporting church, East Side Christian Church in Council Bluffs. Here's Aaron helping fix their 'A' that had come loose--with duct tape. What a great idea...

We had a lot of fun getting to know the East Side family who took care of us very well while we were there. Aaron got to speak for both of their Sunday services and we both talked to the kids that night at VBS about the ministry in St. Bernard. It was our first time to be VBS missionaries, and they were doing the Crocodile Dock/bayou theme so it was perfect!

A neat thing while we were in Iowa was that my college roommate happened to be visiting her parents who live 45 minutes away, so she got to come spend the morning/afternoon with us. Here we are standing in front of the entry way that ESCC had painted for VBS, which actually had a cool story. They hired a guy who did this for a living- painting window fronts for stores- and as he talked with the minister he opened up a little about his own life and problems, having no work, family stuff, etc. When he finished, he decided to donate his services- very cool! 

Another random thing from our trip was that Aaron had been to Council Bluffs a couple different times as a kid to help at the Deaf Ministry there. So, Sarah drove us to their headquarters to see the building and whether or not it was still tan and blue- and yes, it was! But they had built on and two ladies who worked there happened to be there and gave us a tour. As we talked, one lady told us that she was a prayer warrior for Team Expansion missionaries and had just prayed for us in New Orleans- how cool is that!

Back in Indy, we got to hangout more with my family.

We had a short visit with my grandparents--here's my grandpa who calls Everly his girl because they are born on the same day! We were listening to some music and showing Everly what a record and cassette tape is!

Hanging out in New Palestine, we hit up Frosty Boys (a must) and went to my elementary school to play. It was fun to tell Everly that this was where I had gone to school when I was little and to see her run and play where I once did. They had built this school when I was in 2nd grade, and the original playground pieces are still there, quite old and faded!

This used to be orange and we used to have so much fun playing on it! 

We also got to see my cousins, have our teeth (thank you Dr. Harty!!!!) and my wedding rings cleaned and polished, and spent two hours at the Sprint store when my three-year-old phone finally broke. Then it was off to Michigan to visit with Aaron's extended family up there for the Fourth. On our way up we got to stop and have dinner with dear college friends and to meet their two boys for the first time! Crazy good, short stops, which we love!

Well, Aaron's family lives in Muskegon which is on Lake Michigan. Here is Everly and our cousin Donna wading in the Lake- I'm sure it wasn't the warmest but Everly had a lot of fun and was soaked afterward! We had a lot of fun staying with Donna too- she's our age and Everly bonded with her well, possibly a blonde thing :) She even painted her toes one night- it was the cutest thing!

For the Fourth of July we drove an hour north to Aaron's uncle's lake house. The house had been in his Aunt Nina's family since the 50's, and Aaron has lots of childhood memories of spending time here, so it was really special to be back. I don't think it broke 80 that day, so it was a little cool for swimming- not that that stopped the kiddos! Everly and Aaron got in a little, but she wasn't too thrilled about the cold water. 

Nor did she like this "funny man"--she is so funny about the things she says these days. Full sentences that are just so bright! "I don't like that funny man!" She'll tell us. I don't know where she gets all these things!

We enjoyed throwing the balls around in the sunshine though. It was kinda funny because there were aunt hills all over and I had to keep telling myself that it was okay because they don't bite. Funny how living some where very different changes you; I even caught myself wanting some Tony's (local seasoning) for some fish once! 

Everly and her cupcake- I took the star decoration out and licked it when I gave it to her, but she wanted the star back and then proceeded to eat all the icing with the end of the star stick. so funny. 

Well, there are lots of pictures on Facebook of more family if you want to see more. Here's a final one in MI of Everly playing the piano at Donna's house. Sometimes I really wish we could live near our family so that Everly could grow up getting to know them, so that Donna could be the one to teach her the piano that's been in the family for so long, etc. When we first arrived that night, Aaron's cousin Eric exclaimed, "Look at that blonde hair! She's definitely a Johnson!" I hope Everly will get to know her Swedish heritage and family who lives so far away.

Well, to finish our trip, we enjoyed a quick stop in Wabash to see Aaron's grandparents at their church's annual 4th of July picnic, and then some celebrating of my brother and Aaron's birthdays with some ice cream at Cold Stone. Everly really did well on the plane rides being 2 and not wanting to sit still too long. Flying, however, will probably not be in our future for a while with #2 coming! This was actually our only trip North that we are planning, as of now, for this year. We are hoping that both of our families will be able to make trips to see us this winter. So maybe next spring we will make the 12 hour car ride up with babies in tow. 

What an adventure this life is. I think there's a saying about going 'home'--it definitely is nice to be in places that are so familiar to you, to see people who are so loving and encouraging. And yet to be so excited to return to this home that the Lord has given us. Thank you for journeying with us!

our little talker

i feel like all our blogs are about Everly and i apologize for that! she's just changing and growing all the time and it's so much fun to write about her :) so, over the last few weeks she has really taken off with putting sentences together! One of her favorite things to say right now is, "My birthday is coming up, on next week. on Saturday." we tell her to say next year, but she never remembers to! I guess because there's always a birthday to celebrate she's learning that she wants hers to come!

And now when we look through pictures she says that everyone is her cousin. So funny. And whenever she sees anyone who looks like Jesus she thinks they are. :) She loves to look through pictures-online, in photo albums, in magazines. She's a people person. 

potty training update

I think we're on the right path with this. Everly is doing very well with "holding it" only she doesn't tell us she needs to go potty, just gets a little spastic and does the pee-pee dance... hehehe :). I'm learning to spot when she needs to go and can convince her most of the time. Also, she has been very proud of going pee-pee in the grass when we've been out and about, ie. at the park or ball field where there were no close-by toilets (and there weren't very many people around!). We always have a pull-up when we're out, but I realized that it probably wasn't the best training for me to tell her to just go in her underwear, hmmm.... This is quite the interesting process! 

i started to blog about other things but i am still in the process of uploading photos, so that will have to wait! thanks for journeying with us! :)

just a little somethin', somethin'

So, I have this grand ol' plan for my second trimester which officially starts tomorrow (15 weeks along, yea!). We are hoping (& praying!) that Everly will jump right into potty training.... not going so well yet--any advice from some moms out there? I've been reading the books and we got some essentials today so I'm excited to really plug away at this. Everly seems excited about her step stool and the toilet seat, but she wants to flush the toilet when she doesn't really go, and wash her hands forever when she doesn't need to. How do you teach a 2 year old not to waste water?! oh my....

My other hope for the second part of this trimester is to re-arrange the bedrooms. Everly is going to get the top of the bunk beds we got from some friends while the baby is going to share the guest room-- he or she won't need that much room, right? :) And we're going to paint Everly's room. It's been a pretty light blue since she was a baby and I'm just ready for a little more girly! I'm pretty excited about setting up the crib again and pulling out our bedding- I never got to do this with Everly because we didn't move into our house until we came home from the hospital, so friends did it for us while we were there. I'm excited to have it ready waaaaaay before then! ...even if my plan to have this all done before third trimester doesn't work out! ;)

some pictures...

Here's some recent pictures of Everly

Her 2nd Birthday Party--all Elmo :)

Enjoying marshmallows on her first camping trip

Aaron's parents are here visiting right now and building a swing set for Everly, and our kids to follow! Everly says the slide is "too fast"--we decided to go bigger than smaller for growing room. hopefully she will play on it when it's done!

We have our 2nd appointment with our OBGYN this Friday- excited about that! we're 12 weeks along now. And on Sunday we take off for FL- We are going to a church planting conference in Orlando with the staff. Our friends in Gainesville are going to watch Everly while we're there, and then hopefully we'll get some time to play, too! yea for semi-vacations :)

Everly's first camping trip

So, I thought I would make a list of the lessons we learned from taking Everly camping for the first time. Some have to do with her, others don't.

Top Ten Lessons (In order that they were learned)

1. Don't take the Causeway bridge at rush hour, unless you want to jump off it! 

2. Do have your dinner ready when you arrive, get the fire started and get cooking fast! That way you can feed your toddler while you set up the tent.

3. Do use your truck lights to see as you set your tent up in the dark (grr.... traffic!).

4. Don't forget the pack-n-play!!! Then you'll have a toddler sharing the air mattress with you.

5. Two year-olds don't know how to sleep in sleeping bags, no matter how cute it is (or is it just our child??).

6. 50's in the evenings means long pants.

7. Do bring a bag of sticks and some newspaper to get the fire started; Don't forget some logs to keep it going!

8. When you're pregnant, try to sleep as close to the bathroom as you can. 

9. Warning: When you camp right next to the playground, your toddler will not understand the need to set-up, cook, tear-down--they will just want to go play, all the time!

10. Camping with kids is a lot more work, but it's worth it to see them experience what you love. 

We have tons of pictures on our camera that I need to download--from before Everly's birthday! I'll try to do that soon. Thanks for reading :)

I thought this was cute...

I wasn't feeling very good so I told Everly that I wanted to lay down and that she could either play or rub my back. I showed her how and she did it, but then went running to the back of the house I thought to play in her room. She came back quickly with our back massager knuckles that she found once and we showed her what they were, and continued to rub my back. Ahhhh, what a nice little girl, and sooooo smart!