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- I literally don’t even know where to begin – on Tuesday (okay so technically we LANDED in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, but by the time we left the airport, it was Wednesday) we arrived home from a truly amazing, wonderful, fantastic vacation. We spent 10 glorious days in Arizona and California. We split our time between visiting Derrick’s parents in their new home and taking them with us for a few days on the beach (like, right on the beach – it was incredible). Words cannot describe how awesome it was.
I’ve been trying to process why we all feel it was such an amazing trip and I think it was because it was the perfect mix of relaxing, resting, playing, doing, and trying new things. I literally have thousands of photos to edit, hours upon hours of videos to go through and vlog (and I haven’t had a spare second to do any of it yet) – but that’s okay. There will be lots more to share in the coming weeks (and months – I realized before we even went on this trip that I have SO MANY vlogs to create from our summer and now this fall trip – that I will most definitely not have them all completed by the end of the year and in time to do our yearly “highlight” video by Christmas. It just ain’t happening this year folks. If I’m lucky, I’ll be done with all of our vlogs from 2023 before we start traveling in 2024 – but we’ll see how that goes!) - Since we didn’t get home until the wee hours of Wednesday morning – we took the day Wednesday to recover, recoup, and rest. And it’s now Saturday, but we’re all still very much jet-lagged and adjusting to being on East Coast time instead of West Coast time. Leander has been sleeping in every morning until 8am or 9am! It’s been crazy.
We did make it to the grocery store to replenish our cupboards on Wednesday. Over Thursday and Friday we got everything unpacked and all the laundry done. Sheesh – there is so much work to do after being gone for 10 days! And that’s not even to mention my emails – omigoodness, so many emails to go through! - We couldn’t miss Light Up Night though! Thursday night was our little town’s grand Light Up Night festivities and parade. Since temps were in the mid-50’s, I think every single soul in the county showed up. It was crazy!! Thankfully, we always just walk down (it’s about half a mile) – but there were people parking on our street and beyond because there were so many people in attendance this year! It was a beautiful night and amazing celebration though (as always). I was just super thankful that we were able to attend – after being sick last year and missing out, we had been looking forward to this year’s parade for an entire year!
- Speaking of Christmas – tonight is the grand opening of Kennywood’s Holiday Lights! We LOVE this event and we can’t wait to go see the park all decked out in lights! It’s always incredible and we’re so excited! Sadly, it won’t be quite as warm as it was on Thursday night – but we’ve gotten really good at bundling up in lots of layers and we’ll be just fine.
- The kids have been learning a Bible verse every week for school, but since we were gone for 10 days, I didn’t know if they would remember what the last verse had been. On Thursday morning, I asked if either of them remembered, and Leander responded: “God loves a cherry.” HAHA The last verse they memorized was: “God loves a cheerful giver,” from 2 Corinthians 9:7, and somehow he got it in his head that it meant that God loves cherries.
- We are hosting a house full of guests this weekend! Derrick’s brother and his family are visiting us – we’re taking them with us to Holiday Lights and having a Thanksgiving dinner with them tomorrow. The kids are just over the moon to have their cousins here and I love having my best friend in my house for the weekend!
- It’s so crazy that Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK!
