The arrival of Spring has been a wonderful, wild ride. Thankfully, Grandma Kathy got here just in time to love on all of us!
I ran my first half marathon the morning after Dave flew to Romania for a 9 day missions trip (that's a post all in itself). Christie was the BEST running partner, and I was incredibly thankful to finish with a recently developed tendinitis in my knee (due to a fall on ice), and accidentally eating non gluten-free cookies the days leading up. A big ooops. Apparently not all Tate's cookies are gluten free. I will never make that mistake again. ;)
At mile 10 - amidst everything, it was truly a lot of fun! We ran slow, it didn't feel hard, and the weather was PERFECT! 60 degrees, a little cloud cover. Good times.
2 days later - MORE snow! At this point, we'd honestly lost count of snow days.
Caden preparing a snow snack.
Having Grandma here made it even better.
A snow plow!
They got front row seats.
Andrew was my super scraper.
So tough.
Tackling daddy's car - nice to have a helper with Dave gone.
Games by the fire. Typically a daddy job, I was thankful we got one going!
Exploring a new toy from Christmas.
Andrew and Grandma doing Bible verse look ups.
Caden curled up with his own books.
Sunday night - so glad to have Daddy home!!!
Later that week, Uncle Chris came through town for work. How fun that we got to steal him for lunch!
Will loved him - told Grandma he was a nice man. Not a mean man.
2nd Grade Greek Day!
Complete with their own Olympics. Above were the chariot races. Apparently before the next race, Andrew looked back at the girl he was pulling and said "don't worry, we'll take good care of you". Love it - keep that up, bud.
The following weekend, the much anticipated and planned for women's retreat had arrived!! We headed over the bay bridge to the Hyatt in Cambridge.
As the retreat chair, I had been working closely with this amazing team since last Summer. Here we are (minus dear Leesa) with our speaker Nancy Guthrie (center). So thankful for these ladies!
Enjoying St. Michael's with some of our precious ycf ladies.
With Grandma Dee Dee and Grandma Kathy.
This was such an incredible weekend!
A few days later, we were ecstatic to have Grandpa Jack arrive!!
We hopped on bikes his first morning here, and headed down to the tidal basin.
This was a favorite day. The cherry blossoms were perfectly peaked, buttercups blanketed the forest surrounding the bike path, the breeze was warm, and we enjoyed sweet, precious time and conversation.
So thankful for my daddy, and the amazing man God has made him to be.
The next day we enjoyed a tour of the capital, so kindly arranged by dear Courtney.
Renovations had already begun in the Rotunda - we were glad to get in before they close it off in a few weeks.
Proof that I was there too.
In Statuary Hall.
Saturday morning was all about soccer, and these boys scored a lot of goals! Hat tricks (plus some) for all three boys - middle is one of Caden's best buds, Douglas.
Aside from the stops in Kenwood to soak up blossoms (which I'm saving for a separate post), there are so many things not pictured here - the countless loads of laundry and dishes Grandma Kathy did, the Spring yard clean up, and planting of dahlias, the helping with piano and homework, and delicious batches of zucchini bread. Grandma, we couldn't have done this past month without you. Thank you for all the ways you loved and served us! We are so incredibly thankful for you!
