December

With the boys finishing their school work most days around lunchtime, there was never a dull moment.

Lacey was spayed the beginning of the month and she did great. While she was pitiful that day, she was basically back to normal the following day. Keeping her from running and jumping for two weeks was super hard! 

Remote learning at the cabin

Our happy place

Lacey does fantastic on the trips to and from the cabin each week. She is a road warrior, just like the boys!

Caleb was so excited to get her a pup cup at Starbucks

We went to Turkey Run park on the 21st to view the Christmas Star. Hard to believe that it showed up so well with just my phone's camera!

After watching Elf, the boys were desperate to try spaghetti with syrup!

Christmas Eve

Normally we make the rounds on Christmas Eve with two very large extended family meals but obviously with Covid that didn't happen this year. Because the boys had been home and our contacts were very limited, we wore masks and visited both Grandma and Grandaddy as well as Marshma and Papa that day.  

Luke found Creed's wooden rocking chair from when he was little and put it on his hoverboard... I was just happy to find him wearing a helmet!

After the boys went to bed, Santa got busy...

Christmas Morning

The boys were so sweet and wanted to get each other a gift- Caleb gave Luke an Echo Dot and Luke gave Caleb a pair of Shady Rays.

Caleb's number one wish this year was a cross pendant.

Grandma Beth and Peepaw sent Lacey a Wisdom Panel DNA kit...

Creed got the best gift from his mother in law... haha

Lacey is quite the snuggle bug...

New Years Eve at the cabin always calls for Monopoly!

2020...

While 2020 was hard in so many ways, we tried to make the very best of the situation. Being able to walk to both sets of my grandparents houses and visit outside on their porch is something we are thankful for.  The boys also loved running down the hill to Grandmom and Grandpa's cabin each weekend.

The boys are at incredibly sweet and FUN ages, and really made this year a blast. Watching their bond and friendship grow this year was awesome! They both did incredibly well with remote learning and actually prefer it to attending school in person during the pandemic. 

We were able to get in two trips to Colorado before the shut down and then had the boat in the water from March until November. We were able to spend more time on the water, and therefore explored parts of the lake we hadn't been to before. Since we felt safe being outside, we were still able to spend the summer with friends at the lake.

We learned this year that we are really good at social distancing.

It was also very apparent that we have so much to be thankful for, even during the hard times.

Looking forward to 2021...

November

 November started with Luke taking an accidental hit right under this eye. Thankfully he had his puppy to snuggle with.

The weather was unseasonably warm the second week of November with temperatures reaching 80. We took advantage and spent the weekend outside!

On my birthday, my "Trophy Husband" made me a delicious omelet breakfast.

We'll always remember that year that it was warm enough to surf on my birthday! Creed and Caleb both took turns and ended an incredible lake season. We had the boat in the water and the boys surfed March through November of 2020! It was the absolute best place to socially distance.

Because of Covid, Creed and I didn't plan a big anniversary trip like we normally do. However, mid-October, Creed talked me into a long weekend in the Florida Keys to celebrate 15 years. We purchased some heavy duty masks and Clorox wipes and then headed south. 

Our flight got into Miami pretty late, so that night we stayed in a hotel in Homestead. The next morning we made our favorite drive down US1. Our first stop was on Key Largo for lunch at Gilbert's. Because the Key West Poker Run was also taking place, we got to see some incredible boats!

Our next stop was on Islamorada where we visited a few places, including Robbie's Marina. The wildlife there never disappoints.

US 1 with Jimmy Buffet playing on the radio. :)

That night we stayed at Tranquility Bay on Marathon. Nothing beats dinner with this view!

We were up bright and early Friday morning and drove down to Key West for a day of fishing. We didn't catch the tarpon Creed had hoped for but I did manage to reel in a big nurse shark.

That evening we checked into the Southernmost Resort on Key West and enjoyed this view from our room. We were able to eat all of our incredibly delicious meals at open air restaurants and appreciated all the Covid precautions that the Key West had in place.

When Creed was researching hotels, I told him the only thing I wanted was a hotel with their own beach... The Southernmost Resort didn't disappoint. We also lucked out with blue skies and temperatures in the upper 80s each day!

The pier at our hotel was the perfect place for a Key West sunset.

Cheers to 15 years!

Sunday we got in a little beach time and then it was time to head north. We walked by the Southernmost Point for a photo...

90 miles to Cuba

and then hit the road. On the way we stopped for lunch on Marathon Key at Island Fish Company. Watching the sharks was good lunch entertainment.

The week before Thanksgiving break, we learned that due to the spike in Covid cases, the boys would begin remote learning. While we were thankful to get over three months of in-person learning, we understood the need to switch to NTI and decided to make the best of our time together during the holidays.

For Thanksgiving, we went to Claytor Lake to spend five days with PeePaw, Grandma Beth, and Uncle Matt. While it wasn't a "normal" Thanksgiving by any stretch, we still made the most of our family time together. We lucked out with unseasonably warm weather and ate so much food!

Lacey's first long road trip and she handled it like a champ, sleeping the whole 6 hours, wedged between Caleb and Luke.

Luke always seems to find more toys from Matt and Drew's childhood... I've cleaned up no less than 100 rubber bands since.

Hallie Girl tolerated Lacey... 

but every single time Hallie would retrieve a duck or ball from the lake, Lacey would chase her back up the hill, barking. That drove Hallie crazy!

Always driving Uncle Matt crazy...

The boys did their annual Polar Plunge

that always ends in the hot tub.

Thanksgiving 2020

Peepaw was loving on his baby girl and grand-dog. :)

On the way home, we stopped in Charleston to visit Creed's grandmother. 

It was a sweet visit and so good to see her!

This young man... 

As an infant, he never slept in his car seat. As a toddler, we stopped taking road trips for a good two years because no matter how tired he was or what time it was, he never slept in his car seat. But, as we get closer and closer to the teen years, this happens more and more frequently. Go figure.