Our year in photos

First things first: Here's a hint to help you decipher our Christmas card message. See the chart in the photo? That's what you use to decode the message. Yes we are nerds.

Specifically Brian is the nerd. Most assuredly. For him the highlight of 2017 was going to the Porthcurno Telegraph museum, all the way in the very southwest tip of England. It was a dream come true for him. So of course we had to incorporate a code or signal of some sort into our card. Me and the kids went along with the trip because we wanted to see all the beautiful scenery. Along the way we discovered that Claire is finally old enough to take some decent photos of us. What a perk! Look at this gem:

See, this is why you have kids. Eight years down the road you'll be rewarded with a nice photo. Speaking of nice photos, now is the time to wow you with the year's home projects. No goofing off here. This was the result of some serious hard work! I painted the kitchen cabinets with a do-it-yourself kit from Home Depot. It was god awful. I recommend that you NEVER do this yourself. Hire someone for your own sanity.

Brian completed the bigger project of building a home bar and entertainment system in the basement. I have much respect for my husband now. I mean of course there was respect before this, but now there is super respect. We share these photos with you now so we all can enjoy the cleanliness and freshness captured in them. These rooms have not looked this good since these photos were taken. Real life happened.

With parts of our home looking so fancy, it is hard to believe that we would ever leave our house but we do venture out a bit. (Ha ha) There was a trip to the Bahamas this year, and an even more luxurious  trip to Oklahoma to see my parents. For the kids the best part was helping Papa Mike catch wild animal pests in the yard. Tyler was really taken with this adorable raccoon.

There was also a trip to Niagara falls. If you want to see all the nice photos of the falls (and our other trips) then go check out my facebook post. Here's the most important photo from Niagara though. The King is alive and well and in Canada. It all makes sense now.

If you ask Tyler what was the most exciting thing that happened this year, he will tell you "we beat  Zelda"! He's talking about the latest Zelda video game, Breath Of The Wild. He's right, it's a pretty big deal. For us all to sit down, take turns, discuss strategies, and cooperate like that -- it was a miracle! Tyler loves the little green elf character (Link) in the game. He was Link for Halloween and he still dresses like Link most days. That's healthy, right?

Tyler is telling me that another important thing happened this year. He beat Claire's EX Pokemon card.  He doesn't remember the name of her Pokemon -- it was a weird guy who was red and green and cute. He beat it with his evolved Delfox who stands up. Tyler has near 500 Pokemon cards scattered in his room and he spends a lot of time staring at those things. Not cleaning them up. Not organizing them. Just memorizing their hit points. Talk about fun! George, our bunny, also loves Pokemon cards. I love that George's chewing habit gives me a good excuse to throw away cards.

Claire says she is mad that Tyler always beats her Pokemon cards. She announces this while she is sitting at the kitchen table cutting up paper. This is one of her favorite things to do. Claire is ALWAYS cutting up paper and making books, dioramas, clothes for her dolls, signs...you name it. It involves a lot of paperclips, staples, and scotch tape for some reason. The girl is creative, and doesn't like to sit still! She has a weird talent for what I would call fidget-type activities. Things like jump rope, hula hooping, pogo stick...she rocks at these!

For Claire, 2017 has definitely been the year of slime and all things messy. Oobleck, silly putty, kinetic sand, you get the idea. She is constantly begging us for these things. We tell her no no we don't want the mess in the house, but she still manages to get some at school or from friends. It shows up magically in the carpet, smeared into her book bag, and matted in stuffed animal fur. Claire loves her slime. I'm so thankful she didn't dress up as slime for Halloween. 

It has been another blessed year of the kids being best friends. I fear that there will be a year coming up when they will turn on each other and won't want to have "sleepovers" all the time. But we aren't there yet!

It has been another year of adventure and sweet memories. I think the only thing we would change is adding a dozen more trips to see all of you -- our friends and family -- but to fit that in we would have had to invent a time travel machine or something. It'll go on our to-do list for 2018.