Family Time

I have a reason for not posting about our trip yet - there's a new baby in our family!  My niece, Lauren, had a baby girl last month.  I was finally able to make a trip to Fresno to meet her and I'm so in love!  Olive Jae is just a darling little bundle.

 

 

We had a mini reunion on Tuesday night.  My brother, Rick, is a fabulous great uncle!

 

 

My sister, "Mimi" Kim.  If you look closely you will see braces on both her arms.  Kim took a tumble a few weeks ago and broke her right wrist, broke her right elbow, and sprained her left wrist!  I drove her to her followup appointment on Wednesday.  X-rays show that she is healing, it's just going to take time. 

 

 

The other star of the show, of course, is Olive's big brother Bo.  He will be in four in February and he kept us entertained all evening.

 

 

I brought several gifts, my favorite is this book - "A is for Adobo."  With his blonde hair and blue eyes you wouldn't guess that Bo is one fourth Filipino, but he is.  This is an alphabet book with Filipino words and it is adorable!

 

 

He loves Olive and is so sweet with her!

 

 

"Moose on the Loose" shirt that we bought in Canada.

 

 I found this darling handmade duck at a produce stand in Cookeville.

 

Bo had one request at the end of the evening - a little dance party, with head gear required!

 

 

After Kim's appointment on Wednesday, we got a little more time with Lauren and Olive while Bo was at preschool.  I think I just held her and stared in awe for about an hour!!

 

 

 

Bo came home just before I left.  He and Mimi had a drawing party.  It was so fun to see how creative he is!

 

I'm so thankful for my family!!

Family Time

 

Sandwiched between two very busy church weekends, we made a quick trip to Fresno.  I got to see my entire immediate family with the exception of just one, my nephew Ryan.  The rest of us gathered at Kim and Rodney's for dinner.  The main attraction, of course, is our little darling ~ Bo!

Three generations ~ "great" Aunt Kathy, Bo, and Auntie Krysten

 

I didn't get a single picture of my brother, Rick, and his wife, Diana.  We enjoyed catching up.  They went to Ireland and Scotland in October, so we had a lot of traveling to talk about!  We stayed up way past all of our bedtimes, but enjoyed the time so much.

On Friday, Kim, Les and I went over to Lauren and Jordan's for some more time together.  These two were having quite the conversation:

It's so fun having a little one around again!

Grandparents Day

Happy Grandparents Day to any of my readers who have grandchildren.  I was blessed to know five of my grandparents.  Both of Mom's grandmothers were still living while I was growing up, along with Mom's mom and Dad's mom and dad!  I think the bond with grandparents is very special and I'm grateful for mine.

One of my earliest posts was called, "When Mom Became Grandma."  Mom wrote in her Grandmother's Memories book:  "When I first became a grandmother, I felt like a Queen. I couldn't stop grinning; I got 3 grandbabies in 10 weeks! Ryan, Krysten & Lauren."  Ryan was born on January 11th (his daddy's birthday) and Krysten and Lauren showed up 7 weeks before their due date on March 20th.

 

Grandparents Day has brought a new emotion this year.  It started with a text I received about a month ago from my niece, Lauren:

My heart is overflowing with excitement!  Lauren and Jordan got married in January of this year and now they are going to make my sister a grandmother and I get to be Great Aunt Kathy!  It seems like yesterday that they were this tiny:

1966: Sister Celebration

My sister, Kim, is the oldest of the Fultz Four.  She was born on April 23, 1959 (hopefully she's not reading my blog and isn't ready to strangle me for revealing this fact!)  I was born five years, four days and two brothers later!

When I turned 2, Mom wrote in my baby book, "I guess we'll always celebrate with Kim.  This year we went to Storyland.  On the date we had cake and ice cream.  Grandma Luella, Marie and Esther came to help us have fun."

Storyland is a fun little place found at Roeding Park in Fresno.  It opened in 1962 and admission today is still only $5 for adults and $3.50 for children.  "At Storyland, fairy tales come to life. Follow the path through the Park and find Humpty Dumpty, “three little pigs,” Mother Goose, Alice in Wonderland, witches, pirates, a castle and much more. Use your magic key to unlock our talking boxes and listen to stories of adventure and danger, fantastic worlds and heroic journeys."

Jack and Jill falling down the hill while Krysten and Lauren fetch a pail of water

I don't remember celebrating my 2nd birthday at Storyland, but I certainly remember going there many times as a child and later taking my nieces, Krysten and Lauren.  There's something special about seeing a book come to life!

We've definitely had our share of sister spats and ups and downs but I'm so thankful to have a sister to celebrate life with!

2015 Magical Moments

Happy New Year's Eve!  I know I'm not the only one saying, "I can't believe how quickly this year has gone."  2015 was the year of travel for us - Les traveled 25 weeks - 22 were for business.  Thankfully, I was able to tag along for 14 of those weeks - 13 were for business, our only vacation together this year was our trip to Florida for Thanksgiving.  Les took two cycling trips with Lance - I'm glad they can do that together and I'm happy to stay home during those trips!  Along with traveling, it's been a great year.  I thought I'd highlight one thing from each month:

January:
On January 1st, I embarked upon a new Bible Study - Women of the Word.  While I didn't reach my goal to study one woman a week, I did study 33 women and learned SO much.  My life has definitely been enriched with this study.

February:
Our first of four trips to Oahu this year.  We celebrated a delayed Valentine's Day on the North Shore.

March:
Les was gone 16 days during the month of March.  He was in four states and I didn't go at all.  Brianna Miranda and I were twins one Sunday, so there's my highlight!

April:
I turned 51 and we took our second trip to Hawaii.  This time we celebrated my birthday at Sea Life Park.  I also got to hang out with Levi Bentz for a while.

May:
We celebrated our 24th anniversary at Disney's California Adventure.

June:
Les was home almost the entire month of June!  We took one short trip to Las Vegas for a business conference, but it was nice to stay home for a while.  The only highlight about Vegas was when it was in our rear view mirror!  Funniest picture was this "compare at" price...

July:
July was looking like another stay at home month until about the 15th.  We got word that Les needed to be in O'Fallon, Missouri for two weeks!  I found a cheap ticket and was able to go along.  I saw the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis for the first time.  Truly spectacular!  I also started training for marathon #4 while in Missouri.  Extreme heat and humidity didn't kill me, so I knew it was going to be a good training cycle.

August:
Les traveled to Utah for a week long bike adventure with Lance.  While he was gone, Kim, Krysten and Lauren came for a short visit.  We enjoyed a quick trip to Santa Barbara.

September:
We took our third trip to Hawaii.  Guava chiffon pancakes.  That's all.

October:
Early October we were still on Oahu and I ran the Brio Ice Cream 25k race as part of my marathon training.  Les had another busy travel month.  We flew home on a red eye on October 9th, getting home on Saturday morning.  Les flew to Philadelphia on Sunday morning - a six hour time difference!  He was home for a week then flew to Scottsdale, AZ.

November:
November was a big month!  I ran the Revel Canyon City Marathon and had a 7 minute PR!

At the end of the month, we traveled to Florida for the McElhaney family reunion.  Seven of us ran the Mexico Beach Community Garden Turkey Trot 5k.

December:
We took our final trip to Hawaii.  Les was one of the wheelchair cycling escorts for the Honolulu Marathon.

We had a super mellow Christmas at home, just the two of us.  My final picture is from a mountain bike ride a couple days before Christmas.  We have had a busy, but healthy and blessed year!  God's favor has shined on us.

Family Therapy

Les and I have both been enjoying some family time.  Les and Lance have been cycling their way through southern Utah for the past week - visiting Bryce and Zion Canyons along the way.  I didn't get a week, but I did get a much needed weekend with Kim, and her wonderful daughters, Krysten and Lauren.

Not only did we get to visit, but we got our ocean fix!  We made our way to Santa Barbara on Saturday and proceeded to sit on the pier for about 3 hours, talking, laughing and catching up on our lives.

There's just nothing like time with family.  People who share your history and just "get" you. We don't get enough of it!

Thank you for coming, my dears!  Come back soon.

Happy Birthday, Krysten and Lauren!

Happy birthday to the sweetest nieces in the world!

I fell in love when you were under four pounds each...

We share a love for all things chocolate...

And you have made me proud to be your aunt every day since!

Love you to the moon and back!