Hunt Family Connection

It's all about the cake!

Much of this week was about cake, and I can't complain about that at all :)

We Faith's 21st birthday dinner on Wednesday night. That's right - we have a 21-year-old! 

Out living on her own and really making a name for herself as a manager at the shoe store, we're so proud of Faith and the woman she has become. We know there is so much more good that's yet to come for her!

Ellie has also been tasked with making a cake for the cake auction at Scouts this week. Naturally she asked Kenny to help, 'cause this is so much more his thing than mine. On Wednesday night they mixed and baked the cake, then on Thursday after school, they decorated....

She had the vision for a beach-themed cake, and Kenny helped her bring it to life!

The sand is graham cracker crumbs, there are sweedish fish candies in the water, and rainbow ribbon candy for towels, with drink umbrellas next to them - I love it!

It was so fun to see everyone's cakes at Scouts that night - the kids did all of the voting themselves....

Ellie's cake tied for "Best in Show", but eventually lost in a secret vote-off. Ellie cheerfully congratulated her friend who won, and then went on to win the bid to take her cake back home with us again.

I was so impressed with the time and effort the kids all put into this - we had a blast watching them all proudly share their creations.

A couple more pictures from our week to share....

This was the beginning of my week, and it was a great way to kick it off. Such a sweet card from Miss Linda and Patti at the kids' school, thanking us for the Christmas goodies. Along with it, was this Wisconsin calendar, which was a freebie they got with an amazon order - they thought of me and wanted to pass it along. Love them - they always make us feel so welcome and cared about!

And this shot of Eleanor waiting for Faith to come over. She really misses having her here more often, so she gets pretty excited when Faith comes to visit. 

It's been a busy, but good week. Bring on the weekend fun!

This weekend...

More Christmas clean-up this weekend - it's been slow going, but it's getting done :) We noticed this beautiful sunset after church on Saturday...

On Sunday, Ellie and I had some girl time out shopping. It was a lot of this....

We spent what felt like a crazy amount of time at Justice, as she worked and reworked options for a gift card she had from Christmas. 

And you really can't go shopping at the mall without stopping for a pretzel break :)

This one had me shopping until I almost dropped (so proud! lol) We had to make one more stop before heading home, and visited Faith at work.

She tried to make a case for these. They're cute, but a no-go as they really aren't practical (I know...what fun is that?!) 

I love to shop and I'm excited that she's always game to get out there with me. I think there will be many more of these trips in our future.

Scenes from our first week back at it!

I always have mixed feelings about getting back into routines, but it's full steam ahead. The kids didn't have school on Monday, but I was back at work and set my new Bob Ross goodies up at my desk :)

We had fun watching Imagine Dragons during the National Championship halftime show....there was definitely singing along!

Ellie has basketball practice on Tuesday and Thursday night, so on Tuesday night Ellie and I had dinner together at Noodles & Co. while G hung out at Fidgets 2 Widgets.

Mac and Cheese forever and ever!

There's some fun video that goes along with this - gotta love virtual reality :) Except your face looks like this for awhile after....

Graham got new golf clubs from Papaw and Grandma Chery for Christmas, and this week he was able to take the putter out to practice his short game a bit.

He's excited to have some more lessons this spring - we're hoping to squeeze them in between baseball practice and games, and then play more this summer.

And finally, Friday night came and I got to go to book group to talk about A Piece of the World. It was ok - I found myself waiting for more to happen, but it never really did. The story is a historical one though, and details the home and life of the woman found in a number of Andrew Wyeth's paintings. It was a great book group meeting though and I definitely enjoyed the food and company.

Rachel and I drove to group together - she shared a bottle from her stash with me to bring along.

Weekend chill

Not much going on here this weekend with the kids away - catching up on some tv watching and we caught Walter watching with us!

Also have a lot on our minds as the new year gets under way....talking about goals, the future, and where to put our energy and resources. Here is some of the reading I'm doing as I plan for the year...

My word for this year is INTENTION and I'm still working out what it all means and how I will keep it in mind this year - more on that another day maybe. I'm also loving this body scrub Kenny got me for Christmas - it really makes for a nice "get you going" kind of feeling!

highly recommend!

The Journey Back Home

In an effort to not have to get up at the crack of dawn (or before) to catch a flight home, we booked a much later-in-the-day flight and had all kinds of time to get packed and make our way to Minneapolis. We spent the morning packing (and making sure everything was under the baggage weight limit!) and then were planning to see Great-Grandma to say goodbye on our way out of town. Unfortunately, Great-Grandma called to say there was a bit of a flu outbreak where she lives and they weren't letting any visitors in. So we said our goodbyes over the phone, and made our way to the Mall of America, which is right there next to the airport. 

Some fun facts about the MOA

We spent some time looking around - it's a great place to get TONS of steps in! And Eleanor couldn't get enough, between the American Girl Doll store and the Crayola Experience - that girl was pretty happy.

Ellie came away with some furry earmuffs, and we ate under the twinkly lights in the food court :)

Mom and dad got us to the airport with plenty of time to spare, so we settled in to wait for our late night flight back to Oregon. 

Not my personal best as far as flights go, because we were stuck in some of the tiniest seats I have ever been in, and there were MANY babies aboard! I was a little panicky, and ended up listening to my book and sleeping much of the way back. The kids were great though - ever the better traveler than I can be most days. It was the kind of landing that makes your stomach roll a bit, but we made it back just fine. The kids left the airport with their dad for a few more days with him, and Kenny and I got our bags and started the drive back to Eugene. 

It took a lot of rest and recovering to get back to feeling human the next day, but we got there and managed to get out for a gathering with my work friends...always makes my heart happy to spend time with this crazy bunch (and it's so yummy!)

Experiences VS Things

My sister-in-law suggested an experience as a gift for my niece Mara this year, so after our Christmas celebration, I took Mara and Graham to Action City for a few hours of FUN! 

There was go-kart riding, rock wall climbing, and DQ Blizzard eating fun had by both of them, away from the rest of the cousin squad. 

These two tweens are both ready to be grown, but also want to have fun like kids. It's such a roller-coaster kind of age, and it was fun to be able to give them a little time to just have fun together. 

New Year's Eve and Day

We were invited to celebrate New Year's Eve at my brother's house - they have an annual celebration on New Year's Eve with some of their friends. It was nice for the kids to have cousins/friends to play with, and we enjoyed chatting and laughing along with Carrie and Joel's friends. The action really picked up with a Nerf gun fight....

We went back to Nana and Papa's around 10:30pm and stayed up until midnight. The kids were excited to document the moment :)

Everyone headed to bed shortly after midnight and slept in the next day. 

New Year's Day was pretty low-key. We stopped at Beav's on the way to see Great-Grandma and had some snacks and drinks (best. cheese curds. EVER.) 

We had a nice time visiting and playing Yahtzee with Grandma, then went home for a delicious prime rib dinner. It was a great start to a new year!

 

Visiting Red Wing

One thing we definitely wanted to do this visit, was to visit the Duluth Trading Company store in Red Wing, Minnesota. Kenny had some gift cards to spend and he always loves the clothes mom gets for him there. Ellie decided to stay at my brother's house with her cousins, and Graham came with us, reading all the way there :)

I don't think I've ever been to Red Wing, but it's such a sweet, old town. The old buildings and vintage look of the streets was really interesting. 

We started at Duluth Trading Company where Kenny found a couple of new flannels.

From there it was on to Red Wing Shoes, which happened to have this giant boot in the entryway!

We enjoyed seeing that, along with browsing the shoe museum to learn more about the history Red Wing and how the shoes/boots are made.

I also enjoyed the motto I saw on the wall on the way out - had to point it out to G!

We walked around a little bit more, and went into a couple more shops, but I think it would be more fun to walk around and explore when it's a little warmer outside.