What A Trip!

At the beginning of March, our little family took a trip to Indiana/Ohio for a conference and some time with family. We were deeply blessed by everything we got to do! Here are some pictures of our adventure...

Isaiah racing cars down "the board" (Ramin also used it when he was little) with Opi, his great grandpa.

Snuggles with Grammy Trudy. I wasn't in picture mode at this point in the trip, so I didn't get hardly any pictures of the great time we had with Mom and Dad R. in Tiffin. We got to spend a few days together relaxing and enjoying time with each other and then Ramin and I left Isaiah with them to go to our conference in Cincinnati. IJ played to his little heart's content while we got some much needed time for just the two of us.

When we left Tiffin we called our dear friends, Jim and Helanka Ralston to see if they were up for a visit. They, thankfully were around and we got to spend a wonderful evening and morning with them. Love them!

The last part of our trip was to Indianapolis, where our first order of business was a surprise birthday party for my sister, Lauren. Here is IJ with his Auntie Lauren and Uncle Jordan-He's not thrilled at all :)

An incredibly special treat was getting to spend time with my Gram and Pop and my cousin Kristen, who drove all the way from Columbia, MO to surprise all of us at the party.

Don't they have beautiful eyes?

Me and my precious jewel of a Gram.

Me and my sweet Pop.

It was also a wonderful surprise to get to spend time with my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Barry.

Sonny and I found a way to sneak in a trip to the Indianapolis Children's Museum (one of the coolest places ever!). Here he is in his Indy 500 race car.

Isaiah and "Bumble Bee" transformer.

This trip was full of special visits with loved ones and one of my favorites was getting to spend the day with my Bestie, Erin Clark and her kiddos. Here are Noah, Brett and Isaiah eating lunch together.

Precious Laney was born in October and here we are getting to snuggle together for the first time. Melt me!

Grammy and Papa H. with their Grandsonny!

Ramin and I loved the time we got to spend together and had an incredibly rich weekend with other church planters and friends at the retreat in Cincinnati. We also got some great time with the Krajewski family (Jeff and Nicole sent us out to Boulder from the church they pastor, Common Ground). On our way home we sighed with satisfaction, knowing we couldn't have gotten any more out of our time in the midwest. What a great trip!

Shelby Love

From the moment I met my dear hubby our senior year in college, I knew he was a passionate man. I saw his capacity to love and be "for" things and was amazed. I am no less amazed after nearly 9 years of marriage and have been swept into loving many of the same things myself (oh, and let's not forget the "mini me" who LOVES all things, "Daddy"). This list is really too long to innumerate fully, but one that I have to celebrate today is his love for CARS. He has great love for all sorts of cars, but one kind and one story has specifically and indelibly captured the affection of my boys. And that is the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coup. Isaiah and Ramin have been talking about this car since Christmas break when they saw a really cool documentary about it and much to our surprise and delight, the Shelby America Collection is actually fixed in our very own county. We couldn't believe that the most comprehensive collection of Shelby cars was just a 10 minute drive from our house. When we heard this news, we hopped in our car and headed to the unassuming museum that looks more like a cinder block warehouse than a vault for epic racing vehicles. We walked in the door, paid our $5 each and meticulously combed our way through the most beautiful display of cars we've ever seen up close. What an enormous treat for our little family!

Ramin and Isaiah in front of one of the racing Shelby Cobras.

The boys and a Shelby Cobra Daytona Coup (the official racing coup in Larry Miller's collection was in Salt Lake City the day we went to the museum. We'll have to see it another time).

In all of its glory...

My favorite-An AC Shelby Roadster

They had to put a Ferrari in the museum just to capture forever how the Cobra team was able to forfeit completely Enzo Ferrari's dreams of total racing dominance.

Isaiah James, living out at 4 1/2 his future aspiration of driving a Shelby.

Thumbs Up!

Jump! Shake Your Booty!

The other day Ramin taught Isaiah this little ditty...

Big Boy...

...short hair.

Soul Food

Loving this right now...

Artist: Kristene Mueller (Those Who Dream)

The Quaker Oatmeal Festival

A couple of weekends ago Ramin ran in the Quicker Quaker 5K. The race was a part of the Quaker Oatmeal Festival in Lafayette and so was "The World's Largest Oatmeal Bar." I don't know if this claim is actually true, but while Ramin warmed up for his race, Isaiah and I warmed up by eating delicious oatmeal with lots and lots of toppings. As we walked through the topping part of the line he bypassed the dried fruit, ignored the nuts and barely noticed the fresh fruit. All eyes were on the candy portion of the bar. I let him indulge, but I'm thankful that this oatmeal bar is only offered once a year.

gummy worms, m&m's, jelly beans, chocolate chips...YIKES!

mmmmm....

Sonny and Daddy warming up

Daddy on the start line

Happy 5th Birthday Johnny!

On Friday Isaiah's best buddy John turned 5. It's hard to believe that these little boys are getting so big. We celebrated Johnny with lots of fun playing with friends and a big dino cake.

The scene as the candles were being lit.

Johnny, making a wish and getting ready to blow out 5 candles!

Isaiah, looking on with support and appreciation :)

Just for fun-Isaiah, around 21 months and John around 28 months