Delta before Florida

As I mentioned yesterday, we took a quick trip to Delta. My parents are going to Florida for a month. A month. It was really hard to wrap my brain around that when my mom first told me, because it's so uncharacteristic. But my dad has a mission buddy who bought a home out there who's apparently been planning this thing for a year, and things worked out for my parents to be able to go. It's kind of funny because we often go a few months without seeing my parents, and we'll still be able to call them, but I just really felt like I'd miss them quite a bit. A girl just doesn't grow out of needing her mommy and daddy. Anywho, I really wanted to see them before they went, so we left after church yesterday and came home this morning. As a bonus, Matt and his girlfriend were also there and we all got to play games and spend some quality time.

Ethan got this red fuzzy monkey from Grandma and Grandpa for Valentines Day. He was really cute with it, giving it hugs and jabbering to it. After we played with it a bit and made some monkey noises, he really seemed to be using his imagination with it. Fun. :) (Thanks again for not giving him candy, mum!)

Dad had made a nice roast beef dinner, and mom asked me to bring a dessert. We don't do dessert much, so I was kind of excited to try something new. We made this recipe, but substituted a few ingredients with what we had on hand, not the least of which was strawberries for cranberries. Everyone seemed to like it, but Terral and I really enjoyed it. We I decided it was definitely a repeat recipe. It was yummy, and I loved how I didn't feel weighed down or overloaded with sugar even after a couple pieces. Now I want a tart pan. ;)

Anyway. . . we spent the evening playing games, talking, and laughing. One of my favorite combinations. :) I made sure to get in several hugs from mom and dad. I'm a huggy kinda girl.

Then this morning, mom cooked us some fried eggs. It was surprisingly yummy. I haven't had fried eggs for quite a while because they were a "trigger" when I was pregnant, and that throw-up feeling just lingered with the thought of them. After breakfast, we had a little time before we had to take off, so we spent a bit of it outside. Ethan was enthralled when he saw this contraption.

Oh, my sweet boys! They make life fun.

When we finally loaded everything up in the car and said farewell, we found out pretty quick that we weren't going anywhere. The car wouldn't start. We said a prayer, and then Terral got to tinkering. Ethan and I wandered around outside in the meantime. We went and looked at the neighbors colorful roosters, and I was again grateful for Ethan's new shoes that let him explore. I also got to help mom a bit by doing some vacuuming. She gets pretty out of breath when she does that, so I was glad to save her the task. She always does so much to help me—to help so many people—and I feel like I do so little for her.

While I was still vacuuming, Terral came in and announced that the car was working again. Hurrah! He wasn't quite sure what he did to make it work, but we were sure happy with the result!

Thanks again for letting us come to visit, Mom and Dad! We love you lots!