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| Last year's tree |
You just never know with boys and a little curious girl in the house! Oh, and neighbor friends...and a cat...and trying to get the laundry basket in the little foot-wide path we have between the tree and the couch. :-P I am ever increasingly afraid to put the breakable ornaments on, of course. I had one of my favorites break last year when the tree crashed to the floor. :-/ But, things breaking are a part of having little kids.
I love pulling each ornament out of the box and remembering where it came from and who I was with at the time. I had to move lightning fast this year as three pair of little hands were very interested in helping me and pulled out ornaments at their pleasure. New this year, was that Evander wanted to put a little tree in his and Emory's bedroom, so he was pulling the ones out that he liked and claimed them for his tree. Let it go, Michelle....let it go....
So here is a little stroll down memory lane. There are certainly many, many more ornaments on the tree that I treasure, but this was fun to remember the trips we've been on.
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| Captiva Island 2004 |
Obviously, this ornament came from Captiva Island from our Honeymoon. My camera got lost in the wedding shuffle and I ended up not having it for this trip! :-( I had to buy a stupid disposable camera, which took really lousy pictures. It still upsets me! Ha. :-( Oh well...guess we'll have to go back some day soon.
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| New Hampshire/Massachusetts 2005 |
I got this ornament from the Yankee Candle Flagship store in Deerfield, Massachusetts, just down the road from where my sister lived at the time. Nick and I went to visit his brother and sister-in-law in New Hampshire first, then to my sister and brother-in-law's in Massachusetts. We visited Hampton Beach, Portsmouth, the UMass campus and lots of hidden places in The Valley. I was three months pregnant with Evander and we hiked 7 1/2 miles with my sister (phew! Hard work being pregnant), therefore, there is a picture of Nick carrying me on his shoulders...ha!.
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| Arizona 2006 |
We visited Nick's parents in Arizona before Christmas when Evander was 14 months old. Can I just say how simple it is to have one child? Man, I'm looking back on these pictures and goodness. Although, you think it's difficult at the time. The ornament is from the Casa Grande gift shop, one of the first things we did on the trip. It is one of those hand-painted-on-the-inside ornaments. We also visited Saguarro National Park, The Grand Canyon, the PHX Zoo lights and went to a church from which I received the thimble ornament. It represents that we only really know a thimble full compared to what God has planned for our lives.
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| West Virginia 2008 |
We got together with all of Nick's extended family for a family reunion at Black Water Falls in Tucker County, West Virginia. I rode seven hours sharing the middle seat sandwiched between two car seats in the back of my in-laws' truck. Ouch!!! I consider that one of the craziest things I've ever done. What a BEAUTIFUL place. Oh my. It's breathtaking. The mountain laurel was in bloom (pictured above) and there were rhododendrons everywhere! Getting ready to bloom, sadly, they likely did about a week after we left. We had an awesome time together hiking, whitewater rafting and just hanging out. We didn't see any black bears, but they are supposedly abundant.
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| Arizona 2008 |
Again, we were blessed to visit Arizona at Christmas time. This ornament was from Popper & Cinder to Emory, and he was asking for it as soon as we brought the ornament boxes in this year. We visited Saguarro National Park, Tombstone, Montezuma Castle and the Red Rocks of Sedona. The trip ended on a crazy mountain road in snow/rain mix in the dark, peeing on the side of the road, and poor Emory got carsick. :-( That's another crazy experience. All my crazy times seem to happen with the Fedors! Just kidding. ;-)
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| Cincinnati 2009 |
Thank goodness there's spell check because I can never remember if there are to n's or two t's in Cincinnati! We went to Cincinnati to visit Entertrainment Junction, but we went to the zoo and Skyline, of course!
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| Cincinnati 2010 |
And we went back to Entertrainment Junction a year and a half later! The boys love trains and this is such an awesome place for train lovers. Note that this trip, there is one more passenger! :-)
I sure didn't buy an ornament when we were in Arizona this year! Bummer.
***UPDATE***
I sure did buy an ornament in Arizona this summer! It's been staring at for four and a half months above our kitchen table.
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| Must have been camouflaged |
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| Arizona 2011 |
We visited Arizona during the hottest time of the year. It's completely fine as long as you do indoor things in the afternoon, and have a swimming pool nearby. :-) So yeah...we were in the water so much, Nick got sick of the pool! Evander learned to swim by the end of our week-long stay, which was awesome. We did cowboy stuff, Nick and I got away to a hotel, and we visited the Grand Canyon where Nick hiked to the bottom and back up to the top in one morning. I thought the ornament was a Ringtail when I bought it, which is a Canyon animal, but when I read that tag once we got home...it's a RACCOON! Sure didn't need to go all the way to the Grand Canyon for a raccoon. Ha.
