What January Looked Like

 

I broke my ring way back in August.

One of the baguettes fell out.

I knew it would be expensive to fix, so I kept

putting it off. But I finally got it done.

So pretty!

Andrew and I are having fun playing the Wingspan app together.

Caroline and I took a fun, quick road trip to Norfolk, VA

because CIRQUE was in town! Yes!

We watched Corteo this time.

It's a show about a clown funeral.

Weird.

The performers in Cirque du Soleil are phenomenal!

And the people who choreograph and come up with the

ideas for it are OUT THERE. The shows are weird.

But also super fun.

This aerial straps duet was one of our favorite parts.

So strong!

The CRAZIEST part of the show

is when they hook one of the performers

up to these GIANT balloons and THROW

her out into the crowd!

What the heck???

Both sporting our converses from Grandma Sweat.

We had never been to Norfolk and had fun exploring.

Ate lunch at a yummy restaurant with

poke bowls and ramen. Yum!

I love making Caroline do contortion for me!

A dog tried to join her at one point...

Enjoyed sitting in these chairs and relaxing 

near the water for a bit.

Cool city!

I'd be happy to go back and explore some more.

Blow torch s'mores.

So good.

Even though birding isn't her favorite,

I told C that I wanted to do some.

We saw a couple different belted kingfishers.

They are one of my favorite birds!

I also got to add two new birds to my life list:

Buffleheads

(One of the funnest bird names)

And Green-winged Teals

Isn't that teal stripe on their heads so pretty?

Fun wordle

Since it was the off-season, I got our hotel right on the beach.

It was SO fun to wake up to THIS!

Hooray!

It was a little chilly, but not too bad.

We stopped in Suffolk at a restaurant that is now

one of our FAVORITE, the Mod Olive.

We got to have fondue,

which Caroline had never tried.

It was DELICIOUS.

Oh my gosh.

I LOVED it.

And then we just ordered four sides and shared them.

It was THE BEST meal for the two of us.

Isn't it a cute funky restaurant?

They even had an art-o-mat.

I got a funky wood collage thingy.

Some of the fun decor

There is a comet in the sky right now.

I've been wanting to take my telescope out to see out.

For our date night, we drove down to Thomasville

and busted out the telescope.

It's so hard to use. I'm not good at it.

I'm pretty sure we saw the comet, but it was really hard to see.

We found another new favorite restaurant 

there in Thomasville called Cross Ties.

They had elotes!

And Drew got a delicious Philly Cheesesteak

and I had the chef put together a fried green tomato and 

pimento cheese sandwich for me. It was TO DIE FOR.

I went to the temple one night with a few RS sisters:

Me, Rebecca, Jean, Dawn, Mykie, and Rebecca.

It was FABULOUS.

My Christmas present from Whit.

Isn't it THE BEST?

I need to print it out and frame it!

Andrew had a big Southeast Area church meeting in Atlanta.

And his foot isn't feeling well enough to drive himself.

So Caroline and I got to take a little trip with him.

We stopped in SC and got to stay a night with Marianne and her family,

which is always fun.

Stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner.

Care Bear had never been.

She's a fan.

Downtown Atlanta

While Drew was in his meetings, we explored.

This is Ponce City Market.

It is a great place to shop.

But the parking is TERRIBLE.

It took us longer to find a parking spot

than we were able to spend shopping.

Lame.

We also stopped at The Works again.

We love that place.

Bought some DELICIOUS cookies.

Care Bear got an acai bowl.

Is it gorgeous or what?

And that orchid is edible!

So cool!

I got elotes.

Again.

We also tried the mochi donut.

I wish I was eating it right now.

Olympic park.

Cool pigeon.

Our experience in actual downtown Atlanta was...

sketchy.

rough.

scary.

I was trying to take us to an art show 

at The Bakery Atlanta.

It sounded so cute.

The word "bakery" was used loosely.

I don't think there was a single baked good in sight.

Misnomer...

But they did have some fun artwork.

We even bought a couple things.

But the street that the "bakery" was on was SCARY.

Homeless people sleeping on the sides of the road

and other intimidating people around.

We got out of there as fast as we could.

Cool capital building.

Our other fun Atlanta adventure:

C got to do open gym at Challenge Aerial.

It was the perfect way to spend a morning!

It's fun watching other people train

while she is practicing. Most of them are 

women. Like my age. Pretty impressive.

I was chatting with a couple of them.

They were jealous of Caroline's toes!

They were convinced she MUST'VE been

a dancer before she started doing aerials.

Elder Renlund, Elder Matthew Holland, Elder Bowen,

Elder Morrison and others along with all of the stake presidents,

mission presidents, and temple presidents from the Southeast area.

Andrew is in the middle and toward the back.

He's about a head taller than everyone around him.

Driving into a beautiful sunset.

Gaffney, SC

Updated family photo wall

Lunch with Bea and Maureen.

Love hanging out with these ladies!

Date night at Dave and Buster's.

Duo now offers "Friends Quests"

once a week. It's fun when I get

paired up with Whit!

Stake Presidents' Wives get-together.

Oh, how I love these women.

We have a couple that live FAR away,

so not everyone could be here.

But I'm so grateful for those that could.

Caroline is still loving her piggies.

I am still pretty indifferent to them.

I don't like holding them,

so this is a rare pic. :)

Dinner at Toshi's cafe.

Isn't their sushi so pretty?

Sometimes we play Wavelength

with the big kids over the phone on

Sunday nights. Super fun.

Youth skate night

Mexican food date night

You'll never guess what I got...

an elote!!

And AMAZING vegetarian fajitas!

Another downy at the suet feeder.

Rebecca and I were doing a RS visit.

Penelope liked wearing my sunglasses.

We usually just eat lunch at home together.

This was a fun lunch date at Brixx.

We had Andrew's follow-up appointment

to get his cast off, stitches out, and get him 

in the walking boot.

CAUTION: GRAPHIC PHOTO AHEAD

Look at all those stitches!

The PA was happy with how everything is going so far.

Now to start the LONG process of strengthening and healing.

I have to renew my AZ dental hygiene license this year,

so I've been taking lots of continuing ed classes, mostly online.

One of them had SHAQ as a patient!

What the heck?!

Andrew got this puzzle for me.

So perfect. Love it.

He also had headshots done when he was in Cali.

Looking good!

Google does these summaries about the travel

I've done at the end of the year.

In 2022, I walked 261 miles, drove over 32k miles,

and flew over 7600 miles.

I visited 165 cities and my miles added

up to 1.6 times around the world.

When we dropped the big kids off at the airport,

C and I stopped in Salisbury and met our friend,

Suzanne for dinner. Loved catching up with her.

Here's the finished penguin!

You'd never know there's a super

cute snowflake hiding in that base!

It's always such a joy to have all three kiddos home.

Before Caroline had to go back to school, the girls took

a quick day trip to Winston. We stopped at Penny Path Cafe

for crepes. Oh my gosh. They are so good.

And did some shopping at Mast General Store,

one of our favorite spots.

We also stopped at Cattywampus General Store 

in Greensboro. We had never been and it is adorable.