Homework – Shomwork. Let’s get to those cute babies, right?  (I’m pretty sure the homework police can’t find me here, anyway!)

Ah, yes – the Grand Tour!  Louisiana to Lancaster (PA), to Gahanna (OH) to Marysville (OH) and then back to Louisiana (Eunice, to be exact!). 3045 Miles.  So many miles. And so many smiles!

First up was this beautiful family! We hadn’t seen these guys since last summer – and that is way too long! Our time together was too short (and the big camera never even got out of the car) so there just aren’t a lot of pictures. But trust me – this was a precious visit indeed!

Before we get to see them again a baby brother will be added to the family! We’re so excited for them – and so happy that they were the first stop on The Grand Tour!
From there it was west to Gahanna, OH – and these dear ones-

Ack – that little Alexandra has grown so much (she’s a whopping three months old now!) and is such a delight!

Lara and I were able to steal away for some girl time – oh, so precious!

(The fact that it involved some great post-Christmas bargains and a quick stop at Shake ‘N Shake only added to the joy!)
New Years Day was our official “Ohio Christmas” and Toby and Tammy and family joined us in Gahanna for a day of wonderful family chaos!


This is as close as I came to getting all the kids into one picture! If you include all of the legs/feet in view I think they are all accounted for.
The “big” camera did make it in from the car for this celebration and it was available for anyone to use. You just never know what you’ll find when the pictures are downloaded!

 

While most of the gift giving was centered around the kiddos, Lara did find a pretty special item for Gary –

Love it!
We missed our Lancaster family, but the day was filled with love and laughter, games and giggles, and too much food. A wonderful, wonderful day!
After our celebration we packed our bags for our final destination – Marysville and the very busy Conrad Seven!

We broke out the dress up clothes that I’d been collecting for them and had some quality fantasy time.

OK, so Reis wasn’t so interested in the dress up clothes, but he sure had some fun with his dad a little later on!

Wheeeeee!!!!!
We got the whole family together one more time for a joint Birthday Bash and enjoyed some black light miniature golf.

Who knew there was even such a thing as black light miniature golf?  A good time was had by all (and Eleana even won a free game by getting a hole in one on the last hole.)

And just a couple more favorites –

Man, I love these folks! We were so blessed to be able to spend time with each of these families and found that each mile driven was totally worth it! You know there are more pictures, so if you’d to see more of these beautiful people you can check out the whole album HERE!  You know you want to!

Now about that Homework. Just so you don’t think I’m totally derelict in following through on my Blogging 101 assignments, I thought I’d list them out so you can see just how I’m doing.
Monday’s assignment: write and publish a “who I am and why I’m here” post. Check.
Tuesday’s assignment: edit your title and tagline. Since this class is geared towards new bloggers, I wasn’t sure that I needed to actually do this. I mean, it’s been over 10 years that I’ve written as RV There Yet. I think changing it at this point would be confusing (to me if no one else!). I’m also pretty happy with my tagline – Seeing the country, Serving the Lord. I’ll give it some additional thought, but I think I’m OK.
Wednesday’s assignment: follow five new topics in the Reader and five new blogs. Man. One thing I haven’t had a lot of this week is spare time to do much blog surfing, but I did look at a few. Maybe I can check out a couple more next week.
Thursday’s Assignment: publish a post for your dream reader, and include a new-to-you element in it. OK, I really fell short on this one. First, deciding who my dream reader is (isn’t it you?) and second trying to figure out the “new-to-you” element aspect. Again, it’s that time thing.
Friday’s assignment: try out at least three other themes — even if you’re happy with the one you first chose. Try one you’re drawn to, and one you would never use. Again – I’m pretty happy with the way the blog looks, but I’m not adverse to checking out some new ideas. See above excuse.

Thankfully we have the weekend “off”, so if nothing else I’ve had a chance to organize how much I haven’t gotten done.  But I’ve appreciated all of the ideas of this class AND the fact that no one is collecting these homework assignments.  To those who have commented – thank you for your input!  I think I’ll keep pressing on with these assignments – couldn’t hurt, right?

Have a great week, everyone! We start our project work tomorrow so it will be an interesting and full day for us.

So much for the spare time, right?