“Mommy the Cake is Falling”

Eliza and I made a layer cake to celebrate Meredith’s 30th birthday in June.  It was a hot day (like every day this summer) and we left the iced cake in the kitchen while we ate our meal.  Eliza was up and about when she called out from the kitchen, “ Mommy, the cake is falling!”  Note to self: do not ice a cake while your kitchen is still sweltering from the oven and external heat.  The top layer slide halfway off the cake and onto the counter. To continue with our house church’s tradition of screwing up meals together, we had a tasty but very ugly cake.  Happy birthday anyway, Meredith!

The Rest of the Florida Trip

Keeping up our trend of being horribly behind on blog posts, hopefully we’ll churn a bunch out this weekend.  We already shared tons of pictures and stories from Eliza’s first visit to Disney World in February, but there were other fun things that happened during our two-week trip to Florida, too!

Thanks to the minivan, making the two-day drive down to stay at my parents’ place in Venice wasn’t as bad as we thought.  Just as Matilda had reached her threshold for time spent in a car seat, we stopped in Atlanta to spend the night and visit the Hults family.  Mark recently graduated from seminary there, and since our days together in Lafayette, we hadn’t been able to visit them much.  It was so much fun (and Eliza had a blast playing with Emerson and Hayden), that we stayed with them on our drive back two weeks later, too.

The girls made a mess of all the toys, and Emerson prepared Eliza for Disney World by showing her all the princess outfits she had.

We can’t believe how big Hayden is now!  It makes us feel quite old remembering when she stayed with us and we went to the children’s museum.

After seeing the Hults family, we continued the drive to Florida.  Georgia and northern Florida are pretty boring drives, but it’s always fun to see the car thermostat slowly increase as we head south.  I remember marking those Fahrenheit milestones when I was a child packed in the minivan on my way to visit Grandma and Grandpa.  Overall, the girls did well on the trip, but I think Matilda was desperate for some more “hold time” as soon as we arrived.  Fortunately my parents were ready for some grandkid time.

During the two weeks in Florida, other than going to Disney World, we were able to relax, go to the beach, swim in the pool, and eat some great food, including the greatest ice cream in the world – lime soft serve at the Nokomis Groves.  It’s probably the most nostalgic part of the trip for me each year, since I can remember going often when I was a child.  And it’s lime ice cream, a very underappreciated flavor (especially when swirled with chocolate).

Eliza getting used to the pool

We worked on our swimming

Matilda enjoyed watching

Eliza enjoying the first beach day

Checking out the water with Grandpa

Matilda's first beach experience. Seems like it was just yesterday Eliza was this small hanging out on a Florida beach for the first time.

It was a very hazy day at the beach, but it cleared up later

She wasn't as afraid of the waves this year, but she still was hesitant to get in the water

Enjoying the best ice cream in the world!

Family picture in the orange groves

We took a day to drive down to Naples and see Eliza's Great Aunt Janet and Uncle Dave. We had a lot of fun catching up, swimming in their pool, visiting the beach, watching the fisherman, seeing dolphins, and eating some delicious food (although Eliza got a bit sick due to either the heat or car sickness).

The Naples dock

Before we left, we had to visit the beach one last time, and we went to Siesta Key, the first beach Eliza experienced back when she was a few months old. Eliza spent a lot of time in the water, and we were very proud of her.

The girls liked the kites flying high overhead

We can't wait to go next year, and hopefully we can stay for at least a month thanks to Kirk's flexible work schedule!

Ethiopian Dinner

As we continue to play catch-up on the blog, some posts may fall out of chronological order.  Deal with it :).

Earlier in January we had the rare opportunity for a night out with our house church, sans kids.  Always the adventurous eaters, we decided to visit a local Ethiopian restaurant, something none of us had previously tried.  We adjusted to the fun family-style format although we humbly lacked comprehension of the menu items so we ordered a variety of things. 

We started with the homemade honey wine.  Overall, most people weren’t a fan (it didn’t taste like anything anyone had tried before), but Kirk enjoyed it.  We also discovered it tastes a lot better with food.

The food is served on injera, a flat thick spongy crepe-like bread, and you simply tear some off, dip it in the various items, and eat with your hands.  We ate a lot of injera, and I think it filled people up.

We had the following items:

• Sega wett: beef in spices (the overall favorite, although Kirk enjoyed them all and tried to “clean the group’s plate”)
• Doro wett: chicken stewed in spices (good)
• Yebegge alecha: mild lamb stew (good)
• Quosta: spinach and onion (good)
• Yemisir wot: red lentil stew (good)
• Yekik alecha: split peas and spices (good)
• Gommen: Ethiopian collared greens (just ok)
• Tikel gommen: cabbage and butter (good)
• Denech alecha: potatoes, onion, and carrot (just ok)
• Yebegga tibbs: sautéed strips of lamb cooked with onion, tomato, and chiles (good, but quite fatty so it turned some people off)

Lake House

Even though we’ve been MIA on the blog for the last few months, life went on for the Smileys.  We’re going to move the clock back a bit and fill you in on what we were up to. 

In September we enjoyed the last days of summer in northern Indiana with our house church at Tony’s family lake house.  It was definitely interesting with two two months old babies and two toddlers in the group but well worth all the work.  Eliza was able to experience many new things which was a blast to watch.

The sunset the first night was just gorgeous!

There is nothing like some girl time featuring wine and hair cuts.

We loved being able to sit and share meals with everyone.

The mornings started off cool but eventually warmed up enough for us to get the suits on.

The girls enjoyed some time on the boat…what the picture doesn’t show is that the boat is still on the lift.  Hey, it still felt that we were on the water.

Matilda slept most of the weekend.

Eliza wasn’t too sure about the sea-doo.Kirk had his first rafting experience as well!

Hot Enough to Boil Shrimp

Last weekend our friends hosted their second annual shrimp boil.  It was a warm night with hot food, but it was oh so delicious!  Eliza spent the night with her Gram and Papa so Kirk and I enjoyed a night out together (which may be our last for a while).  Shrimp, corn, Andouille sausage, potatoes, onions, lots of Old Bay, and Bell’s Oberon – hard to top!

There’s nothing like eating off of paper with only your fingers!

Grilled peaches and ice cream for dessert.

Tony found some paper lanterns at a fireworks store and we sent one off.  It was beautiful to see it go up at night, and amazing how far away you can see the flame.

We took a picture of our house church before the two new members arrive.  Laura went into labor four days after this was taken with their son Riley.  We hope that we can join the club in the next few days!  We were also excited to celebrate Tony and Meredith getting engaged!