Christmas Letter 2013

2013

Dear Friends & Family,

The snow is falling outside – it seems that this snowfall may stick around for a while.  It is the perfect day to sit inside and work on our Christmas cards & letter!

As we reflected on this past year, we realized the many miracles in our lives. 

Matt is still with Option Health, delivering durable home medical equipment (going on 8 years).  He continues to love his work and his patients.  There have been some upsetting cuts (jobs esp.) this year. We praise God that Matt’s job has been preserved thus far and pray that continues to be the case for the upcoming year(s).  In March, Matt was driving his work van on an ice-covered country road.  A gust of wind toppled his van into a deep ditch, flipping the van 1 ½ times.  While the roll over totaled his vehicle, Matt walked away without a scratch!  Miracles do happen!

In June, the family headed out on vacation to South Dakota.  We spent a fun-filled week together.  However, on the last day, Becki woke up at 3:00 am with immense back pain.  Two ER visits and 1 hospital stay later (4 days total), she was released to travel home.  Suffering from a kidney stone and infection, her counts were very low and she was told that she was very close to going septic.  We didn’t realize how drastic this was until talking with the local doctor, after the fact.  Yep, miracles do happen! Due to Becki’s basic health insurance and the fact that she was out of state/network, the hospital bills reached over $30,000 (out-of-pocket amount)!  After an amazing fundraiser at work (Chick-fil-A where she is the Office Manager), generous donations from friends (and people we have never met) and write-offs done by the hospital(s) and doctor’s offices, we owe a little over $15,000.  We plug away at this as much as possible every month and praise God for providing for our needs along the way. 

Our four little miracles are still keeping us on our toes!  They will share a bit about themselves:

My name is Madeline. I’m 7 ½ .  And my favorite things that I like to do are play outside, baby dolls, go to Wall Drug, having my birthday parties, going to the Mall of America, church, ABC, 123, 2^nd grade, school, friends, dress up, mom, dad, the Lodge, parks, zoo, date nights, dancing, singing, eating, Nook, Lego, going on bus, coloring, hiking and ice cream.  I like also to cook with Mom. 

Hi, my name is Will. I am 7 ½. I go to Roosevelt School and am in 2^nd Grade. And I want to share with you what I like to do, First, I like Lego Star Wars, and to play with my sisters, and help other people.  I like to go to Church, and to worship God. And I like to dance. I hope you have a happy holiday.

Hi, my name is Alex.  I’m 9 ½ years old.  I enjoy school and going on trips.  I still go to speech at school.  I loved Wall Drug and Mall of America!  This summer I went to my first church camp and LOVED it!  I like to try different kinds of food but don’t like sea water and heights!

Hi, Katie here! I am going to Woodrow Wilson Middle School now! I am obsessed with river otters right now for no apparent reason. Okay, they ARE cute, I’ll give you that! I started working towards my Timothy Award in AWANA this year, and I finished in 6 AWANA meetings! I have done great in school this year and have gotten on the High Honors list on the honor roll, AND I made it to the finals in the school spelling bee. I am involved in Student Congress and Academic Team as well.  I went to two camps this year and made many new friends, including one I LOVE to pen pal!

I love looking back over a year and seeing God’s hand at work.  It has been extremely visible this year!  Of course, the biggest miracle is the Miracle of Jesus Christ’s life here on earth.  From His birth in a lowly manger to His death and resurrection, we are reminded of His ultimate sacrifice – for us!  Take a moment this Christmas season to stop and reflect on miracles in your life and look to the eternal hope we have in Jesus, the greatest miracle of all!

Lots of Love to you!

The Hart Family

Matt, Becki, Katie, Alex, Will & Maddie

2321 25^th Street, Moline, IL  61265

309-764-2347

www.hartx6.blogspot.com

Peoria - Festival of Lights

We had a beautiful, fall-like day in early December.  We headed to Peoria to see the Festival of Lights!  We left early enough in the day to letterbox.

We headed to Peoria via I-80, which is a bit longer than our normal I-74.  While letterboxing a few months ago, Matt found this tower and thought it would be a great place to bring the kids and launch their parachute men!

As we walked up to the tower, we quickly realized that the tall (very tall!) grass could pose a problem!  We decided to give it a try though, in hopes that the parachutes would float straight down.  Here are Katie, Alex & Matt - ready to launch the first round!

There was a slight breeze, so after that stopped, they set the parachutes to sail!

Unfortunately, they didn't go very far!

Oh my goodness!  We were laughing so hard at this!  What are the odds that one would get snagged on the crossbeam?  Let alone both of them! This next picture should give you a bit of perspective - it was pretty high up still!  We tried a couple of things with no luck.  Then Matt walked to the van and brought back one of our IKEA umbrellas.  After a far stretched reach with his body and the umbrella, he was able to snag both parachutes. 

The kids enjoyed the view and the "Free binoculars!!". 

 

Maddie (and Becki) are both afraid of heights.  While Becki opted to not go up, Maddie really wanted to, just was scared.  After much coaching, Maddie made it to the top with Matt. 

We left the tower and headed south towards Peoria. 

 Once there, we walked along the river in East Peoria on this boardwalk.

We found the letterbox, had a quick hike and enjoyed the beautiful area along the river.  Afterwards, we headed to a see the lights at Festival of Lights and then ate at Tyroni's - our traditional stop for dinner.  The kids enjoyed watching Christmas cartoons on the way home.  It was a wonderful start to our Christmas Season!

Christmas Ornaments - 2013

We decorated the tree over Thanksgiving weekend.  As always, the first ornaments to go on the tree are the new "honorary" ornaments to commemorate that year.  Here are the chosen ornaments for 2013!

Katie showing off her new "Otter" ornament to her stuffed otters!

Alex went to Camp Harvest this year with the 4th & 5th graders from church.  She had a blast!  This years ornament is a tye-dye shirt (they made tye-dye shirts while there).  It says, "Camp Harvest June 2013" on one side and has a picture of Alex with her roommates and leader on the other side.

For Will - he was pretty sure he knew what he was getting (and he was right!).  So, we tricked him with this rocket ship! 

His real ornament for this year is a Star Wars Lego ornament with Yoda.  Definitely fits Will this year!

For Maddie, we found this Fennic Fox ornament.  The Fennic Fox has always been a family favorite from Niabi Zoo.  This past spring, Maddie did a report on the Fennic Fox and has since fallen completely in love with them!

We have just started with our Christmas traditions - let the fun times begin!!

Taking Advantage of a Beautiful Fall Day

Unfortunately, our beautiful fall days are numbered and will soon give way to cold, dreary winter days!  With Matt working extra on call shifts for the last few months...and the next few months!...we took advantage of last Sunday's beautiful weather and headed to Rockford to find some letterboxes.  We decided to drive along the Rock River (Rt 2) in hopes of finding some beautiful trees.  We were disappointed to find that most of the trees had lost their leaves. 

Our first stop was the lookout at Castle Rock State Park.  It entails climbing a "couple" of stairs...but the view is worth the exercise!

After grabbing some lunch in Rockford, we headed to Roland Olsen Forest Preserve to try to find a letterbox.  Unfortunately, the only thing we found were BURRS!  Not a fun souvenir to take home!

We hiked two trails at Rock Cut State Park (as well as driving the loop of the park - it is a beautiful park!) and found 2 boxes.  We also got "schooled" in horse etiquette as our kids weren't making enough noise!!  I guess this frustrates me because the women was angry at my kids for not making themselves known to them (a quarter mile up and around a bend).  Ever since we started hiking, we have told the kids to enjoy nature - the beauty and the SILENCE of it!  So, they were doing what we've taught them and they get scolded.  We also (quickly) realized that we don't enjoy hiking equestrian trails due to the piles of horse poop!  We didn't really get to enjoy the hike persay...

After hiking at Rock Cut, we let the kids play for a while at this park near Rockford...check out the shadow picture from 4 years ago!

We stopped for dinner and then made a quick letterboxing stop at Nicholas Conservatory in Rockford.  While Matt found the box, I had the kids pose for some pictures.

Unless we get some weird weather, we probably are done with day trips for the year.  : (  Now is the time to hunker down for Christmas and the long winter ahead!

Princess Diana Exhibit

 My mom gave us girls a special treat this week.  She took us to see the Princess Diana exhibit which is being held at a local museum (Putnam).  The curators did an amazing job putting this exhibit together!  We all loved seeing her dresses (there was a whole room dedicated to her clothing) and especially her wedding dress.  There was a lot of reading (which us adults found very interesting), but the girls were constantly ready to move on!  It was very moving to go through all the rooms that eventually led to her funeral.  It was emotional, to say the least.  Obviously, the girls didn't understand why I was crying...maybe one day they will. 

Minnesota & The Mall of America

Last spring, we promised the kids that we would travel to Minnesota to shop and play at the Mall of America.  Instead of spending money for birthday parties, we put some money aside to use for our time at the Mall.  We looked at our calendar and decided to wait until after school started.  We decided the best time to go would be Columbus Day Weekend.  Even with all of the medical bills we were paying, we decided to go through with our original plans.  We had a big garage sale and used the proceeds from that to follow through on our promise to the kids.  We contacted some friends from the Twin Cities and they graciously hosted us for the weekend.  We started our weekend by heading out at 6 am Saturday morning.  One of our stops was at this rest area on I-380 (click through the pictures, it is a really cool stop!).  It was redone in 2012 to honor artist Grant Wood. 

 We made another stop along the way in Clear Lake, IA to visit the wreckage site of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and "The Big Bopper". 

After some history lessons of Grant Wood & "The Day the Music Died", we traveled into Minnesota...only to be stopped by construction!  We took a detour and found our way to the Mall.  We shopped to our hearts content...okay, we didn't really, but we browsed a lot!!  We had made a reservation at Rainforest Cafe and went to eat.  That was a fun experience for all of us.

After eating, we walked back to the Lego store and The American Girl store so the kids could spend their money (selling some of their old toys!). 

We ended our Saturday night in Minnesota by driving to the home of Dartmoor Dreamer (Karrie & Patrick).  They were such a blessing to us all weekend!  Not only did they open their house for the weekend, they shared their Lego collection with the kids, cooked meals for us and were wonderful company!

Sunday morning started with a delicious pancake & bacon breakfast.  We then headed to the Mall to play at the Sea Life Aquarium and Nickelodeon Universe. 

We rode a few rides as a family - including the Pepsi Orange Streak (roller coaster) and the Jimmy Neutron's Atomic Collider.  We soon realized that some of our kids LOVE the thrill of the ride, while others don't! We were blessed by a few extra tickets for rides & tickets to the rope course after we sat out a few rounds on the Orange Streak to allow a handicapped women and her son to ride.  It was a blessing to us to see her riding - we were surprised when the employee handed us the tickets and thanked us for giving up our seats!

We ended our day back in North St. Paul finding a few letterboxes and taking the kids picture with the big snowman!

Monday morning - a gloomy start, but it ended up being a great day to head south on the Great River Road.  We stopped in the small town of Pepin to pay tribute to the Ingalls' family.  Here are the kids enjoying the wayside stop of the log cabin of Laura Ingalls. 

Pit stop in Boscobel, WI to find a letterbox

Fennimore, WI

We ended our trip by getting home around 7:30 Monday evening (after leaving MN around 8:30).  It was a long day of traveling and we were all happy to be out of the van at that point!  A big thank you again to Karrie & Patrick.  Without your hospitality, our trip would not have been possible.  God Bless you!!