Zoo fun

A week or so ago, we made a trip to the Fort Wayne Zoo. The African Exhibit was completely revamped and definitely worth a visit. The weather was beautiful, but the sun was a little hot on Adam's newly shorn head. His hair ended up being a little shorter than he had planned on, but he now knows the error of his ways and has taken note for future self-haircuts. I think he looks awesome with or without hair! Here are pictures for your viewing pleasure:

The Monkeys were Adam's favorite!

I think Rachel is practing her monkey face!

I don't know what these flowers were, but they were BEAUTIFUL!

And THESE too!!

It's Indiana Todd!!

Sorry, I'm too tired to rotate this one...

Jelly Fish!!

Just yesterday

Phoenix Arizona, 1992 ***It truly feels like yesterday

Daniel just looked at the picture and said, "I remember that chair; I was just sitting on it." :)

You've just gotta love the mauve from the 80s/90s. The color's not so great anymore, but the chair is still going strong. Random, I know...

I'm just missing a certain someone who's not home this summer...

Small Town Life

Small town life has its disadvantages, sure, but there are also advantages and things that just put a smile on your face, like this message on our answering machine yesterday:

"Hi, it's Tyler from Pizza Hut. I just found out yesterday that we're getting an ice cream machine, and I thought to myself 'First thing Tuesday morning, I'm going to call the McLaughlins,' so I just thought I'd let you know. Have a great day."

With just a handful of eating establishments in our small town, when Pizza Hut took over the neighboring storefront and went from carry-out only to adding a small dining room, we along with many other residents were quite thrilled. Wednesday night is buffet night, and we've been pretty regular in our attendance. They have the best salad bar!

Anyway, Tyler is one of the managers, and a great one at that. You just know that if Tyler is there, the buffet will be fully stocked and ready to go. For the past year or so since the dining room opened Todd has commented upon leaving that as good as the food is, it would be better with a little ice cream to top it off.

Well, after much begging, the ice cream machine is a reality, Todd's happy, and I think I even hear the Cheers theme playing in the background.

Grandma's visit

Mom came to visit over spring break, and we had a wonderful visit. She got to see all of our family and Mark and Jeni's, squeezing in a visit with Calvin before we left for the airport. Poor Calvin had to spend spring break in Destin, Florida... Here are some highlights of her visit:

Sunday, we headed up to South Bend to catch up with Todd Jr who was leading worship at a new church and got to spend a couple hours with him after church.



Tuesday we headed out shopping with Jeni and Kelly and ended up at Olive Garden for lunch. Can you say "Unlimited Soup, Salad and Breadsticks?" Mmmmm...





Wednesday evening we met Adam and Rachel for dinner in Fort Wayne.

Thursday evening, Mark, Jeni and Kelly came over for dinner.

Saturday, mom and I went to Adam's soccer tournament at University of St. Francis. It was a ccccold and wwwindy day!! We were able to spend quite a bit of time with Adam in between the games which was really nice!

We had a great time while she were here, and it went way too fast, and YES, everything we did involved eating (and I have the pictures to document it!) :)

Cruise to Cozumel

It seems like just a dream already, and we haven't even been back a week yet.

We left early New Years Eve morning and drove to New Orleans where we hopped on the Carnival Fantasy for a four-day cruise to Cozumel. It was a lot of fun, and the sun felt great! Lots of food and lots of laughter!!! We arrived back home at 3:00am Tuesday morning. It was a great trip, but as always, it's great to be home!!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Christmas Rundown

It's hard to believe the holidays are all wrapped up and in the history book, so to speak. We kept it very simple this year and just enjoyed the time with family and friends.

Mark, Jeni, Calvin and Kelly came over Christmas day. We had prime rib, ham and all the fixins, ate too much and then played. Tom and Josiah came over for the evening, but Kerrie had to work, so we were missing her. We played video games and euchre and laughed and laughed and laughed some more...

We decided to switch it up a little bit this year and made the guys do a little "treasure hunt" to find their gifts. I don't know how much they enjoyed it, but we sure enjoyed watching them!

Kelly, Mark and Daniel

Mark and Jeni
Look at how much I'm enjoying playing XBox 360

Adam's smile is a result of watching Jeni's attempt at Pacman.

Smile, Mark!

Crafty Kelly!

Daniel, Kelly and Todd




Tom and Todd!

Photo Catch-Up

All of the photos in my digital camera have been screaming to get out and be published, so here it goes - a rewind from the past couple of months...

Over Daniel's birthday weekend, Adam had a game up at Moody in Chicago, so we packed up and headed up to Chicago for the weekend... We left early and captured the sunrise...

Adam scored the winning goal of the game...

Huntington's homecoming game...

The next weekend, we headed up to Mishawaka as Todd was helping lead worship in a church up there and got to hang out with Todd for the day. We went to a corn maze and pumpkin patch...

I had the privilege of accompanying Daniel's class to Mississinewa for the re-enactment of the War of 1812. It was quite fun...

Look at the sea of kids waiting for the re-enactment to start...

Senior night for South Adams football... Yeah, Calvin!

More soccer...

November 1 Todd played the piano for Lara Sprunger and Mike's wedding. It was a beautiful, God-focused wedding! Ashley got to come spend the weekend with us, too!

Last Friday night was homecoming for Bethel. Todd was nominated for the Junior Class court. We got to go watch the "pageant" and hang out at Starbucks for a little while...

And now I think I'm all caught up, for now :) ...