Goodbye 2016

We sure enjoyed our Christmas and hope you did too! Our holiday was filled with the usual Rescue Mission and church events but we also had the added joy of celebrating with old friends from out-of-town this year.

Rudy is good buddies with Joyce the camerawoman from our local ABC news station and tried hard to use his insider connections to steal the stage during an interview with Dad at the SBRM Christmas Feast.

The Zovaks have lived overseas most of our kids’ lives so it was particularly fun to see the kids reconnect!

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Rudy’s favorite SBRM donation of the season!!!

We made the most of every second of Christmas Day (nearly pulling an all-nighter) as we got up before dawn the following day to make our departure for the airport at 4:30am! We traveled to Key Largo, FL for a Geyling family reunion…big trips like this are uncommon for us, especially around the holidays, but we enjoyed the opportunity to connect with Rolf’s family (many of whom Rudy and I haven’t seen in 5 years) and see a part of the country none of us have been to before. Rudy traveled well and enjoyed 4 days of non-stop cousin fun!!

Rudy discovered the joy of boating this trip…on small ones…

…and big ones! (with Captain Gavin on a snorkeling cruise)

drc_photo_0020 — Olivia, once again, made friends with dolphins at the Grassy Key Dolphin Research Center…

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And the big boys discovered the joy of jet skis!

We packed in a lot of fun in the four days we were with Rolf’s family…a great end to 2016 making fun memories to cherish for years to come (Thank you Oma!!)!! Bye, Bye 2016!