Courageous Joy: Apr 6, 2024

Saturday, April 06, 2024

Game Night at Jamin's

Jamin hosted a family game night at his apartment in Eagle River tonight. It was my first time to see his apartment since he'd had it totally remodeled and updated. It's cute. Now, we just need to visit his new studio. LOL

Allie opted to stay home and work on her upcoming project and weekly assignments. Stacia has time management down to a science and was able to plan the breakaway time earlier in the week/month/year. LOL Alex texted he would stay with GG, which was a great offer as I've not been able to participate in past game nights. However, Allie really needed to stay home and that allowed us to go, and her to have much more quiet space of time to be productive. AND frees her up to enjoy Sunday rather than having to cram homework into the schedule.

Jamin provided pizza and we all brought snacks. Us, Jenni, Nolan, Carrie and the girls, and Jared and Noah were able to make tonight's fun. I didn't take many photos but here are a few.

We talked through a deck of ice-breaker type questions Jamin had and then we played "Pick Your Poison." It was a fun night. I didn't consider photos I should have taken...but here are a few that I did click.

Jamin, Jenni, Josi, Livie, Stacia

Note Jamin has an impressive array of Alaska wildlife represented in his space. He has a stuffed animal of the cat variety beside the fireplace as you walk into the door. Noah had spent the afternoon/ day with Jared. They went shopping, knocked on some doors, did some campaign stuff and climbed 3 floors of stairs to the tip top of the building Jamin owns. LOL I suspect he had some assist with the stairs, but he burst through the door as big as life. I wish I'd been in place to get a photo of Noah when he noticed the cat standing beside him ...bigger than him, stretching up and out. It was classic. He seemed perplexed as to whether he should pet him or back away... the animal looked a bit like Bleeker, but didn't move or act like Bleeker. I also missed photos of Michael and Carrie.

I "sort of" got a picture of Nolan (and Stacai)

Noah was intrigued with Josi.

Cousins! Noah and Josi.

Jared and Noah

The moose looks a bit intimidating so close to Liv...but the bear would have been more alarming! LOL

This was a fun night. Now that we know Alex likes to occasionally skip and stay in town, we'll be checking in with him on future game nights. It was a lot of fun for Michael and I both to be able to be out with the kids. GG isn't going to make it up 3 flights of stairs.

It's been a full day!

GRACE NOTE:

1. Connections - with family and friends.

Bella is Turning 8

Bella Turns 8 on April 12th! That feels unreal! In some ways it's gone so quickly and in other ways life has totally transitioned since her birth. LOL Bella is a social butterfly, is mastering phonics, is a wonderful big sister to her four siblings, and a big help to Bre. Bella sparkles. She has a way of drawing people to her and that is never more evident than on her birthday.

Today was Bella's friend party, though several family members crashed the party at her invitation. LOL Her theme was ice cream - or that's the theme I picked up on. Bre made darling cupcakes in ice cream cones, there were little dishes of ice cream and ice cream toppings, and even a photo booth featuring an ice cream truck.

Annie's feet, Nolan, Stacia, Jamin, Andrew, Lorelai

Izaak and Trudy

Allie, Stacia and I went over. A highlight was seeing several friends from MAG.

Bre, Rebekah, Melany

Bella was dressed in an ice cream dress, be watching for more shots of it...but here you can see the sprinkles on top.

Annie, Bella, Gideon

Melany, Andrea and me

Kids and Hope

Nolan and Stacia

Jenni and Joelle (Jenni's sister)

Ketziah, Leah, Morgan and Jojo

The girls are pushing on a big school project this weekend - in between all the social activities. We had agreed we would stay an hour and so we popped out. Bre sent photos from the photo booth. We totally missed it.