Busch Gardens!

I have been dying to go to an amusement park since having Lilly. Thanks to being pregnant for half of the last 4 years I haven't been able to ride the more exciting and crazy rides that I love. I was excited at the beginning of the summer when Busch Gardens had a deal to get a free ticket for preschoolers. We got one for Reaghan just in case we had the chance to go, and I really, REALLY wanted to go but Mark wasn't super excited about the idea. He's not into crowds and Reaghan isn't an adventurous little girl so it could've been completely possible we would get there and she wouldn't ride anything all day! I kept arguing that even if Reaghan didn't ride any rides *I* was really in the mood to ride some roller coasters! {Like, I didn't care if Reaghan liked it, I just wanted to go for me! Kidding. Sort of. Of course I wanted her to have fun too ;)} Of course even if she did like and we went, then one of us would have to sit with the kids while the other stood in line to ride a coaster - and I'll admit that didn't sound fun. The summer went on and I really hadn't been thinking about it much because it just seemed like it wasn't going to happen this year, until I saw an ad online about Busch Gardens having 50% off tickets! Oh Yea! I convinced Mark to go and we ended up getting my parents and siblings on board too! {And Aunt Linda who has been staying with my parents this summer and my cousin Lindy who is living with my parents while she goes to school here in Virginia Beach!}

Ohio

A couple weeks ago we had to take an unexpected trip to Ohio for my Uncle Brian's funeral. Uncle Brian was my dad's younger brother who unfortunately suffered with a lot of health issues during his life including a brain injury and epilepsy. While he wasn't in the best of health towards the end of his life and was preparing to have a back surgery, it was an accidental fall that complicated things. He suffered a brain bleed from his fall that caused more injury to his brain and while they were making plans for long term rehab they discovered extensive cancer in his pancreas, liver and bones. This caused the doctors to change their course of action from rehabbing the brain injury to hospice care. It was only a matter of hours after my grandparents signed the DNR that he passed away.

My dad, Grandpa, Grandma and Uncle Brian {2015}

He Will Refresh the Weary

"I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint." 

Jeremiah 31:25

Do you ever feel like everything seems to come to a head all at once? Have you had one difficult, stressful thing happen and then right in the middle of trying to deal with that you're hit with another blow? And maybe even a 3rd or 4th? The ceiling is falling in on you and you just have to stand there and take it.

That's been my week.

Instant Pot Cheesecake!

I've only made a cheesecake one time before last night and it turned out less than stellar. Okay, it was pretty inedible. I don't really know what I did wrong, but it didn't taste good at. all.

After that experience I've been hesitant to try again, but I was looking for healthy dessert recipes recently and low carb cheesecakes kept popping up on my pinterest so I bought myself a new cheesecake pan and decided to try the recipe that used the instant pot - since my experience with the oven didn't turn out too well!