Boll Family Visit

Just before Thanksgiving we had the joy of hosting some dear friends from Montana at our new Texas home. Our connections with the Boll family date back to our college days, so this family's visit was very special! It was so wonderful to spend parts of three days with them catching up and showing them around our new home. The Montana guys relished in the warm Texas weather while Jaden and Cody had their naptime. Jason loved the chance to toss around a football with his good buddy.

After Jaden and Cody woke up, we took the Bolls on a quick tour of our new church and then visited our favorite tire park. Noah was a pretty good climber!

Seven-year-old Noah and (almost) five-year-old Micah were wonderful playmates for Jaden and Cody. The four boys loved building, pretending, game-playing, wrestling, and playing hide-and-seek. They got along quite well during our time together.

The adults, of course, had some fun bonding times too. We cherished our time just lounging on the couch visiting but also played a few games as well. Jenn and I didn't get a picture of it, but we enjoyed a late night out on the town, watching the final Hunger Games movie. We had been movie partners for the other three movies in the series, so it was only fitting that we watch the last one together.  Jonathan and Jason bonded over late-night video games and a breakfast favorite, Cracklin' Oat Bran.

Our main outing during the Bolls' visit was to Galveston beach. Even though the November weather was a bit cool for playing in the water, we still enjoyed our experience. Noah and Micah had never before seen the ocean, so we figured the trip had to be done. The boys seemed to be impressed! 

Noah, Jenn, Jonathan, Micah

The seagulls were quite pleased that we remembered to bring along some bread for them. Within seconds of tossing the first piece of bread, we had TONS of flying friends!

Jason and Jonathan, of course, tossed around a football....

... and we all took some time to wade through the gulf waters.

Noah collected a few seashells near the water, too.

 After getting wet, the wind was a bit cool for everyone, but we all warmed up a bit during our picnic lunch.

After our beach visit, we drove over to the Galveston ferry. The boys loved watching the cars load and unload.

Then, we all took a ride on the ferry. We LOVE that this experience is free! I'm not sure if it was the cooler weather, the time of day, or the season of the year, but the conditions that day were just perfect for seeing dolphins in the waters. We saw so many, we lost count! It was great that the dolphins were so easy for all four boys to spot.

Cody and Jaden loved that Noah was willing to be goofy with them along the ride. :)

Our only complaint about the Bolls' visit was that it was far too short. We cherished our time with these dear friends and were so thankful for their visit! We love you, Boll family!