Rock Ridge Kids: 2021

Friday, December 24, 2021

Christmas Piano Recital

Every year around this time, our kids participate in a Christmas piano recital, just for fun. Here are their videos from this year's recital. Enjoy!

Ryan playing "Angels We Have Heard on High"
https://youtu.be/ayiCfrulDXA

Kara playing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"

https://youtu.be/Hhw057CZvxs

Jenna playing "O Holy Night"

https://youtu.be/M9neWVje0ls

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Luke is a member of the Northwest Iowa Symphony Youth Orchestra, and spends his Saturday mornings rehearsing at Northwestern College. Here are a few songs from around the world that they performed at their fall concert recently. Enjoy! :)

The first song is a South African folk tune "Ewe, Thina", which translates to "We Walk His Way".
https://youtu.be/XWRJAVXAr5Y

"Country Hoedown" is an American song that sounds just like it's title.

https://youtu.be/76qf4kA6g5I

And last but not least, the classic "Finale from Symphony No. 5" by Beethoven.
https://youtu.be/dpJd3JLzmA0

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Kara Honors Band

A couple of weeks ago, Kara played her alto saxophone in the Northwest Iowa Middle School Honor Band Festival in Storm Lake. After a big day of rehearsing, they performed a beautiful concert. Here are a couple of songs from the evening. Enjoy!

(Kara is on the right side, sitting on the end, wearing a black top with a brown skirt.)

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing - https://youtu.be/DVUNfB87Ti0

Mad Dash - https://youtu.be/jVrDrgLaqGM

Thursday, November 4, 2021

Fall 2021

It's been a while, but all is well! Here's a long overdue update of life over on Rock Ridge Road...

With the rest of the kids all at school 3 days a week, Hannah is thoroughly enjoying being Mom's big helper and primary frosting taste-tester.☺

She also enjoys having Mary home to play with 2 days a week!

"Helping" Mom water the flowers

Luke turned 14 and got his learner's permit. He's now been promoted to driving the family to church on Sundays!

He also ran cross country with his buddies Collin & Levi.

Kara auditioned for our area's junior high honor band, and will be participating in the concert this coming Saturday. We had a fun day in Storm Lake with...
Sam, Bryce, Colton, Kierra, Lanae
Kara, Keely, Ali & Skyler

Our Dykstra cousins came to visit over our teachers' convention break, and we made lots of fun memories together!
Here are Hannah, Bekah & Mary doing some coloring.

Levi and Ryan played some intense games of chess.

The girls had fun visiting Jenna in her dorm at Dordt.💜

Hannah playing at the park.

She loves to play dress up too!

And last but not least, Evan turned 16 and got his driver's license! He's no longer driving the family to church, but he's more than willing to drive anywhere else for any reason!😉

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Back to School

Summer has flown by, and here we are at the start of a new school year!
Lots of firsts for our family this fall... not only the first day of school, but Mary's first day of Kindergarten, the first time for our grade schoolers to ride the "bus" to school, and Jenna's first day of college!

We hope and pray that each of them will have a blessed school year, and that they will continue to grow in grace and wisdom and love for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

First day of school at NWIPRS
Mary, Ryan, Kara & Luke

Mary's first day of Kindergarten

First time riding the bus to school

Evan's first day of sophomore year at Trinity CHS

Jenna's all moved in at Dordt and her first day of classes is today!

Friday, June 18, 2021

Waco Trip

Our 20th Anniversary is coming up in August, and since we have a lot going on around that time, we decided to take a quick little early anniversary trip a couple of weeks ago. We flew into Dallas and headed south to Waco, Texas!

First stop was to pick up our rental car... a 2020 Ford Mustang Convertible, which was a very fun car to drive around in! :)

We stayed in Waco that night, and had a delicious breakfast at Magnolia Table the next morning. If you're a Fixer Upper fan, you'll recognize this sign and many of the iconic Magnolia locations pictured below. :)

"The good ol' days are still to come"

Guests at Magnolia Table are encouraged to leave their phones in these leather pockets while they eat, focusing their attention on their friends and family and the yummy food. :)

Next stop, the Silos!

Playing a little wiffle ball at Katy Park

Selfie with the renovated old church in the background

Silos Baking Co.

The Strawberries & Cream and Silobration cupcakes were amazing!

It was 75 and cloudy... perfect weather for exploring Waco with the top down! :)

The Little Shop on Bosque

The shotgun house (from a favorite Fixer episode ;)

That afternoon we drove back to Dallas, where we enjoyed a spectacular view of the Dallas skyline from our hotel room.

The mirror in the bathroom had a TV in it... we had never seen this before, and had to text a picture of it to our kids. ;)

We did some exploring in downtown Dallas as well, and enjoyed the outdoor skydeck of the Reunion Tower, seen in the top left corner of this picture

View of our hotel from the Skydeck. Kinda neat that you could see the infinity pool on the bottom left, which was actually located on the 4th floor of the hotel.

View of the Reunion Tower from our hotel room at night. The lights changed colors, and it was beautiful!

We're very thankful for (almost) 20 wonderful years of marriage, and for a quick little pre-anniversary get-away! (And we're also thankful that our kids did great at home by themselves while we were gone. ;)