Christmas 2015 - Florida Rileys

Making some gnocchis 24 Dec 15

And eating them!

One of Josh's presents was a 50 ft rope we put to immediate use climbing up and between some big trees with the neighborhood kids

It was so muggy on Christmas Day we went to the beach and enjoyed the breeze.  Here's Josh with his kite and Alicia ...

And Eliza and Rachel

Eliza and Rachel- brave enough for the cold water.

Big news from Isaac and Sandra, who got engaged 24 Dec in Germany.  Sandra's family is from Germany, and they are staying there over the Christmas break.  We got to meet her family a bit over Skype.  They are planning a May wedding in Bern!

Highlight of Christmas Day was talking to Madison! She looks and sounds great, and sends us details each week of all the people she's meeting and neat experiences she's creating.  It was hard to limit to 40 minutes, but great to see her.  She finishes in May, so Alicia and I are hoping to meet up with her and go to Isaac's wedding together.

 Here are a few (relatively) recent pics I've been meaning to share, to update you with what the Florida Rileys have been up to.





Josh was awarded his Life rank- Yea!

Eliza's mission in NL is almost over!  Alicia is going to meet her in Netherlands and enjoy seeing her mission areas.

Rachel making some cash (and getting her weekly harassment from her dad) at Smoothie King.  She still hasn't got me a family or military discount, or named all the flavors for me.



A sand message "We love our sister missionaries."Family dinner before my deployment.  Had to try someone elses's gnocchis- not bad.

 Isaac's still enjoying BYU, teaching at MTC, learning multiple languages.  Here with his frauline friend Sandra, from Stuttgart.  And me with my sweetie in Destin.

Madi is still doing great work in Albania. She send us lots of great pictures of her friends and the Adriatic coastline.

Josh's Homecoming group- lots of nice kids from the ward

Rachel's Homecoming group- another bunch of great kids.


Love to you all!

Here are a few pics from the FL Riley family before and after the camping at Mt Timpanogos campground during our trip to UT/ID/WY

 We enjoyed going to the beautiful new Payson temple with Mom- beautifult tiling, etched glass, native landscaping ...

 Rachel and Josh on our hike of Y Mountain to get a good view of Provo and UT valley.

 Checking out BYU-I, got a picture to send Madi.  Rachel wanted to see both BYU Provo and Rexburg, so we had tours of both.

 A Bald eagle we saw along the Snake River

 Rafting on the Snake River near Jackson, WY.  It was a beautiful, memorable day.  Mountains, river, sunshine, happy kids.  I'll daydream of this when I am re-writing performance reports in my windowless office next week.

 Our last activity was a dinner and music show in Jackson.  The singing was good and we ate well.

We had a little time to see the sights on Temple Square.  Not a big deal for you locals, but fun for us out-of towners.

Family Reunion 2015!

We had a great time camping and eating and hiking and playing games this summer, and catching up on the latest from 6 of the Bros!  It was rumored that there would be a common shared file established for swapping pics.  Until then, here are a few pictures of our gathering, also to share with Dad and Darren and Pat.

 Beautiful hikes on E Side of Mt Timpanogos

 Ben's talents being shared around the campfire

 Cory brought fun instruments so we had many cousins playing along with his digeridoo.  Hopefully the other campers will forgive us for the disturbances to the peace in the mountains.

 A few of the cousins braved the cold water of Stewart Falls after a warm hike to get there.

 Isaac photo-bombing Audrey, Ivy, and Mara

 Ben and Josh

 Bubble-blowing contest- thanks Nick and Julie!

 Good eats- cheesy potatoes and chicken cacciatore

 Olivia and Ivy

 Keyan's Fam and Mom at a park in Provo Canyon discussing their favorite healthy foods :)

 Olivia and Elyse and Ezra sharing a little cousin time

 Sistas (in law).

 Mo Sistas

 Sam trying out a new instrument

 Shane, Audrey, Molly, Nick, Keyan, Isaac

So fun- but I am sure there a lot of other good pics to share.  Feel free to add them here or send them to me if you want them on this blog (more private than Facebook)

Thanks to everyone who contributed firewood, games, ideas, music, What about Bob quotes, money, enthusiasm, camping gear, and making time to be there!  Love you all- Lyrad

May Niceville news

Greetings, family.  I assume Alicia sends you all links to our missionary girls' weekly news and pictures.  Here are a few shots of the rest of us.

 Keyan, like the infamous "cat who came back" just keeps showing up in Niceville every few weeks.  And we love it.  Here he made it to a funeral for a sweet lady he and I both home taught over the past few years.  I tried to fill in for him after he left. I really like his suit.

 Josh again taking his (homemade) boat out on Boggy Bayou.  If you can't read the name, I thought it was sweet of him to name it the Sarah Elizabeth after two of his sisters.

 Lyrad and Alicia at Crystal Beach.  Though we live 15 minutes away we rarely go enjoy it, so here we are enjoying a date (while Josh went to see the new Avengers movie in a nearby mall.  I had a feeling the good guys would predictable win again after each getting blown up a few dozen times, so I chose to watch the waves instead.)

 We had some water leaking behind the poorly installed backsplash in our rented home.  So I tried to do something I had never done before- install tile.  If was kind of fun, but like most of my projects, took longer than anticipated.

 Alicia held a little recital for her piano students this afternoon. Josh is in the back, but looks about the same as in the picture above.

Another time Keyan stopped by at Eglin hospital.

We are looking forward to seeing almost all of you in a  few weeks in UT!  If you have any fun family pics to share, please post them here! Or send them to me to post for you.   Love- Lyrad