Vacation (Pt. 2)

When Mike returned from South Carolina we packed up the van again and headed to Seattle to visit and stay with Mike's brother, Tim. We didn't take any photos, but we had a great time crashing at Tim's bachelor pad. Next we stopped over at Lacy, WA to visit Mike's Uncle John and Aunt Marion. The kids LOVED all the wonderful sweet treats Marion bought for them :) Mike's cousin Alex, a fireman, took the kids on a tour of his station. We enjoyed every minute of John and Marion's hospitality. Next stop was home for a night, then on the road again to Waldport, OR for a 4 night stay at the beach. The highlight was visiting the tide pools and discovering all the ocean creatures. Weston especially loved this part of the trip.

The weather was not supposed to be good for our trip. The first day at Waldport I prayed and asked the Lord for some sunshine. The next 3 days were absolutely beautiful! We are so thankful for this special blessing.

Big moment! Weston played his first game of Catan with Mike. He was bummed to lose, but Mike said he did great for his first time.

At the tide pools near Yachats!

Notice the sea anemones and starfish.

Noah discovering a mommy and baby starfish.

Mermaid Grace with a starfish. Toward the end of our tide pool experience Grace stepped off a rock onto what looked like sand. She ended up in a tide pool up to her neck and even had seaweed in her hair. That was one of the biggest splashes and screams I've ever heard! The whole event was very dramatic (from Grace's point of view) and very hilarious (from my point of view). It was very difficult to pretend I wasn't laughing. Despite being cold and wet, I think she kinda enjoyed the extra attention. We now call her our little mermaid!

Weston, the tide monkey. This boy burned some major calories exploring the rocks.

Elsie enjoying the beach house trampoline.

Elsie and Noah enjoying the sunshine. Noah escaped after I took his diaper off. He was enjoying the fresh air. :)

Vacation (Pt. 1)

I'm so far behind on blogging it's tempting to give up. We've done so many fun things this summer I want to post photos of. Here goes!

In August Mike had to go back to South Carolina for a week for work. I packed the kids up and headed to Bend to stay with my parents. The highlight of our trip was Weston capturing and "taming" this lizard. I think the lizard must have been very stunned. The kids held him and played with him for over an hour. He even escaped once and Weston recaptured him. Even Grace and Elsie held him (Mommy did not).

Here's the lizard crawling on Noah's back.

The kids hangin' with Macy and the lizard in Bend.

I was pretty impressed with Grace's bravery!

Sherwood Robin Hood Festival

A few weekends ago my mom and I loaded the kids into the van and drove across Portland to the Sherwood Robin Hood Festival. We enjoyed an awesome parade (over an hour long with tons of candy thrown) and then attended the festival. This was all right up Weston's alley! The highlights were the kids' craft booth, free face-painting by a local church, a ventriloquist show (Grace laughed and laughed), and the Knights of Seattle who performed the Robin Hood play and also acted out sword fighting (Weston LOVED this!). We all had a great time and Noah even did well without a nap until we left at 4 pm!

Noah loved the parade. He clapped, cheered, and screamed in delight (especially for the horses and tractors)!

What a cute knight and maidens. I kind lady held Elsie up to the face hole while my mom held Weston up. Enjoy the photo...it took some effort!

YUCK!!!

Mike and I took all the kids to the park yesterday to enjoy the 1 day of sun we've had all month. Noah was just a bit ahead of me on the grass. Suddenly, he started fussing and trying to spit something out. I ran over and tried to figure out what he'd put in his mouth. I could see something yellowish in there. Of course, my mind was racing thinking of all the poisonous plants and seeds he could have eaten. Then I smelled it. There was dog poo on his hand and his shoe and IN HIS MOUTH (because, of course, if you step in something everybody knows you must lick it to see what it is)! In all my 7 years of being a mom, I have never had something so disgusting happen. I'm sure one day I'll think this is funny, but for now I'm still pretty concerned about all the horrible diseases and other things my 20 month-old could have picked up from this dog. I'm sure Noah will survive, but I'll bet you he'll never put THAT in his mouth again!

Little Laundry Man

My Laundry Sidekick!

Recently, I've been thinking of how to engage Noah in chores he's able to do at his age and size. I worry a bit about my 4th child coasting along and letting his siblings do all the work. I realized I'm going to have to be a bit more creative to find ways for Noah to help out and learn to work.
Unfortunately, our washing machine broke a few weeks ago which led to the purchase of a front-loading washing machine. Fortunately, this works out perfectly for Noah to both load and unload the washing machine and dryer as his chore. I let him push the buttons, empty the lint trap, and add the dryer sheet. He feels very special and loved it when I praised his "helping" in front of him to the family.

unloading the washing machine

He had to give his blanket a kiss before I strongly encouraged him to put it in the dryer :)

Photo Catch-Up!

I thought I'd do a quick catch-up of our photos since the Mexico trip. A little update on the past month :)

Our good friends, Scott and Amber, had their first baby about 10 days ago. Little Riley is beautiful and has already brought such joy to her parents and all who know them! Mike and I are privileged to call her our god-daughter and support Scott and Amber in raising her to know Jesus.

Mom and baby looking cute at the hospital!

Our kiddos started their first swimming lessons for the month of May. Their class is for 1/2 hour twice a week at Mt. Hood Community College. They are loving it!

Laelie is signed up for the same class, so Julie and I take turns doing the carpool and babysitting Noah and Tirien at home. It's working out well so far!

At the end of April we took a little trip to the zoo with our good friends, Elsa, Owen, Bennett and their mom, Jamie. We had a great time. Noah and Bennett were in their strollers, so they didn't make the photo.

We also took a trip to the Children's Museum as a family in April. The kids had a great time. It was very crowded and the germ-phobe in me wasn't too thrilled :)

I'll do a blog soon for Weston's 7th birthday. I have a 7 year-old!!! Where has the time gone?

New Beauticians

I went to 2 new beauticians last night. They were a little silly, but very sweet. I loved my new hairdo and makeup job and they even gave me a little scalp massage as a bonus. Their names were Rosalyn Rosie Rose and Hannah Mommy. They did my hair and makeup while wearing their pajamas. Their makeup was invisible but they applied it very carefully and gently. They giggled a lot. They used a spatula for a curling iron and got the round brush tangled in my hair more than once. They did my hair with about 30 barrettes and very carefully discussed which ones to choose and where to perfectly place them in my hair.
One of the beauticians is married to a prince but does hair and makeup on the side because "he doesn't give me any pennies or dimes to spend on clothes". The other beautician has a girl baby in her tummy and her husband has a boy baby in his tummy. This was all very interesting!
When it came time for me to leave they didn't even charge me! Rosalyn informed me they don't charge customers who come back to them all the time.
Overall, my beauty salon experience was wonderful and I will highly recommend these ladies! Best of all, their salon is right upstairs!

Vallarta Anniversary Trip

A few weeks ago Mike and I enjoyed the most wonderful vacation to Mexico to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary! We had such a relaxing and refreshing time together. Although our anniversary is not until June, it worked out for both sets of grandparents to babysit in April. Weston and Elsie spent the week in Spokane with Mike's parents and Grace and Noah spent the week in Bend with my parents. Mike and I had 7 whole nights all to ourselves (insert Hallelujah Chorus here)!!!
We were able to stay at the Grand Mayan Resort in Nuevo Vallarta (about 20 minutes North of Puerto Vallarta). We agreed it's the nicest place we've ever stayed (thanks to my parents for the use of the timeshare)!
By the end of the trip we were ready to come home to "real" life and missed the kids so much. Although it was a fantastic vacation, it was good to be reminded how blessed we are in our day-to-day, normal life. Although being home is much more difficult and full of work it is also very rewarding and fulfilling!

All week it was about 85 degrees and sunny! I like this photo above because it shows all the beautiful, tropical plants that covered the resort.

This is a photo of our kitchen/dining area. We had a two bedroom suite with a kitchen and a jacuzzi tub. Our balcony wasn't ocean view but had a private little pool and patio chairs.

We went into Puerto Vallarta for half a day. It was nice to visit and see a few things but we were more interested in relaxing and reconnecting in our marriage than we were in sightseeing. In the photo above we are standing on the Malecon in front of Banderas Bay.

Mike was very impressed by this Seahawks poncho and wanted a photo (not impressed enough to buy it though).

This is the cathedral in Puerto Vallarta. Mike took this photo.

The beach at Puerto Vallarta.

These are some of the resort pools from the view on the 4th floor. There were about 6 different pools at the resort as well as a lazy river (pool river at the bottom of the picture). You could jump on an inner-tube and the current would take you around all the other pools. It was fun to ride the tube around, especially when the wave machine was on! There were also 2 wave pools, a water slide and a pool with a water playground for the kids.

Another photo from the 4th floor. This one shows the wave pools, lagoon, ocean, and the Mayan ruin which is actually the tower the water slide comes out of.

Lazy river picture.

This is the kids' pool/playground. There were lots of families with young kids vacationing here. We were glad to be there without kids this time but would love to bring them at some point.

Mike and I visited a little surfing town called Sayulita for another half day. It was about 45 minutes North of Nuevo Vallarta. It was very small and had a laid-back feel. I think they were going to host the Mexican long boarding competition there the next day. The church in Sayulita.

Mike enjoying the sunset at on the beach in front of the resort. The night before I took this photo we enjoyed the most beautiful sunset either of us had ever seen but we didn't have the camera with us. We brought it the next night but, of course, the photos don't do it justice. What a wonderful creator God is! I was reminded of my smallness and God's power as I watched the sunset.

One of our favorite days of vacation was the day we did the Outdoor Adventure Tour through Vallarta Adventures. The excursion started with a speed boat trip across the bay to a small village, we then loaded onto huge all-terrain vehicles and drove up into the Sierra Madre Mountains to the base camp. We were then all harnessed up into repelling/zipline gear and loaded onto mules. We rode the mules up into the mountains for about 30 minutes to the first zipline. Luckily, the mules do the trek 2 or 3 times a day so we couldn't mess anything up or steer them the wrong way. They did gallop a bit and try to pass each other on the path, but nothing too scary. From there we did about 10 ziplines and 2 repels. Let me just say it was SO MUCH FUN!!! We got to repel down the face of a waterfall and land in the pool at the base. We also zipped down into the river and later repelled straight down from a hanging catwalk. Mike and I felt safe the entire time. We were double-clipped onto the ropes and there were about 6 guides with our group. The last zipline ended right at the base camp where were could change our clothes. We were soaked from ziplining right into the water!

Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take our cameras on the tour and decided not to spend the money on the professional photos they take. But take my word for it, Mike and I were pretty awesome zippers!

We are so thankful to the Lord for this special trip and for the 10 years of marriage He's given us so far. Lord-willing we'll be celebrating our 20th anniversary in another 10 years (the years seem to be going by faster and faster). We were pretty stunned to realize that on our 20th anniversary our kids will be 17, 15, 13 and 11. Yikes! Please pray for us over this next 10 years!

Keith Green Easter Song!

Thanks, Kara, for sending us the link to this video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OEqavkJGCE&feature=related

Resurrection Sunday Joy!

Happy Easter! Jesus is risen! Here are a few shots of our Easter activities. We had a wonderful Easter service at Gresham Bible Church this morning. Easter is my favorite Sunday of the year. It is so joyful to celebrate Jesus' defeat of death. We have a tradition on Easter Sunday before church to watch the very end of the Passion movie when Jesus walks out of the tomb with the hole in his hand. We all clap and cheer. It sets us in right frame of mind before heading to church to worship.

A mysterious bunny family came into our duplex yard on Saturday night and hid a bunch of eggs for the kids. We did a little detective work and found out it was the Mathews Bunny Family leaving some treats for the duplex families :)

Even Mike got into the action. A little bird told me he was deprived as a child and didn't get to do much egg-dying :)

The kids LOVED the process of egg-dying! They were only sad when we ran out of eggs.

The finished product!

My mom and I bought the girls their Easter outfits. We thought they were pretty cute with their matching flower barrettes :)

This was taken right before Noah threw the egg and broke it!

This is the same outfit Weston wore for his first Easter when he was not quite a year old. We have a similar shot with him reaching into the basket.