Vacation Rewind

Celebrating my birthday (someone forgot the candles so we had to pretend).
Posing with Steve's brother, Stowe and his wife, Holly. Stowe is in a band so we had a chance to go and hear them play a little bit.
At last, some brotherly love captured in a photo! I was thinking this would never happen.

We have returned from our grand adventure to the east coast. We've been home a week, actually, but the re-entry into normal life has been a bit bumpy...time change, jet lag, broken car, carpet installers coming in a few days, vacation bible school...blah, blah, blah. I need to go back on vacation. Overall, we had a good time. Flying was a little tough, but it still went much better than I anticipated. Luke was still not a fan of the ocean, but once we put him in a tide pool with a life jacket, he was pretty happy. He did venture out on a board a time or two. Andy, on the other hand, wasn't scared at all. He would walk into the ocean and just keep going. I would pull him back, he would scream and run right back in. Ugh. The pool was a big hit. We stayed in two different condominiums and I was so grateful that they both had pools.

48 Hours 'til Lift Off

I feel like I'm prepping for a mission. We leave for vacation in just over two days. Yikes. It's exciting and stressful, my mind in a million different places. Air travel has a bad rep these days, I'm a tad bit anxious about flying across the country with two little cherubs. Thankfully, there's one adult per kid...how bad could it be, right?
Andy has about 20 words in his vocabulary, including a delightful obsession with Diego. He can spot that little dude from 50 yards away. Much to my delight, a new Diego movie arrived in the mail from Netflix today. Perhaps I can use this to my advantage and host a Diego marathon on the plane with our DVD player.

Pea Harvest

Luke, Steve and Grandma Betsy went to Walla Walla to visit some extended family. It's pea harvest time in that corner of the world. Cousin Ryan took Luke out to ride on one of the tractors. This was a HUGE hit! I think Luke enjoyed wearing the "listeners". He was very brave to ride with the driver, whom he'd never met before. What an adventure.
This week it is back to chilly and soggy Maple Valley. We are getting ready for our trip to the North Carolina coast. I bought Luke a Thomas-shaped duffle bag with a handle and wheels at Target. He is already packing his favorite toys for our big trip.

A Real Treat

Steve's mom (pink sweatshirt) arrived on Monday afternoon, accompanied by five of her siblings. They are on their "west coast tour", primarily here to visit some extended family in Walla Walla. What a blessing to have them all in town, even if it was for a short time. A distant cousin had us over to his house in Seattle. We enjoyed a delicious dinner and a brief concert from his wife, a professional pianist. It made me want to enroll Luke in piano lessons pronto. What a gift to be able to play that well. Betsy stayed with us for 2 days and then went to Walla Walla with Steve and Luke this morning. Me and Andy are just hanging out, enjoying some quiet time. I forgot what it was like to just have one little guy in the house.

Freedom!

This is me, getting away for the weekend to attend a friend's wedding. I can't wait to see that southern California sunshine! Wahoo!!

This one's for you, cousins!

We are trying to teach Luke about all of his cousins, not just the ones that live here in western WA. He is starting to grasp the concept, but it is a slow process. He measures distance in terms of how long he has to fly or ride to get there. For example, it takes at least 2 planes and a whole day to get to Grandma Betsy and Grandpa Don's house. In just a few weeks, we will spend two weeks at the beach with Grandma Betsy's extended family. Lots and lots of cousins... too many to count, as a matter of fact. It's always a tenative introduction among the smaller crowd. They stand silently and stare, sizing each other up. Eventually, one of them finds the courage to talk. By day 3, they are inseparable. Suddenly, it is time to say goodbye and there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth.
I'm thinking of my own cousins this week, most of which reside in Colorado. Here we are, celebrating our Grammie's 90th birthday (almost 3 years ago). There's lots going on in the lives of these cousins: wedding plans, a college graduation, a new baby boy, recovery from a serious accident. This post is for you, cousins!

Yikes! We're Exhausted!

I think we need a weekend to recover from our weekend. We jumped into Friday evening with the arrival of my sister and brother-in-law's four children. They were delightful and extremely busy. Thank God for video games and television. We "plugged" them in to the electronic babysitters rather frequently, just so we could take a break. Andy and Luke really enjoyed the extra excitement, not to mention all the additional time we spent outside. The best way to entertain 6 children is to try and take them on a combination bike and scooter adventure around the neighborhood. It wears them out quickly and keeps the adults sane, too. We finally got smart and put them to work on Saturday morning, helping Steve spread 5 yards of bark dust around our yard. The kids begged to stay another night, but the grown-ups resisted. Steve and I were worn out, but managed to finish the landscaping project by night fall. After church on Sunday, we had tickets to a minor league baseball game. The weather was crummy but we lasted nearly 8 innings. We also discovered that Andy loves potato chips. This is significant data because Andy has flat refused to eat anything that isn't pureed and in a Gerber baby food jar. Hmmm.