Thanksgiving 2009

What a wonderful day. We couldn't have been more blessed! We had family from both sides here to give thanks to our God for His abundant blessings. The food seemed never ending (still does), we had the usuals, turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing, as well as favorites we count on; cranberry salad, salmon ball and apple pie. Sadly my grandma was not feeling up to traveling, so she was very much missed, but it was nice to share a conversation by phone with her. Our guest list included: Joan and Curt, Roy and Audra, Genny and Colton, Geoff and Kat, Sheila and Leo - it was great to have us all together. After dinner most everyone headed home, but for the rest of us, we enjoyed some time chatting and a few of us played Disney DDR. Got us a little exercise after all that good food. I hope your Thanksgiving was blessed and memorable too!

HELLO!

Check out my beautiful new sink! We bought this sink from Craigslist a few months back, and we finally went and purchased a new faucet to go with it. After a full day Scott had it fully installed and ready to be used! It looks so pretty and made for a great little facelift to the kitchen. It was wonderful to have it all done before Thanksgiving. I am so blessed I have a husband that is so handy!!

It's my birthday!

WHAT AN AMAZING DAY!! I am so blessed! The day started off with a beautiful card from my each of my incredible children. Atira made me a picture frame that is so lovely. Scott had already bought me a GPS system, we picked it out the day before...it is so cool. Just before we headed out the door my sweet friend came zipping by to drop off a warm batch of cinnamon rolls, can you believe it???? Who does that? Good friends who are a gift from God, that's who. We drove off to Edmonds to go on the Meadowdale Beach Hike.  A most beautiful hike, gorgeous surroundings and when you reach the end of the trail it opens up to the beach. It is a like a special gift when you have arrived. While we went we had brought with us the coordinates for our first geocaching experience. SUCH FUN! This one was not super easy as you had to decipher some clues, do a little mathematics and then receive the next coordinates. It was great! We ended up making a mistake, but down at the beach we found the clue we needed and SUCCESS! We did it! We had the right coordinates, we headed back to the trail and searched for about 10 minutes and found our cache! WOWY! Jordan picked out a French coin from the box and Atira snagged a beautiful bookmark and a travel bug. We of course left some new trinkets for the next person to find. We signed the book and headed out! After a quick stop by Scott's work we were on our way home! Once home we started preparing for our evenings event, a sukkah party. We invited some friends to come and celebrate God's feast day and it was such an incredible joy! Several friends came, sang and danced with us, read scriptures and of course ate, ate, ate! We sat out by the fire pit reading the bible, discussing scripture and sharing with one another...my favorite times. The kids wore glow sticks, ran amuck and had a fabulous time! I am so thankful to have had such an incredible and memorable birthday.

Happy Camper moments

WE DID IT! We finally camped! And WE SURVIVED!!! (Or, I survived) Actually, I really enjoyed myself. We had a wonderful first night, we went on a long hike down and around the beach. It was an incredibly mild weather day, we actually got too warm! There was very little breeze, which did not help us with the kites we brought. We enjoyed our night by the fire, we played games, talked and just had a wonderful time. We woke up in the morning to birds singing and shortly after we were up our good friends and former pastor Carl and his wife Hank came and shared a bagel breakfast with us. What a joy! I tried my hand at cooking over an open fire and I found I could do it! We enjoyed a wonderful chicken dinner with fresh biscuits baked over the coleman camp stove. Breakfast was bagels with our friends and then a bit later we cooked some eggs and potatoes over the fire, another success! We saw an incredible sunset and so many beautiful views. I cannot wait to get back there someday!

A day at the locks

This here picture is evidence that I do go on adventures with my family - do you see it? Do you see my hand waving there in the shadow on Atira's pants? See, I am not just the family photographer, I am an active card carrying member! Now I have proof. (Ok, when I took this picture, Scott had not yet taken the above picture of me with the family, I was planning on using this for real drama....drat him, he foiled my plans.)

This has been an incredible week! Scott took the week off because it is the festival of Sukkot. We have had many incredible adventures, camping, hiking, spending time in our sukkah, and on this day we went to the Ballard Locks. Beautiful! The kids really enjoyed seeing how this works...too bad the salmon were done for the day. We didn't see a single one! It was still a wonderful time together. We ended this day having dinner at PF Changs. The kids loved it, and we knew we already did.

Sukkot 2009

WOO HOO! My favorite time of year! We built our sukkah, it is so pretty, and we have enjoyed some nice family time in there. We decided to be very adventurous and by a tent as well, so we put that up in the backyard next to our sukkah. Our first night of sukkot we slept in the tent (with a heater on) and enjoyed an evening by the fire. It was very memorable. I am so thankful Scott thought of putting the heater in though, it made the night quite pleasant.

Baseball moments

It was a fun night! We were invited out to a baseball game with our family! We enjoyed a fabulous view, and the nosebleed was FREE!!! :) Naw, really it was great. Good time with family, who could ask for more? Oh, me. I forgot we also had REAL kettle corn, OH YUM! And that was a perfect topper to a memorable evening.

Melting chocolate

Can you believe it? It is the end of September and we are sitting out at the river lot in bathing suits still! We decided to take advantage of that sun and work on melting some chocolate using magnifying glasses. I had no idea how yummy chocolate would smell as it was burning under the funneled light of the sun! The kids had a great time, even though Jordan was not feeling his best. I think the fresh air was very helpful for him. I think our summer may be winding down pretty soon, it sure has been wonderful.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!

Finally! An update! Ok, here goes a rundown of our end of summer adventures. Starting at the top you will see Jordan and Atira swimming with Grandpa Curt. That was on our mini trip down to El Shaddai congregation. The kids had a blast swimming with him, of course. The following set of pics is of us at services at El Shaddai, as well as a couple of shots of us at the Paul Wilbur concert. (And there is a pic of Paul Wilbur in there too.) I think my favorite shot there is of the children receiving a blessing under the GIANT talit. So beautiful. The following picture is of Jordan and his good buddy Miles. They have taken a class together at our local Games Workshop. This was day one of 3, 2 hour classes. It was a great experience for them. Our next big adventure was a roller skating with our good friends the Barretts. That was  a very fun adventure! You will then find a fun photo of Atira and her friend Jillian, they were playing the dress up box at their house and had a wonderful time. I think this is one of Atira's favorite time periods, she loved looking like Laura Ingalls. Then comes a picture of Jordan the day we spent at Flowing Lake. Ahhhhh. That about sums it up. Our last couple of pictures are when we went to the library for a presentation by the Toymaker. Wonderful and entertaining! Every time! So, this is a just a little glimpse of some of our adventures, it has been a wonderful summer, blessed with amazing friends and cherished memories.

more birthday fun

Jordan enjoys a quiet celebration for his birthday. This year he had a family gathering on Sunday afternoon, it featured his favorites, hamburgers, watermelon and corn on the cob. He chose German chocolate cake for his dessert, yuck. Works good for me however as I don't want to eat any, it is completely safe around me day or night. As a matter of fact there are three pieces still sitting there on the cake plate right now. Anyway, on Monday he wanted to just have a couple of buddies over, he chose his long time friend Reuben and then another friend came later in the day, Ezekiel. Reuben spent most of the day with us, they played video games, shot each up with airsoft guns ate lots of junk food and then some more video games. It was fun and memorable and an ideal day of celebrating. We ended the day with Jordan's choice dinner of tacos, which he was not hungry for until later because of the hot tamales, pizza and Monster Triple Chipper cookies. (He didn't even bust into the bag of Cheetos, let's hope he never finds out I bought them for him!) :) Happy Birthday Jordan! You're the BEST!

Jordan's birthday present

What does that guy in the top picture have to do with that box of cake mix Jordan is holding? And what does all that have to do with his birthday?? Well, a couple of weekends ago Scott and I attended a homeschool conference and while we were brousing around in the marketplace we stumbled upon one of Jordan's favorite author's Chuck Black who wrote the Kingdom Series ! So of course, with his birthday coming up what a perfect time to buy the next trilogy written and of course have him sign it to him!! Which Chuck was happy to oblige us! That top picture is of Chuck signing Jordan's book and the bottom is how Scott creatively wrapped his books...in the empty cake mix box. He thought he was very clever and it was funny because Jordan did not right off guess what it was! It was a fun surprise, I could barely wait to give him the books, but I made it. (Well til Sunday at least, but that was still pretty darn good, considering his birthday was Monday!)

Jetty Island in July

What a blustery day! This was a day we spent with our friends out on Jetty Island. The kids had such a great time building this large fort! It had several rooms and the kids really enjoyed themselves. As for me, I was very whimpy and whiny, it was cold and windy...thankfully Suzanne had a blanket and I was able to wrap up against the elements! :) It was a fun and memorable afternoon.

toooo long!

It has been far too long since my last post! Facebook is the enemy of my blog. It is so easy to upload photos there and not take time over here, so I thought I would sit and add a bit to my poor neglected blog. We had a wonderful time yesterday, the family went out to the Pilchuck River with the dogs. We hiked up and down in the river, throwing the ball for Gunner and encourging Kayli to swim in the deeper parts. Her favorite thing to do was to get out of the water and roll all around in the dirt. She was FILTHY...but VERY happy! Gunner loved the ball, that was all he wanted, throw the ball, again and again and again. That dog needs an intervention done. Atira and Jordan loved showing dad all the cool spots they regularaly play in when we are at the river lot. (We go here once a week with our friends, but we are usually on their lot which is right next door to the public access.) We were even blessed with a break in the clouds and some sunshine. It was a very nice time to spend together, I hope we have some more nice days so we can do it again.

Love for Israel Conference 2009

 

Wonderful weekend at the conference...time in the word, time with friends wonderful memories made! Can't wait for the next one!! Enjoy the pics.