Star Wars Moments....& other funny stuff....

This was SO COOL! The family had to make a run into Aberdeen as we needed some things that just could not be found in the little town of Ocean Shores. We made a wrong turn and found this wonderful store! It is a complete Star Wars store! We could not believe we were so excited we accidentally took a wrong turn (again) down a one way street! It was very thrilling and we were far too sidetracked to pay attention to little things like street signs.

In the bathroom there were two posters about smoking...and they just had me cracking up. I hope you can read these images. Isn't it amazing what people used to think about smoking and in such a short span of time the entire world feels so very different about it? Something funny that also happened on our trip that relates to smoking, we were at our friends house visiting and I saw a glass ashtray sitting on a table. It was clean and unused, I picked it up and showed it to my kids and asked them if they knew what it was or what it is used for. They sat looking at it completely puzzled, it was incredible, they had no idea it was an ashtray. So funny, it made me giggle while I watched them eyeing this foreign object. Ok, so here is one more shot from that bathroom, and boy did I feel like a dork taking pictures of things inside of a bathroom, but I had to get these on film!

This one says "Before you scold me mom, you better light up a Marlboro"! HA, can you believe it?

More sukkot moments

I am just loading some pictures here that I think you all would enjoy of our vacation....so there is not much to say but a brief explanation under each pic, enjoy!
This is of the kids with A.J., and Hanna, they were teachers in the childrens class along with Jeff. They had a BLAST in there!!

Daddy and the kids in the water park at Ocean Shores, this was a really fun time, even though dad slipped and fell. The kids came to his rescue.

This was great! Jordan and his new buddy Justin figured out that if they sat on these jets of water that shoot up to the ceiling they could lean over and shoot each other with the water instead, I personally thought this was hilarious!

We had some very nice days to fly kites, Jordan has his kite flying a couple of times and Scott did too!

Gunner loved the sand and Atira loves Gunner! We all really enjoyed our time at the beach.

Well, here we are in the little Sukkah City. The wind was so strong that several of the sukkahs flew away, so these creative people attached three together and they stood through the entire festival! This was truly a blessed time for all of us!

Moments with Grisam

This is Grisam, he is the most chicken dog I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know. Usually if you try to go up to him he will shy away and try to hide behind his dads legs. Gunner, on the other hand, has no idea that Grisam is fearful so he jumps around as though Grisam was just as happy to see him as he is to have a playmate around. Well, all that aside our friends who own this very cute and loveable dog wanted us to babysit him while they celebrate their wedding anniversary. So, we had a trial run today. Jeff dropped him off at our home this morning and he had a nice little sit by the front door for about 10 or 15 minutes I would say. After that the kids and I would crouch down (it makes him feel more secure, or maybe it's superior, hmmmm..) and go up to him for pets to welcome him to our house. He did not shy away this time, which was an incredible leap for him! Soon after I started calling Grisam into the house to be with us and to my surprise he obeyed me! I did use a firm tone with him and I tried give off the energy of being in charge so he would feel safe and secure. (Ok, I love to watch the Dog Whisperer, can you tell?) Well, no matter what, it worked. Gris staye with the kids and I in whatever room we happened to be in and did great. I set up a nice little bed for him under a table, it had his mom and dads shirts and his stuffed animal. He came and sat in my lap, gave me hugs (which is amazing this dog knows how to do this, it is so funny!) and eventually made his own spot on our couch. He did not play with Gunner the way he would have wished, but at least he was calm and content while his dad was gone. By the end of the evening he even took a treat from me and ate it, I would say that was a very successful trial run! Here are a few more shots of Grisam during his day at Doggy Day Care.

Gris' little bed I made under the table, he took a nice little nap under here.

Gunner is still wishing Grisam would play with him, but here they are together in the play room.

And one last shot of Gunner trying to get some attention! Gunner thought this little bed was really rather nice. He was just a bit too big for it!

PS Grisam, if I spelled your name wrong...my sincerest apologies.

So many fun times!

So, this year for the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:33-44 & Zech 14:16-19; Rev. 7:9) we went away to Ocean Shores! This picture of us staying in the little house we rented. It was only a five minute walk down to the beach! There was a nice little group of people all meeting to celebrate together. We enjoyed services together and the kids had special lessons just for them. We ate dinner most every night with the whole group. We had about three really beautiful days to play at the beach and Gunner really loved the water, of course! There was also a kite contest going on and we saw some of the most AMAZING stunts with kites!
These kites were HUGE and we spoke with the manufacturer, she said they cost $4,000 EACH! Can you see how big they are by the people in the picture down on the lower right hand corner?




Here we are on the beach together...now doesn't that doggy look happy to you?? He loved playing in the water, so long as he had his tennis ball with him, life was perfect!

The first day we woke up there we went into the kids' room and out there window was this wonderful site! They were so comfortable with us there that they just resumed their business of eating all the wonderful things in our little yard. In total we saw nearly 40 deer during our stay. Of course, not all in our own yard, but on the side of the road, in the fields etc.

Ok...I will continue to add more very soon. I have so many pictures to share with you all!