Thursday, August 27, 2009

Our kids: the little High School Students

Every family has a different culture based on what the family is involved in right? Our kids have lots of experience hanging out with High School kids. Going to "Daddy's School" is always one of their favorite things to do. Most kids are probably pretty overwhelmed with the big, crowded halls that await them as freshman. Because of our families "culture" I'm guessing this is not going to be all that strange to our kids.

These were a couple of pictures of our kids with "big kids" that I thought were fun.

This one is at the tennis party- Hudson looks so happy to be included with all the boys in the hot tub.

Ainsley was happy to get to be in the middle of the pool game they were playing.

This picture is from a BBQ we had at our house to say goodbye to some of the kids from Andrew's Bible Study group that are leaving for college. Our kids end up attached to these kids because every Tuesday morning a sleepy, but committed group of kids show up at our house for breakfast and Bible Study. It is a toss up for our kids what they like better, the attention they get from the High School kids, or the fact that some of these mornings I serve sugar cereal for breakfast. Both are big treats!

We feel really blessed that our kids have the opportunity to be surrounded by such great examples, and it makes for a good supply of babysitters!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

It would be best if I just posted that I was taking the summer off!

Yes, I has been what, 6 weeks? Sorry little blog. The sun has been out. I do have tons and tons of pictures and adventures to share, but it seems silly now. However, I will make an effort to do a few posts with a random assortment of pictures and adventures so at least the summer of 2009 (I accidentally just typed 2007- wow, I have issues) will not be completely missing from this little history of our family. So here we go:


One big part of our summer was a trip to Wallowa Lake with my family. Tennille and Nathan came from Minnesota (they are so great to spend a month of their summer with us every year) and we all met there. The kids got a "camping" experience (the big kids stayed in my parents trailer with them, Camden stayed with us it a great cabin that my parents rented for us and Tennille and Nathan.)

While there we took a gondola up the mountain, like WAY up. The kids loved it. At the top the chipmunks were VERY friendly, and would eat right out of the kids hands. Of course Camden would eat one, then feed one, eat one... you get the idea. Good news is despite my concern no one came down with any weird illnesses.





We had the full experience of the Wallows by taking the kids to the Chief Joseph Days rodeo. The kids were amazed at the trained buffalo show, and couldn't believe that people would be able to stay on bucking animals like that. The two best moments were during the calf roping when every time a calf would get roped Camden would be very concerned and yell, "HE'S STUCK!!!" over and over. My mom was holding him and it was hilarious. That was followed by the Mutton Busters, the little girls that try and ride sheep. Ainsley was amazed because all the contestants were younger than her. We ask her if she would try and it was a definite no, that is until the end when she heard the prize. The 7 year old girl who won got $75. That prompted Ainsley to say, "well, maybe I would actually try riding a sheep." That's my girl. Anything to make a dollar.


And yes, this last picture is a car in the lake. And no, it is not photo shopped in. My parents friends have a car that actually drives on land, and then right down into the water. The looks we got from people as you just drive down the boat ramp and right into the water were priceless. This was a ride the kids won't soon forget.


My favorite story from the week at the lake sadly doesn't have a picture to go with it. We had just been down at the campground and Hudson and Zech (our nephew, same age as Hudson) were playing some game of jail. Nathan leaned over to Andrew at one point and said, "when do you think it will be that the two of them will really get in trouble together?" Well, not 30 minutes later Nathan was up at the cabin with the little kids sleeping, and Hudson and Zech were playing outside the cabin together. Have I mentioned how tame the deer are at Wallowa Lake? They will let you touch them (unless you have a mother that is worried about diseases, see above chipmunk story). So Nathan is inside and he hears the boys coming in the back door with a very suspicious laugh, he gets up and goes into the kitchen just in time to see the boys with pretzel sticks in their hands luring a deer into the kitchen. I'm not sure what their plan was once they got the deer inside, but they were having a great time. Nathan shooed the deer back outside and instructed the kids deer were not allowed inside the cabin. Only minutes later Nathan's peaceful afternoon was interrupted again by the sound of someone yelling pretty loud, an adult. He looked out the window to see a guy stopped along the road yelling at the boys. Nathan raced outside to find out that the boys had filled empty bubble containers with rocks and they were shaking these little noise makers they had created at the deer and were chasing the frightened deer, very quickly down the hill and out into the road (the kids weren't going out into the road, but the deer did) so this poor guy almost hit the deer that were frantically running from our little darlings. Good news, the deer didn't make it in the cabin far enough or long enough to do any damage, and no ones car was totaled by our kids chasing deer in the road. So, we escaped the kids getting in "really big trouble" that day.