More Summer 2008

Chuck-E-Cheese

Yes, we finally gave in and took Aspen and Journey to Chuck-E-Cheese’s for the first time. I have been avoiding that place since Aspen was born, and am hoping that is the last time we have to go there. Enough said. Oh, and Aspen loved it, of course.

Sleep-Over

Another first – Aspen had his first sleep over with his cousin Adam. We met the cousins at the zoo, and brought Adam home with us to spend the night. Adam is 5 years old. Last year we went on vacation with Mark’s parents and they brought Adam along in hopes that Aspen and Adam would have fun playing and keep each other occupied. Well, that ended up being a huge mistake. They fought like cats and dogs the entire time, and most of our time and energy was spent on keeping them apart and occupied separately. Well, fast forward one year and it is incredible how much they have changed! They had a blast playing together “hunting” in the backyard, playing with swords, exploring the basement and playing computer games.

Friends

Aspen has reconnected with his friend Sofia this summer. Sofia’s family lives in our neighborhood, and we have taken advantage of this for weekly playdates. They have a blast together (Sofia is a great balance for Aspen!), and us mommies get a couple hours to ourselves every other week. It has really been fun to watch their friendship grow. Aspen has realized that he can make Sofia laugh, and now does all he can to be the “funny” guy. So cute, and I feel like I am watching a little Mark in training.


Journey-B

Side Note: Look!!!!! I can put a barrett in Journey's hair!!! Okay, just barely, but I have proof!

This has been a tough week for Journey. She was bitten on the arm by two different girls at the gym daycare. Both the girls were also one year olds, so what can you do? But she does have two sets of teeth marks on her arm and was not too happy about going back the next day.

Today she receive her first bee sting. Well, stings. We were berry picking at my mom’s house when I unknowingly sat her down about 1 foot away from an underground bees nest. About 5 minutes later I got the first bee sting. As I was swatting it away, I heard Aspen start screaming. I tried to get him away as fast as possible while slapping away more bees when I looked over at Journey and saw her face move from panic to screaming pain. The bees were all swarming around her as she sat next to the hive. I ran over, scooped her up while swatting away the bees, took hold of Aspen’s hand and ran. It was crazy! In the end, I received 5 bee stings, Aspen 3 and Journey 2-3. For the record, I am sure they were not just simple bee stings. They are still painful and swollen 6 hours later, and those are mine!

Summer 2008

We have been having a fun, busy summer so far. Here are some highlights.......


Saturday On The Water

This is still Journey's spot in the boat. Lounged in the cabin on a pillow. What a life :)

Mark had scheduled a tuna tournament for the weekend after the 4th of July, but unfortunately, due to weather, it was cancelled a couple days before. Mark and his friend Scott decided to spent the night on Government Island. The kids and I met them at the boat launch the next day and we drove down the Columbia River to Sand Island in St. Helens. We had a great day and perfect weather. Journey still takes two naps a day and Aspen one, so you never know how a whole day on the water will go, but it went great! Journey fell asleep as we were boating down the river. Aspen's cousins who live in St. Helens and met us at Sand Island for a couple hours of fun.

VBS

Aspen got to participate in his first VBS last week at Abundant Life. It's not the church we attend (my parents), but it is much closer to where we live, it's a great, fun, young church, and best of all, his friend Sofia goes there too :) He came home glowing every night after VBS. It was fun to watch. He has now informed me that Abundant Life is his church. Not our church, but his church!

New Words
Journey has come out with quite a few more new words lately:

Wawa - water

Ball
Baby

Eye (and points to it)

Pretty

Berry
Kaker - cracker

Pasta
More Mama
My Mama

Cheese Mama - by far her favorite food. She even asks for it at breakfast sometimes!
Papa

Nana - banana or Nana (Mark's mom)

Buba - Aspen

NO

She is stillllll not walking. She HATES it when I try to push her by only holding one of her hands when she walks, try to make her walk a couple steps to the couch or try to talk her into walking to me. She is very stubborn and will just sit down (and throw a fit) if I try to make her do something she doesn't want to. She is very cautions and hates to fall. I am just getting so tired of carrying her everywhere!

Fun At The Park

Today, I met my friends Kelley and Lisa at the park. When I went to hygiene school, I gained some great, life-long friends. There is a group of us who still stay in contact and get together on a regular basis. When we were in school together, none of us had any kids. Boy has that changed! We all have so much fun every time we get together, and I am so thankful for their friendship. Here are some pictures from today....
Avery, Aspen and Koen working out who will play with the scooter next.......I won't do that again! It's too hard to share one toy like that between three kids........Yes, that was the drama of the day!

Sophie (12 mo.) and Journey (17 mo.) still getting to know each other. Sophie is 5 months younger than Journey, but much taller and is almost walking on her own. She is adorable.
It's hard to see, but the kids are all lined up watching the ducks in the pond - Avery, Koen, Aspen and Journey. Sophie is in the stroller. The kids got to feed the ducks, and Journey kept saying "kack, kack, kack!" at the ducks. So cute :)

I love those chunky thighs!

Aspen had a blast riding his scooter through the water fountains.

More From Costa Rica

Here are more pics from Costa Rica. We had an incredible time. The first two days Mark had to do a lot of work meeting with attorneys, bank, realitors, builder, etc. I pretty much just tagged along.

The last two days we mostly just played. The zip line canopy tour was a blast. We also got to play with spider monkeys in a small zoo. Another day we went down south to Tamarindo and got massages and played in the ocean. Oh, and we also had our fill of great food and drinks. If it weren't for us not having the kids with us, we would have wanted to stay for a long, long time!

9 Years!

Yes, today is our 9 year anniversary. Feels weird to be married that long already! We are in Costa Rica celebrating our anniversary and checking up on Mark's condo project. Sort of a working vacation. This is the first time we have left Journey, and I have been so nervous about leaving her for so long (6 days). So far it sounds like both Aspen and Journey are doing well, and we are missing them more than they do us :)

On one hand, the last nine years seem to have flown by, but on another, it seems like a lifetime ago that I was a 19 year old bride anxiously walking down the isle. We have grown up together and have experienced so many great times. Not to say that we haven't seen our share of hard times, but the good have out weighed the bad so many times over. We are still each other's best friends, still love to hang out at coffee shops and still love to just "be" together. We have created our own family and are loving the life that we have made. We are so thankful for our marriage and for Aspen and Journey. We feel incredibly blessed!

Updating Life

Journey and cousin Peyton at the park by our house on one of the VERY few sunny days we have had this spring!

I haven't posted for a long time, but Aspen said something the other day that I have to write down to remember! At the breakfast table Aspen said,

"Mom! Last night God talked to me inside my head! He said that I see that you have been getting a lot of spankings and even when you get lots of spankings, I still love you!"

I was surprized but said, yep that sounds like God :)

About a month ago we had a conversation about how God speaks to us, and that we don't hear him outloud but that he talks to us through our thoughts. Oh, and he did go through a couple days where he got quite a few spankings. Since he turned 3, (he's 4 now) he doesn't receive too many spankings, but there are those times......

I had a great Mother's Day yesterday. I have the best husband and kids! Mark made me breakfast, lunch and dinner and cleaned up the kitchen too :) Love that! He also got me a hanging flower basket and hooked up our sprinkler to it so that I don't have to remember to water it. I love plants, but am not so good at the watering part.....

Aspen was very sweet all day and kept telling me "happy mother's day", giving me mother's day hugs, and telling me how much he loved me. I love being a mommy.

This picture is of Aspen's ladybug. He LOVES bugs of all kinds - spiders, potato bugs, ants, beetles, flys, you name it. As I type this, we have a container of ants and another one of little tadpoles that he caught out of our gross pond. Actually, I think they may be mosquito larve (yuck!), but it's hard to say no to something that captures his attention for so long. Not even his "Larry Boy" computer game can do that! He has made friends with the 9 year old neighbor boy and often ropes him into helping him search for bugs. It's so much fun to see Aspen find something that he really loves.