Little Journeys

The Flooding Sewer Journey 11-30-10

One day at the end of November Eben came upstairs and announced, "Mama, the girl's carpet is all wet" This started a long and painful process of figuring out why water could be heard rushing down the insides of the walls in the girl's room and flooding their whole carpet with sewer water. Finally, after 2 vacuum rentals, cutting a 4x5 foot hole in the girl's drywall, digging up the main sewer line outside, 2 snake rentals and having the 200 pound snake break in two, Peter unclogged the sewer pipe and put in a clean out right outside the house in case of future problems.

Poor, perplexed Dada trying to figure out what the person who rented the snake before us could have done to it to have it break in two before we even got a chance to use it. He fixed it and Home Depot gave us a discount - so more work, but less money.

Yeah Babe! Way to go! Rain or pouring rain you always come through for us! We know plumbing (especially the outgoing part) is your least favorite, but you do it anyway and take such good care of us. And you look so cute in your yellow plastic overalls and headlight.

Journey to Bethlehem 12-2-10
This was our 3rd year traveling to J2B. We love it! We drove the bus to Auburn and brought our friends the Norquists and Grandma and Grandpa this year. It never gets old, seeing so many people dressed up in biblical clothes, knowing your journey is going to take you to see all the things we talk about over and over the whole season: shepherds, King Herod, camels, magi, sheep, donkeys, glowing angels, Roman soldiers, the city of Bethlehem, and finally...
Baby Jesus!

Lighting Lakewood's Tree 12-3-10
Okay, so this wasn't so much of a journey. We just had to drive to the Lakewood Town Center. But it was an awesome experience for us. The city of Lakewood decided to have a Lakewood police officer's childen light the city's Christmas tree this year. So we were chosen because Peter is a police officer, we live in Lakewood and we definatley qualify for having children.

Dada and his big kids going to light the tree.

The kids were so impressed because as the mayor talked right before the tree lighting he introduced all the kids by name. Then he gave the countdown and Eben, Jasper and Opal all flipped "the light switch" (Kivi opted to hold Berg so everone could see him, or maybe so everyone could see her holding him - it looked very precarious) and the tree lit up! Our family with the mayor and some city counsel members around "the light switch" before the Tree Lighting.

Practicing their big moment.

They did it! The Lakewood tree all covered in blue lights.

Since the kids were all dressed up in cute Christmassy clothes, I figure why not try to get a cute shot of them by the tree. I forgot why I don't have many pictures of all of them all smiling at the same time: it's impossible.

I did manage to get one all semi-smiling picture even though Opal decided to stand in her own spot, not next to eveyone else - of course.
This one made me laugh out loud. Same exact spots, totally different facial expressions. Eben the daydreamer, Kivi the evil clown, Jasper's a shy elf, Opal's pinching her own cheeks and Berg looks like a tasty chunky muffin. Kids are so funny!