Friday, September 28, 2012

Flying Trapezeist!

After our houseboat trip we all came back up to WA. Buggy only stayed for two days because she had to get back for school, but it was enough time to go trapezing!
Mamacita bought my sisters and I trapeze lessons at Emerald City Trapeze in Seattle!


They had a great upstairs room with a swing, hammock, and tumbling mat for Peter, Mr. Steve, Poppie, Nonnie and the kids to watch and hang out.

We were even kind of matching in our trapeze outfits! The Flying Sister Act, before we knew what in world we were getting into.

The first thing they had us do was this:

It looks super simple, but IT'S NOT! If you get to this point exactly when they tell you to do it, then they ring the cow bell for you which means your good enough to try to be caught by the strong man on the other trapeze swing. Buggy and Shmee got the cow bell on their first tries!

 Shmee had actually done this before, so she got to do an even cooler trick where she hung by her ankles. This was her "flying off trapeze from the ankle" position. See how they're both super high and perfect?

See how I'm falling thousands of feet to my doom? I was cow belled and passed, and then I fell off and the next time couldn't get in position in time and I got UN-COW BELLED! They've never done that to a person before. I was determined to get re-cow belled. So even though all the muscles in my legs felt like fire and there were a million bruises in my knee pits (is there a word for that area?) I tried and tried to get to that "hang by the knees, arms stretched out" position in time and I was re-cow belled! Whooo!

Shmee was caught first and did amazing! See how her arms and his arms are connected at the elbows?

Buggy went next and she did just as great and got caught at the forearms! This is the bar where you jump off.

Then I went and I missed the catch. I was very sad. On my second try, I reached as far as I could and thought there was no way I'd make it because he seemed so far away. Then all of a sudden he grabbed my fingertips and yanked me out of the air! I was so excited, and my fingers hurt so bad!

 The pain was all worth it though because now I'm a flying trapezeist.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

One Crowded Houseboat!

Day 1
On August 10th we headed down to Shasta to meet up with my family for a seven day, 15 people on a houseboat (basically an RV on water) adventure. We packed pretty light; a backpack for every 2 people, but with towels, life jackets, food and Dada toys, it still ends up being a lot of stuff. Once we loaded up the floating RV with all our gear we headed out in search of a cove!


It was so hot, that we had to take Berg and Pella into the water just to cool them off every now and then. They didn't love it at first, but once they got used to the water, they had a great time. Look at those cutie cheeks and little painted toes!


Day 2 
While everyone was off skiing and wakeboarding I usually hung out with the kiddos. Berg and Opal were more excited to play legos or Polly Pockets on the houseboat and Eben, Kivi and Jasper were hard at work discovering metal treasures on the shore. They made a huge collection and kept walking around the steep banks with handfuls of rusty nails and wire and crazy, dangerous debris but they sure had fun.




Mamacita bought the guys (Pops, Mr. Steve [Shmee's man], Dada and Kirk [Buggy's fiancĂ©]) super hero boxers, with capes! She made sure they all wore them while wake boarding.

My favorite thing about Shasta is the MUD! My cousin, Fifi, and I would put it all over our bodies almost every day. Eben, Kivi and Jasper were great at finding the best, soft mud for us and even ferried us around on the kayaks while the mud baked.

Dada's got this air chair mastered! He can even jump now!

Day 3 
Mama's got the air chair mastered too! Ha! Just kidding. I did get fully out of the water and actually ride it though on only my third try, which was really all I wanted to do. Peter verified my accomplishment and said that I could indeed say I air chaired successfully, but it's only because he figured out the strange thing first and told me exactly what to do.


The jet ski died. Sad day for Dada. Really, he did very well with it. It's just a good thing it didn't break down while he was riding it, that would've been worse for him.


Eben, Kivi and Dodie jumping off the houseboat!  (Jasper did it too, but not till day 5 and I missed that picture.)

Day 4
On the second day, the kids and I found a cool abandoned resort (well, it was really just and empty cabin but the sign said "resort"). We took everyone up the long stairs to show them and then every day the kids wanted to go back up there and look around some more.  One of the days, they talked Mr. Steve into taking them up and they found even more cabins so of course they had to show us. It was a fun to be able to go hiking, let the kids run around and ponder what happened to the run down, crumbling little abandoned resort.


There's the long stairway that leads to the cabins. Pops was super worried that we've fill the water waste tank, so cute Fifi did the dishes out in the lake. We should've been worried about our fresh water more, because we had to take the whole big boat in three times to fill it up! We couldn't figure out how we were using so much water, no one had even showered. There ended up being a leak in the tank.

Kivi and Dada wake boarded together, but I couldn't get my camera to work to I had them go again, because I missed their cute hand holding trick! Peter kept spraying Kivi every time he turned, so she could barely see, poor girl! She still loved it.


Day 5
Mama and Eben were ready for a change of scenery. We thought it would be fun if we could find another good hiking cove where we could see something different, so we went in search of a waterfall and we found one! Peter dropped the kids and I off at the shore and went back to get the houseboat because the people who had been parked there left just as we arrived! The kids were very excited to show off the water fall and take everyone for a hike up the mountain to follow it. It didn't end up being a very long hike because we found poison oak. 

So we came back to pose for a group shot and then Dada talked the kids into building a dam out the waterfall and we all took turns helping them work on that for the rest of the day.


Day 6
Peter couldn't get enough. He loves it. 

He's getting really good too!

I enjoyed the playing games part and teaching Eben San Juan. 

Eben and I found and iron mine on the Shasta map and tried to talk everyone into taking the houseboat there. They were not so on board with the idea, but we ran out of water again and had to fill it anyway. So we got to go and all the kids took turns driving.

This place had the best mud ever! 

I was so excited about the mud I complete covered myself in it and while I was laying in mud, Poppie and Dada took Eben and Jasper on the hike to the mine and I completely missed it.

Day 7
The kids got to watch some fun shows on the ipad! It's feeling like the end of vacation.

Smiley Pella with Fifi on the couch. She slept in the closet, poor, hot baby and did really well considering her nap schedule was a complete wreck the whole week.

Kivi, Eben and Nonnie tried a 3 person ski attempt. They did it for a tiny while too!

This was the first day that Eben skiied, well, on this vacation. He's done it before, but had no interest until we told him this was the last day. We even had to push him into the water every time to swim. He'd just sit on the steps on the ladder forever and not go in because of the temperature change. He's so much like his mama! 

I didn't go skiing until the last day either. Actually, I don't think I'd been skiing since before Eben was born. I did it for my baby...and for a picture of me skiing with him.

It was a fun, memorable trip! Dada and Kivi got lots of wake boarding in, we were able to be with family, and no one drowned! (Only 2 of the 6 know how to swim.) Thanks, Poppie and Nonnie!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Faith in Action Man, Ep. 3 "A Lot of Explaining"

Faith In Action Man, Episode 2, "An Army of Little People"

Faith in Action Man, Episode 1, "That's No Cat!"

Serve and Ski Summer

I'm summing up the month of July with the titles Serve and Ski, because most of the things we documented fell into those categories. We are always looking for ways to teach the kids to serve others, so at the beginning of July, we made the focal point of our hallway their Special Helper Pockets, which hold their Special Helper Rockets. (They are actually presents and Bibles, but used to be rockets so we still call them that.) Next to their Pockets are their own cork boards where we can display more art in a neater way, and not clog the fridge.

Serve:


In between all this serving each other there is a healthy amount of skiing, not this kind, 
Ski (ball):
although someone cashed in 20 Helper Rockets on July 13th and we did get to go to Chuck E Cheese's and play. 

This kind:
Ski:
That's what Kivi wanted to do on her birthday and Peter also forced cousin Madison to try wake boarding before their family went on a high school house boating trip. She's not as big of a fan as Kivi and Peter.


We were able to Serve:
Mimi as she needed a place to stay for a couple days before my cousin's baby shower and she definitely served us with her love and helping with the kids. One of the days, the kids even served me by painting little birds, that I found at the thrift store, black. 

We were also able to Serve:
during our church's Faith in Action Day. Peter scored us this awesome fixer upper of a yard to work on and serve not only the man who lived here, but the neighbors as well. They were so excited that we were fixing up this house that they gave us lemonade, water and even money for our church!


Ta Da! Yep, it's the same house! That truck was even in that first picture, you just couldn't see it because the driveway was covered in bushes.
Actually, I should note for future reference, that my amazing hubby starred as Faith in Action Man!!! and can be seen on YouTube. There are three episodes to promote our church's day of serving the community and they are hilarious.
So, they will be the next three blogs! Hee hee hee!

Serve:
Making laundry detergent and earning Special Helper Rockets.

Ski:

Serve:

Well, I don't know if this fits the serve category, but it's my new cool cleaning plan and the kids use the non toxic cleaning agents to clean during their jobs which serves me and I'm serving Peter by not spending a ton of money on cleaning supplies soooo, maybe it does fit! The kids think it's so funny that I named all of my homemade cleaning stuff, "Abby's - whatever it is". They always say, "Mama, I don't think it's really yours, someone else came up with the recipe and we're the ones who use it."

Ski:

Right after ski:

Seriously, the girl can't get enough. I should mention that Peter is also skiing (fine, wake boarding) every day also at this point in July.

Serving, while others are skiing:

Serve?
Hmmm. I don't know. We did invite our friends to join us at our new, completely not finished and not even close, condo's pool while Peter worked on said condo. Ok, Dada might be the only one serving here.

Serve:

Serve. Right after this of course, she skiied.