Tuesday, March 31, 2020

June 2019!

June 5th - Awana Awards Ceremony for the 2018-19 year!
Dada - Commander
Mama - Youth Leader Director
Eben - Games Director
Kivi - Yellow Team Game Lead
Jasper - Youth Leader
Opal - T&T Excellence Award
Berg - T&T Alpha Award 
Pella - Wing Runner Book Award
Tuff - Cubbies Award
June 7th - Boys snacking on our front porch swing.
June 8th - Mama and Dada dates bike riding to Coffee Cabin.
June 14th - Policeman Dada brings donuts for us! Later that night Eben has his last Pierce College concert for the year.
June 16th - Father's Day
The kids each made a page for Dada in a cute book. We went for a bike ride with Poppie and Nonnie in Dupont. The farthest Berg has gone on a two-wheeler. We ate a picnic lunch in the park and then enjoyed some ice cream! That night we had both Grandpa and Poppie over for an outside Father's Day dinner.
June 18th - Walk through the Nisqually Nature Reserve with the Nobles.
June 19th - Awana Youth Leader Foam Party
I decided to throw my leaders a party as a thank you last year at the end of Awana and it went so well, we did it again this year! The kids love snacking, swimming, roasting s'mores, hanging out with friends and sliding down the hill of foam that Peter so dutifully sets up for me!
June 20th - Dada makes pretzels with the kids. 
June 21st - Dada does lots of this. He loves it!
June 22nd - Our nephew Styrkur's 2nd birthday! A pillow party! He loved a pillow from our house so much that Nonnie had to buy him his own! We had a pillow fight, and Styzee singed his eyelashes on the candles. (That's why he's crying.) Happy Birthday, Styrkur!
June 23-30th - Mexico Mission Trip with LC3 for Mama, Eben and Kivi. Eben and Kivi worked on building a home for an Oaxacan family and Mama went to help out at orphanages and help disabled children.
The church sent us off in prayer.
We flew down in our small groups and drove to In&Out for burgers!
This was one of the two houses we stayed in on the beach
Eben working on house.
Kivi playing with some of the kids that would live in the house.
Painting the inside.
Putting on the roof.
Almost done! I can't believe they built a house (really two houses, we had two teams) in one week!
The beach out the back door of the houses.
One of the amazing things was the beach had hot springs about a mile down from where we stayed We got to go twice! We'd lay in the surf and boiling hot water would come up from the sand.
Eben was not a fan. 
I may have wrestled him into the water at some point and forced him to "enjoy" it. 

The kids made us a welcome home sign!
Meanwhile, the kids at home did amazing!!! Dada still went to work everyone and they did school, and cleaned the house better than when Mama is home!!

Friday, March 27, 2020

The Rest of May 2019!

Dada went on his yearly Lodge Boys Reunion this time to Park City, Utah to hang out with his college house-mates conquering an escape room, playing at an Olympics training facility, like sliding down an enormous ski training hill that's not used in the summer, and scootering around.

Mama finished her pond with the boys help. 

Sadly, none of my young seedlings made it through my Jerusalem journey. The greenhouse got too hot and I was not there to take them out. But the boys still help me in the garden all the time.

At a family dinner, the uncles fought the kids with water guns, but then were super helpful in helping me dig out my giant boulders where I want to put a fire pit!

The little boys were very helpful too! With the little rocks!

Coaly gets potty trained!

Swiggy makes a mud pie.

Lots of bike rides and walks around Fort Steilacoom. Also, Kivi and Eben are doing the Bible App and they create cute verse pictures.


Thursday, March 26, 2020

Our Last Day - Going Home!

Friday, May 17th (also Berg's 9th Birthday)
We left for the airport with the Ourys, Knacks and Durrs on a shuttle and the security to get back took no time at all! We played games for an hour and a half in the airport then said goodbye to the Knacks. On the plane, I was able somehow to sleep, even though the man next to me shoved his leg literally into my foot space. There are clear dividers there and his leg was in my section! It was strange. I think he was Egyptian. Upon arriving in the UK we took the Tube and a bus to London and ate breakfast at the German Gymnasium. We walked through the park to the British Museum and checked our bags at a nearby store. We strolled through the Mesopotamia section, had tea and then left to see Regent's Park and Mary's garden - Love! I love my man, flowers, ponds, waterfalls, strolling casually along with my man. All of it was wonderful! After retrieving our backpacks we sipped more tea, ate fish and chips and then Tubed and Ubered to our Air B&B where I wrote our whole Jerusalem experience down with Jodi while Peter and Jer slept. The Wells joined us and we headed out to dinner. The next day we all flew home.