We're Keepin' Our Street Clean

Our family adopted Lake Louise Dr. from 104th to Holden this July. The kids love it! They put on their orange safety gear, get their grabbers and pokers and clean up the town! Okay, so it's just 3 blocks. Our interesting finds so far have been 3 speed bumps, a little action figure, and a bike! We just put the bags of garbage on the side of the road and the city comes to pick it up. Our kids are having a fun time learning service and the difficult art of picking up a cigarette butt with a grabber.

The Air Show

On July 18th, we went to the Mc Chord Air Force Base to see the Air Show's special viewing for military and police officers.  We had no idea where to go and ended up far away from the main hub of excitement - the stands and food concessions, but we still saw the planes. Besides the kids were way more into the stationary ones anyway.

At every plane that was on display Eben had to stick his head into the hole where the wheels went when the plane took off.  Every plane was a new adventure. He would find the wheel, stick his head up into the hole, find the little door that led to the middle of the plane and say, " See Mama! That's where Buzz and Woody come out!" It was funny at first and then I was thinking, "Oh man, He's gonna do this for every one!" And he did. And by the time we were done sticking our heads up every wheel hole the Thunderbirds started. And then it was time to go home. 

Here he is showing Kivi how to stick her head into the hole. He had to lift her up to get her head into the hole.

Sittin' on the wing.

The Boys.

The Thunderbirds. They were loud, but they were cool!

I love this picture. It was way harder than I thought to get a picture of them. They're really fast!

SWIMMING, SAND CASTLES, and SUN!

This July we have been blessed with great Washington weather! We have been in the water at least 2-3 days a week all July. We've been doing a lot of swimming, Eben and Kivi are getting really good at floating with their life jackets on. Something they've never attempted before. They kick out to the end of the dock and then float back.

Eben and Dada doing swimming lessons.

Kivi floating!

 Little Opie feet. A usual view from my chair.

We love to have friends over to swim and play! This day Trey, Chase (the bathing suit free one), Logan and their dad, Rich came over. We built a huge drip castle, complete with it's own lake.

I even got in the water. A summer miracle! Surprisingly, the water was warm!

Dada's second favorite beach time activity - after riding the jet ski.

Jasper - the Big Brother. He's so cute loving his little Opo.  Usually he's gentle - like this time, but sometimes he gets a little too loving!

Fun on the Fourth!

This year was really fun and relaxing. The kids stuck to their schedules since the party's at our house, so they were in good moods. Except for Bubba's constant fear of losing me in the crowd, but he did alright. We had a lot of great friends over who swam, jet skied, played, and ate. We had burgers and dogs as usual along with the surprise dishes everyone brings.  The highlight food had to go to Adeliz for her fruit bouquet. (Although I think Eben was the only one to eat it because everyone thought it was a beautiful center piece.) 

Our family on the 4th of July.

Daddies and kids went in the water, Mamas watched them go in the water. 

It wasn't too cold, but it wasn't exactly warm either.

Cutie babies in a boat!

Jada, Hannah and Jayna

Jada and Kivi - All American girls

Peter and Al with their loot of fireworks! Al went with Peter this year to help get fireworks and strike a deal! Thanks Al!

The kids had fun doing roman candles.   Boys and fire!

Michael, Eben and Hunter

Watching the fireworks at the end of the night. The lake show was great this year - it actually happened! Yeah! 

Thanks everyone for coming - we had a blast!

More 4th pics are at:   http://picasaweb.google.com/Peterandabby/4thOfJuly08

The 4th of July - An Annual Johnson Tradition

Our annual 4th of July party is something we look forward to every year. The parties on the lake started in 2005, the first year we moved here.  It started with just a couple families and now it's a little bigger. Every year we take a "Sparkler" picture. So I thought I'd post all the years we've had so far.

2008 - This year's picture!

2007 - Peter bought really cheap sparklers, they were sooo smokey.  

The dock is built! Picture from the deck.

2006 - No dock yet, but the deck was there. This is my favorite 4th of July picture.

2005 - We had so much beach this year, the water was way out, we are standing on the water level in this pic! We had no dock or deck this year.

The Godfather Party

On June 25th, we had a party for all of the "Godfathers", high schoolers who adopted our kids and love them. We had different challenges to see who would be the "Godfather of the Year". 

Here's Elise, Camille and Jordan after the cake decorating challenge, Eben's idea, of course. 

The kids have always wanted to have silly string fight, so I let them have one. Turns out, it's too hard for them to press the nozzle. Oh well. We had fun anyway.

Here are the little trophies Eben and Kivi made for the winners of each challenge.

Elise won the cake decorating contest and the catch the Skittle in your mouth challenge. Salish won the boat race, Camille won the Kid quiz.  Jordan and Seth, sorry boys, better luck next year. So, Elise is the "Godfather of the Year"!

For more Godfather's Day pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/Peterandabby/GodparentParty

Dada's Day!

Peter is the greatest Dada! He is such a loving, patient and fun father. He always makes time to spend with the kids, playing climb all over the Dada game, reading, helping them get jammies on, brushing teeth, making pancakes, jumping on the trampoline, fishing, jet skiing, praying, the list could go on forever. I always prayed that God would give me a husband that loves Him and his kids, and he certainly delivered! 

On Father's Day this year, we celebrated Peter by having family over, Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Tonya, Uncle Chris, cousins, and Auntie Tonya's family too!

Kivi, Opal, Eben and Jasper with their Dada.

Each of the kids picked out 2 presents for Dada at the Dollar Store, the greatest store on earth. Actually, Eben helped all the kids pick out presents. (I think gifts are Eben's love language.) So Dada had tons of gifts to open. 

Eben and Ian on the 4 wheeler.

Jumping on the trampoline.

We had an impromptu baseball game, with no bases, and not enough fielders, but it was fun.

Kivi and Opal and their matching Dada's Day outfits. (Also from the Dollar Store.)

It was a beautiful day, playing in the lake, having a BBQ, and spending time with family.

RVing at Chehalis

June 6-9, we went on a mini family vacation to the Chehalis Thousand Trails with Mr. Andy's RV. The kids LOVED it! It rained the whole time but that didn't stop us from having fun. We went on little hikes, Eben rode his bike, and Jasper and Kivi loved splashing in mud puddles. We watched movies, swam in the pool (yes, in the rain) did crafts, and had a dance party. Peter and I even got to go on a mini date, we played ping pong (I worked Peter), played pool (Peter worked me), and went in the hot tub while Grandma and Grandpa watched the kids.

Puddle time!

Riding in the rain.

Dada made us omelets and bacon every morning.

Looking for pennies in the pool.

Dada, Mama and Eben got to go on a hay ride pulled by a tractor. 

Minus the hay. They had to use it all for the floods.

Craft time. Eben made a race car and Kivi made a bird house. Or should I say Dada mainly made these things. Well, they did their share of painting. Bubba painted newspaper with water.

So we have this crazy, great, insane, wonderful idea to go around the US for a year with our kids. We would be able to not only teach them about our country but show them. A year of field trips. Isn't that every kid's favorite part about school? We would, if we don't have anymore kids, do this in about 4 years, because all of the kids would be elementary age and probably remember it. Anyway, our little trip to Chehalis, be it only 4 days, made us so excited about this idea. To think of touring the US with our family, everyday, to be together, learn together, make memories, be in a crowded RV together with one little bathroom - it makes us giddy! Maybe God will actually allow us to do it.  We'll see!

Thanks Mr. Andy for letting us borrow your RV!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for Thousand Trails!

A Day In The Life Of A Johnson

On June 4, 2008, I decided to take pictures all day and record what we do all day. We have a family schedule and we usually follow it pretty well, some days, we have to be flexible, like this day. Because other things come up. So here's our little schedule that's always on our fridge:

8:30 - eat breakfast, Eben had granola, Kivi and Jasper had raisin toast. I feed Opal while they eat.

8:45 - Got dressed. Eben goes with Kivi to her room to get her clothes and Kivi goes to Eben's room with him to get his clothes, everyone brings their clothes back to the living room and we all get dressed together.

9:30 - "Word World" A TV show that they watch, they get to choose between Super Why or Word World, two great shows that teach about letters and reading.

10:00 - Jasper and Opal take a nap. Eben and Kivi have school time. Today Eben worked on capital letters and Kivi worked on drawing diagonal lines.

10:30 - Eben did reading and Kivi played

10:45 - snacks and then more playing

11:30 - Jasper wakes up and we all eat lunch - turkey rolls, string cheese, broccoli and carrots.

12:00 -Opal wakes up and I feed her

We forgot to brush teeth.

12:15 - Jobs - Kivi cleaned the table, and Eben took the clothes out of the dryer.

12:30 - Eben wanted a Special Helper Rocket so he sorted the clothes. Kivi and Jasper played.

Played until nap.

2:00 - Nap time for everyone! Until 4:00.

6:00 - Here's where our day was much different than normal. We picked up Mr. Andy's RV so we could go camping. We parked at church to have an egg roll dinner, cause Dada had to mow the church lawn. Opal took a nap in the back of the RV.

6:30 - They had to eat all their egg roll before they could go on the tractor. No one really liked the egg rolls. It took them a long time to eat just 1/2 of an egg roll. Eben and Kivi got rides with Dada. Bubba was terrified. After their rides, they got ice cream sandwiches from Rusty.

(My camera died, so I didn't get to take pics of the rest of the day.)

7:00 - We watched "Madagascar" in the RV. And Dada finished mowing just as the movie ended.

9:00 - We took the RV home, put on jammies, brushed teeth and went to bed.

And that's a day in the life of a Johnson.