Motorcycles and a Bubba Story

Motorcycles

Peter's been getting in a lot of motorcycle time lately. We took the bike to Anderson Island when Travis and Crystal hosted an HFG weekend at their parent's cabin. Which was great fun!

But I think that was mainly to get ready for Peter's big motorcycle trip with his friends from college B-Dog and Jared. Chris loaned them a bike and they went around Washington for a couple of days (Aug 7-10th) and camped in the rain in a tent. Peter said they had a lot of fun. He hasn't gotten to ride for that long since before we were married! And the kids were super excited because they got to meet real, live Lodgeboys when they got back from their trip!

A Bubba Story

So after Peter got back from his trip, I took all the kids to the grocery store. I shop at Market Place. It's...different, but really cheap, so I love it! As we entered the store I noticed a slightly overweight woman. OK, like 500+ lbs. overweight. And that would've been fine, except she was wearing shorts that could've fit me. So they turned right into a "G"string. You get the picture. And whether it was right or wrong, I steered in the opposite direction. I had all 4 kids with me.

I made it through every isle of the grocery store without any problems, the kids did great! As we were checking out, I was putting the food on the checkout thingy with my back to the cashier and the 2 customers in front of me. Eben was in front of me in la la land humming and staring at the ceiling, Opal was holding a box of cereal in the cart. And Kivi and Jasper were in back of me near the other customers checking out.

All of a sudden, I heard Kivi cracking up laughing. I turned around to see her laughing at Jasper, who was standing about 2 feet away from the previously mentioned woman. His arms were outstretched like he was about to grab her large derrière loudly singing, "A big fat booty, a big fat booty" over and over! Aaaahhhhhh!

I had no idea what to do. I quickly went over to Jasper, took him by the arm and led him to the cart. I told him to stay right by the cart so I could see him. Then he started crying loudly and yells, "What did I do, Mama?" I couldn't even look at the lady. I'm not sure if she understood his 2 year old little voice, and I didn't want to make it more awkward by having him apologize. I didn't even look at the checker when it was my turn. I probably failed that one. Needless to say, we've had a lovely talk about booties, the word "fat", and not saying those two words together to anyone.

End of July Recap

July 10th - The Kid's Surprise Dada

We surprised Dada in his little work cubicle for his birthday. We had a coworker call about a fake meeting so we could get Dada to come to the police station and we hid and yelled "Surprise!" as he came to his desk. They were so excited to give him balloons, cards and a cake, which said, "sexy 31". (Happy Birthday didn't fit.) When Eben asked what sexy meant I told him that it meant we thought Dada was the best looking dada ever. He nodded his head and agreed.

July 11th - Alaska Airlines Party

The Grondahls invited us come to Wendy's company picnic which was held at Remlinger Farms. It was so much fun! It was one of those times I wished our kids weren't on a schedule so we could've kept them up forever. There was so much to do we didn't even get to it all. We were able to cram in lassoing, bull riding, a clown show, panning for treasure in the creek, face painting, going on the jumpy toy and obstacle course, and a great feast! So thanks so much Rich and Wendy! We had such a great time!!

July 12th - Peter's Real Surprise

We gathered at Stanley and Seafort's for Peter's real surprise birthday celebration with friends and family under the guise of an HFG event (Thanks Shari!). So Peter actually ended up making his own plans and making it harder for everyone. But it was the first time I've succeeded in keeping it a real secret. He's really good at finding things out. And he had no idea of his very detailed birthday cake, a journey of his life, by Adeliz.

July 14th - NASA & the government

It was Kivi's birthday, but we didn't celebrate it... yet. We sang, "Happy Birthday" and Dada went with her to Home Depot to buy a bar and rings for the play toy. (So now she can do flips, our adventurous girl!)

Then we went to Olympia to see the NASA Space trailer, which really was not all that impressive. The only cool thing in the whole big rig was the moon rock that we got to touch, which looked more like a tumbled stone.

We figured the kids would all want to go to the Children's Museum afterward, since it's right across the street, but they all wanted to go see the capital building. It really was great and gynormous. (I don't think that's really a word, so I can't spell it wrong.) And we were the only ones in there. The kid's favorite part was eating ice cream in "the cave", a really dark room they found with tables in it.

July 17-19th - LC3 MOPS Steering Retreat

I'm going to be the Table Leader Leader for my Mops group at Lake City next year, and our retreat was at a quaint cottage in Sea Brooke. All the houses in the development were Cape Cod, wrap around porch, cedar shake style and the one we stayed at was decorated so cute. I had so much fun getting to know the girls better and planning out our year. Not to mention the hot tub, great food (thanks Becca!), and beautiful views of the ocean!

July 19th - Backyard Camp-out

We finally purchased a tent! And we had to try it out, so we set up camp on the lawn. The kids had so much fun bringing all their household "necessities" into the tent, but there was no room to sleep. So they had to take it all back inside and make room for the sleeping bags. As we were all making our way to the backyard for the final time (after putting Opal to sleep in her crib, in the house - cheating, I know), Kivi loudly whispers, "I see a deer!" Peter and I are thinking she's really getting into this! How fun! And then we both see a real live deer in the direction she's pointing. It was standing right next to the play toy, about 15 feet away!

We did some neat s'mores, with fingers as roasting sticks and no fire. And then got jammies on and read our night-time book The Princess and The Goblin while snuggling in our sleeping bags. Then Peter and I watched a movie on his brand new iphone to test out the quiet 3 room tent feature and fell asleep. Only to be woken up at stinkin' 3 in the morning to our neighbor who calls her cats in every night. The obnoxiously loud cat calling lasted a good 1/2 hour. I wanted to yell, "Woman, it's a cat, and we're trying to sleep outside in a tent. Shut-up!" But I didn't. And none of the kids woke up. I'm just glad that regularly we sleep in a cement house, and don't hear a thing.

Oh, and on July 28th, it reached 104* - yes, in WA!

Family Devotions

We've been doing family devotions after dinner (from a book called Step Into The Bible that I got at last years Mops convention) off and on for about a year. The book has verses that we work on with the kids and so far they know about 11 random verses from the Bible. We make up little motions to help the kids and they are so cute when they do them all together. Then we have to let them recite the verse on their own. And if anyone talks during someone else's recitation - oh my! Sorry Jesus, we're still learning.

Here they are reciting some of their favorites:

Deuteronomy 31:6 - by Jasper:

I Timothy 4:12 - by Kivi:

John 3:16 - by Eben:

Proverbs 3:5 - by all of them:

Our prayer is that these family devotions, scripture memory and Bible reading times will guide our kids in their lives. Help them when they have troubles, and learn to trust in and love the Lord as they grow. Because this is really the most important thing we can teach them in this life.

The Fourth!

The 4th of July = Big Party at our house! We look forward to the fun of having lots friends over, swimming, eating and of course fireworks!

Here's Jasper sporting the look of summer:

Clara and Opal in their patriotic colors with matching confused looks:

Eben and Hayden hard at work digging a trench:

Peter and I and our little people on the dock:

The famous "Sparkler Picture":

Last year Peter got free sparklers with the fireworks he bought and we got smoked out. So this year he bought top of the line fireworks, and they were so powerful and emitted such a flame, that we all got burned. One of these years we'll get it right!

A super-excited Kivi, ready to light her roman candle:

All the boys waiting in the roman candle line on the dock:

The firework show at the end of the night was fantastic this year - a great ending to a wonderful day!