The Olympic Rainforest

On August 23 Dada decided that while Poppie and Nonnie were still here we should all head over to the Olympics and see the amazing sights our great state of Washington has to offer. We made it to all three spots on Dada's agenda in one day! We hiked to a waterfall. It was huge, but you can't tell from our pictures.

Then we drove over and spent a very short amount of time on Rialto beach. It was windy, raining, and cold! I stayed in the car with Pella and Opal. 

Next, we walked around the Hall of Mosses. It was so beautiful. We found little "houses" in the moss, made moss beards and pretended to be trees. By the end of our adventure day we were wet and hungry, so we stopped for a pizza dinner at 9:00pm before heading back home. The kids did great, but I think we all fell asleep on the ride home, except for Dada. He loves us.

Lake City Community Church Family Reunion!

While Poppie and Nonnie were here visiting for their summer visit, they stayed at our house with the little two and we took the older four to our church's family camp. We had so much fun playing games with our kids, playing our nerd games without the kids in our cabin/house with friends, seeing our friends every second of the day, not caring where our kids were because we knew they were safe and having a great time, finding fun hidden adventures like a giant swing and archery, swimming in the pool, watching our daughter lead worship and worshipping God. We also loved the skit show where Dada and Mr. Pritchard did a balloon ballet. 

The highlight though was the last day when Kivi was baptized! She had wanted to be baptized in the lake there, but it had algae bloom so the baptism was held in the pool and she was fine with that. She had been excited for this for a while. Poppie and Nonnie and Grandpa even made it out to watch. She gave her sweet testimony and Dada baptized her "in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" and gave her a big hug as soon as she came up out of the water. 

We are so excited for you Kivi Girl and love your passion for Jesus, learning about Him and wanting to live your life for Him! You give all you have to Him and memorize scripture like crazy. You are an amazing testimony to Dada and I both. We love you and your love for your God and devotion to Him.

Poppie, Nonnie and Mimi Month!

After we got back from almost 3 weeks in California, Poppie Nonnie and even Mimi for a while came up and spent almost 3 weeks with us in Washington. They were there to celebrate Kivi's day, go to the Tacoma Children's museum, do lots of wakeboarding and hydrofoiling behind the boat, watch the babies while we went to our church's family camp, go to the rain forest and of course work on rentals, ours included! It was so much fun to have them for the time they were here. We love them! Peter even invented "Room in a Box" to transform our dining room into a bedroom every night. 

They were also able to see the kid's little performance of Noah's Ark that they practiced all week at a music camp.

Kivi's Wakeboarding Birthday!

Since we were on the road to CA for Kivi's actual 8th birthday we waited until we got home and had her party on August 9th. She wanted a wakeboarding party. Since we knew no one else would actually wakeboard though, Dada and Poppie took her out before her party started so she could do some runs and double with Dada. They did their cool trick where Kivi goes under Dada's rope back and forth across the wake. 

We decorated the lake side for her big day in green and blue, the color of water and her favorite color.

It was a perfect hot swimming day, so that's just what all the kids did, the whole time. Races off the dock, tubing behind the boat, finding jewels in the sand occupied the kids' time...

and hugging. Ahhh - brothers and sister who love each other.

We also cooled off with an ice cream sundae bar. Toppings were donated by the leftovers from Buggy's wedding! Also, at Kivi's request, I made carrot cake cupcakes. News to me, I thought she hated all kinds of cake.

Kivi's ninth "Kissing Picture"on her 8th birthday (because the first one was the day she was born)

After singing, "Happy Birthday"everyone got in line to get some ice cream. Dada scooped and Mama helped with the messy caramel and chocolate sauces.

Kivi has lots of people who love her! I actually let her invite more people than normal thinking not many would be able to come in the middle of summer, and we gave very last minute notice of this party. Everyone except one family was able to come!

She received many lovely gifts. Pella also enjoyed them all and wanted to hold all of them.

For those who stayed late into the night, we got out the s'mores because you can't have too much sugary goodness at a birthday party.

Kivi and her grandparents on her special day!

Kivi, you are such a special girl! You are so helpful around the house, with the babies, in the van, helping the middles, cooking (especially eggs and quesadillas), I don't know what we'd do without you! You are sweet and loving, kind and compassionate. You work hard, really hard to accomplish goals you set for yourself, like memorizing all the special pin verses there were to memorize, getting your school done on Thursdays so you can have Fridays free and even wake boarding. You are friendly to everyone and don't want anyone to feel left out. You are super, duper smart and have completed third grade material even though you are suppose to be just beginning the third grade. You still need some help controlling yourself when you get overwhelmed or upset. You are learning to take it to God first before freaking out. But that's really a lesson everyone has a hard time doing. I think God has amazing things planned for your life and you're learning these lessons and to depend on Him more now so you can help others trust in Him too. We love you, Pea! Happy 8th Birthday! (Even though you did have to be seven at the same time as Jasper this year for a month! - Ha!)

Berg's Iron Man Song

Jasper's Legoland Birthday!

Although it was only July and Jasper's birthday wasn't until September, he was turning 7 the magical "choose a theme park birthday" and we were in CA so we decided to celebrate him then. The boy loves Legos so it was no surprise that his amusement park of choice was going to be Legoland.  Mimi and Aunt Sherri watched the two littles so we wouldn't have to stop a lot for meltdowns due to no naps and Nonnie and Poppie were able to come along and celebrate with us!

We got to the park so early only a couple of rides we open. It wasn't a crowded day so we were able to ride and see everything the park had to offer just about.

All of the kids loved driving "for real" in the Lego cars on "real roads" with stop lights and signs. Jasper stopped to wave to all the Lego people and drove on the wrong side of the road the whole time.

We all enjoyed seeing just how many things were made out of Legos. It is pretty amazing! Jasper and Opal both decided that's where they want to work when they grow up.

Nonnie and Poppie were great sports and the kids loved having them to go on rides with. They all took turns going on a ride with a different adult. It was so wonderful to have a 1 to 1 ratio. It was a little too easy!

This log ride was the shortest ride ever and we waited in line for about 45 minutes. It was the longest line we had to wait in. We ate lunch in line while we practiced patience.

One of the rides ended up getting everyone completely soaked! Nonnie and I chose to keep all of our stuff dry and not ride after seeing people in front of us get off dripping wet, but Poppie and Dada went for it!

This spin you all around ride was one of their favorites.

Poppie and Nonnie got us all ice cream while we walked around the miniature land. We could've spent a whole lot more time there. We played "I spy" and my challenge was to try to find a mama holding a baby, which we finally found at the very end. 

I think Jasper's favorite thing of the day was seeing the Chima movie. He and Eben wanted to wait in line for it instead of go on a ride even!

Jasper won our big slide race! Opal is still up at the top. She decided not to go at the last minute.

We ate some pizza for dinner, sang "Happy Birthday" and shot Jasper's 7th birthday kiss!

The last thing we did was head over to the aquarium for bit. Dada didn't hear that we were going to pretend to be underwater.

Crazy, big, swimming kids.

As we were going to the car to go home, we went through the gift shops and saw all the Legos for sale. The kids were so sweet looking longingly at all the merchandise. We told them sorry we weren't buying any Legos, Legoland was the present in itself and they said they all understood. But as we were getting into the car, I pulled out the wrapped gift we had brought with us all the way from WA and let Jasper open a gift right on the sidewalk in front of the ticket booths. He was pretty excited to end his day with an Avengers Lego set!

Jasper, you bring us joy every day. You're hilarious. You know who you are and you let others know. You are friendly, outgoing, helpful, getting less rough (your elbows still get in everyone's ribs even though you don't notice). And although you don't notice when you accidental hurt someone else with your Grasper abilities, you are still very sensitive when others hurt you and you let us all know with your loud voice! You are great at math, doing wonderful in reading and have great dance moves (you always have). We love to watch you interact with people. You are a magnet. You love others and you love your God. We love you too, Bubba! Happy 7th Birthday!