Moving Month!

September was Moving Month at the Johnson household. The slowest move ever! Between trying to homeschool, fixing up the house, Peter working every day and packing it just kind of felt like we were trying to do everything and accomplishing nothing. But slowly, we got through it. Actually, homeschool became all about moving, not so much school. After moving tons of stuff into the Schock's garage and into the Erickson's trailer, we got as much as we could into boxes and waited until moving day came.

Finally after church on Sept. 13th we were able to move our stuff out of our house and onto the property of our new location. Our wonderful friends came out to help us and it was a way bigger job than I envisioned. We thought we had everything ready to go and then there was just so much more "stuff" still to pack up.

We stayed in our empty house for 7 days until we had to get out completely because the new family was moving in.  I took the kids to church during the days so we could have a table and chairs to sit at and eat and do school work. On the 19th we said goodbye to our home of 10 years on beautiful Lake Louise. 

We took the kids over to our new house on Lake Steilacoom to see completely for the first time. But we still couldn't move in until all the paperwork was complete.

The tour of our new home before we moved in:

Our friends and new neighbors to be, the Millers, were so gracious and let us all sleep at there house for a couple of nights until we could move into our new place.

End of Summer Seaside

Dada booked us a house in Seaside, OR for the first weekend in September, so our summer would be bookended by a Seaside trip. We took the kids to Goodwill for their traditional cheap toy buying to start the trip. We rode our bikes down the prom for ice cream and the kids ate meals outside in the new hammock that was there this time. 

We also tried out going on a new outing to Indian Beach. It starts out as a beautiful hike down to the ocean. The kids loved scrambling on the rocks, playing in the sand, floating Berg's Goodwill boat in the tide pools, looking for little sea creatures and discovering all of the dead animals. I don't know what was going on there but we found 14 dead birds and a dead seal. (The really orange looking thing in the photo of Opal and Berg.)

Back at Seaside, we got some more ice cream and played at the beach.

Well, I don't know what Eben did, he was conflicted about wanting to go in the water and being too cold at the same time.

The next day we tried to go back to Indian Beach because the kids had so much fun, but the line of cars to get in was super long. We went to a cute park, had lunch and jumped on sand dunes instead.

Silverwood

The kids worked really hard reading books for a homeschool reading program at the beginning of this year and were all awarded with free passes to Silverwood, a theme park in Idaho. We decided to actually go and take them this year, since they were given free tickets for the same program the year before and we never went. We borrowed our friend's trailer and slept in the Silverwood parking lot when we got there.

The next morning after moving the trailer to the theme park's campground and a breakfast in the trailer we walked to the theme park. It was actually much nicer than I was expecting. After a ride on the merry-go-round we quickly realized we had better split up if we wanted everyone to enjoy the park. So Dada took off with the older three and headed for the fast paced roller coasters and Mama went to little kid land with the four youngest. Their favorite was the train that goes around the entire park and stops for a stunt show that you watch from the train. It was about a half hour long ride!

We all met up after a couple of rides and rode the log ride together, well, in three different logs.

We even got a family picture in front of some beautiful flowers.

Then the big kids and Dada were off again, to enjoy puke spin rides and wet river rapids.

We all met up again at lunch to eat some cheese, crackers, fruit and salami and the big kids rode on the little rides with the little guys. At one point we even met up with our friends, the Holmes, who are the ones that told us about the reading program in the first place. When it got late, Dada took the little ones back to the trailer and Mama took the big three on a couple more big rides in the dark.

The next morning after sleeping in the trailer again, Berg asked, "Can we all go to the big playground again?" I thought he meant there in the campground, but he wanted to spend another day in Silverwood. They had a really great time. On the long ride home we had packed some ice cream cones in the trailer freezer so we ate those at a super windy truck stop, while playing with tumble weeds.

Race, Surf, Sink

Aug. 15th our family signed up to help out with our church's booth at the 4 US event at Fort Steilacoom Park to support buying more ultrasound machines. Little did we know we would be sucked into participating in many events and our one hour commitment lasted almost all day. Berg, Pella and Opal played in the jumpy toys while Eben, Kivi and Jasper participated in the 5K race and then they ran along side Berg and Opal in the 1K and I got a massage! Hey, you have to support the cause however you can! After that the three bigs participated in trying to break the world record for the largest squirt gun fight. They ended up raising $127,645 for the "Save a Life" campaign.

Peter has had a great summer of wake boarding and wake surfing on Jeremy's boat on Lake Steilacoom. He's gotten really good at it, too! We actually never put our boat on our little Lake Louise this year! So good thing he has like-minded, water sport enthusiasts as friends.

Tuff, our little 9 month old, taking a bath in the sink. He was the cutest little sink baby ever! And he had the greatest time I think he could have stayed in there playing with the running water all day.

Flight with Grandpa

On August 13th we finally gave Grandpa his Christmas present of flight. Peter's friend, Austin took up Grandpa and Eben and Jasper and then Grandpa split up his hour flight into two half hours so that he could go back up again with Kivi and Opal! They flew over Lake Louise, Lake Steilacoom and the Puget Sound. The kids said they didn't realize how surrounded by water we were until they were up there and saw it from the sky.

Eben and Kivi got to help with the plane check list.

 Eben and Jasper, ready to fly!

Opal and Kivi's turn. 

A view of our little Lake Louise from the air.

LC3 Family Camp

We go to an amazing church with a lot of fun people! August 7th - 9th we got to hang out with so many of them at our church's family camp at Black Lake Bible Camp. The theme this year was Extreme Makeover. 

The kids always have such a fun time because they are cut free to do whatever they want with their friends. They had a great time playing mini golf, playing on the playground and in the canyon, playing carpetball and bingo, swimming in the lake and pool. Even Pella and Berg roamed around with friends the whole time. The 4 big kids even got to lead worship and Eben and Kivi stayed up late every night and went to youth group! Tuff stole his first bite of marshmallow and graham cracker at s'more time.

Peter and I were asked to do the programming piece again this year so we decided to go as "confused about the theme us". The first time we thought the theme was Makeover Home Edition, the next time Fashion Makeover and the last time Body Makeover Workout Edition. 

We also led the large group game time and put together some fun team games the favorite to watch anyway was the Strong Man game, where all the men held on as tight as they could to each other and the women and children had to try and pry them apart. Peter's idea (John Schock's creation) of mega foam kick ball turned out amazing! Well not the kick ball part so much, but the free play in the foam was wonderful It was amazing that there were no dramatic injuries with everyone slipping and sliding into each other and kids getting knocked down everywhere.

The Saturday Night Live skits were another fun part and Eben and Kivi were both in different skits!

Eben and Kivi Go To Camp!

We had a busy July after getting back from CA, 2 weeks of VBS, Dada's Birthday, Kivi's Birthday, Maker Camp for Eben, Girl's Bible study for Kivi, and I got to go to Wicked with my wonderful friend, Niki! The last week of July we sent Eben and Kivi to a week long Jr. Camp this year at Black Lake Bible Camp, July 26th - August 2 thanks to Shari's bargain hunting. This was the first week long camp that either of them had been to and Peter and I were probably more anxious than they were. We dropped them off and walked them and their belongings all the way to their sleeping quarters. Kivi met her counselor in her cabin and picked out a top bunk.

Eben met his counselors in his wagon and also chose a top bunk. They were both the first ones to claim a bed. Later we found out that a boy in Eben's wagon puked all over their wagon and they had to move into a cabin. Everyone else in the camp slept in a wagon or teepee.

Then we hugged and kissed them both goodbye for the week.

Jasper and Opal really stepped up their sibling game while Eben and Kivi were gone and both Peter and I realized how much more we can depend on them for many things around the house. They are excellent helpers.  After we picked Eben and Kivi up the next Sunday, we stopped for lunch at Tumwater Falls Park, threw some frisbee, learned about salmon runs and heard all about their week. It sounded like they had an amazing time and we were all happy to have our two bigs back.