Saturday, June 30, 2007

Saturday "Colfaxing"

Saturday afternoon we headed to Colfax to visit our friends Tony and Mary. They have three children, Caleb, Kiersten, and Kallie(to whom Janelle and I are Godparents). Kaleb is about Megan's age, Kiersten is about Jaden's age and Austen and Cally are 3 days apart in age. Megan and Kaleb played video games most of the day which has led to the question, "Can I get a game cube?" all day Sunday. Jaden and Kiersten played well together while Jordan would tag along on occasion. Austen and Cally hung out with us grownups mainly because, well, their dependence on nourishment.

The main reason we went there is because Tony and Mary will be taking care of Jordan and Austen while we are in Seattle. It breaks our heart to think about leaving them for a week but we know they will be in good hands.

We ended the evening by watching Tony light fireworks.

Friday, June 29, 2007

Friday's Food, Fun, and Ice Cream

Friday night we headed over to my sister Tammy and her husband Curt's house for a family gathering. Our brother Curt and his wife Marti and their three children, Michael, Morgan, and Matthew were passing through on their way to Seattle (Our other brother Jerry is getting married in a couple of weeks so we will all be there soon). Our Mom and Dad also joined us for a wonderful night of visiting and pizza outside on the patio. The evening was beautiful and the kids had a blast while the grown ups visited. The kids played soccer, bounced in a inflatable bouncer (Aunt Tammy and Uncle Curt had given our children as a gift last year), and tossed the Frisbee. Curt Z and I even took the kids on in soccer( I think they won.)

The most fun part of the evening was when we heard "circus?" music being played out by the street. We all ran over to see what was causing such a noise and found an old fashion ice cream truck coming down the street. We waved him down and found a nice teenager selling the frozen goods. He said his dad and him started the business. They had about 2 dozen different kinds of frozen novelties priced between $1 to $3. I'm sure we were his best stop that night $$$$. I will say Tammy treated us all, she is so generous.









"I didn't get into the ranch dressing. No, not me."









Aunti Marti and Austen (hey, who is stealing the Gatorade)










Grandma and Austen

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

More Lake Fun




This weekend we did a spontaneous thing, which is not easy to do with four kids. Since the weather was going to be hot we decided to pack up the kids and head to the lake. We had been to the lake last weekend and since it is 2 ½ hours away we were not planning on it for back to back weekends. We decided to leave early Saturday morning. Here are some of our happenings:

The weekend started when we couldn't find Jaden's glasses. After about a half hour of searching we found them on top of the piano right where Megan had put them (Thanks Megan for waiting a half hour while we searched before you told us).

We stopped in Bemidji and had lunch by the lake where all the rides use to be. We were sad to see they were all gone except for the train ride and the miniature golf. We decided to take a train ride since we tried to stop there at least ones a summer.

Our neighbors at the lake had 4 of 5 of their girls visiting. One of the girls has three children and the other has two so there were 9 children 8 yrs old and younger at the lake. The kids had a blast. Megan went tubing and I went water skiing. This 40 yr old body is sure feeling it today. I got up on my first try but didn't even attempt to drop one ski like I could do years ago.

Megan and Jaden were able to ride in the boat while I was skiing and Megan got bit on her knee by a deer fly or a horse fly. Her knee swelled up so we gave her some Benadryl. She complained that her breathing wasn't right. We listened and could tell that her breathing was raspy. We went next door (did I mention that 3 of them are nurses) and Stephanie came over and listened and looked Megan over. We ended giving her some ibuprofen and were told to monitor her for a while. Megan fell asleep as we continued to monitor her. When she awoke she was feeling better and her breathing was close to normal. The breathing scared Megan which in turned worried us.
On the way home Jaden was complaining about not feeling well so Janelle suggested that he stop watching the mini DVD player and put his head up (stop looking down is what she meant). A few miles down the road and I looked in the rear view mirror and saw Jaden with his head looking straight up at the ceiling. We told him he could stop looking up.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

You can now call me Jared

Check out the new winner:

http://www.subwayrewards.com/stories.php

New Look

Yes, Jaden has a new look. Jaden went for his kindergarden test and it was discovered mom and dad were right the whole time, "If you sit too close to the TV you're going to need glasses someday."

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Lake Bound



We spent the weekend at the lake and had a wonderful time. Janelle's brother Gary and wife Michaela and daughter Elizabeth were also there to enjoy the lake and celebrate Megan''s birthday. Janelle's brother Rob lives about a half hour away so he came over and visited (and as you can see he helped the kids fish).

Jadenism:

Jaden trying to procrastinate going to bed says he wants to read a book in bed because it helps him fall asleep. Janelle instructs him to go to the book shelf and pick a book that he can read in bed. Jaden goes to the shelf and comes back with the 24"x18" World Atlas.

While his brother-in-law Gary was pushing him on the swing in front of the Lake Cabin, Jaden out-of-the-blue says, "My Grandma sure has spent a lot of money on this cabin." (couple of issues here, What has Grandma said?, What about Grandpa?, Why does he think it has been a lot of money?,...)

Seeing a pile of presents for Megan, on her birthday, Jaden looked at them and said, "Gee, sure is a lot of presents, nothing for me, I guess I'm just going to have to get use to it."

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Austen is now verticle


Big day for Austen!!!! Gets first trial of the exersaucer. He loves it. (Mom and Dad love it because it keeps him busy for a little while)

Monday, June 11, 2007

Megan's 8th Birthday


Today Megan celebrated her 8th birthday with 12 of her friends at a local hotel with a pool. The girls and Jaden swam and went down the giant water slide for an hour and a half before opening gifts and having cake and ice cream. Everyone had fun and all the girls left with a hula hoop as parting gifts.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Quick Brunch

On Sunday we were invited over to our friends Kathy and Jerry's house for brunch. We arrived shortly after 11:00 am and were joined by other friends Tom and Donna. We sat down and enjoyed a delicious meal of eggbake, hash browns, fruit, and pull apart caramel rolls. The food and companionship were excellent; it must have been because we left about 5:30 pm.

As Paul Harvey would say, "and now the rest of the story:"

You see Jerry does everything at 110%. First, Jerry cooked up enough hash browns to cure the great potato famine. Jerry also brews his own beer and has a beer room that any male would be jealous of. He has a fridge with three kegs tapped. We also had the opportunity to try three types of liquor that Jerry had made; blackberry, mixed berry, and raspberry. It was delicious. We had a blast and are lucky to have such great friends.

Saturday, June 2, 2007

God Is Everywhere



Jaden attended a birthday party of a friend of his from church the other day. After Janelle picked him up and was asking him questions about the party he said " ..and oh ya, that guy was there.....um...you know that guy from church.....um... God"

Janelle inquired "God?"

"Ya, that guy that's always up front."

"You mean Fr. Cheney?"

"Ya, that guy."


Related story:


Janelle and Jaden were driving past the church one day and Jaden was quick to point out that there were no cars in the parking lot. As they continued past the church Janelle pointed out a lone car in the back parking lot and asked "Wonder who's car that is?" Without missing a step Jaden said, "Must be Gods!"