Reading Rewards

Jacob and Hannah are participating in the Summer Reading Program at the library. After they completed five hours of reading, they were able to choose their first prize from a list of several things. They both chose playtime at Pump-It-Up - an indoor play area with huge blow-up things to slide and bounce on - a fun afternoon for the kids!

They were so excited to try this place out for the first time! And the afternoon got even better when we pulled up next to Jacob's best friend from preschool in the parking lot. He too was using his reading reward! It made Jacob's day to see Tyler and have a chance to play together.

Hannah was nervous about trying out the huge slide but she eventually built up courage to try it and then she slid over and over and over again! It was her favorite thing to play on. Jacob loved the big bouncy room -- not a surprise as he loves to JUMP! Luke enjoyed watching all the kids play and I took him in a small bouncy room for a little while. He thought that was pretty neat. It wasn't long before he found the cords to the big air compressors that keep the blow-up things inflated and then had to spend the remaining time in my arms or in the stroller. He has a knack for finding the electronic things wherever we are.

Luke heading for the cords -- look at the look of determination on his face!

Swimming Lessons

Jacob and Hannah finished two weeks of swimming lessons yesterday. Jacob was in the Preschool II class. Here he is splashing -- his favorite thing to do in the water! Hannah and I participated in a parent-tot swim class together. I was with her in the water every day but the last day of class. Hannah swam with Marcia (one of her teachers) yesterday and did a great job without me! I had Luke on deck with me as Pat is away at a conference. It was actually nice to be able to watch from the deck and see how they're doing in their classes and I got to take a few pictures ;-). Hannah is ready for Preschool I this fall and Jacob needs to learn a few more skills before he moves to Preschool III. He made a lot of progress -- he no longer is afraid to get his face wet and do bobs. Hannah progressed a lot too -- she isn't afraid to relax on her back and loves to kick her feet!The last ten minutes of swim class they turned the slide and water features on and the kids were able to play! Hannah and Jacob both enjoyed the slide.

Bedtime Questions and Car Revelations

Bedtime Questions....
Tonight as Jacob was lying in bed he started asking questions about other religions and what other people believe. What an eye opener for him to hear that not everyone knows or believes in Jesus. He asked me if some of the children he plays with on the quad go to church. Several of them are Hindu and there are probably several other religions represented in our quad. I tried to explain that Hindus pray to different gods and have different beliefs. I also suggested getting a book about world religions so he can learn the differences between Christians and other faiths. Jacob started thinking more about being a Christian and how that makes him different from the other children with different beliefs. He wondered if he could tell these other children about Jesus and what he might say to them. I was impressed that he was having these thoughts. I pray that he will be able to be strong and stand firm in God's love and grace as he shares with his friends.

His last question of the night was "Mommy, how did the Bible get written?" We have a deep thinker on our hands! I gave him a brief answer and then told him we'd talk more about it in the morning.


An endearing car revelation.....
Earlier this week as we were driving to swim class, Jacob began talking about a man he saw in a wheelchair at church on Sunday. He said "did you see that man in the wheelchair at church?" I told him I did. And then he asked "why is he in a wheelchair?" I told him that some people can't walk so they need to ride around in a chair. He then asked me "will he ever be able to walk again?" I told him I wasn't sure but sometimes people are healed and can walk again. He then said "Jesus will help him walk when he gets to heaven. No one needs wheelchairs in heaven." And Hannah chimed in..."and He'll wipe away all of our tears in heaven." How neat to be a part of these conversations with my children. It is moments like these that I would not want to miss!

Gotta a Green Thumb?

The kids love to help water the flowers outside our apartment. This past week we took their gardening experiences to a whole new level. The City of Fort Collins opened a Children's Garden last Spring. It is located very close to our apartment. We finally made it over there in the scorching heat last week on our bikes. Luckily the main attraction is water! They have watering cans available to use on site and a huge watering can that dumps water into a pool where the kids can fill up their buckets. It brought so much joy to all of them. Jacob and Hannah loved watering everything in sight! And Luke sat up on the concrete next to the water and splashed.That same afternoon I took the kids down to our garden plot - available through the university. Here is a picture of the kids at our plot. I'll have to take more pictures when I have the sun in the right spot.... The little white shed in the background is stocked with all your gardening needs -- tools, hoses, gardening gloves, etc. -- provided by the university. Up to this point they hadn't spent much time at the garden. Pat prepared the garden and I have spent a lot of evenings after the kids are tucked in bed down at the garden - planting, weeding and watering. They loved helping weed and water (they wanted to be watered too - it was so hot that day -- upper 90s).

Here is Jacob holding his bean plant. We transplanted it -- he had started it as a project at school. Friday we harvested our first head of leaf lettuce for our salad that evening. We made a big deal of the lettuce being sown in our garden and it worked -- the kids actually ate lettuce and liked it! They're normally not very keen on leafy vegetables.
With gardening come worms! Hannah loves to play with worms! She was thrilled to find a 10" long worm one morning as we watered the flowers out front. Unfortunately I didn't get this worm on camera -- but a smaller one she found a few days later.
I'm thankful to have space to garden -- both out front of our apartment and down the hill from our apartment. And I'm glad my kids have fun gardening.

Bike Trail Ettiquette

Jacob, Hannah and I went for a bike ride together yesterday morning to a park about a mile from our apartment. It was the first time Jacob went for a longer ride on the trail. And this ride involved passing some people walking on the trail. I decided it was best if Jacob went first. So as we approached the first walker we had to pass, I reminded Jacob that he should say "passing on the left" before passing. I didn't say much else thinking he had heard me use this phrase when passing walkers/joggers on our bike before. Before I knew it he was right next to the older women walking and he shouts at the top of his lungs "PASSING ON THE LEFT!" The women literally jumped off the trail onto the grass on the side. And I rode by with my head hanging down - totally embarrassed -- and said in a quiet voice "sorry".

I coached Jacob a bit as continued along on our ride -- worried that this would happen again. He then proceeded to practice saying the phrase over and over again in different tones and volumes as we rode along.

He had a chance to practice this skill again as we had to pass an elderly couple walking on the trail. I was nervous as we approached them wondering which style and tone he was going to use. But he used a normal speaking voice and alerted them in advance that he was going to pass. And they thanked him. Phew....

Campfires, Fishing & Good Friends

Last weekend we camped with our friends at a campground just an hour northwest of Ft. Collins on the Poudre River -- Mountain Park Campground -- for two nights. The Dads had fun building the fire each night.. And we all had fun roasting marshmallows and hotdogs over the fire! S'mores! Yummy!!They had a fishing area designated for kids. Hannah observed the boys fish for a while and then decided she wanted to take her first stab at fishing. Pat helped her and she caught a fish with her first cast. It was a decent sized fish. Here is her first catch.... And then she told Pat "I want to catch a bigger one!" And she did....unfortunately I missed the second catch (naptime for Luke). I'll attach a picture once Laurie e-mails me her pictures.

Luke's camping adventures continue....he's a trooper! He watches all the action - as we set up the tent, cook, and build a fire and this time he spent a lot of time playing in the rocks and the dirt....eating some too. ;-) Here he is watching the kids fish at the river.

The kids loved gathering pine cones, sticks, grass and whatever they could find around our site and playing in the dirt. They got dirty! There was a large rock on our site and they spent a lot of time climbing it and hanging out on top.It was a fun weekend together!

A New Set of Wheels

Hannah was thrilled when Pat fixed up a two-wheeler bike that had been laying around the quad unclaimed for the last month. He put Jacob's old training wheels on it and pumped up the front tire and she was ready to roll! The first night she really tired herself out making laps around the quad.

Oregon Adventure

Our campsite at Willard Bay

We left for Oregon on Memorial Day and camped two nights on the way. We stayed at a State Park near Ogden, UT (just north of Salt Lake City) called Willard Bay State Park and the second night we camped at Emigrant Springs State Park in Idaho. We had a pretty campsite at Willard Bay that looked out on the water. And we were in a beautiful forest in the Blue Mountains the second night of camping. Both campgrounds were very convenient to our driving route -- but were noisy. We could hear the highway from both sites. Next time we might consider driving a little ways off the road to have a more peaceful setting.
Here is a picture of the sun setting over Willard Bay. We didn't have much sunlight to work with when we arrived. We hurriedly set up our tent and ended up eating chicken soup for supper in the dark. The hot soup tasted good!

Emigrant Springs State Park

We arrived at Mikes after a very scenic drive through the Columbia River Gorge. We stopped and ate our lunch at a rest area long the Columbia River. And we even saw Mount Hood (we never saw it on our drive home -- it was cloudy and raining).

Here is a picture of Mike's new house

which is nestled in the Hoyt Arboretum. We had miles of walking trails through beautiful trees just out Mike's front door. Here are a couple of shots of the inside of Mike's house:
We took the trails through the Arboretum down to the Portland Zoo on Friday. Luke took a snooze in the stroller -- as we spent 3 hours seeing the zoo. He missed seeing the giraffes and zebras. The Children's Museum is also in walking distance from Mike's house -- maybe we'll check this out next time we're visiting.
We took a day trip to Corvallis, OR. Pat had meetings with scientists from Oregon State. The kids and I explored Corvallis while he had his meetings. And then we had lunch with Regi, a church friend of Lois and John's when they were students at OSU. It was a delight to meet Regi!When we returned from Corvallis, we celebrated Luke's first birthday. He enjoyed the frosting but didn't care for the chocolate cake. I'll have to try a different flavor cake for his actual birthday. The kids each had a package to open from Nana's trip to Chicoteague Island. They now all have horse t-shirts.
Our last day together we took a trip to the coast at low tide and saw sea anemones, barnacles, and mussels in the tide pools. It was a moist day -- what I had expected of Oregon weather (it was dry up to this point in our trip). But it didn't stop all of us from enjoying the ocean and exploring the tide pools. Jacob loved climbing on the rocks. And Hannah loved touching the sea anemones and watching them close up and squirt water.
It rained most of our drive home. So we ended up staying at a KOA in Twin Falls, ID with Lois and the dogs. We rented a little two-room cabin. It was cute...but I didn't get any pictures because it rained the whole time we were there. I have now added two more states to the list of places I have been -- Oregon and Idaho!

Birthday Wishes for my Mom!

Today is a special day....my Mom's birthday.

There are times where it may seem
we are separated by many miles,
but in my heart you are always near.

You are a great mother, wife, nana, teacher, listener, cook, decorator, gardener, hostess and a witness for Christ
but most of all you are my dearest friend.


Your extraordinary efforts to set a good example
and the love of Christ you shared with me
made my life rich and complete.I am very blessed to have you as my Mother…
Thank you.

Enjoy your day that is just for you!
Happy Birthday!

I love you, Mom!