Brad and Lindsey Posenjak

November in January (Catching up!)

2012-01-19T07:00:00.000-08:00

November usually starts out with Lindsey going to her family's "Girls Weekend". So that means I get a "guys weekend" with my boys. We went on a walk and got to play on the railroad tracks since Mom wasn't around...

You can't have fall in Wenatchee without boxes of apples filling your house. So we dry and eat a lot of apples this time of year. Of course Spencer wanted to get in and use the tools...

Peeling

Slicing

Serving

Weird random picture...

Fall is also a good time to go to the park and take a few pictures...

Leaf fight!

Leaf Angels?

We picked out our Christmas tree and decorated it the last weekend of November...

October In January

2012-01-17T18:46:00.000-08:00

Here is my attempt to catch up on several months of blog neglect. I decided to start going through my pictures and choosing the best ones from October. Maybe I will get around to November and December in the next couple weeks.

We have more pictures of Spencer right now because he is always hanging around Lindsey and I. He plays with his brothers, but his attention span for them isn't very long. He would rather hang around with his parents and get into everything around them.

Every time I go to the garage or outside to work on something, he wants to follow me. When I cleared our irrigation lines, he wanted to help, but he didn't like the noisy air compressor. I gave him some ear protection, but he had more fun playing with them than using them...

The boys celebrated Aunt Gail's birthday by making her a banner and emailing the picture to her down in Papua New Guinea...

We also celebrated my grandmother's 99th birthday!

Then comes Halloween and carving pumpkins...

One of my rules is that if you want to carve a pumpkin, you have to clean it out and get your hands goopy. Wesley doesn't like that rule, but since I am stronger than he is, he gets his hands goopy too...

He eventually liked it... kind of...

New Church Facility Remodel

2012-01-15T15:51:00.000-08:00

Well, that was the longest hiatus I have ever taken from our blog. Three months! Yikes. No promises on what the future holds here, but our family is now back to cruising altitude and I can find a few minutes here and there to blog... or at least take pictures of our kids again.

Toward the end of October it became apparent that our church would probably be given a new facility. We had a lot of meetings and discussion to figure out how the possible transition would play out. The biggest question was would we remodel before we moved into the new facility or would we wait until we were already in. Since there were good points to both sides of the issue, we came up with the idea of pulling off a remodel in 40 days and having our first service by Christmas.

The remodel entailed tearing up and replacing the old floor and stage, tearing out a couple walls and rebuilding them, sheetrock, stone work, new stairs, new carpet, painting, completely rewiring the sound equipment, installing a new projector system... and a lot more. The contractors we talked to thought we were crazy. God must have thought otherwise... or maybe he thought of our "crazy" as faith.

Anyway, somehow I ended up as one of the project managers for this remodel. I took off vacation for almost two weeks in November, and then didn't work more than 4 hours at my regular job until after Christmas. Most nights I was there until 10... many nights it was later than that.

The real work of this job was done by more than 75 volunteers from our church who came to work long hours and do work that their bodies weren't made to do. There is no way this project could have been completed without the excitement and labor of the people in our church. It was amazing to see the man power our little church could put together and to see everything fall into place. We relied on a few contractors to come in when they said they could and they relied on us to get out part done. There were 100 things that could have gone wrong to throw a wrench into the timeline. Nothing did.

Anyway, here are some pictures and links to 360 images from the process...

Before:

During:

After:

The remodel was finished in time for Christmas morning and it was quite the event. Our church typically runs about 150 people per week, but on Christmas morning we had 350 people attend to show their support. The past two weeks we have run over 200. We hope that our enthusiasm for outreaching to the neighborhood will continue.

I am proud of my wife who was basically a single mom throughout this process and she still had a huge roll in the remodel and outreach projects.

Here are a few pictures of the process that didn't turn out completely blurry...

All the pews were removed the first morning. From this picture you can kind of see how the floor sloped down to the middle and then back up to the front...

Tearing the carpet out was a nightmare. As you can see the way we ended up doing it was to scrape up a corner, attach to a truck out the front doors, and pull it off...

Once the carpet was up, we tore out the sloped floor...

We had hoped to be able to put the carpet down directly on the sub-floor, but it wasn't stable enough. We had to lay down a new floor on top of the old floor and then a new stage and front wall were built...

Rock on the stage and starting the paint...

We built the cross out of maple, and we found out that maple not a very easy wood to stain. It's so dense that it doesn't take the stain well. It's good that we have people who know what there doing, because it still turned out looking great! Also since maple is dense, it is very heavy.

Now that we are back to normal life, hopefully I will get a chance to catch up on posting some pictures of the kids!

Banks Lake Camping

2011-10-03T06:58:00.000-07:00

For the last excursion of the summer, Lindsey's side of the family all met up at Banks Lake by Grand Coulee. This lake is an irrigation reservoir and we were told that once every 20 years they drain the lake way down to for maintenance. Well, we were lucky enough to find the lake drained about 25 feet below its normal level.

Having the lake drained made it a little less desirable to swim in and the exposed muck revealed a weird stench when you wandered around it, but it brought all sorts of other fun for the kids (and grown ups). Over the past 20 years boaters have dropped MANY things into the water. They weren't found until a group of crazy folks (my in-law clan) decided to do a little "treasure" hunting. (I love you in-laws! Crazy isn't necessarily a bad thing.)

My brother-in-law found a wallet around the docks with over $200 of decomposed cash in it. I haven't heard if he was able to salvage it or what came of that.

The treasure hunts turned up camping chairs, buoys, anchors, an old camera, ropes, a jet ski hood, a kite board sail, fishing poles, an unopened Corona, and many other garbage treasurers.

Uncle Matt kept the kids entertained by taking them fishing. They didn't have any luck, but the kids sure had fun following him around and messing up his fishing gear.

The muck from the lake bed would easily turn into mud if you repeatedly stomped in one place. The kids had a great time creating a muck pit and wallowing in it.

Our motorcycle fanatic, Spencer, got to go on his first motorcycle ride around the park with Grandpa. He was so excited; he loved every second of it!

And a random shadow picture of Elliott and me.

Lincoln City

2011-09-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

For our last vacation before school started we met up with the Bunches to head to Lincoln City for a few days.

Our boys are always early risers, so we took them to do a little early morning beach combing...

There was a lot of playing in the sand and running around in the surf.

One of the evenings while strolling the beach, Mike spotted something rolling out in the surf. It was a SHARK! Of course we had to run out and get closer. It was only about 3 feet long, but it was still alive (although mortally wounded). The kids (and the adults) had a blast getting close to it and touching it. Apparently it was a Salmon Shark which is closely related to the Great White and Mako sharks. This was definitely the highlight of the trip!

We went on a neat hike that included a sweet suspension bridge...

And here are a few other pictures I thought were neat enough to slap up here...

Pearrygin 2011

2011-08-31T07:00:00.000-07:00

Time to catch up on some summer posts now that school has started. I have to back-date this post to August so if I try to look back at this post in the future I will pick the correct month in the archive. Anyway, I am feeling lazy (and this happened a month ago) so I'm not going to try very hard on the narrative with this post.

This year at Lake Pearrygin, we stayed six nights - our longest Pearrygin excursion yet. This annual vacation has quickly become the anchor highlight of our summer. We could have used it a few degrees warmer, but it didn't stop us from playing in the water most of the time.

Here are some of the highlights...

Entertaining the kids on the "relaxation station"...

Relaxing and snacking...

The cousins brought a little surf board that Spencer LOVED!

Giant jaw breakers...

Smores

This year we found a rope swing on the opposite side of the lake that we hadn't found before. It wasnt' very high, but we had fun playing around on it...

And here are selected clips from the week at Pearrygin. Much of it is just me playing around with the GoPro camera...

Filling in Some Blanks & Quotes

2011-08-19T17:30:00.000-07:00

I went a full month without posting anything and I have been trying to catch up the past few days. I still have a big post about our week at Pearrygin Lake, but I have a little video splicing to do before that one makes it up. So for now I will just fill in with some random pictures and quotes that don't really have any theme, so don't expect any of this to tie together. I wrote down some of these quotes six months ago, so that shows how diligent I have been to blog...

Spencer (to Mom): Elliott and Wes aren't letting me play with them... can I go spit on them?

Hey look, Wesley graduated Kindergarten (a couple months ago)...

Wesley (to Mom): I am a horrible listener. Sometimes I just shut my ears off while you're talking... it's fun.

But she still loves him...

(wow, she's a cute one! ...and she's almost 30!)

While Wes is pretending to be Darth Vader and Spence is a Storm trooper...

Wes: Darth Vader has the force that can pick people up and choke them with thunder…and that’s who I’m being. I am the ultimate Darth Vader. I don’t even wear a cape.
Spence: I found a bible for when we go to church.
Wes: We don’t go to church. Ultimate Darth Vader NEVER goes to church.
Spence: (as he is putting on a cape) I’m going to be Darth Vader.
Wes: Ultimate Darth Vader doesn’t have a cape
Spence: Well, I am not being ULCHIMATE Darth Vader. I’m just the regular one.

At the beginning of July, we went camping with some friends in the in-law's trailer at Suncrest Resort in Moses Lake. I'd give the "resort" mixed reviews, but the company was good and the pool was great for kids.

I only put this picture in to show Spencer wearing a necklace that his grandma helped him make. He started wearing it toward the end of June and he hasn't taken it off since. It is tied on and since we would have to cut it off, he has decided he doesn't want it off...

A few days ago while standing in the kitchen...

Spencer: I wish there was a potty in here.
Brad: Um, why in here?
Spencer: So when I have to go potty at dinner I can just go right here. I'm gonna go unscrew the potty and bring it in here.

Thankfully, he wasn't able to "unscrew the potty." Well, I think that's that for now. Hopefully the next post will be Pearrygin 2011...

Minotaur & Theseus Lakes

2011-08-18T12:30:00.000-07:00

During high school I went backpacking a couple times up to Lake Minotaur with my youth group. The amazing scenery and lack of people made it quickly become my favorite hike. When Lindsey and I were dating 12 years ago, we hiked up there for a day hike, and the last time we were up there was when we went backpacking with Mike and Becky 8 years ago.

We were due to make the hike again, and my parents were willing to watch our boys since the hike isn't really kid-friendly. So yesterday, Lindsey and I woke up at 5:45, left our house at 6:20, stopped at the Leavenworth Starbucks for a breakfast sandwich and caffeine, then continued up Highway 2 toward our destination. We arrived at the trail head and started hiking at 8:05.

To give an idea of what the terrain looks like, I copied an image from Google Earth...

The hike in is less than 2 miles, but you gain almost 2,000 feet over that duration. The first mile is very steep and forested. After we broke out of the forest, there were still patches of snow that were covering the trail. I had never seen that in the other four times I had been up there! Shortly before we got to the lake we saw a patch of dead trees that was certainly worth a few photos... especially with such a perfect blue sky behind them...

When you get to Minotaur, you are greeted with an amazing view. Check out the 360 Panorama at http://360.io/VRacER...

We toured around taking pictures at Minotaur for a while... if you want to see some more Panoramic pictures we took at Minotaur, check out...

http://360.io/LysfnE

http://360.io/h4pzxm

http://360.io/eM2xhJ

We headed toward the ridge that overlooks Lake Theseus...

Just so you can see how clear the water is in these lakes, here is a closer picture of the island in Lake Theseus...

From Minotaur, there seems to only be one way down to Theseus, which involves hiking down a steep chute and climbing over a rock slide field. The top center of the ridge in this picture shows where we came down...

For a couple Panoramic pictures at Theseus, check out...

http://360.io/anzUxS

http://360.io/FzMXtA

http://360.io/7RNe6q

Off to the left side of Theseus is a meadow with a pond in the middle. There are several little streams that wind around into this pond. There were several frogs there and the pond was full of tadpoles. It was a fun place to peruse and take pictures...

The large rocks slide has created some need caves under the gain boulders that have fallen. I crawled under one and got a neat photo of the Theseus island...

After we made it back up to Minotaur, we stopped to have lunch. After a couple minutes of holding still, we were swarmed with mosquitoes. We were wearing heavy mosquito repellent, but we still preferred to eat while we were hiking so they wouldn't annoy us so much. I think overall, we only got a few mosquito bites, so I think that was pretty successful. After our hiking lunch, we headed up toward the peak of the ridge, Labyrinth Mountain. We couldn't get all the way to the top because there was quite a bit of snow covering the trail and we didn't have enough time to try to blaze our own trail. So we wandered around for a while and headed back down...

Thanks to the mosquitoes who never let us sit for more than a couple minutes, we hiked from 8:00 to 4:30. The best part about these lakes is that so few people ever hike up to them. There was not another person up there all day long! Just Lindsey and I and some amazing views!

Putting up Fences

2011-08-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

No, this post is not a deep, emotionally tugging post (like mine usually are), this is literally about us putting up a fence. Sounds real exciting, huh? Besides some vacationing here and there, the fence has consumed most of our weekends and evenings the past few weeks.

Before we started the fence, there were several shrubs that needed to be removed.

The shrubs we could salvage were replanted at my in-laws house. The unsalvageable were assaulted by our children...

Next, since our ground is comprised of sandstone, rock, and kevlar, we got out the tractor to dig the post holes...

Then the tractor broke, so we got another tractor...

Then we rested...

Starting to put up the panels...

Of course everything can't go perfectly smooth, so we hit an irrigation line in several places requiring a new trench to be dug and new pipe to be laid.

Spencer wanted to be outside with us working on the fence ALL THE TIME. He loves being outside and he loves being where any action is. This morning he told me he was thirsty, so I told him he could get himself a cup of water. He went inside, and got both of us water and cherries, brought them outside and lined them up nicely...

Oh, wait... there's more resting!

Then this past weekend Lindsey and I put a finishing coat on the fence to prevent it from graying or warping... I hope. So here is the finished product...

Now, why did we need a fence? Mostly so we could get a trampoline without making our neighbors too upset! The trampoline was delivered last night and the boys had their test run...

We decided not to get the cage for the trampoline. Mostly because it is an eyesore and it would probably violate the height restrictions we have in our subdivision (ruining our neighbors view). We know, we know, it's just an accident waiting to happen! Lindsey has already offered our kids $5 for the first one who can do a complete flip... hopefully they don't flip over the new fence!

Camping and Diving at Fort Casey

2011-06-16T07:23:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we headed to Whidbey Island for a one night camping trip so I could meet Aaron to do a little diving at Keystone Jetty. At Fort Casey State Park there is a small first-come camping area where we got there early and setup our tent. Once we got settled, we went on an evening stroll (the kids in pajamas) and roasted some marshmallows...

In the morning we headed to our dive site (maybe 400 yards away) and the kids played on the beach while Aaron and I hit the water. The tide was low, there was a lot of kelp in the water, and the visibility was pretty poor, but we still saw some neat stuff and simply being underwater is amazing. The boys spent a good two hours gathering rocks, shells, logs, and dead animals...

My dad and I went together and purchased a GoPro camera that I tested out for the first time underwater. I am still figuring the camera out and the visibility was poor, so bear with me. Still the video gives a very good idea of what we saw...

After the dive we went back to the campsite, packed everything up, and headed up to climb around on the Fort Casey artillery buildings. Spencer loved the head lamp and wore it just about everywhere.

We took this picture of the lighthouse just for my sister Gail...

Us boys enjoy giving Mom a heart-attack. Wesley frequently commented, "Mom would HATE this."

Hawaii - Underwater

2011-05-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to editing a few of the underwater pictures from Aaron's camera. So here are a few pictures and a little video (at the end) from snorkeling in Maui...

White Spotted Puffer...

Stareye Parrotfish

Lizardfish

Humuhumunukunukuapua’a

Moorish Idol

Green Sea Turtles

Me with a sea turtle!

Selected video clips of swimming under an arch, sea turtle, spotted eagle ray, and dolphins...

Hawaii... aww yeah (part 3)

2011-05-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

Blame it on the three hour time change (or the fact we didn't have any obligations), but we woke up around 6:00 almost every morning... even when we wanted to sleep in. We envisioned our vacationing as staying up late and sleeping in, but it was exactly the opposite.

We had been going pretty much non-stop for the first five days, so the day after Hana we took it easy. We went to a little seafood cafe for lunch. There really wasn't anything too eventful about it, but I took what I think is a cute picture of Lindsey... with a pirate.

That evening we were treated to the most colorful sunset of the week... right from our own patio... err, "lanai" - I guess is what I was supposed to call it when in Hawaii.

At this point, I should interject a little bit about the sea life we saw. Between scuba diving and snorkeling, we saw tons of colorful fish, several creepy looking eels, and many other small interesting creatures. We saw many, MANY large sea turtles, and of course there were the spinner dolphins (previous post).

Earlier in the week when Aaron and I went diving at Molokini the dive guides asked us what we were hoping to see. I told them I would like to see a shark, and they obliged. The first thing they led us to was a white tip reef shark. It was resting in a small cave created by the coral reef. We swam right up to it and got within 10 feet of it. It was pretty neat to look at, but it honestly wasn't as exciting as it might have been if we had seen it swimming. They also took us to a field of garden eels. As we approached them, the dive guides told us to lay down in the sand and crawl slowly toward them so they don't duck into their holes.

While snorkeling, Aaron and I also saw a spotted eagle ray. It swam below us for about 10 minutes and we followed it around. It is amazing how smooth they glide. We did get some video and pictures with Aaron's camera while we snorkeled, so hopefully they turned out and I can get some of those posted.

For our last full day we got up early and took a snorkel tour out to Molokini. Snorkeling Molokini wasn't as exciting since we had snorkeled the shoreline and seen so much already, but the boat ride out was pretty neat...

After the snorkel tour we spent the rest of the morning and afternoon at Poolenalena beach. There were a few coves on this beach, but we tried to stay away from the far end of the beach as there were a couple old naked guys sunbathing... at least it made for a lot of bad jokes. Despite the unwanted entertainment, one of the strangest snorkeling memories was made. Lindsey and I were snorkeling and she dove down to find a neat little sea shell. She looked at it, and seeing there was no snail or hermit crab living in it, she handed it to me and I put it in the pocket of my shorts. When we got back on the beach I reached into my pocket to grab the shell and I felt something squishy in there. I pulled out the shell to find a baby octopus! We looked at it for a couple minutes as it squirmed on top of the shell, and then we let it go back in the ocean. I wish we had our regular camera for this picture, but it was just my blurry phone...

This was by far the biggest trip Lindsey and I had taken since our Australia/Papua New Guinea trip nine years ago. Hopefully it's not another nine years before we get around to it again. This was great for our anniversary vacation since it reaffirmed to us how much we enjoy spending time with each other. When we got back home we had to jump right back into our busy lives, which was a shock to our systems after getting to spend so much time together. Of course we missed our kids and we look forward to making the same sort of trip with them... when they are a little older.

To wrap it up, here are a couple miscellaneous flower pictures that Lindsey took. I didn't really have any other good place to post them...

Hawaii... aww yeah (part 2)

2011-05-11T17:30:00.000-07:00

Early Monday morning Aaron and I headed out to La Perouse Bay for a chance to see some dolphins. We geared up in our dive equipment and swam out, and out, and out. We probably ended up swimming out a quarter mile. We paused to rest for a few minutes and all that was below us was water and sand. We started to think we might have expended large amounts of energy for nothing. After a short rest we snorkeled out a little further when all of a sudden both Aaron and I stopped and poked our heads out of the water. We looked at each other and said, "Did you hear that squeeking?" We looked back down and a few dolphins darted by below us. We immediately let the air out of our BCDs and decended just 40 feet down to the sandy bottom. Aaron got out his dive knife and tapped on his tank to make a little noise. Pretty soon we had at least 17 spinner dolphins gliding around us. They typically kept their distance about 30 feet away, but on occasion they came within five feet of us. We enjoyed the serene experience for about 15 minutes before they got bored and left us. When we got out, we couldn't help our big dopey grins!

Road to Hana

Lindsey and I heard mixed reviews about attempting the road to Hana journey. It is a long windy (and sometimes one lane) road that wraps through some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. We got up early to beat the rush and headed out around 6:30. Even before we got the road to Hana, we were treated to a lovely rainbow. This delayed us a few mintues...

This was a sign of things to come - both in beauty and weather. Dark rain clouds with small sun breaks was what the weather had in store for us. We were blasted by a heavy downpour as we started down the curvy road. The rain slowed as we pulled off at our first unmarked pullout. We had to duck under a barbed wire fence and walk down a slippery trail along a very steep cliff, but the view was that of a 200 foot waterfall!

At our second stop, there was supposedly a neat little waterfall with a pool to cool off in. The rain started pounding again, but regardless, we decided to check it out. It probably wasn't worth getting drenched, but we had fun on our little adventure. I posted this blurry picture of the pool just to show the rain pounding on the water.

Next, we pulled off to the side of the road to get a few scenic pictures of the ocean and of our(drenched)selves.

There were many neat little one-lane bridges that we got to drive over. This one had a really neat waterfall that could be seen right from the bridge. There was very limited parking for this waterfall, so we had to walk a little ways to get back to the bridge. Of course it wasn't raining when we got out of the car, but the downpour hit us a few mintues after we got to the triple falls...

The next stop took us about 20 minutes off the road to Hana on Nahiku road. The guide book we were reading told of its beauty... we questioned the value of this side road until we got to the end of the road...

Check out the 360 degree view at http://occip.it/pt4tx6b1 (sorry it's a little washed out).

Kahanu Tropical Gardens - now that place sounds cool right? Especially if you have to pay $10 per person to enter. Well, we were wrong. Not worth the $20 we paid. As soon as we got out into an open field, you guessed it... down pour!

I can't say the $20 was all a loss. They did have a restroom. The highlight was a spider, seeing coconuts actually fall from a tree, and an ocean view that wasn't too bad. Oh, there was also some huge temple thing made of stacked volcanic rock... but since you couldn't explore or climb on it, I was bored with it.

We finished all this sight seeing by 12:30 and we were getting hungry now, so on to Waianapanapa State Park! This is a pretty neat park that has all kinds of neat volcanic rock formations, lava tubes, and caves.

There was a cave that had clear (cold) fresh water in it, so we decided to take a dip!

Hawaii... aww yeah. (part 1)

2011-05-10T07:30:00.000-07:00

To celebrate our 10th anniversary, Lindsey and I spent 9 nights in Maui. My oldest sister volunteered to watch our kids at our house the whole week! We are extremely thankful for her and the craziness she endured.

The discussion started eight months ago with our friends Aaron and Kathy who had been to Maui a couple times before. Lindsey and I had been contemplating where we wanted to go for our 10th anniversary. We heard many great reviews about Hawaii, so I joked to Aaron that if they would go to Hawaii with us, I would get my scuba certification so he would have someone to dive with there. I was pleasantly surprised a couple weeks later when Aaron asked if I was serious. That began our Hawaii planning… and my new scuba hobby.

The first night there we were eating dinner and got suckered into buying a lei. Maybe not suckered, but what else can you do when you are on a dinner date and a lady walks up selling flowers?

View from the condo. The grounds were immaculately kept.

We visited many different beaches where we spent our time relaxing, snorkeling, diving, and eating. Spending a large portion of my childhood living on an island in the pacific northwest, I've clocked a lot of time at the beach, but I don't really have any memories of swimming in the ocean because it was so stinkin' cold. This was the first time I had ever been able to just go out swimming in the ocean (the water temp was around 75 degrees). I thought people were stretching the truth about the ability to float so much easier in salt water, but they were right. As long as we were laying face down with mask and snorkel, we were able to float for hours (which we did on several occasions). Aaron had an underwater camera that we used during snorkeling, I hope to get some of those pictures and videos posted later.

My first dive in Hawaii at the Makena Black Sands beach...

About ready to head down...

We hit a Luau, like any good tourist would. It was entertaining and the buffet food was decent. The food...

Just to prevent any confusion, the man below is not me, it's the fire dancer guy... he was pretty impressive. We have video of the whole fire routine, but not really blog worthy.

And some random scenery photos from the first couple days...

(Makena Black Sands Beach)

(Maalaea Bay)

(Next to Maalaea Bay)

(Beach on Maalaea Bay)

(Along South Kihea Road)

(La Perouse Bay)

Baseball off to an Exciting Start

2011-04-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

Baseball has started for the boys. Elliott is in his second year of machine pitch and Wesley is in his second year of coach-pitch/t-ball. Spencer is anxious to start next year, and he has been wearing his brother's old uniforms around a lot. Elliott and Wesley both have red uniforms but they are on different teams in different age groups.

Wesley had his first game of the season on Tuesday night. In his league they don't keep score, but he had a lot of fun and kept talking about his game the rest of the night. He has developed a better swing and a little more drive than last year. He had to get used to the tee his first two at-bats, but he connected well on his third at-bat.

Wesley at bat and crossing home plate...

Elliott had his first game last night. Last year was a difficult year for him and his team. It was his first year in the league where they actually kept track of the score and his team never won a game all season long. So we were excited when we saw that he was on a team whose coaches and players showed some promise.

Last night was the most exciting little league game we have attended. Elliott's team started off in the lead during the top of the first inning, 4-0. Over the course of the game the score went back and forth until the top of the last inning when his team went up by one point, 11-10. It was the bottom of the 6th (last) inning, there were two outs, the other team had runners on second and third bases. In this league the outs typically only come from the batter striking out, not from any plays in the field. Since the other team had a good hitter at bat, we were sure the game was going to at least be a tie, if not lose it. The batter hit the ball to second base, who amazingly stopped the ball and then through it toward the first baseman - ELLIOTT - who stretched as far as he could with his foot firmly planted on the bag and caught the ball a split second before the runner touched the bag. The runner was called out and Lindsey and I were almost jumping out of our shoes!

Elliott made it to base 3 out of 4 times at-bat and then made the game saving catch. What a way to get his first win in baseball! I am not sure if Elliott realized what happened at first, but I think the excitement of his parents rubbed off and later he said it was "the funnest night ever!"

Elliott at bat and crossing home plate...

Lindsey and I had contemplated having one of us leave early because our home group Bible study had started... at our house (we just leave the front door unlocked for them)... but I am glad we both watched it to the end!

It certainly makes the rest of the baseball season look more exciting. It is much easier to be as busy as we are when we know our boys are having fun and their teams aren't in shambles.

Also, you can be sure there will be more (and better quality) little league pictures to come...

Always Behind

2011-03-11T11:53:00.000-08:00

I feel like the last couple months have been a blur and we haven't had time to take pictures of the kids, let alone, blog about anything. Today Lindsey is in Seattle getting her LASIK eye surgery and I am home with the boys. It will be fun for her to not need glasses or contacts anymore! While Spencer is relaxing in front of the electronic babysitter (the TV), I am trying to catch up organizing and posting a few photos. So here we go...

We purchased tickets to the Wenatchee Wild and took the boys to their first hockey game. The teams were tied most of the game, and then with less than one second left on the clock, the other team scored a goal and the Wild lost. A very disappointing end to an exciting evening...

Lindsey and I have never celebrated Valentines Day. There is something about forced romance that we have never appreciated... I don't think I have ever appreciated any type of romance, but at least Lindsey and I can agree on this one. Nonetheless, Lindsey recalled good childhood memories of her mom making a special valentines dinner, so she did the same for the boys. We invited my sister over and Lindsey prepared some lamb, potatoes, and creme brulee for dessert. Sorry, the oranges are in the way, so you can't see the dessert Lindsey is burning (or whatever the culinary term is for that)...

Even with all the busyness, we have had a chance to spend some time with good friends. Spencer and Garrett putting on a show with the "Paper Jamz" guitars...

I took Elliott and Ellie for a hike on the hill behind us. We were trying to find deer antlers, but we didn't have any luck. We still had fun though...

Lindsey has been looking into the booth-style kitchen tables for quite some time to save a little space. She found this setup online for a few hundred less than any of the local furniture stores could get it... yeah, yeah, I know we didn't support local business, but we supported our local wallet. The boys enjoyed some root beer floats right after we got it put together...

Spencer dipping pickles in apple sauce, yum...

A little wrestling in the grass after practicing some baseball...

Sorry there was no theme to tie this all together, but right now it's all I have just to throw some pictures up with a little rambling here and there. Until next year...

No Flossing on Sundays?

2011-01-28T12:59:00.000-08:00

When I got the job that brought us back to Wenatchee seven years ago, it was despite the fact that I applied for a position which I was under qualified. Nonetheless, since nobody qualified wanted the job, they gave it to me. Well, a little over two years ago, a similar event took place at our church. When they needed a music leader, nobody else wanted it so I (Mr. Unqualified) ended up with the job... without even applying. I don't really know the first thing about singing, and I don't really know the second thing about playing guitar - well, maybe I know the second thing about playing the guitar, but certainly not the third or fourth.

All that to lead up to this random observation. The past couple weeks I have noticed an annoying phenomenon. I have a tiny gap between my upper two front teeth. It's about the size of pin hole and not really noticeable except that air can pass through it. I think this is fairly common, right? I started noticing a couple weeks ago that when I sing, air passes through the hole and makes small air bubbles form under my top lip. As we progress through a song, the off-key vibrations emitting from by vocal chords seem to drive these spit bubbles to the bottom of my lip. It feels like they are trying to free themselves by leaping out of my mouth. This starts a small chain reaction. First of all, to keep the bubbles from escaping, I make funny movements with my top lip while I sing. This results in me singing even more strange than I normally do.

Anyway, I think my solution is to refrain from flossing Sunday mornings... at least between the top two teeth. I'll let the weird white stuff build up so it plugs the hole. Otherwise, I might just get a small piece of chewing gum and stick it on the inside of my upper central incisors. Any other suggestions?

Ugh, Birthday, Dialogues, Scuba

2011-01-27T12:28:00.000-08:00

I have slowed down in this whole blogging bit, so I better get another post in before January ends. A lot has happened, so I have several random topics to discuss. Some of this stuff has already been on Facebook, but I don't really trust that Facebook is reliable enough to maintain our family's "online diary."

Ugh:

Spencer has been giving us a run for our money. The first two weeks of January were a blur of fit throwing, time-outs, much screaming, and many (many, many) instances of "applying swift force to the tender posterior." We were about to pull our hair out... or someone's hair out. He seems to be doing a little better now... there are still a few kinks that need to be worked out before his cuteness outweighs his trouble again.

Birthday:

The little trouble maker turned 4 last week. We threatened to take away his birthday so he would stay 3 for another year, but we ended up throwing him a party. When Spencer was asked what he wanted for dinner he replied, "pancakes." So we subjected our families to breakfast for dinner with pancakes, a couple different egg dishes, bacon, and a glorious blueberry pastry thingy that Lindsey made (I think there is a real term for it, but I don't remember).

Spencer is always trying to play with our iPods, so we made him an iPod shaped cake. We also got him a cheap mp3 player so he can listen to his songs without messing around with ours.

Dialogues:

Spencer got another toy guitar for his birthday. He loves them all. It plays a few songs with the lyrics. On the most popular song, Wesley said he thought it plays, "Sweet Home on the Llamas."

Spencer, while getting his cereal ready to eat, looks at the milk carton and says, "Oh yeah, this is from cow squirt." Our kids are very interested in where our food products originate.

This morning at breakfast, Elliott mixed up some chocolate milk for him and his brothers. When he finished drinking his milk, he looked at the chocolate mix left in the bottom of the cup and said, "there's some sludge in the bottom of this cup." I asked him where he learned to use the word "sludge." Apparently his language enrichment class is doing good for him.

Lindsey texted me this message: I started watching a cooking show and Spencer stopped to watch it with me. Then he said, "Mom, I wanna cook now." I hope we have a chef in the making!

The other day we went to Eastmont Park for a change of pace. We don't visit that park very often because the play equipment isn't very impressive. There were several people with unleashed dogs. On our way out, we passed a lady with an unleashed dog and Wesley took the initiative to look out for his little brother and inform the lady, "Spencer doesn't like dogs." The lady replied, "It's okay, he likes people." Yeah, cause that makes it all better!

Scuba:

I haven't posted much about my new found hobby, scuba diving. Last fall Lindsey and I started thinking about taking a trip to Hawaii. I mentioned to a scuba certified friend that if he and his wife came with us, I would get scuba certified also so we could dive there. Well, they agreed to go on vacation with us (coming up in May) and I signed up for scuba classes. My dad also got excited about the idea, so over the week of Thanksgiving the two of us took scuba classes in the evenings. My first couple dives to get certified were in Lake Chelan the last week of November. We used dry suits so even with 4 inches of snow on the ground, 27 degree air temp, and 38 degree water temp, we stayed pretty warm.

After we got certified, we waited a couple weeks while our own equipment was being ordered. Then on December 29th, Aaron took my dad and me out to Whidbey Island for our first real dive. Since there were a lot of "firsts" happening, I struggled with my buoyancy for a while at first, but once we got down deep enough, it was amazing. Now I'm looking forward to doing a lot more!

Getting my equipment ready...

Aaron, me, and my dad. Almost ready...

Christmas Recap

2011-01-06T17:50:00.000-08:00

I thought I better catch up a little and add a few Christmas pictures. We spent Christmas Eve with Lindsey's parents. To limit the number of gifts we had to provide for the extended family, we had a gift exchange for the kids and one for the adults. For the kids turn, they drew numbers to see who could draw first. There was no stealing allowed. The trickiest part of a gift exchange for the kids was finding gifts that were exciting for kids ages 3 through 12.

It took Elliott a long time to make his decision...

Spencer could tell that his gift was a snow sled by the way it was wrapped. He loved it so much he decided to sleep in it that night. When he woke up Christmas morning, he admitted the hard plastic was not comfortable. A hidden surprise included a bag of marshmallows that he was hugged for a little while...

Wesley enjoyed his Zhu Zhu pet...

The older kids were having a blast with a toy that would record and repeat (in a chipmunk voice) whatever they said...

Christmas morning we were at home and unwrapped presents and stockings. We don't have too many pictures to post because everyone was in their pajamas and still looked rather sleepy.

Ever since November when I started taking scuba classes, Spencer has been obsessed with my scuba gear. So he got his own mask and snorkel to play with...

Later Christmas morning, we headed over to spend Christmas afternoon with my family. We did a little sledding and then enjoyed the family.

A bonus was that we were pretty successful in getting a decent family photo...

Pre-Christmas Post-Christmas

2011-01-02T19:30:00.000-08:00

Now that the busy time of Christmas is past, I am finally getting around to blogging about some of the December activities leading up to our Christmas festivities... hence the pre-Christmas, post-Christmas blog post. I will try to post some pictures from Christmas within the next few months.

I already posted several pictures of our sledding. We have done quite a bit of it this year. The scenario typically plays out that I take the boys outside sledding, and Lindsey prepares something warm for when we get back inside. Here Wesley and Spencer enjoy some hot chocolate...

Lindsey had a gift certificate (thanks to one of her races) to a ginger bread store in Leavenworth. The boys got to stay up late one evening decorating this ginger bread house. Like most ginger bread houses, very little actually gets eaten...

Then we started on the dreaded Christmas card photo. We tested out the setup with Spencer making goofy faces...

Then we had to make goofy faces ourselves...

Finally we found one that we could settle on (Spencer is trying to wink)...

When I was a kid, my grandma would make one of my favorite breakfasts. Its basically deep fried dough, similar to donut holes but in strange shapes. Because of the strange shapes this breakfast received the name "birdies" because they sometimes look like they have little deep fried wings. My sisters made a great breakfast that featured these birdies. The proper way to eat them is to dip them in powdered sugar (double-dipping is allowed). Good food, but not good for you.

Just What We Needed

2010-12-13T09:16:00.001-08:00

Like most everyone else we have been completely swamped this fall. There are probably several things I could post since our last entry, but maybe I will find time to revisit those later. Saturday afternoon we got dumped on with snow. This was just what we needed to slow us down a little. We ended up with about 10 inches by the end of the day. Typically when we get this much snow it is really dry and powdery, but this time it was perfect snow to play in.

We tried making too large of snowball for the base of the snowman and when we rolled it down the slope of our backyard, it broke apart. Instead of starting over, we just started turning the broken snowball into pieces of an igloo. Ever since I was a kid I thought about making an igloo, but I could never get the dome top to stay in place. This snow was perfect for building and it worked just right. It may not look pretty, but it did the job.

Wesley kneeling in the doorway...

It was roomy enough for Lindsey and the boys to crawl inside it...

That evening Lindsey and I dropped the kids off at her parents' house so we could go Christmas shopping. We thought it would be crazy shopping on a Saturday night, but the snow kept most of the crowd away. The streets were awful, but the stores were mostly empty!

Sunday after church Lindsey had a meeting so Aaron and I took the kids up into the hills where four-wheel-drive and chains were required. There was a perfect hillside for sledding and we all had a blast.

Aaron came well prepared. He added extra excitement for the kids by bringing wood and gasoline to build a fire at the top of our sledding hill.

November Snow

2010-11-29T12:48:00.001-08:00

In the last 10 days we have received several inches of snow. Probably more snow than I remember seeing in November. We are supposed to get another 4-8 inches in the next 24 hours. Even when there was just enough snow to cover the grass, the boys were wanting to get out the sleds. In the past years, Wesley and Spencer were a little apprehensive about sledding, but this year they were all in.

I helped the boys make a small snowman (not pictured). They came running into the kitchen wanting a carrot for its nose. Not more than 15 minutes later, the snowman was toppled and Wesley was eating the nose...

All three boys making tunnels in the deceased snowman...

After the second snow, we made a sledding course along side our house. The route is probably about 175 feet long... if you count the 15 feet they slide into the street. The boys found a couple pairs of old ski masks for some added goofiness...

A nice series of snow-in-the-mask. At least Spencer is still smiling!

And a couple pictures I thought were cute...

Halloween +

2010-11-15T12:55:00.000-08:00

Yeah, this is a little late, but here are a few pictures of the boys carving their pumpkins...

And the finished products...

Here's the trick-or-treating crew. We drug these kids around the neighborhood to about 25 different houses. We have a motorcycle man, firefighter, pirate, little house on the prairie girls, and a robot (kind of).

This doesn't have anything to do with Halloween, but the other day, Spencer moved a chair up to the sink, tore his pajama shirt off, threw it on the floor, and started doing dishes.

Boys Weekend

2010-11-09T17:30:00.000-08:00

Lindsey headed to her annual "women's weekend" in Leavenworth with the ladies in her family, so I had the boys to myself from Thursday through Sunday (I think that's more than a weekend). I had a fun time with my boys. Thursday afternoon one of their friends came over and played for the afternoon and then I took them to Awana while I had music practice at church. Friday I took the older boys to school and Spencer and I had a nice morning running errands and visiting with my parents for an hour or so. After we picked up the boys from school, they decorated their wooden boats for the Awana "Yacht Races" event. One of the highlights was that Elliott and Wesley got to race each other. Elliott ended up taking second place for the second year in a row. He got a nice new trophy for that.

Saturday morning I woke up to a hideous sound that I thought was the smoke detector. After I smacked it around a few times I realized it wasn't the smoke detector, but it was Lindsey's arm-band running light equipped with an attack siren. Spencer somehow got to it and set it off. Of course he went running and I was left trying to figure out what was screaming at me. Once I was up and awake, I made our traditional Saturday morning pancakes... but I forgot to add the butter when I made the batter. Luckily when I slapped enough butter on the cooked pancakes, they didn't taste bad. After breakfast we headed to Riverfront Park and I let the boys play around and burn off some energy before we picked up the promised McDonald's for lunch.

The leaves were falling and the boys decided to make a game of catching the leaves before they hit the ground...

Throwing acorns at dad...

Some goofy poses...

After the Happy Meals I gave Wesley and Spencer haircuts, bathed them, fed them dinner, played games, watched movies, went to church Sunday morning and waited with anticipation (and scrambling to clean things up) for Mom to come home.

A couple funny dialogues from the weekend...

Spencer came downstairs with his eyes a little watery and looking a little bloated.

Me: Did you just drink my coke, Spence?

Spencer: No... BELCH.

Monday morning before school started I walked by Elliott's room as he was getting dressed when he stopped me and said, "Dad, I only have one pair of pants because you forgot to do laundry this weekend!"
I am pretty sure Mom was laughing in the background.
To which I replied, "I know, I know, I'm am definitely not as great as Mom."

Elliott Turns 8!

2010-10-14T17:30:00.000-07:00

Catch up post #3. Elliott turned 8 a few weeks ago. His cousins from Spokane came over and celebrated with the rest of our family. There was a slight dragon theme to the party, hence the viking hats... I guess dragons wear viking hats. (it was actually because of the movie How to Train Your Dragon and they are vikings or something).

Grandpa came over on his motorcycle before the party and gave Elliott his first ride. Elliott loved it. They rode for almost a half hour and I think the only reason he wanted to come home was that his cousins were waiting to play with him.

He certainly is growing up. For some reason the following picture caught my attention. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon at the grandparents house and our bellies were full from lunch. The warm fall sun was shining through the window and Elliott was relaxing on the floor reading the Sunday comics.

End of Summer

2010-10-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

Catch-up post #2. As summer came to a close, we tried to get outside a few times to do a little hiking. We had one excursion that took us through sage brushy hills, through a barbed wire fence marked no trespassing, down a long dirt road toward the river. We didn't quite make it down to the river because when we took one step off the road, Elliott heard a rattlesnake hiding under a rock. We couldn't see it, but I poked a stick at it a few times to see if it would keep rattling... it did. So an executive decision was make NOT to drag everyone through waist deep rattlesnake infested sage brush. For some reason I enjoy hiking in this type of terrain. Lindsey makes fun of me and calls me Moses - leading his family through the dessert.

Spencer in the desert...

We made another trip out to our favorite spot on the Wenatchee River. This is one of the few places we can find a sandy beach around here. The salmon were spawning and jumping and the kids were running and having fun with their friends. Side note: This is the same place where the dead fish dissecting took place. No nasty pictures this time.

First Day of School... a little late

2010-10-12T17:30:00.000-07:00

Life has been very busy the past month. I am going to try to catch up in the next couple days...

The first day of school (a month ago) was the start of Kindergarten for Wesley and second grade for Elliott. Wes was very excited for school to start and would come home running around the house shouting about how much he loved it.

Since the older boys experience the excitement of buying new school supplies and the first day of school, Lindsey planned to take Spencer out to breakfast with her dad. They took Spencer to breakfast in Leavenworth where he got to eat a giant pancake (his favorite breakfast food). He ate the whole thing even though he already had breakfast at home before.

Then they took him to a Harley store because Spencer loves him some motorcycles. Apparently they told Lindsey to let Spencer sit on any bike he wanted. He tested several out. Thankfully no purchases were made.

Blessed

2010-09-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

I started my morning with this Facebook status:

Some mornings just feel like one giant struggle to get out the door.

It was a rough morning. By the time Brad kissed me goodbye and headed off to work, Elliott was moping about not getting to play DS, Spencer was on his bed, naked and screaming about not wanting to get dressed and Wesley was crying because he got a stray hand to the cheek. I thought for sure, the day could only get better. And it did...but not before it got worse.

Not thirty seconds after Elliott and Wesley got in the car after school there was yelling, tears and arms and legs flying with the intent of injury. My bad morning had in fact turned into a bad afternoon.

Once Brad got home things started to improve. He has some sort of calming effect on the boys...something I secretly envy. Unfortunately, Brad had a meeting this evening and the positive influence of his presence quickly faded. Relaxing TV time quickly turned into fighting and an early bedtime for the boys.

But here's where the day got better. Oddly enough it happened after they were all asleep! When I went into their rooms to tuck them in and put away their books and turn off lights, it hit me. It happens even on the worst days. After the long hours of broken rules and unkind words and enforcing discipline, they win me over. After a day of feeling like an inadequate, overwhelmed and frustrated mom, I look at them sleeping and all I feel is blessed. And then I pray that I can remember this feeling even in the chaos that morning is sure to bring!

Linz & Trophy

2010-09-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

It is Elliott's 8th birthday today and so far the most excitement has been driving to get donuts and Elliott realizing that he doesn't have to use his booster seat. I would post more about Elliott and that mushy stuff of how good of kid he is, but I had this post all ready to go...

With the older two boys at school, Spencer has only one person to entertain during the day. Lindsey. She is the audience for his entertaining as well as the brunt of his disobeying. While I am at work, I miss out on many of these moments. I would probably forget most of these if it weren't for Lindsey's documentation process... texting.

For historical documentation purposes, here are a few of Lindsey's text messages to me...

- Someone peed into our bathtub!

- I think I need a vacation from Spencer.

- Spencer's being super funny.

- Spencer came up with a bra and squeezed it and said, "honk honk... can I wear this today?"

- Spencer just asked me if God is dead or alive. Then he said well who is died? So I said great grandpa. Then he said how did he died? Now is he in heaven? Where is heaven? Is it at grandpa's church? It is at the bowling alley? Hey, can we go bowling?

- I tried to tell Spencer in a very serious voice, "stop touching things". He just stared at me and said, "Woah. You talked like a robot." I can't stop laughing.

- Spencer's latest creation. Cellophane flip flop!

- (unrelated to Spencer) I smashed a HUGE fly in the kitchen... and maggots came out. I almost threw up!

Trophy

2010-09-07T19:36:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, Spencer and I were relaxing on the floor of my bedroom talking. I asked him if I could call him "Spee" for a nickname. He said no, so I asked if I could call "Bradley" since that is his middle name. Again, he said no. Then he looked at me with a half smile and said, "You can call me Wes."

I explained that since his brother's name is Wes, it would be very difficult to know which one we were talking about. So he proceeded to say, "Then you can call me Elliott."

Again I jokingly explained the same story with Elliott's name. So Spencer looked around the room for a few minutes and finally said, "You can call me... Bookcase!" He so cleverly came up with that nickname because we have a bookcase in our bedroom. So I declared to his brothers that from now on we would refer to Spencer as "Bookcase". They all got a good laugh out of that, and after using the name Bookcase for a few minutes, he decided on a new name.

The object of his new nickname came from what is sitting on top of the bookcase. Once again, Spencer (or, Bookcase), looked at me and said, "No, now you can call me... Trophy!"

This nickname sounded a little more promising than Bookcase, so I again declared that his name officially be changed to "Trophy".

Since then, Trophy has enjoyed his new name. Several times when I would call him "Spencer", he would stop and say, "No, my name is Trophy." At first, he told Lindsey that only I was allowed to call him by his new name. Then he decided that he wanted her to call him Trophy as well.

When Lindsey asked him to clean up some toys, he didn't do it (typical). When she asked him again, he said, "I didn't hear you 'cause you didn't call me Trophy."

Lately he has been telling everyone to call him Trophy. It's not a bad nickname, I guess. He seems pretty adamant about the name, so I guess we'll see how long it sticks.

Hungry

2010-09-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

As I was driving back from a morning run with a friend we saw a man on the street corner holding a sign that read: JUST TRYING TO SURVIVE. HUNGRY. GOD BLESS YOU. The hungry part of the sign was in big, bold letters.

We were stopped at the red light and my friend dug through her purse to scrounge up seventy-five cents. As we drove away she commented that she felt bad that she only had seventy-five cents. And then we talked a bit about how hard it must be to have to humble yourself to asking for change just to get a meal.

Later that morning, I was running errands and I saw that the man was still there. I decided to run in to Safeway and pick up a few groceries and take them over to him. I took the boys into the store and we got bagels, bananas bottled water and a candy bar. So I pulled around the parking lot to where he was standing and carried the groceries over to him. Before I could make it all the way, he put up his hands and said, "NO". Ummm. I was kind of surprised so I just stood there for a second. He then said, "I am not accepting any food today." So I commented that his sign said he was hungry. "A lot of people have tried to offer me food, but I am not taking food today." ...Umm, Ok... Then as I am walking away he asks me, "But can you spare any change." I said NO, and walked away...probably not the most gracious move, but I wasn't in the mood to try to help him anymore.

When I got home and told Brad my story, he was not the least bit surprised. I just don't want to have to be so cynical about who really needs help...but the guy that I tried to help, didn't really need help. I saw him the next day jogging to his corner while listening to an Mp3 player.

Now I don't know what to think!

Summer Winding Down

2010-08-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

Summer has been winding down for us since the week at Pearrygin Lake. We have stayed busy since then, and now we are trying to cram in some last minute summer fun before school starts next week.

We worked on a project on one side of our house that has been bugging us for several years now. We needed to dig up some dirt and weeds, lay down weed barrier, and then haul a couple truck loads of basalt rock to dump on top of it. Thankfully it only took a couple evening because I had the help of my dad in hauling about 40 wheel barrow loads of rock up our front steps. Now we have the other side of the house to do... but we are waiting on a little more concrete before we finish that part.

It was election day around last Tuesday, and I was signed up at work to close the ballot drop box in Leavenworth at 8:00, so Lindsey and I made a date night out of it. We dropped the boys off at her parents house and she made a picnic dinner for us to eat at the waterfront park.

Last weekend Lindsey went shopping in Seattle with her sisters, so my brother-in-law brought his two daughters over and stayed the weekend with me and the boys. We headed up past Leavenworth on the Wenatchee River and saw the spawning salmon. It gets a little stinky up there because when the salmon spawn, they die. The kids were excited to play with the dead fish washing up on shore. I had told the boys they could bring their knives with them - assuming they would carve sticks or something. Nonetheless, the knives were used to desecrate the dead salmon.

I got to go golfing a couple times in the last couple weeks. I played rather poorly, but it was still fun.

Feeling that our summer was slipping away, Lindsey and I took Elliott up to the water slides in Lake Chelan. The younger boys aren't adventurous enough yet to go on the water slides, so they had a fun time at the river with Grandma and Aunt Gail. Elliott got his nerve up and decided to try the most advanced slide in the park. A skinny tube that is pitch black inside so you don't know when you get water in your face. Since it is skinny, you have to lay down, which makes you go faster. He loved it and wanted to keep going down it.

After the water slides, we picked up the other two boys and then we prepared to head to the drive-in movie theatre to watch Toy Story 3. Apparently the drive-in theatre in Wenatchee is one of the only remaining drive-ins operating in Washington, and it sounds like it is going to close this year, so we though we should probably take the boys. A short conversation took place that evening in the car...

Lindsey: Are you boys excited to go to the drive-in?!?!
Wesley: Yes.
Elliott: No you're not
Wesley: Yes I am
Elliott: No you're not
Wesley: Yes I am

Elliott: No you're not, your eyes aren't big enough.

This coming from the boy who is a expressionless as his father.

At the drive-in we indulged in snacks while we waited for it to get dark enough. We had borrowed Lindsey's dad's truck, and were all snuggled up in the back. The only problem was that they broadcast the sound over the airwaves and we couldn't hear the radio very well from the back of the truck. The kids still enjoyed it and it brought back some good memories for Lindsey and me.

School starts next week! Elliott is starting 2nd grade and Wesley is a kindergartner! We had a school orientation last night and they are both excited to start. Lindsey now gets to spend time with just Spencer. They are growing up.

Pearrygin '10

2010-08-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

This was the fourth year in a row that we have vacationed at Pearrygin Lake. In the past years we have gone with my parents and pitched a tent on their campsite. This year, we borrowed Lindsey's parent's trailer and got our own site. Our friends, the Andersons, brought their boat up and stayed with us.

With a boat on the lake, we got to do a few things we hadn't done in the past. We went tubing and tried wake boarding. Lindsey did great wake boarding... I couldn't even get up. After trying several times and drinking half the lake up my nostrils, I decided that tubing was all that I was talented enough to accomplish.

On our last morning at the lake, we got in some of the most active fishing we had ever seen. Aaron and I had the six kids in his boat and had two fishing poles going. After three hours of fishing, we had let the kids reel in about 40 fish. Every time we would cast our the bait we would have a bite within 30 seconds. This was the perfect conditions for the kids to be able to reel in as many fish as they wanted. We let many fish go so we only had to walk away with nine rainbow trout.

Since we caught a few crawdads last year we made a couple traps to set out. However, with two crawdad pots over 4 nights, we only caught two crawdads. This prompted Aaron and I to take a late night raft trip on the lake armed with nets and flashlights. We had really good luck catching them this way. The only problem was that we forgot to bring a bucket with us. We ran out of space in the pouch of the raft and the crawdads kept getting out and pinching on Aaron.

They turn from a brown color to bright reddish-orange when boiled. We shelled them and dipped them in butter and seasoning.

The kids did a lot of bike riding, so it was common that they kept their helmets on...

In Winthrop, my dad treated all of us to ice cream and mini golf...

We took the Andersons out to the smoke jumpers base for the tour. Of course the best part of the tour was getting to play around on the airplanes...

Aaron was a great entertainer for all the kids. He came up with a "most interesting rock" contest when we had some down time...

Even though we couldn't have a campfire at our site, Aaron found a way to cook the smores. He setup the portable grill and we made smores over the propane fire...

We're Dot Com Now

2010-07-24T22:43:00.000-07:00

Well, today marks the day that we officially go dot com. I purchased the domain address www.posenjaks.com and after wading through all kinds of setup instructions, I got blogger to point to the right place. Actually, it really didn't take more than 45 minutes, and $22 (which registers the site for 3 years).

Don't worry, bjournal.blogspot.com should still work and it will still get you to our site.

I wanted to get the singular "posenjak.com" but it was taken by a relative who lives back east (and who still hasn't setup anything), so we settled for the the plural jaks.

Now that we have done away with the "bjournal" part of the address, we can think about titling this blog something different. Suggestions?

Anyway, I am showing my geekiness again by getting slightly excited about our own domain name. I better wrap this up and get to bed.

Phone Photos

2010-07-17T17:57:00.000-07:00

These low quality phone photos probably do a better job of showing the high points of our everyday life. Of course we don't photograph the crying and whining, or the dinner time battles, or Spencer calling his brothers "weird" and being sassy, or...

Anyway, I enjoy it when Lindsey sends me pictures at work of what she is doing with the boys. Most of these pictures (except the last two) were taken by Lindsey to humor me when I don't get to be included in the entertainment.

Our warm summer has finally arrived. The boys enjoying the river (the really blond one is our friend Garrett...

Spencer asleep in the shopping cart...

Spencer in the clover...

Momma and her oldest boy...

A surprisingly cooperative picture of all three boys!

Watching the van go though the car wash. We would take it through the ones where you sit in your vehicle, but Spencer just screams the whole time...

We had our back patio extended a little. In Spencer's eyes, now most of the exciting dirt has been replaced by boring concrete...

The slip-n-slide has given us many hours of fun in the back yard. Elliott in mid-splash...

With all the sun comes tan lines. Apparently Spencer tans as easily as I do. However, thankfully you will not see any pictures of my tan lines in the bathtub. Yeah, I know the toilet seat is up, but hey, we have three boys. Just look before you sit at our house...

Spence in a van for a long time

2010-07-12T06:06:00.000-07:00

These are a few extra pictures and video from our road trip to California. What does a three-year old do with 30+ hours in the van? (Not all in a row thank goodness)

He puts a toy wrench on his nose...

He sleeps... but not enough...

He watches videos on the iPod while snacking...

And the cutest of all, he sings while looking at books and fiddling around with the Nintendo DS. [Sorry about the road noise but in CA they drive about 85 mph all the time]

The first song is in falsetto - something about the farm book he is looking at. The second song is his own misinterpretation of "He's got the whole world in his friends."

Five Dollar Dare

2010-07-10T18:59:00.001-07:00

When we went to Silver Falls last weekend I dared my nephew Ryan to completely dunk in the Entiat River. The water temperature is probably only about 45 degrees, but it was worth five dollars to see him freeze. Ryan performed a nice barrel roll into the water to get every inch of his body soaked. In addition to the five dollars, Ryan added a stipulation that the photos had to go on the blog. So, here is the rest of the deal...

Thanks for the entertainment Ryan!

Races, Wind, Hiking, Waterslides, Family

2010-07-07T23:15:00.000-07:00

This Fourth of July weekend was spent with my entire immediate family. My sister Gail is back from Papua New Guinea for a whole year. So this weekend, Carol and her family came over to Wenatchee for a few days. We spent Saturday evening in Waterville with a picnic dinner at a park and then a demolition derby at the fairgrounds. We were overloaded with country music that evening, but it was still fun. We have a few park pictures, but we didn't bring our camera to the derby.

Sunday morning was spent at church where the power went out about five minutes before church started. It came back on about five minutes after church was over. Leading music is rather tricky without power, but God was praised one way or another. In the afternoon, we headed to East Wenatchee in Dad's 1929 Ford Model A and the 1939 Plymouth Pickup for the city's 75th anniversary/independence day celebration. There was an antique car show going on, and the organizers invited dad to bring his vehicles into the lineup.

There were hamburgers and hot dogs for 5 cents each... no strings attached. The main problem was the 30 mph winds that blew half of our food and utensils away. Everyone ended up with 5 cent pie on themselves (or on their purses). There were also free games for the kids to play. Notice the need to hold the plates down...

Emma and Elliott ready for some sack races in their Papua New Guinea coffee sacks...

We watched the fireworks from my parents house. Here's my grandma and me bundled up in matching blankets...

On Monday we went up past Entiat to Silver Falls.

Tuesday we headed up to the water slides in Chelan. It was a perfectly warm sunny day for that activity. Elliott surprised me with how daring he was. Wesley and Spencer were a little timid. Thanks to our generous baby-sitting family, Lindsey and I even got to go on a couple water slides together. We didn't bring a camera to the water slides, so no pictures of that here. Maybe some will show up on a family member's blog.

Great memories were had by all.

CA Vacation, Reprise

2010-06-30T21:44:00.000-07:00

So I didn't post day 8 of our California road trip. Besides starting the day off with Dutch Brothers, we sat in the car for 11 hours. The younger two boys only slept one hour of it. We thought they would be worn out, but I guess not enough.

Since I was limited on the photos I could post due to the lack of internet access, here are some of the better photos from our vacation.

Jelly Belly factory. We had to wear these silly hats when we went on the tour. Spencer really didn't want to, but he was a good sport about it.

A Ronald Reagan Jelly Belly mosaic...

Grandma Krueger kept the boys entertained while we stayed at her house. She read books, played games, and even let Spencer help out in the kitchen (one of his favorite things to do)...

At the Monterey Bay Aquarium Spencer was apprehensive about some of the silliest things. One of them was touching the animals. He needed my finger for moral support, so we touched the starfish at the same time...

The favorite animal of the day was the leafy sea dragon...

The Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo was pretty crazy. We all had fun looking at the cool animals and fun rides. The best show was definitely the orca show. Apparently this orca had a dolphin for a close friend. It performed better along side the dolphin, so they made it part of the routine...

Spencer would not ride any of the rides. He liked looking, but at the very mention of partaking, he would get agitated. Here is with Thomas the Train. Still, he wouldn't ride the train...

The whole day at the Six Flags was Aunt Shirley's treat. She certainly spoiled our whole family!

The boys watching a walrus swim by...

While the boys and Lindsey rode the carousel, Spencer rode the fence...

On the long drive home, Mt. Shasta was finally out (it was hiding from us on the way down). It is a pretty impressive looking mountain...

CA Vacation, Day 8

2010-06-25T23:42:00.000-07:00

We headed out from Roseville with Aunt Shirley this morning headed toward the Six Flags in Vallejo. We got there right as it was opening and we were pleasantly surprised that it was not very busy the entire day. We saw tigers, orcas, dolphins, camels, sharks, walruses, birds, butterflies, fish. The older boys went on several rides (Spencer was a stick-in-the-mud) and we ate giant corn dogs. It was a very fun day. There will be more pictures when we get home... it is almost midnight and I am not in the mood to pick through them.

After Six Flags, we ate at In-N-Out Burger in Vacaville. Back in Roseville, we said goodbye to Aunt Shirley and headed north to Redding via some small back highways. We stopped at a small gas station in some hick-ville where some drunk (or stoned guy) was bleeding profusely from his forehead. The store manager was calling the cops while the bleeding man's friends were trying to take him away before the cops got there. Not sure what happened, but no pictures of that, sorry. We finally arrived at our hotel around 10:50 PM. The two younger boys were asleep, but Elliott was still going strong.

Funny quote from Spencer in the car ride...

Spencer: My feet are stinky.
Lindsey: Ewww! Keep them away from me (jokingly).
Spencer: No, for reals, I need a bath!

Not sure where he picked up the "for reals" phrase.

Tomorrow we head back to Wenatchee. Estimated 12 hours in the car. Yippee! The good news is that my sister Gail is back from Papua New Guinea and we get to see her soon! That will keep the vacation excitement going!

Day 8 Route:

CA Vacation, Day 7

2010-06-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

Leisurely morning at grandmas. Cousins came over and met us at the nearby park. The boys worked out some energy before we headed up to Roseville.

Said goodbye to the Hollister family, stopped be the chocolate factory one last time for some candy apples, and then drove to Aunt Shirley's house in Roseville (just north of Sacramento). Enjoyed a nice evening visiting.

CA Vacation, Day 6

2010-06-23T22:35:00.000-07:00

8:00 - breakfast of eggs, sausage, cereal, toast
9:30 - dessert
10:00 - walk in the orchard, eat a couple apricots
11:00 - cousins come over and entertain the boys
12:00 - tacos for lunch
12:30 - more dessert
1:00 - drop boys off at cousins house
[Lindsey and I go to outlets and shop childless]
5:00 - hit Starbucks for some iced Chai
6:00 - back to cousins house for BBQ burgers
[chatting and playing]
8:00 - more dessert, cheesecake and cookies
9:00 - ride to fruit stand and pick up large quantities of apricots
10:00 - back to grandma's, consoling sad boys because we start our trek home tomorrow.
Good news is that there is more excitement to come!

CA Vacation, Day 5

2010-06-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

Today we headed out to Monterey. The boys were so worn out that they fell asleep in the car on the way. To wake them up we spent a little while at a really neat park...

Then it was off to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for most of the afternoon. Spencer was a little whiney, but they had fun overall...

After the aquarium, we stopped by the farmers market and grabbed some dinner. The boys and I had hot dogs and Lindsey got some Asian food. We topped it off with baskets of strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. The younger two boys fell asleep again on the drive back.

CA Vacation, Day 4

2010-06-21T22:10:00.000-07:00

Today was leisurely. We had a nice morning including French toast made by grandma. Around mid morning, we visited the growing candy factory owned by Lindsey's aunt. We got to see them making caramel apples and we walked away with a lot of fudge and chocolates!

We continued our leisurely afternoon while the boys played with grandma and their cousins Natalie and Josh. We had dinner at the Johnson's and visited for a while.

It looks like the Monterey Bay Aquarium is on tomorrow's agenda! Maybe I'll get a few more photos tomorrow from my phone. There is sure to be a follow up post with many photos.

CA Vacation, Day 3

2010-06-20T23:26:00.000-07:00

I don't have Internet access for the next few days, so blogging from the phone might be a little cumbersome - but I'll give it a go.

Since it has become a two day tradition, we stopped at Dutch Brothers again to start off our drive. We drove a couple hours to Fairfield and stopped at the Jelly Belly factory for the tour. I haven't figured out an easy way to blog pictures from the phone so we will just have to wait on that unless I figure it out tomorrow. UPDATE: I figured it out, but it is tedious.

After the factory, we drove another couple hours to Hollister - where Lindsey grew up - to visit some of her family. We had a nice dinner and the kids played in the pool and with their cousins. At the Jelly Belly factory they sold boxes of Jelly Bellies that had disgusting flavors mixed with real flavors and made to look identical. We brought a couple and the older cousins had a good time eating vomit, rotten egg, and moldy cheese flavored candy. It was like gambling with your taste buds.

Spencer drove Natalie around in a toy truck. It was his favorite toy of the night.

He also thought he was a big kid hanging out with the older cousins in the hot tub.

Day 3 Route:

CA Vacation, Day 2

2010-06-19T21:13:00.000-07:00

Spencer has this habit of muttering random phrases immediately after he wakes up. Last night, he was sleeping on the floor between the two beds. When Spencer woke up, he opened his eyes, stretched his arm out, placed his hand on the Gideon-placed Bible and declared, "I read half of this!"

We were all packed and checked-out of our slummy little motel by 8:30. We pulled out of the parking lot, passed the strip club (which was unfortunately visible from our motel window), and another pit stop at Dutch Brothers for morning beverages.

We drove a few miles south of Bend to Lava River Butte and then visited the Lava River Cave. I didn't expect the volcanic entertainment to be so entertaining, but it was well worth the stop. From the top of the Lava River Butte, we could see a huge flow of volcanic rocks. We could also see other lava buttes like the one we were able to drive up...

We walked around where the huge field of volcanic rock flowed from the butte...

Then we moved onto the Lava River Cave. Spencer cried vigorously, so Lindsey stayed behind with him, while Elliott, Wesley and I ventured down into the cave. When we got back, she went a little ways in with the older boys showing her around...

We had lunch by the cave and then headed to California. On the way, Elliott noticed a sign and exclaimed to Wesley, "Hey Wes, we can adopt a highway!" I don't think he knows the responsibility that entails.

Later, we drove through a bunch of smoke as a house was on fire right next to the highway...

We drove by Mt. Shasta and were going to stop for a photo op, but since it was only showing its ankles, it only warranted a drive-by pic...

We stopped at McDonald's in Weed to get out and let the boys stretch their legs at the play land. While we were there, Spencer was standing on the life size statue of Ronald McDonald. I told him, "Spencer! Get of Ronald!" To which he replied, "Why, is he gonna turn real?"

Tonight, Spencer quickly found the Gideon-placed Bible in our Super 8 hotel (a big step up from last night's Motel 6) and pretended to read...

Day 2 Route:

CA Vacation, Day 1

2010-06-18T20:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Elliott's last day of first grade, so this morning we packed up the van and started our California road trip... beginning with some Dutch Brothers coffee (and chai for me). We drove south for a few hours until we apparently crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived at Stonehenge for a lunch break.

If you line up the monuments just right, it points to the sacred windmills...

After we took several pictures of our druids, we crossed over the Columbia River and drove through many tiny towns in Eastern Oregon until we reached Bend. We checked into our shady little Motel 6 accommodations and then we thought we would try to make it to the Lava River Caves just south of Bend. However, the park was closed about an hour before we got there, so we turned around and had dinner at the Black Bear Diner. The food was pretty good, and the server was excellent. He even chased us down to return our cheap pen we left on the table. There will be more written about the lava caves tomorrow.

Day 1 Route:

Wes Quotes - Brags, Girls, Floss

2010-06-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

Lindsey is away for the weekend, so I have got to spend a lot of time with the boys the last couple days. For a boy that doesn't talk much, Wesley says a lot of funny things.

Wesley was bragging about a computer game last night to a friend (a girl) while we drove her and and Elliott to a pizza party.

Wes: I got the high score.
Elliott: And then I beat your high score.
Wes: Well, I beat Spencer's high score.
Spencer: I didn't even play that game!
Wes: Yeah... like I said, I beat Spencer's high score.
_________________

Today in the car.

Wes: I know how to tell if dogs are boys or girls.
[Silence]
Wes: The girls dogs have longer eye lashes.
Elliott: No.
Wes: Well, the girl dogs have bows in their hair.
Elliott: No.

I didn't respond because, at this point, I don't mind that our kids are in the dark about how to tell boys and girls apart... besides the longer eyelashes and bows in their hair.
_________________

Just a few minutes ago while the boys were sitting on the couch watching some old Pink Panther cartoons.

Brad: Wes, what are you doing?
Wes: Flossing my teeth.
Brad: With what?
Wes: A rubber band.

Yup, We're Old / 6th Commandment

2010-06-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

Lindsey and I went to Lake Chelan on Saturday without our kids. We forgot that during Memorial Day weekend thousands of partying college-age kids descend on the town.

We browsed a few shops downtown Chelan. As we walked into a jewelry store, the owner asked, "Are the kids leaving you alone?"

At first, we thought, "how does he know we have kids?" Then we realized, he was talking about the college-age kids in relation to us non-college-age folks! Apparently we are officially old and not easily mistaken for college-age anymore.

We did not buy anything from the jewelry store man.

-----------------------------------------------------------

This morning at breakfast, I was ironing my shirt when I heard Elliott tell Spencer, "You can't do that because that's against the 6th commandment."

Then Wesley chimed in, "and it's against the law and you would go to jail."

I went out and asked Elliott what Spencer said. Apparently Spencer had said, "I'm gonna cut off your head with a chainsaw."

I probably should have been more disappointed with Spencer, but I was proudly distracted by the fact that Elliott knew that "do not murder" is the 6th commandment.

For the record, our kids don't play any video games where you cut off heads with chainsaws. I am a little baffled where Spencer gets his "creativity". I am sure he says these things to get a rise out of his older siblings. The youngest child can be that way (personal testimony).

Baseball Photos

2010-05-20T15:57:00.001-07:00

More of the Same

2010-05-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

First, I found a couple pictures from the Eventful Day for Spencer that should have been posted, but I didn't have them on the computer at the time of the previous post.

Before heading to work...

Spencer got his stiches removed five days after he received them. The first two were removed without any tears, just grimaces. The third however, was partially healed in and had to be dug out a little. He was strong and held still, but the tears were-a-flowin'.

On Saturday, we spent all morning at the baseball park. Wesley had a game at 9:00 and then Elliott had one following at 11:00. It was a perfect morning to be out at the park.

Wesley warming up...

Elliott's team has had a trying season in many respects (to be discussed elsewhere than on this blog). Even though they lost on Saturday, Elliott had a great game. In the first three innings, Elliott was the only one on his team to get a hit! He ended up going two-for-two. Unfortunately he was stranded on first base both times because the following three batters struck out.

Down time now frequently consists of playing on the phone...

In between games we took advantage of a photo op...

Great Wolf Lodge

2010-05-07T10:01:00.000-07:00

This week I had a work conference at the Great Wolf Lodge, so we took the boys out of school and the family came with me. We arrived Monday morning and the place was crazy. The water slides were packed with people and there were swarms of kids everywhere. This was the leftover crowd from the weekend. Later that afternoon the crowd died down and it wasn't too busy.

The biggest feature of the lodge is definitely the water park. There is a play area in the water park for little kids, but if they stray a little bit, there are toys that randomly dump water. Spencer and Wesley don't like water in the face, so they didn't want to play on anything except the toy jet skis.

Apologies for the pictures. We forgot our camera, so all these grainy/blurry pictures were taken with our phones.

The signature water slide is called the Howlin' Tornado. This ride is on a raft, you have to have two to four people on it, it starts of down a dark tunnel, you hit a big drop off (that puts your stomach in your throat), then you slide back and forth down a large funnel. When we arrived, Elliott said that he would not go down it. He slowly worked his way up the different levels of water slides until he decided that he wanted to try it. I'll admit I was more nervous about going on it than he was.

These pictures are from after we got off the slide... as you can tell, Elliott loved it.

There are about 100 steps to hike up to where the big slides start. After Elliott made me hike this about 15 times, and go down the water slides, I started getting queasy and he had to continue alone. I think the high level of chlorination didn't help my stomach either. Here's a picture from our room of the water slides that come out of the water park. The red and yellow one is the Howlin' Tornado.

There was also pajama story time at 8:00 before bed in the lobby. Spencer hated the dressed up wolf, but since all the other kids were lining up to hug the weird dressed up wolf, so did Elliott and Wesley.

We took the boys to the arcade a few times. They loved winning tickets to buy cheap toys. I think we spent $25 and got about $2 worth of toys. Just like gambling, we have to recognize that we were paying for entertainment, not a product.

After a couple days of non-stop entertainment, the boys were completely worn out...

Lindsey did a great job with the kids while I was at the conference classes. It was a big job trying to keep the kids organized in a small hotel room and watch three boys at the water park, but she was great. Thanks Linz!

A short review opinion...

Besides the water park and arcade, there is also a "magic quest" game that takes the kids running all over the hotel waving magic wants and computerized wizards and treasures. However, this costs about $25 per kid. It looked like fun for older kids, but we didn't partake. There is also a video game room for more $$, and crafts for more $$.

We probably would have felt like we were just being continually ripped off if we had to pay for our own hotel room. Since the hotel (which includes the water park admission) was being paid for us, we didn't mind paying for a couple extras.

Definitly do not go on a weekend or during a spring break. When the hotel is full (as it appeared to be when we arrived) the water park is packed and the place is very crowded. I would suggest only going during the middle of the week during school.

Eventful Day for Spencer

2010-04-28T06:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was an eventful day for Spencer. When he woke up, we told him that he could come to work with me for a couple hours in the morning. He was so excited to go to work with me that he was even willing to put on a tie and wear nice clothes. It was fun to see him buzzing around the house with excitement like he was going to explode.

At work Spencer colored, stapled, explored all my desk drawers, and played games on my phone. We went to the cafe and bought a cookie for him. He opted to take the stairs instead of the elevator. There is something about that boy that doesn't like elevators.

Lindsey picked him up after a couple hours and I was able to get a little work done. About five minutes before five o'clock Lindsey called me and sounded very urgent. Spencer was jumping on our bed while the boys were whipping blankets at his feet. They were all having a fun disobedient time while Lindsey was baking in the kitchen. Spencer had fallen down (because of blankets wrapped around his feet) and banged his head on the headboard of our bed. This left a decent gash in his forehead and Lindsey quickly identified that it would need stitches. So I met her at the emergency room entrance and while she took Spencer in for stitches, I took the boys home for dinner. Spencer was brave and tough even though Lindsey said she should see that he was quite nervous about what the doctor was going to have to do.

I could tell the older boys felt very guilty afterward because they both made commitments to never go in our room again, and when Spencer came home, they were very protective of him and his forehead.

Spencer has banged his head on so many things, he always has some sort of welt or scrape. It was just a matter of time until he would be in the E.R. Now we wait for the next time.

Thank you Lord that it wasn't worse than a few stitches!

Busy April

2010-04-26T07:33:00.000-07:00

Spring is definitely the busiest season for us. Besides our normal commitments, we have to manage baseball season for two boys now. I have a work conference each month during the Spring, which throws a wrench into the plans for Lindsey during those weeks. The yard work looms in the back of my mind as something that needs urgent attention, but the nicer weather makes me want to take the boys hiking or to play outside. I am ready for June.

All these excuses are why I haven't posted anything for a couple weeks. I can't recall any interesting stories so I will leave this post mostly pictures...

Easter

Relaxing with Wesley...

Sleeping on Elliott...

Getting Outdoors

Wesley T-ball

2010-04-13T06:57:00.000-07:00

Last night, Wesley had his first T-ball game. He was very excited and had a great time. His coach saved the number 1 jersey for him... I think that's because the lower numbered shirts were the smaller sizes.

Warming up...

In the dugout...

On deck...

On deck... and drawing in the dirt...

At bat...

Connecting!

Running to first base hanging onto his giant helmet...

Lindsey decided to make it extra special for Wesley since he often gets overshadowed by all of Elliott's firsts, so she made him a cake for completing his first game...

Himmelong

2010-04-12T12:01:00.000-07:00

Lindsey occasionally sends me emails at work that I find amusing. I find myself thinking, "she should blog that." Instead of nagging her to blog, here's an excerpt of email from Lindsey...

I wish you were here. I am at the computer and Wes and Spence are doing puzzles on the kitchen floor. They are humming together and singing "Jesus Loves Me". Only Spencer sings the wrong melody and all the wrong words and it drives Wesley crazy. They are arguing if it's "little ones to Himmelong, or Him belong." It ended with Wes saying, you are "wrong, wrong, wrong. Everything you sing is wrong."

Aquarium Pictures

2010-04-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

Finally getting around to posting those aquarium pictures I mentioned a week and a half ago...

Easter pics to follow at some point...

Spring Break - Day 2 of 2

2010-03-30T07:50:00.000-07:00

Since Spencer was still not feeling well Monday morning, he slept in until 9:00. I took Elliott and Wesley down to partake in the hotel's continental breakfast. I think many other families had the same Spring break idea as we had... to find the cheapest hotel with an indoor pool. Breakfast was incredibly crowded. We stood in line to make waffles and then snuck a couple yogurts and spoons out to our room so Lindsey and Spencer would have something to eat.

Instead of going to the zoo in the rain and wind, we ended up at the Seattle Aquarium. To show that it really does pay off to be polite... after Lindsey and the boys entered the Aquarium doors, I kept holding the door open for an older gentleman, his adult daughter, and his grand kids. He seemed a little surprised, and when we got in the building he asked if we were members of the Aquarium. We said, "No" and then he asked if we would like his extra adult pass (a $17 value). He then looked at Elliott and said, "That's what can happen when you hold the door for others." Anyway, the boys loved seeing all the different fish... even though it was very crowded. The only disappointment was that they had no sharks at this aquarium.

After the fish zoo, we headed to my sister's house in Redmond and the boys played with their cousins for a couple hours. Because of the horrible weather forecast for the mountain passes (and our lack of traction tires) we left Redmond earlier than we wanted. It turned out to be a good idea because when we went over the pass at 5:00, it was just bare and wet. When we got home at 6:30, I checked the pass cameras and it was completely white with snow and slush. We just squeezed by.

Spencer seemed to have his energy back and was substantially over his sickness by the time we left the Aquarium. Also, because of the lighting at the aquarium, pictures need to be photoshopped a little before they are posted. Hopefully pictures will follow.

Spring Break - Day 1 of 2

2010-03-28T22:45:00.000-07:00

After church we packed up the van and headed to Seattle for our single-night Spring break extravaganza. About the time we were half-way to Seattle, we realized that we forgot to pack Wesley and Spencer's swimming shorts. This realization prompted us to stop at the North Bend outlets since a major role in our hotel selection was the requirement of an indoor pool. It was here, pulling into the parking lot of the outlet mall, that Elliott's Dramamine failed him. Luckily we had a plastic toy-box that when emptied, doubles as a barf bucket. We found a parking space away from other people and cleaned up.

We arrived the hotel around 4:30, got settled, and found a nearby restaurant. We settled on the Outback Steakhouse. Lindsey had some chicken and rice stuff, the boys had cheese burgers and chicken tenders, and I had some pork tenderloins... but I should have had the BBQ ribs. We circled all the way around Queen Anne hill, making a pit stop in Ballard to pick up snacks for the evening.

When we got back to the hotel, we watched a little Discovery Channel and then went swimming. Well, Elliott and I went swimming. Spencer, Wesley, and Lindsey just sat around the side of the pool. Over an hour in the water and it was time to go back to our room. Watched more Discovery Channel. I think Spencer now has a fever to go along with his congestedness. Everyone is asleep except me, so I should post this and go to bed too. Hopefully I will have a post with pictures tomorrow. I would have taken a picture of the boys laying on their hotel beds watching the Discovery Channel, but two out of the three had their hands in their pajama pants.

Hugs, Pens, Rocks, Forecasted Rain

2010-03-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

Spencer is at one of the cutest ages right now. Yesterday morning I left for work before he woke up and Lindsey sent me the following email...

The only damper on our morning seems to be that Spencer doesn't feel well. He has a croupy cough and a raspy voice. He seems to still be happy, just a little droopy. He slept until after 8. When he woke up he headed down the hall saying "Daddy, where are you... Dad... I wanna give you a hug... Dad?" It was pretty cute. He settled for a hug from me.

Last weekend, Spencer grabbed a few writing utensils and some paper, stuffed it into his shirt pocket and pretended to be grandpa for a while. Since his shirt has a pocket, he thinks it is a "work shirt".

Throwing rocks is by far the best activity when we head to any body of water. When we went to the river with the Bunches last weekend. Elliott has been practicing skipping rocks. He is starting to get pretty good. Thanks to the glorious photographic timing of his father, you can see the rock mid-skip (you may have to enlarge the photo)...

Wesley throwing a large rock...

Spencer "fishing" with a broken stick...

Elliott on a slide...

Wesley on a slide...

Spring break starts this weekend. Since I am going to have a busy week at work, our Spring break vacationing will consist of staying at a hotel overnight tomorrow. Looking for a cheap hotel in Seattle with an indoor pool is a challenge. Maybe we didn't find a "cheap" hotel, but at least it isn't TOO expensive. We plan to meet up with my sister Carol and her kids at the Zoo on Monday. However, it appears that Monday is slated for 4 inches of rain and high winds. We might have to settle for Seattle Science Center (since that is indoors). The drive home could get interesting as the snow level is supposed to drop to about 2500 feet and the passes might get nasty. Of course our snow tires have been removed for Spring. I assume there will be pictures of our adventure. Hopefully is isn't overly adventurous.

Bunch Weekend

2010-03-23T06:35:00.000-07:00

Mike and Becky brought their kids up for a few days this weekend. Our boys had a lot of fun playing with Jack and getting to meet Kaitlyn...

As always, we stayed up too late every night. Activities included, shooting, disc golf, jogging, going to the park, and playing cards. There was also a lot of guitar playing and goofing around...

And here are a couple more of Jack and Kaitlyn...

Thanks Bunches!

Sunday

2010-03-15T06:39:00.000-07:00

Woke up at 6:25. Showered. Ironed a shirt and pants. Dressed. Made myself a buttered english muffin. Off to church at 7:35 for music practice. Picked up Greg (our bass player) on the way. Practiced from 8:00 until 9:15. First service started at 9:30. Second service started at 11:00. Since Lindsey had a lot of family around this weekend, she and the boys went to her parents house during church so the boys could play with their cousins more. After church, I headed home to change and then to meet up with Lindsey's family for lunch. Now, I'm not complaining, just observing, but I got stuck behind an old couple driving 20 mph on a 30 mph for about 2 miles. It took all my strength not to get frustrated, but I was successful.

During the afternoon I watched some golf and fell asleep for a few minutes. A mid-day nap makes feel groggy the rest of the day, so I regretted that nap. We went home around 4:00, bathed the kids, went to Lowes to pick up a couple things, and I stopped by work to pick up a vehicle. I am headed to a conference in Ocean Shores Monday and I think my laptop died. All of a sudden it won't start up anymore. A couple lights flash, but I don't hear the hard drive spinning. So I'm not taking it to my conference. Hopefully it will be fixed by the time I get back.

We had our Sunday evening tradition of breakfast for dinner. Ham and egg on english muffins. The boys watched a movie while we ate dinner. I packed for my conference and picked out songs for church next week. Put the boys to bed and spent a little time with Lindsey before going to bed at 10:30.

Saturday

2010-03-13T21:40:00.000-08:00

Woke up at 7:15. Got to sleep in today. Showered and dressed. Spencer brought a bunch of pillows and blankets into our bedroom and was jumping off our bed onto the pile he made. Pretty soon all three boys were going nuts. Lindsey didn't have a chance at sleeping in past 8:00 this Saturday. I made pancakes for the boys. Saturday morning pancakes has become a ritual the past few months.

I had to be at my parents' church at 9:00 to guide them through auditing their financial records. We found no large-scale fraud (we didn't find any small-scale fraud either). Wrapped up and headed home at 12:15. I'll give you one guess at what I had for lunch. Here's a hint... leftover... that's right... lasagna. Apparently, Lindsey made enough lasagna Tuesday to feed an army. I finally finished it off today, so I will have to figure out something else to eat tomorrow.

We headed to Lindsey's parents' house for the afternoon and evening. Most of her family has been in town the last couple days so we visited with them all afternoon. We had many different types of pizza for dinner. The kids painted rocks and played outside a lot. I set my watch forward an hour at 7:35. When there is a time change, I like to change my watch early in the day so I am mentally prepared.

We came home at 8:00, or was it 9:00, and put the kids to bed. Watched The Office online with Lindsey. Going to bed at 9:40 or 10:40, whatever you want to call it.

Friday

2010-03-12T23:48:00.000-08:00

Woke up at 6:00. Read Psalm 109-112. Showered and dressed for work. Once again, each boy chose the same thing for breakfast as yesterday. I even overheard Lindsey asking Elliott what he wanted her to pack in his lunch. He responded, "The same as yesterday."

Off to work. Struggled all morning with the most difficult of all the financial statements I work on. All the numbers roll up into this financial statement. The difficult part is making sure it balances with all the other statements.

Went out to lunch with a friend. To Lemolo's Cafe. I had a pulled pork sandwich. Delicious, but expensive. Good conversation. Back to work.

Finally unlocked the key to the financial statement that frustrated me all morning. The most difficult piece is done. Now it should be smooth sailing from here on out with the financial statements.

When I got home, the boys were no where to be found. The mother of the girl Lindsey watched earlier this week was watching our boys for the evening so Lindsey and I could have a date. We went shopping for a little while. I bought a jacket. Then we went to dinner at a El Porton... it's a Mexican restaurant in case you couldn't figure that out. We had to wait a while to be seated, but the food and company were good. Lindsey had a side taco and side of rice. I had the carne asada.

Picked the boys up, drove home, and put them to bed. Lindsey and I opened up some Reese's Pieces and Skittles and watched the movie Public Enemy. I think she picked it because it has Johnny Depp. It was way too long and she fell asleep. Carried Lindsey to bed. 11:48.

Thursday

2010-03-11T23:12:00.000-08:00

Woke up at 6:00. Read Psalm 106-108. Showered and dressed for work. Black shirt, khaki slacks, brown tie, brown belt, brown shoes. I will admit that I feel a little stylistically edgy mixing black and brown... but Lindsey says I am okay as long as my belt and shoes match, right? Breakfast was exactly the same as yesterday. Apparently the kids are creatures of habit also. Head to work at 7:45.

More work on the financial statements. For the one or two people in the world who like looking at financial statements, here is an example of what I single-handedly prepare each spring (warning, it's a 150 page PDF).

Home for lunch at noon. Lasagna... third day in a row, 'cause that's how I roll. Grazing. Chat with Lindsey, Wesley, and Spencer.

Back to work. More financial statement excitement. Back home.

A typical Thursday evening consists of the rushing home from work and rushing through dinner. Followed by...

Dropping Spencer off at Grandpa's house
Picking up cousin Ella
Picking up friend Ellie
Taking kids to AWANA
Music practice at our church
Picking up kids from AWANA
Dropping off Ellie
Dropping off Ella
Picking up Spencer from Grandpa's house

But this is not what I did tonight. For Lindsey's mom's birthday, we (I mean Lindsey) hosted 13 adults and 3 kids for a party. While dinner was on the BBQ, Spencer was playing in the back yard and decided to whip "it" out and pee on the back patio. A short conversation ensued about the proper time to use the great outdoors as your bathroom. Then grandpa and I had a pretty good chuckle because it's just funny.

I had to eat my dinner quickly... BBQ chicken and pork ribs... and then rush off to the monthly elder/deacon meeting at church leaving the party behind. The meeting was finished at 10:30 and on the way home I had to sit in traffic for 15 minutes as the bridge was restricted to one lane for construction. When I got home, Lindsey was still cleaning up and Spencer was still awake in his bed.

Going to bed at 11:12.

Wednesday

2010-03-10T22:13:00.000-08:00

Talk about another strangely spelled time unit. Wed-nes-day. Who says that? Why not spell it Whensday? This is why I am an accountant, not an Englishy person.

Woke up at 6:00. Read Psalm 104-105. Showered and dressed for work. Some of the brands that help out in this process are Head & Shoulders, Irish Spring, Speed Stick, Colgate, and Remington. Mixed it up this morning with a buttered English muffin to go along with the half glass of chocolate milk. Warmed up some pumpkin bread for Spencer, a bagel for Elliott, and poured some cereal for Wesley.

Off to work for a morning full of MS Excel spreadsheets. I received a break in the monotony when I received an email from Lindsey. She went running this morning pushing Spencer in the stroller and then emailed me saying:

So when we got back from the run, Spencer said, "Phew, my feet are sore from our running....and I'm stinky from that running. How do you love them apples?" :-)

Lunch at noon. Stopped for gas on the drive home. Similar food items for lunch as the day before. Spencer had a difficult time composing himself. Played Monopoly Deal with a tired Lindsey (this time I won both rounds). Back to work.

More Excel spreadsheets and balancing asset and depreciation values for the financial statements.

Home for a quick dinner before our home group. Left over lasagna and corn bread. Lindsey and I scrambled to clean up the house and re-arrange the furniture upstairs since our new home group study requires a television for the short video series. People started showing up at our house around 6:30. I gave the boys a pep-talk about behavior... didn't really matter. I missed half of the discussion because Spencer was trashing his room and yelling. He spent the remainder of the evening alone on my bed with much whimpering to follow. Nonetheless, good fellowship was had and some tasty banana nut cake was consumed. One problem is that people bring dessert to our house the group eats half, and then they leave the rest with us. Anyone want to relive us of our excess cake?

Boys to bed at 9:00 again tonight. Lindsey and I relaxed to watch the latest episode of LOST. I am quickly tiring of this last season. It seems that there is a lot going on, but nothing is resolving. I'm ready for the series finale. They better tie the hundred loose ends together.

Blogging and going to bed at 10:12. Is my rambling getting longer? Sorry about that.

Tuesday

2010-03-09T22:18:00.000-08:00

To continue my one-week series on my average day, here's Tuesday...

Woke up at 6:00. Read the preface and first chapter of "Crazy Love" for our home group study tomorrow. Showered & dressed for work. Ate one slice of toast and peanut butter and a half glass of chocolate milk... yes, the same as yesterday - I am a creature of habit (some may call that a lack of creativity or laziness... they might be correct). Toasted and buttered a bagel for Elliott, poured a bowl of cereal for Wesley. Spencer slept in while Lindsey woke up early to run five miles. Off to work. Needed my sunglasses on this beautiful sunny cold morning. Had to give the radio in my truck a mild punch on the volume button to get it to work.

Meeting at 8:00 to present the financial status of my employer. No great news, but no bad news either. I omitted the first "R" when pronouncing the name of the prior month, but I did not misspell it on any official documents. Another meeting at 11:30 to discuss the financial abilities of a certain department that specializes in criminal incarcerations. [The descriptive vagueness is my attempt to keep the separation of work and blog]

Home for lunch at noon. Lindsey was watching a friend's daughter for the afternoon. I had a Swiss, salami, and turkey bagel sandwich. Then some chips and salsa. Then a homemade granola bar. Then a plum. And I stole a sip of Lindsey's root beer while she was on the phone. Back to work. For Jim... I worked on our compiling our 2009 annual financial statements - this is a several week process. Most of my time during this afternoon was spent on the statement of cash flows for the proprietary funds. (governmental accounting is a strange beast - how much detail do you really want?)

Went home from work a few minutes early to help Lindsey get ready to have some company over for dinner. Lindsey made lasagna, salad and bread. I think we used our "official" dining room for about the fifth time in as many years that we have lived here. We had a nice time with the Greg, Cathy, Ryan, Nancy, Aayla, and Ameira.

We tossed the kids in bed at 9:00 - a late night for them, and relaxed to watch last Tuesday's episode of LOST online. Off to bed at 10:18.

Side note: This series is focusing on the daily processes I am personally witnessing. Lindsey probably has a hundred other things she does that I don't see and therefore are not being recorded. She can blog her own weekly journal if she feels led.

Monday

2010-03-08T22:11:00.000-08:00

Woke up at 6:00. Read Psalms 101-103. Showered & dressed for work. Ate one slice of toast and peanut butter and a half glass of chocolate milk. Went out to the van to get my jacket and noticed the dome light had been left on overnight. I tried to start the van to make sure it would work for Lindsey to take Elliott to school. It barely had enough juice to start the engine, so I drove it around for 10 minutes to recharge the battery. Success. Off to work. I'll spare the boring accountanty details, but while working on a February financial report, the word "February" really bothered me. Who really says both R's in that word? Why haven't the English language gurus changes the spelling already? Aaargh! I might take it upon myself to start spelling it "Feb-U-ary" in protest.

Drove home for lunch at noon. Lindsey had made some turkey, pepperoni and mozzarella flat bread thing... delicious. Lindsey and I played two hands of Monopoly Deal as we ate (she won both hands) while Wesley and Spencer played together quite nicely. Drove back to work... more accountanty details omitted.

Fajitas! Dinner was ready when I got home from work. Although they weren't smoking like at a Mexican restaurant, Lindsey was on top of her game today (not that I am saying she belongs in the kitchen). Elliott had a friend over after school and he stayed for dinner. Lindsey's brother stopped by and chatted for a while. Lindsey took Elliott's friend home. Wesley and Spencer took baths, Spencer and I played a little board game, I played guitar and picked out songs for church this Sunday, the boys had some dessert and then got ready for bed. We had our second night of our family devotions. Lindsey thought we should start doing family devotions, and it certainly was a good idea. Tonight was about God creating the animals and how his creation points to a creator.

Relaxed with Lindsey watching TV. Going to bed at 10:11.

Earthworms

2010-03-04T06:28:00.000-08:00

Evolution has failed our local earthworms. Every time it rains, the earthworms pour out of the dirt and flood the sidewalks. More often than not, due to the climate here in Wenatchee, the rain quickly turns to bright sunshine and the humidity subsides. This spells certain death for the earthworms who require damp conditions. As the worm starts to dry out, one end of its body sticks to the sidewalk while the rest of its body tries to stretch itself anywhere but in the sunlight. At least the birds benefit from their stupidity. When I witnessed this yesterday morning while walking into work, I felt an urge (a very small urge) to rescue each one of these earthworms and throw them back onto the grass. However, that is not the image (of insanity) I am going for.

Kids & Guns

2010-03-03T06:10:00.000-08:00

I purchased a new gun a couple weeks ago, a Glock 19. Of course when I brought it home, the boys wanted to see it. Don't worry, the gun was not loaded, and there are no new holes in our kitchen...

Then we took the boys shooting. Our friend Ellie has a nice pink 22. She is quite the sharp-shooter.

Elliott and Wesley both got to shoot the little rifle. I thought about changing the color of the gun in photoshop, but this will go on record to show them that the first gun they ever shot was pink.

They also got a chance to shoot the 22 revolver.

Elliott and Wesley both tried shooting the Glock once, but I had to squeeze their hands so tight that it wasn't any fun for them.

Sunday Night

2010-03-01T07:14:00.001-08:00

I think our whole family was a little tired last night after a full weekend. So the kids put their pajamas on early and we all relaxed for a while.

Spencer just wanted to curl up on the couch and watch the Backyardigans on the iPod.

Elliott wanted to play a card game...

And Wesley still wanted to be silly... while he ate banana bread and played cards...

This appears to be a strange variant of indian poker...

Almost

2010-02-18T13:27:00.000-08:00

History was almost made this Valentine's day. I almost received my first ever Valentine's day gift. Well, technically I guess I did, but it didn't arrive until Tuesday. We have never celebrated Valentine's day so I was quite surprised on Sunday night when Brad said, "So do want me to tell you what I got you for Valentine's Day or do you want to wait until it gets here on Tuesday?" Of course I wanted to know right away...patience is not my strong suit! I was pretty excited to find out that the 50mm lens I had been wanting for quite a while would be mine in just two short days. Brad confessed that most of the reason he bought it for me was so we would have some new pictures for the blog. So, in order not to disappoint....

My niece Madelyn

My niece Ella

Our friend Laura

Cattails & Crazy

2010-02-10T06:33:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, Lindsey went shopping with her sister and left us boys to entertain ourselves. First, we headed off to the nature preserve to get outside and walk around. I am not sure that picking cattails and sword fighting with them until they puff constitutes proper nature preserve etiquette, but we had fun. A word of warning... you cannot simply dust cattail seeds off of your clothes. It requires duct tape or a lint roller.

Here, we enjoyed a little nature... a red-winged blackbird in the cattails (that were picked and used as weapons)...

We came back home, enjoyed left-over pizza, and the boys piled up couch pillows and blankets for some acrobatics...

Another Product Review

2010-02-05T12:30:00.000-08:00

Since we don't have anything better to blog about...

Lindsey found some coupons for a few card games that are based on classic board games. I was a little skeptical that they would really live up to their board game versions, but I am now hooked on Monopoly Deal. It really is a 15 minute version of Monopoly. Even though my win-loss ratio is roughly 2-5 so far, I still enjoy it. If you ever enjoyed playing Monopoly, but you don't want to commit 2 hours, then this card game is great!

One of the best parts (in my opinion) is that the rules are written well enough that you don't have to make up filler rules. One of my pet peeves is when you buy a game and the instructions are not comprehensive. With Monopoly Deal, you may have to read the rules a few times, but they seems to leave no stone unturned.

Filling in with Chips

2010-02-02T07:33:00.000-08:00

I wasn't so sure about these chips. I had passed them up before because I didn't think I could handle eating mixed chips. I told Lindsey my tendency would be to separate the two flavors and eat them independently. Last night, Lindsey found some of these real cheap at grocery outlet (probably because they are discontinuing this strange product line... that's speculation, not a fact). So we tried them last night and they are surprisingly good. The zesty taco actually tastes like chili cheese fritos, so the ranch flavored chips complement them quite well. Maybe they aren't my new favorite chips, but they were definitely edible.

Grandpa in a Dress?

2010-01-27T07:51:00.000-08:00

A Spencer conversation recorded on my parents' blog...

Grandpa Going to Work

Spence & Guitar - VIDEO

2010-01-25T07:13:00.000-08:00

We finally got some video of Spencer playing his guitar. He usually plays and sings loud, but he tends to get quiet when he feels like he is performing. It's too bad that you can hear my voice over his most of the time. Please just try to ignore me. Sorry about that...

I've Been Working on the Railroad

Might to Save

And yes, I do believe he sings, "Jesus conquered the grace" (instead of grave).

"Auto" Biography #10 - 1993 Dakota

2010-01-18T20:53:00.000-08:00

1993 Dodge Dakota

Whoo-hoo this is the last "Auto" Biography entry... at least until we get another vehicle.

Last summer, my parents bought a new truck and gave their old truck to us. Sure, the air conditioner is broken, it might take all the strength in my thumb to turn on the radio, and I may not be able to tell if I am in drive or neutral, but now I can haul stuff! We are grateful... especially with the unbeatable price.

When I decided to start this "Auto" Biography series, I was pretty sure that this post was going to be uneventful because I haven't had much time to bond with this truck. Well, as a few people know, about 10 minutes after I posted AB#1 about an different truck breaking down, I experienced some ironic vehicle problems.

As I headed to work in the truck, I came to the one stop light I encounter on my commute. As the engine slowed to an idle, it coughed a few times and shut off. I made multiple attempts to restart the truck, but it wasn't having it. The truck was blocking traffic so I pushed it as close to the curb as I could. Unfortunately I was still blocking traffic so I had to wave a couple people around me. The road was sloping slightly downhill toward the street light, but I wasn't sure I would be able to push it over the crowned intersection. Standing on the curb, I tried to look slightly pathetic hoping someone would ask if I needed a hand. I really just needed someone to steer while I pushed. After 5 minutes of no assistance, I ran across the street to call my dad for help. He was on his way.

Back at the truck I continued my pathetic appearance making casual eye contact with anyone to see if they would ask if I needed help. Finally a truck was stopped next to me and a window rolled down. A woman was driving and the man in the passenger seat asked if I need anything. I responded that I would like to get the truck out of the way. I could push from the back if someone could simply steer. They drove through the intersection and pulled over. When they got out, I realized the man had one leg and was walking with crutches. Okay, no problem. He can steer and I can push.

Again, when they approached me I said, "I just need someone to steer and I can push it through the intersection." Of course I couldn't work out that easy. The woman said, "You get in and steer, and we will push you." The man said, "We do this all the time."

Not knowing how to respond, there was probably a couple seconds of silence where I was thinking, "I'm sorry, but did you notice that you only have ONE leg?" I was certainly not going to sit in the cab of the truck while a woman and a man with one leg pushed me through the intersection. I opened the door and pushed on the door frame while steering. Nonetheless, we successfully pushed the truck through the intersection.

My dad arrived shortly after and got me to work just a few minutes late for my meeting. When I returned to the truck, it started up right away. I added a little fuel system cleaner in hopes it would help. Now every time I have to stop at the intersection, I cringe a little in anticipation of my engine dying.

Years Owned: August 2009 - Present

The Story of the Key

2010-01-06T15:32:00.000-08:00

Wesley did a creative writing project this morning at preschool. His teacher said he really enjoyed it and of all the kids in his class, he was the only one who didn't need prompting to keep the story going.

The italicized part is what the teacher used a lead-in to get the story going, but the rest are Wesley's own words.

The Story of the Key

by Wesley Posenjak

One day I was walking down the street when my foot kicked something shiny. I looked down and saw a key. I picked it up and looked around. There was only one door on the street and the key was a perfect match. I put the key in the door... and it opened the door. I went upstairs and I heard somebody snacking on some nuts. And then I opened the door and saw Batman snacking on the nuts. And then I watched TV. And then I peeked out the window and saw a dragon. The dragon broke the window. And then it blew fire at me. I hit it with a baseball bat. And then I opened another door with my key. Then Batman took the key and he opened his own door. I got my key back when I whapped Batman with another bat. This Batman was snacking on nuts. The dragon blew fire on me again and then it died.

The End

Winter Break Pictures

2010-01-03T14:26:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow we go back to school and back to work. Here are some winter pictures of what we have been doing...

This was the first time we went to Leavenworth to see the Christmas lighting. The temperature was in the teens and we were too late to get a good spot in the crowded streets, but now we can say we did it...

Quite a bit of driveway shoveling...

Our snow is often too dry to build snowmen, but a couple days ago, it warmed up enough for perfect packing snow. Here is the product of our labor...

New Years Day Buzz

2010-01-01T18:40:00.000-08:00

Hey what's up with the long-haired hippie kids?

Conform

Conform

That's better...

Now for a little game called pile-o-hair.
Which hair belongs to which kid?

Have Some Cow

2009-12-29T07:00:00.000-08:00

Lindsey gave me some A-1 flavored beef jerky in my Christmas stocking. I shared a little with Spencer and he loved it. He asked me what it was and I explained where is came from, what it was flavored like, etc.

A few minutes later, Lindsey smelled his breath and asked him, "What were you eating?"

Spencer confidently replied, "A-1 beef turkey, from a cow."

Christmassy Stuff

2009-12-27T21:57:00.000-08:00

The past couple weeks have been full of Christmassy things. For us, the festivities started when Wesley's preschool put on a Christmas program. I think I have raved about his preschool teacher before, but I have to mention her serving heart. Instead of having his program at a school or at a church, she had it at a senior center. This way, instead of just bringing joy to our family, the kids were able to bring joy to many elderly people who love having kids and families visit...

We received a cool advent calendar a few years ago, and it has become a highlight for the boys before bed. Throughout the day they ask whose turn it will be to open the boxes and rearrange the magnetic characters (adventees?).

Tuesday and Wednesday night (before Christmas Eve) we celebrated Christmas with my sister's family and our parents. The kids played hard both evenings and then on Wednesday, we opened a few presents...

It appears that we came out with at least one picture of all the participants (yes, Lindsey does have brown hair now)...

When kids are involved I think it is standard to have one "acting goofy" picture in the bunch. However, I am not sure they usually get posted, so...

Christmas Eve we headed over to Lindsey's parents' house. Her sister Amy came up with a fun game for the kids called "hide the pickle." She hid a green pickle on the Christmas tree and had the kids hunt for it. After a few minutes, Wesley was victorious as the one with the most keen eyes...

Lindsey was snapping pictures and Wesley was making a grinchy face...

Christmas morning was spent at home. My parents and grandma came over to join with us as the boys opened their stockings and the rest of their presents.

Many Christmases have seemed busy and crazy. However, this Christmas was just about the perfect sanity balance of family fellowship and relaxing. Maybe it's because the kids are getting older or maybe it's because I am getting older, but this Christmas seemed a little more reflective of why we are celebrating. God with us.

More of Spence & His Guitars

2009-12-26T16:24:00.000-08:00

I think that Spencer's true love is the guitar. During our Christmas festivities at my parent's house, Spencer found my mom's classical guitar and spent a lot of time playing it. Lindsey couldn't help but take a few pictures of him...

For Christmas, we bought Spencer a cheap kid's acoustic guitar. I was surprised that it really isn't much smaller than my guitar. Still, Spencer has a real guitar that I don't have to worry about... plus, he can fiddle with the tuners on his guitar without me getting after him...

Of course the box was almost as fun as the guitar...

But now that we threw away the box, he has been sitting around all day playing his guitar...

Christmas Card Photo Flops

2009-12-22T22:34:00.000-08:00

We tried a few different poses and places for our Christmas card photo. We didn't really like any of the pictures we got, but we ended up having to settle on something. Here is what we tried...

This looks more like a family mug shot than anything else. Look how warm and festive we are against a large bare wall...

I'd say this one isn't too bad, but Spencer has a slightly weird look on his face. Also, I think we were grumpy by this point and when we reviewed these pictures, nothing looked good...

We liked this idea, but the bums-to-face ratio was a little off...

We almost settled on this picture, but I felt that it either looked like we were segregating the boys and girl, or that Lindsey just smelled bad...

Even though it may not be the best picture of any of us, we ran out of time and settled on this one...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

"Auto" Biography #9 - 2006 Mazda MPV

2009-12-11T07:00:00.000-08:00

2006 Mazda MPV

After a few months of stuffing three kids in the Audi station wagon, we submitted to a van. Since we couldn't afford a SUV large enough to haul our kids around (besides a 1979 Suburban) Lindsey finally admitted that practicality was more important than style... well almost.

Lindsey researched and researched for a van in our price range that looked the least like a van. She ended up finding a Mazda MPV in Seattle that would work for us. I will spare you the details of our purchase experience. If you want to hear me rant about a certain Mazda dealership and the ordeal we went through, we can chat later. The first thing I did when we got home was remove the dealer license plate frames.

After two years, the van has been a good vehicle for us. The only drawback is that it doesn't have much luggage room. So Mike and Becky found us a $500 cargo box for only $50 at an REI gear sale. A few weeks later, forgetting that the cargo box secured to the top of the van, I tried pulling into the garage... not a good idea. Luckily Lindsey's dad is an expert at rebuilding fiberglass, and you can't even tell that I smashed it up. We figured out a tip from that experience. When you have something strapped to your vehicle racks, put your garbage can right behind the garage door. Then you will hit the garbage can before you crush your cargo.

Years Owned: June 2007 - Present

Busy, Guitar, Birthday, Tree, Rambing

2009-12-05T20:45:00.000-08:00

We have felt busy the past couple weeks, so there has been nothing new on the blog for a while. I am not sure if we have really been busy or if we just feel that way because of the season. For sure work has been busy for me. The county has been having budget problems the last couple months which should be culminating this month. Thanksgiving came and went. I think I single-handedly ate 3 pumpkin pies in two weeks. Wesley's birthday came and went (see below). And Lindsey and I finished watching season five of Lost... like I said, I don't know if we are really busy or just feel that way. I am not sure why I am reporting so much. Maybe it is because Lindsey and I have been talking about Christmas cards... that deadline is looming.

Spencer still loves his guitar (I believe he got it last Christmas). Every time I get out my guitar, he has to run find his and he plays along with me.

Wesley turned 5 last week. He opened his presents in record time, probably verging on rudeness, but at least he was very excited about every card he opened. He seemed to be just as excited about the cards as he was about his presents.

Wesley wanted a camouflage cake. Lindsey and I thought we could piece together different colors of fondant together to make a camouflage pattern. We were wrong. It looked horrible. I was about to head to Baskin Robbins to buy an ice cream cake when Lindsey came up with the idea to pull all the ugly frosting off the cake and mush it together. The effect was a slightly marbled looking solid layer of fondant. We still consider it a flop, but at least it didn't look horrible...

We got our Christmas tree earlier than we ever have. We usually for a week or two after Thanksgiving, but this year we got our tree two days after. It was much nicer picking out a tree when there wasn't 6 inches of snow on the ground...

Even though we got our tree in November, we couldn't handle decorating it until December 1st. I guess Spencer enjoyed decorating shirtless...

It was fun to see the snow fall this evening. I think it has stopped now, but we have a nice dusting on the ground.

"Auto" Biography #8 - 1998 Audi Wagon

2009-11-15T21:29:00.000-08:00

1998 Audi A6 Quattro Wagon

This was really Lindsey's car, but she finds this series a little boring, which probably most everyone else does as well. Nonetheless, I started something and my mind just won't let me leave it incomplete... only a couple more to go.

With two kids and only the thought of a third, we decided that we needed something with a few more seats than the Jeep or the Pontiac, but we weren't ready to make the move to the van yet. The Audi had a flip-down back seat so it could technically fit seven people. Although the extra seats came in handy a few times, in reality it was not an adequate substitute for a van... especially when we had to open the trunk to take the kids out of the car.

The Audi was a very well made vehicle, but we found that nobody in Wenatchee is any good at working on foreign vehicles. We have no European car dealers in Wenatchee and we didn't have much luck with the local foreign service shops.

Lindsey still misses her Audi, although she will admit that our current vehicle is more practical. She will always have a place in her heart for all vehicles European.

Years Owned: October 2005 - June 2007

Fall Photos

2009-11-12T12:35:00.001-08:00

I took the boys out a couple of times over the past few days for photography practice. It's really tough to get non-blurry photos of boys who never stop moving! Here are a few of my favorites: