Afternoons in Oregon

Since VBS was over everyday at 12 pm, we had afternoons to do other activities. Monday afternoon was a free day where we could do whatever we wanted to do. Tuesday, was beach day, and although it had been warm and sunny in Blodgett, when we got to the beach at Newport, it was getting cloudy and it was very windy. That, however, didn't stop some of the kids from going into the water.
While the adults huddled in their jackets, put the hoods up on their coats, and barely got their feet wet, the kids got soaking wet.

After spending time in the water, they played some beach games and wrapped up in towels and blankets to get warmed up.

There were also some tide pools to explore, which is always one of Ken's favorite activities when we go to a beach.

This is the whole gang after eating a yummy supper of clam chowder, and fish and chips, minus Ken, who took the picture.

Wednesday afternoon, we went to the Blodgett cemetery and mowed the grass, weed whacked around the outside of the fence...

...weeded some areas, got rid of dead flowers left in the cemetery, and cleaned the moss and grass off the headstones.

After the work was done, we formed teams of 2 people per team and looked for answers on the headstones to questions we were given.

We had a BBQ that night , then went on a scavenger hunt out in the forest. This was our team. Thursday afternoon was another free day when we were supposed to rest up for the VBS potluck and program at the church in the evening. I got to rest some, but Ken spent the afternoon putting together a slide show for the program that night. Friday, we headed home after VBS was over and arrived home at 8:30 pm.

This is Blodgett

This is Blodgett! One store! There's also a grade school and the church that we helped with their VBS, other than that, this is it!
A lot of the people that live in the area, live off a very winding 2 lane road. The couple that we stayed with for the week lived 25 minutes out on that road. I'm not sure which came first, the train tracks or the road, but they follow one another and we crossed over these train tracks 5 times on the way to our host family's home.

I kept thinking that the train tracks looked like a miniature train should be using them. Everyone kept telling us they were still in use and a regular sized train used them. After several days of not seeing a train on them, I was beginning to doubt that they were really in use. On the 4th day of our visit, we actually got stopped by the train twice on our way to VBS. Two of the crossings were so close together that we couldn't beat the train to the next crossing before it got there.

This is the best picture I have of the wife of our host couple. She also taught a preschool class and here, she is enjoying the worm in her snack cup of "dirt".

VBS at Blodgett - Part 2

This is some of the kids in the pre-school class that I worked with. They were mostly 3 year olds, that hadn't been away from Mom before, so I had a bunch of moms that followed us around. Our class was called the "Pre-school A" class. Since that was a difficult name to call when trying to gather them to move to the next activity, I started calling them the monkeys, because they had a monkey on their name tags. They responded a lot better to being called monkeys, one little girl kept saying, "I'm a monkey!"
Working in our lesson books.
The little boy in that I'm helping in this picture was one of the ones that didn't want to be away from his Grandma, who was the one that brought him and was working with a group of older kids. She persuaded him to join our class a few times, and he did fine, until it was time to move to the next activity, then he would cry and want to go back to Grandma.

It was hard to find games that the 3 year olds would play, the only thing that was always a hit during game time, was the parachute.

We had a rope for the kids to hang on to as we moved from one activity to the next. They had never done that before and it took some time for them to get used to it, but by the end of the week everyone was walking to the next activity, hanging onto the rope.

One day we had 12 kids in our class! It got pretty crowded around the table that day, but most of the time we had 10 or less.

Ken and his class during their game time.

Four of the girls in my class having their snack.

VBS at Blodgett - Part 1

We left SPCC at 9:15am, drove for numerous hours, with numerous stops and arrived in Blodgett at 6:15pm.
Pizza for dinner!

Sunday was spent getting things ready for VBS to start on Monday. Jenna is getting things ready for the recreational activities.

Ken and Kayla are preparing to teach the 1st and 2nd graders. Kayla is working hard on getting ready to lead the class, she had fun practicing today, by leading Ken around and pretending that he was a 1st grader.

Saydee and I will be leading one of the pre-school classes. Saydee is excited to have the opportunity to lead the class and I'm sure she is going to do a great job.

Getting more things ready for the games.

Team meeting to talk about any last details, to share some devotionals we've been doing and to have a time of prayer.

Bathroom Remodel Finished

Well, after several months, we have finally finished the bathroom, except for a few decorating things that still need to be done.
But all the big things are done...
and this is what it looks like.

Dinner at Friday Harbor

Most of Sunday was overcast, windy and on the cool side. We had been invited to fly with our friends in their private plane to Friday Harbor to have dinner. We thought when we took off that the views weren't going to be that great, but to our surprise, as we headed out towards the San Juan Islands we discovered that it was sunny out there and the views were gorgeous. When we arrived at Friday Harbor, Tim and Ken pushed the plane into its parking place.
It was nice enough to eat outside on the terrace of the restaurant, overlooking the ferry dock and boat docks.

A good view of some of the San Juan Islands from the plane!

Riding in the plane with my headset on.

Mt. Baker and other mountains in the distance with the sun shining on them.

The coastline of Whidbey Island, with Deception Pass in the narrow opening between the two land areas.

Day 5 With Saben and Annika

Wednesday we met with Kyle's parents after lunch, so they could take care of Saben and Annika for the rest of the time that Kyle and Kari are gone. We planned for me to take the kids to Ken's office, so Ken could show them off to friends at work, then we would go to lunch together. Saben had made a comment the day before that he thought we would take them to McDonald's while they were at our house (one of the few treats we didn't do). So we decided to go there for lunch on Wed., little knowing that for some unknown reason, the 2 McDonald's in Everett that are the closest to where Ken works do NOT have play areas! We stopped at one on Evergreen Way, saw it didn't have a play area, and went on to the one on Everett Mall Way. By the time we got there and discovered they didn't have one either, we were out of time, so the kids didn't get to play. I had no idea that some McDonald's don't have play areas, I thought they all did these days. Oh, well, live and learn. After dropping Ken back at work, I took the kids to Lynnwood to meet up with Sandy and Dave. Annika hadn't taken any naps the whole time she was at our house and apparently had gotten really tired (no problems getting her to sleep at night though). She fell asleep on our way to Lynnwood, which is only 15 minutes from where Ken works, so I thought she was only going to get a short nap. She actually ended up sleeping through moving all their luggage and belongings into the other car, and even slept through moving her and her car seat to the other car. This was one tired little girl! Today was a pretty quiet day after the last 5 days! In a way I needed the rest and a break, but in another way, I'm really missing having them around. As always, it was a lot of fun having them around, but tiring also.

Day 4 With Saben and Annika

This morning we visited the son of a MOPS mom that Saben had met and enjoyed playing with. Trevor had to have surgery on his heart a week ago and needs to do quiet activities while he waits for his heart to heal. I got both boys a leggo sticker book, thinking it might be a fun thing for them to do together, but it didn't really work out real well. They did play with Lincoln Logs and did a couple of other quiet activities. Saben wanted to have Trevor do some things he couldn't do yet, so it was a little hard to help them find things to do, but I think both boys enjoyed seeing one another again.
After lunch, I took the kids to Jennings Park in Marysville where we used to go with our kids when we lived in Marysville. Annika really whipped down the slide sometimes!

We walked down to the pond which was so full of water, you couldn't walk all the way around it. There were some boys fishing with fishing poles and Saben seemed to be fascinated by them. He wanted to watch them for quite a while and when we left, he said that he wished he had a fishing pole.

At first Saben and Annika went down the slide by themselves, then for some unknown reason they started going down together. Saben would usually get to the top of the slide first and would wait for Annika to get there before going down. If someone came to go down before Annika got there, he would get up and let them go down, then go when she got there. It was so cute to see Annika hugging Saben and going down behind him!

Sitting on top of the train.

Day 3 With Saben and Annika

It was rainy again this morning and I had told Saben that if it was still rainy today we would work on a craft kit that I had bought a long time ago. Every time they would come, Saben would ask about doing it, but it never seemed to be the right time to do it. It turned out to be a great craft for both of them to work on. Annika was even able to do it pretty much on her own.
You just take some of the paper off to reveal the sticky part, crunch up the tissue paper and put it on the sticky parts.
Saben did a car, a fish and a star. Annika did a flower and a butterfly. She got tired of doing it after 2 of them and didn't want to do her 3rd one, which is a bird.

After lunch we went shopping and I let them each get a new toy to keep at our house, Saben got some leggos, of course.

Annika got some more "Polly Pocket" things.

"Star Wars" leggos are what he's interested in now.

Making rice krispy treats for dessert.

Day 2 With Saben, Annika and Seth, Too

The second night went a lot better, no one woke up during the night and they slept until 8. After church, we met Todd, Betsy, and Seth at Denney's for lunch. Betsy had a wedding shower to go to and since it was raining, the rest of us went to the Everett Children's Museum instead of Forest Park, which was the other option. Everett has the best children's museum, I've ever seen. (Of course I've only been to 3 others, Seattle's, Bellingham's and one in Mt. Vernon, but it's definately the best of all of them.)

Saben and Annika look like they are on their way to join Mommy and Daddy in Spain!

As always, the water area was a big hit and we spent quite a bit of time in there. Seth sprayed water in his face when he blocked the flow with his finger.
More water fun!

Climbing on the fire engine.

Sitting on a pretty mangy looking horse.

Saben and Papa enjoy the area where you can build things.

You can even ride on what they created.

Todd and Betsy stayed with the kids for a couple of hours so Ken and I could go to our life group's end of the year catered dinner. It was really, really good!

We got home to find a pajama party going on in the kids bedroom!