View from a Window

 We have been enjoying looking at this rhododendron every time we walk by this window.

It's probably my favorite one out of the 4 or 5 that we have.

A Saturday With Seth - Part 2

 After the train ride, we drove down to Snoqualmie Falls, where we discovered a car show taking place.  Lots of cool, very expensive cars!

 An orange Lamborghini!

 A picture by the waterfall, Seth (and us) could feel the spray from it.

 Quite a bit of water was going over the falls.

 Lots of misty spray.

 Another waterfall picture.

 Enjoying a treat.  I spelled the words "ice cream" to ask Ken about getting some, and it drove Seth crazy not to know what I spelled.  We tried to distract him from asking what I spelled, and he would get distracted briefly, but kept coming back to it and asking what I spelled.  He finally guessed that it was concerning a treat and was excited to find out it was ice cream.

A yummy push-up!

A Saturday With Seth - Part 1

 Saturday we collected on a Christmas gift given to us by Todd & Betsy, which was a train ride with Seth.  The train was located in Snoqualmie, so it took us about 45 minutes to get there after picking up Seth at his house.  We got tickets for the 2pm train ride, then went to get lunch.  After lunch we had a little time to kill before our ride, so Ken put Seth on the ladder of a train car that was displayed by the depot.

 Another view of him on the ladder.

 Looking under the train car.

 Lining up to get on the train.

 We were hoping to get to sit in one of these seats by the open door, but they filled up fast!

 Getting our tickets punched by the conductor.

 Enjoying the fresh breeze.

 Seth's reflection in the train window.

 A happy boy enjoying the train ride.

 Time to relax!

 The train trip took about an hour and a half.  It went to the depot in North Bend, then went back to the Snoqualmie depot and past it to a ridge above Snoqualmie Falls.  You couldn't see much of the falls, but there was a good view of the river valley below the falls.

 Papa and Seth standing by the locomotive.

 Walking on the rails.

 Running down the track.

Getting a picture with one of the engineers.

To Be Or Not To Be (A Mentor Mom)?

This spring, after being a mentor mom for MOPS for 6 years, I decided that it was time for me to take a break.  As it turned out, all 6 of the mentor moms from the past year, had decided for one reason or another, to not come back next year.  At the time, when I made the decision, I was tired and felt like I was barely going to make it through the rest of the year.  A few weeks later, I woke up from a dream where the only thing I remember about it, was a voice saying, "but you love those women."  Somehow, I knew it was referring to the MOPS women.  I knew the statement was true, but still didn't feel motivated to change my mind.  A few weeks later during a luncheon with the other mentor moms, a former head mentor mom said that one of the women that had been asked to be a mentor mom had called her, concerned about all the mentor moms leaving at the same time.  I got to thinking that it would be hard for a new bunch of women to become mentor moms without any former mentor moms being in the group.  God was starting to change my mind.  One Tuesday morning before MOPS, I asked God, that if He wanted me to be a mentor mom again next year, that someone in MOPS would give me some words of encouragement.  We had no speaker that day, so we had more time with our discussion groups.  One of the women in my group (that already knew I wasn't coming back), asked me again if I was coming back.  I explained that I hadn't decided, but that I was thinking about it.  Several of the members in my group, gave me also sorts of positive, encouraging words.  That confirmed for me that God was leading me to continue as a mentor mom.  Because I am the only returning mentor mom, I was also asked to be the head mentor mom next year.  I'm the logical choice to take that position and I agreed to do it with some trepidation.  I don't feel like I have the abilities that I've seen in the other 2 head mentor moms, but I'm counting on God to give me wisdom as I step into the position.  God has already renewed my excitement for the next year and given me some ideas of how to improve the mentor mom program, so I think it's going to be a great year next year.  So much for taking a break, now I'll have more responsibilities than ever!

Busy Babysitting Weekend - Part 4

 Sunday, after church and lunch, I had Ken and the kids wash my car.  Getting it wet was lots of fun!

 Even scrubbing it was fun.

 When we took them back to their house, we discovered that Kyle and Kari had spent some time working on a fort for the kids.  Kyle was just getting the ladder attached, so Saben tried it right away.  It ended up being to difficult for them to use because of how far it would swing when someone tried to climb it. Kyle moved it to the other side of the hole in the floor, so it would swing toward the wall instead and be braced against the wall.  Saben quickly mastered the art of using it, but Annika was still  having a hard time using it while we were there and needed someone to help her most of the time.

 Both of them were able to get up it eventually, and Annika quickly brought up an assortment of dolls and stuffed animals with her.

Kyle climbed up the side of the wall, so he could put more railings on the sides.

Busy Babysitting Weekend - Part 3

 Since it was Mother's Day weekend, Todd asked if we could get together sometime on Saturday.  We decided to meet at a park in Everett at 3pm.  Meeting that late meant that Ken could join us after he got to Seattle from his overseas business trip.  Since it was a nice sunny day, and Mother's Day weekend, the park was very crowded

 Saben, Annika, and Seth, spent most of their time at the playground doing different activities, but I was able to catch Saben and Seth together, briefly, on one of the toys.

 Todd helping Saben do the rings.

 There's a water park next to the playground, but the water wasn't going yet.  Seth thought the orca fin was cool anyway.

 There's also a big hill to roll or run down.  Saben, Seth, & Todd ran down the hill, while Annika tried to roll down it.  You can see the 3 guys toward the bottom, Saben is on the left, with Todd and Seth on the right.

Saben and Annika both tried rolling down the hill later.

 Todd demonstrating how to hold a flower in his teeth...

 ...and Annika following his example.

 Decorating a jet-lagged Papa's head with daisies.

 Saben is trying to climb this toy upside down, while Annika is about to go down it the wrong way.  It was easy to climb it and go down as long as you crossed over at the top.  That was a hard thing for Annika to do, but she finally managed to do it.

Seth found a girl playing with a "stomp rocket" and proceeded to make a friend, so he could play with it also.  After a fun afternoon at the park, we headed to the "Mongolian Grill" for a yummy dinner.

Busy Babysitting Weekend - Part 2

When I was shopping at Haagen's last week, a flier was put in my sack advertising that kids could make a cake for their mom's on Saturday between 11-3.  I thought that sounded like a fun activity to take the kids to on Saturday morning, so we got ready and went to it.  I thought there would be a table set up for the kids to work at and that there would be a lot of kids there.  I was worried that we would have to stand in line to take our turn.  When we got there, I was surprised to find that there was no table to work on, no other kids around, and that it cost $5 per child.  I couldn't believe that they were charging for the cakes since the flier didn't say anything about a charge!  Live and learn, I guess! They said that we could do it there or take the kit home and do the decorating at home.  The people in the bakery went and got a small table for Saben and Annika to work on and gave them a small spatula to put the frosting, then left us to do the cakes.

Putting the first layer of frosting on.

Saben started out making a design on his cake with the pink frosting, but quickly changed to just making as big a blob of frosting on his cake as possible.

Annika went directly to putting as much frosting on her cake as she could, after all, if you have frosting to use, why not use it all!  The same goes for the sprinkles and she even wanted to use some of mine when we got home!

Almost done decorating the cake.

Saben's leftover frosting went into his mouth instead of on to the cake.

Busy Babysitting Weekend - Part 1

 Friday morning, I joined Kari at a Mother's Day Tea at Annika's pre-school.  The kids came in and sang some songs, then we had tea and various goodies to go with the tea.

 All the kids had made hats for their moms.

 Gram and Annika at the tea.

 Annika tried on the hat also.  Since it was Kari & Kyle's anniversary weekend, I stayed with Annika while they went on a hike.  When Saben got out of school, I picked him up and we headed to my house for the weekend.

 On the way back to Arlington, we stopped at a place in Mt. Vernon, called Jungle Playland.  I had never taken the kids to it, but had heard about it from some of the MOPS women.  They had all told me how much fun it was, so I decided to try it.  Saben is in the mouth of the tiger, Annika was afraid of the tiger.

 Sliding down a big slide.  I went down it once and was surprised at how fast it was.

 There was a maze also, to run through in a blow-up house.

 This is the whole play area except for the maze.  The last time we went to McDonald's I was wishing there was another indoor play area like McDonald's.  Little did I know there was one, unfortunately, instead of paying the cost of a McDonald's meal to play there, they charged $8.25 per child but adults are free.  So, it's on the pricey side, which means it's not something to go to very often.  It was fun though and I even was able to play with them in it some, because it's not small spaces like McDonald's.

 The ball pit didn't have many balls in it at first, but while we there a big rotating tub above the pit, dumped a bunch more balls into the pit.  There was a tube system that carried the balls to the top, when kids put them in the tube.  Most of the balls would then drop down into the pit, but a lot of balls must have gotten stuck in the tub, because it was pretty full when it dropped all the balls

Annika sitting at the top of the slide.  It looks pretty steep from this view.