Gleneden Beach Vacation-August 2010

We couldn't have been more ready to go on vacation! Aaron and I coordinated Vacation Bible School this year along with a culminating carnival. It was a lot of hard work! I got to teach the fourth, fifth and sixth graders and got to see four kids receive Christ. I wrote skits that presented the gospel for the large group times and Aaron and my good friend Dawn did a great job performing them as Mr. Incredible and the Zapinator! VBS was Monday-Friday and then we packed the car Friday night for our vacation to Oregon. Saturday morning we went and set up the carnival and watched the festivities unfold. As soon as the carnival was cleaned up, we were on the road headed for Oregon! It really was insane, but it made the time away all the sweeter. Elijah and I were completely exhausted as we started the trip and we both slept for the first three hours of the drive thanks to Aaron!

The resort we stayed at was in the middle of nowhere, which was perfect for me because I really just needed to get away and truly relax. There weren't even many people at the resort or on the beach. It was perfect for Elijah because he loved the sand, the waves, the heated pool, the hot tub, the playground, and our hot chocolate ritual after swimming. Everything was literally right outside our door. We were on the top level, had the perfect view of the beach and went to sleep each night listening to the waves. We got to feed seagulls off our balcony. We were far enough away from the pool and playground to not hear a thing too so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. It was such a treat. God is so good to us. He provided in such extravagant ways with little expense to our pocketbook. It is all so undeserved, but He extends such grace.

Here are some of the images we captured on our trip! Enjoy!

Each morning started with a leisurely breakfast and
relaxing. Elijah and Aaron played catch a lot.

We discovered not all kites are created equal.

Here's where we stayed. Top far right balcony was ours.

Elijah loves to jump off things! He could
have done this balance beam for hours.

We'd have hot chocolate from the resort lobby
after each of our swimming excursions. There were
a few warmer days and we even ventured out to
the beach in swim suits once. The water was freezing so
we stuck to the heated pool and hot tub.

It doesn't happen often, but every once in a while
he'll sit still long enough to snuggle. We watched
a couple movies over the course of our week and
that kept him still long enough for me to love on him.

Oops! That was very cold! He was pretty scared of
waves by the time we left because they'd sneak up
on him and he fell a few times.

We didn't have a change of clothes so he sported
a diaper and my coat. We got some strange looks.

Elijah LOVED these birds. He'd cart them back and
forth between the balcony and the fireplace. On
the balcony, he'd line them up so they could see
what was going on at the beach. They were his little
buddies. When we left, he kissed each of them goodbye!

And....the journey continues....

Our Gifted Ventriloquist!

To Elijah's Grandma Kathy

Elijah's grandma started chemo this week. Kathy, we are praying for you. I hope this sweet video brings much joy to your heart.

Our First Family Vacation

We took our first family vacation this past week to Leavenworth, Washington. It was absolutely incredible. It was a perfect balance between activity and utter relaxation. The first night there I lit candles and took a long, hot bath. Aaron did his equally enjoyable activity of reading a zombie book. We curled up on the couch with a fire and my newest favorite artist, Norah Jones, and I achieved a level of relaxation I had no idea was even possible. To have nothing hanging over us for a whole week. Amazing. We had a leisurely morning with a big breakfast before we headed outside to the beautiful winter wonderland the next day!

The weather was beautiful. I was hoping we'd get to
see it snow. That didn't happen, but the ground
was beautifully covered beforehand so I didn't mind too much.

For anybody who knows me at all, they know I have
a sweet tooth I rarely deny. I've tried to keep Elijah
away from sugar for the most part, but vacations are
made for fun. We started the vacation with a trip to
Cold Stone for ice-cream and while Aaron made a quick
dash into Barnes and Noble, Elijah and I got to check
out a pet store. Elijah probably would have thought if
this is it, I LOVE vacations. There was so much more though!

This is from our first morning. I wish this captured
the snow-covered mountainous view we had! I couldn't
help but praise God throughout this trip. So much
was provided by Him to make this the perfect trip. Our
unit was so comfortable. The view was stunning.
And, we had been given stuff when Elijah was born all
the way up to the trip to make it perfect and yet affordable
for us. He had boots, snow bibs, coats, hats and
mittens, and even a toddler sled.

Getting ready for the snow! It didn't take Elijah
long to learn how to say the word snow! He
completely cracked up as Aaron and I would toss
snow at each other and him. He even joined
in the fun of throwing it as best he could. At times when
we were inside he'd beg, "Snow! Snow! Snow!"

Walking in the snow proved to be a
big challenge for our big boy!

He's gaining confidence! This is right outside our unit.

Our lovely home for the week!

Elijah's enjoying life on his toddler sled given
to us by my mentor, Daudette, and her family.
Thank you Catey family!

Elijah is quite the affectionate little guy and if he
doesn't get enough hugs and kisses, he'll just grab
me to let me know. He gives a great eskimo kiss!
This is the beginning of our snowman. Don't let the
photo fool you. Aaron and I did all the work while
Elijah just tried to eat the snowman. Pretty cute!

Who knew creating snowmen was such a labor of love!

With all the work that went into this little snowman,
you didn't think we'd stop with just one picture...

...or even two!

Aaron is such a great, involved daddy! It is
such a joy to see them delight in each other.
This is Elijah's all time favorite activity. You
match the puzzle pieces of the mommy and baby
animals. He's still totally into animals.

Downtown Leavenworth

We had to go outside and brave the snow in swimsuits to
at least give the hot-tub a try. Elijah did NOT care for it though.

To my surprise, Elijah was pretty mild mannered most
the trip. We have experienced some sizable melt downs
lately and I thought our vacation might be filled with them.
But, he did very, very well. He definitely knows what he
wants and does his best to get said desire though. He had
his first store bought cookie on this trip and was not ever
going to forget this new word cookie after such a delightful
experience. We wanted to make sugar cookies together as a
family and I made the mistake of telling him what we were
making. We couldn't understand why he couldn't eat them
after we decorated them with colored sugar. I ended up
having to give him some alone time to recover from this
injustice. After he saw them come out of the oven it made
more sense the next time we baked cookies.

Just being adorable! If you saw the other side of
his face you may consider calling CPS. He did a
face plant sledding down a hill and the snow was
pretty unforgiving. Additionally, on our trip, Elijah
fell into the corner of the outside closet wall at a
pretty good rate of speed. He has a nice cut and
some serious black and blue bruises on his chin.
This is just to note a few of the best battle wounds
of the trip for our little warrior! He is pretty tough
and bounces back quickly.

Just being adorable...again!

There was a beautiful trail that led us to the Wenatchee
River and then to downtown Leavenworth. We walked
to the McDonald's where Elijah had his first happy meal
since we didn't anticipate being out for lunch. To his
delight, he learned to drink milk out of a straw.

Elijah's favorite activity in the snow...eating it.

Elijah gives a whole new meaning to shoveling snow!

In addition to the great sledding hill right outside
our place, at the bottom of the hill was a city park
with a couple great playscapes!

Time to continue the journey of life! Thanks for
sharing in this glimpse of our journey!

Christmas 2009

Once all the hustle and bustle was finished our holiday season was full of fun, relaxation and a mad dash to get some projects done as a result my less demanding schedule. Since many of our normally scheduled commitments didn't take place for a couple weeks, I tried to get some long overdue organizing done at home. We got to take advantage of some of the many cool things Seattle has to offer during this festive Christmas season.

December was also very full of ministry opportunities for both Aaron and me. We got to see many people make decisions to receive Christ as their Savior. I'll never get used to the fact that God allows us to be active participants in what He is doing in the hearts of people. One of the biggest joys this season was telling Elijah about how God's Son, Jesus Christ, came to earth as a human baby because of God's unfailing love for each of us in this world. Few things topped hearing Elijah say, "Beebe zsheezsha!" For those with a less trained ear...this means Baby Jesus! I hope you enjoy some of our memories!

Anything Elijah can climb into
or on top of makes him happy!

Elijah's got quite a kick out of these little elves
when we were Christmas tree shopping. He
stopped to giggle and wave at them.

Elijah's pretty pleased when he gets to
roam free. He loves his independence,
but is still such a snuggle bug.

Elijah gets around pretty fast these days.
He loves to run and chase people.

These are our good friends, Paul and Dawn,
hanging out with us after lunch.

Everybody who sees Elijah's open mouth, which
you will later in this post, gets a kick out of the
fact that he has only his front four top teeth
and his bottom two front teeth, along with four
molars. We are hoping to see the rest fill in soon!

In the end we decided to stick with our little Charlie
Brown tree to save some money. Pretty comical.
This might just be a great tradition we've started. :)

Elijah got to see a camel, a donkey and a
couple reindeer at a local garden center,
Swanson's nursery. We went with Lisa
and Aidan and had a ton of fun.

Dasher and Blitzen were gearing up for their big night coming up!

Our buddies!

Cute!

Aaron preached at the Christmas Eve
service since our senior pastor was
out of town. He did a great job.

Elijah was pretty pleased with his new Elijah sized
chair! He seemed to be in a state of disbelief and
kept looking back at me with this look that said,
"Mommy, look at this chair!"

Elijah LOVES dogs and now has one of
his very own that barks, pants and wags
his tail! And, he doesn't even chew or have
accidents inside. Truly, man's best friend!

Elijah's investigating his new
tree full of finger puppet animals!

One of Elijah's Christmas gifts was a
tent and tunnel set. Fun times!

My mashed potatoes made it into Aaron's proposal speech
and I'd say Elijah may like them a bit too. Thanks Mom!

Elijah's trying to teach his daddy how to color.

Taking a cool evening drive.

Reading books with Daddy in the tent.

We took advantage of some of the
fun Christmas lights downtown on the
waterfront of the Puget Sound.

Elijah loves carousels! He signs please repeatedly
to ride again and does his little point and grunt
as we leave. I can't imagine what his reaction would
be to a real horse ride.

Happy New Year to you all! May it be blessed beyond your wildest hopes and expectations!

New Blog Posts

I made several new blog posts, but they are post-dated for August and September. I hope to get around to October, November and December before the new year! Thanks for being patient, Mom! :)