Swim for it!

Greetings!

This past week we took a family trip to an area beach and met up with our friends to do some pre-swimming lesson water play.  Elsa is a water baby!  She usually loves to get into the water and splash around.  Jonas loves to build sand structures and work with Dan dumping water into created rivers.  We had lunch at the beach and played a lot.  Elsa and Jonas loved it and were really excited to start their swim lessons this week.  We are happy to report that the first day was a success...both kids got their feet in the pool!

Elsa was also kind enough to offer to paint Dan's toes pink!  Evidence provided in the picture above.

We love to catch local children's acts when we can and this week we took in a Caspar Babypants show in Black Diamond.  Two great outcomes:  Mr. Babypants kindly autographed a copy of the book he and his wife illustrated and wrote, and we were able to stop by the Black Diamond Bakery for snacks!  What a great day!

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Strikes (spares), wiggles, reunions, and more!

Greetings!

We spent the weekend on the road down in the Vancouver/Portland area.  It was a great trip!  Elsa loves the Wiggles (Jonas tolerates them but we think he secretly loves them too).  We attended a wiggles concert in portland on friday night.  The past two weeks Elsa has repeatedly stated her desire to go up on stage and give Jeff Wiggle (the one in the purple shirt) a big hug.  We have spent the past two weeks gently suggesting to Elsa that won't happen.  During the concert, the wiggles and other dancers come out to the crowd to pick up bones for Wags the Dog and roses for Dorothy the Dinosaur.  Elsa had made a home-made rose for Dorthy and Jonas made a dog bone for Wags.  As luck would have it, Jeff Wiggle came down our row!  Elsa gave him a big high-five and she couldn't stop smiling!  What a great time!  The show was fun and the kids loved it.  We capped the night off with ice cream!  It doesn't get much better than this!

 Elsa and purple wiggle Jeff

 Let's get this show going!

 Mari might have helped a bit

 C'mon wags the dog!

 Jonas is bottom right

 Wiggles!

 Bowling!

 Elsa the spare queen!

 No pressure...

 Cousin Zack and E & J playing at Tiger Bowl

 Harvest Day Parade

Elsa, Jonas, Kate, and Zack are ready to order

 Taking turns!  Alright!!!

 Chopping Broccoli

Garden time!

The next morning it got even better!  We drove out to Battle Ground to visit Grandpa Harold at his bowling alley.  He was kind enough to set up the rock and bowl for Elsa and Jonas!  Turn off the lights, turn on the music and disco ball lights, and let's bowl!  Jonas and Elsa loved it.  Elsa got three or four spares in a row!  (They used the ramp to help little ones).  We then walked from the bowling alley to the Harvest Day parade and saw tons of fire engines, horses, and floats.  While watching, Elsa and Jonas's cousins Zack and Kate arrived!  It was really special for them to be able to hang out for a bit and play!  Grandpa Harold treated us all to a great lunch! 

Mari had her 20 year high school reunion later in the evening so we were back on the road home.  Elsa and Jonas played with Grandpa Paul and Grandma Jeanne while Mari and Dan reunited with her high school class. 

Great times & God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Summer Jams!

Greetings!

This week Elsa and Jonas practiced up on their music.  You can see their band's formative years in the videos above:)

We spent the week playing and singing.  Our local park hosted a kid's concert where the kid's band the "Not it's" performed.  They wear pink tutus and have a lot of energy!  Elsa put her pink tutu on and was so excited to hear the band perform.  We noticed that it was the first time that she has seen a live band perform with a female lead singer.  The singer was great and gave Elsa several high fives before the show and complimented her on her pink tutu too!  How sweet!

Earlier on that same day, we found new playground.  It was very exciting.  Lots of slides and things to climb!  After playing hard, we went to pick raspberries!  After picking a couple and eating several more, we refueled at a lunch out at a local nursery. 

Later in the week, we went swimming at a wading pool!  Elsa and Jonas were so excited!  Elsa practically dove in the second she saw the pool.  Jonas warmed up to it and was having a blast.  We didn't play marco polo, but we had so much fun having a picnic lunch with our friends!

Elsa and Jonas spent the next day swimming at the lake with Grandma Jeanne and Grandpa Paul.  They went down the slide into the lake countless times! 

Friday was Day out with Thomas!  Jonas got to realize a life-long ambition to ride Thomas the train.  We spent the day with our friends riding trains, playing, and listening to great music.  While Jonas was excited to ride the train, Elsa was equally excited to hear her favorite performer, Eric Ode, sing.  And he was wonderful!  He played for a long time and Elsa and Jonas loved his music.  At the end of his set, he was kind enough to let Elsa get her picture taken with him:)  What great memories!

We arrived home tired and very, very, very happy!

 Elsa and her favorite singer, Eric Ode!

 Jonas playing trains!

 At the concert stage

 On the train

 On the train

 Is three too young for a tattoo?

 Elsa loved her tattoo too!

 While we didn't get a photo of the actual thomas train...Elsa liked this poster:)

Jonas wanted his picture in front of the diesel trains...very contentious decision
God Bless,
Mari & Elsa & Dan & Jonas

Boats, Magic, Libraries, and Sprinklers!

Greetings!

Another great week of summer for Jonas and Elsa!  We had a great week celebrating the 4th of July, playing, and learning lots of new things!

Last week we mentioned that a pastor from Minnesota was preparing a sermon about the blessing that Elsa gave her at Holden.  We listened to the sermon tonight and there were many tears around the table!  Check it out at July 8 Sermon All Saints (this will open a new window and take you to the church's website).

The 4th of July isn't complete without a boat parade on Lake Lawrence.  This year there were lots of boats, flags, and spectators.  Our boat was well stocked with pizza hand made by Grandma Jeanne, Elsa and Jonas. Several boat members engaged in cherry pit spitting.  Jonas manned the horn and honked whenever someone on the shore was expected to wave at us.  Elsa dutifully waved from her various posts on the starboard and port sides.  It was a great day!

Elsa had a swallow study done this past week and everything looked good.  She was able to bring her dvd of the Wiggles Christmas and was singing Christmas songs the rest of the week.  She was a trooper at the swallow study...she has to drink a barium concoction in a short amount of time so they can take x-rays of the movement.  The results were good and we are hopeful she doesn't have to do another test for a long while!

Jonas and Dan attended a puppet show at the library.  Later in the week, Jonas was still recalling almost every detail of the show.  We are so thankful for public libraries!!!

Speaking of the library, we were back as a whole family the next day at story time and Elsa was doing a great job of dancing and following the directions of several songs during the story time.  It was great to be sitting outside at our local library hearing great songs and stories.

By the way, while I am typing about libraries, we were back the next day for the magician show!  Jeff Evans is a local magician that was so wonderful with kids and he is an amazing magician!  Wow!  It was great!  Jonas held a 20 dollar bill that the magician turned into a 100.  (We didn't get to keep it).

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

CHELAN!

Greetings!
We just returned for our trip to Holden Village.  Wow!  What an amazing week!  Highlights include...

On the way to Holden, Dan attempted to use the voice command feature of our car.  He kept repeating Chelan over and over again to get the navigation unit to direct us.  Each time he clearly yelled Chelan the car would respond with different helpful suggestions such as "air conditioning off" and "now changing to channel 259".  The best part was that Jonas started yelling Chelan in the backseat.  The next night when some people were introduced at Holden, Jonas overheard that they were from Chelan.  He then started yelling "CHELAN" loudly at vespers while other people were being introduced!

Elsa and Jonas took part in the Narnia program at Holden.  One of the nights at vespers, Elsa helped with the blessing.  She dipped her finger in water and made a cross while giving a blessing.  Countless people came up to us the rest of the week and said that her blessing was very special.  We were so amazed and awed by Elsa!  A pastor from a Lutheran church in Minnesota even wrote about the blessing in her sermon for next week.  She shared her sermon with us and we were so touched!

Other Holden highlights:  a walk to the water-fall, playing in the sandbox, making tie-dye shirts, Holden coffee, chasing chipmunks, counting deer (tons), sitting on the swing reading books, playing with other kids, riding the school bus, seeing dump trucks, riding the fast boat home!!!, and much more!

In the dining hall

At Narnia (the lawn art spells Holden:)

Slide Train!

Waiting for Dump Trucks to go by

The Holden Bus

The bombadier!

With Joshua and Isabel!

The infamous sand box!

This is a recreated photo from our last trip!  Lodge 2 second floor here we are!

Nap time

Super hug!

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas