Traditions

Derek and I just ran our almost 200 mile relay race this weekend. It was great. I am too tired to post about it right now (plus I don't have any pictures yet). Instead I have some random pictures of some of our Sunday traditions. Every Sunday Derek makes us pancakes and eggs. We all love this tradition. It is a nice break for me, and they are delicious. We also have adopted a dessert only on Sundays and Mondays policy (thanks for the idea Steph!). Whoever is in charge of the lesson for Family Home Evening that week gets to choose the dessert. Today Derek chose homemade ice cream. We got a soft serve ice cream maker for Christmas. Yummy! We have been experimenting to try and get just the recipe just right. We came pretty close today.

I am off to bed now. Enjoy the pictures:

Here is a picture of Derek making the pancakes. He makes them from scratch, and they are so good!


The kids love to have sprinkles on their ice cream. I thought the leaves were fitting for this time of year.


Jared enjoying his ice cream


Jenna enjoying her ice cream


This is an old picture that I never posted. Our children love to read, and be read to. For a while we would try and end our dinners by 6:45p so that Derek could read to them before bed. I think that we will start that again.

Camping

Our children LOVE to camp. (Me, not so much, but I do enjoy the outdoors and being with my family, so I go). We have been promising them that we would take them camping all summer. We have been so busy that we haven't had the time. We finally made it happen this weekend (Friday to Saturday). We went to Pocahontas State Park (one of Virginia's many state parks). It was a great camping place. The weather was great, and because of the time of year, not many people were there. My sister, Rachel, and her husband, David, and their little boy, Levi, came up Saturday morning to hike and play. They almost camped with us, but decided they wouldn't get enough sleep, so they just joined us Saturday morning. We had a great time with them. Thanks for meeting up with us! Overall it was a great trip. We didn't get nearly enough sleep, but that is to be expected. I think next year we will try to go for a 3 day/2 night camping trip. We shall see. Enjoy the pictures!

Breakfast! Derek made us eggs over the camp fire. We had mini bagels and bananas too. Derek and I actually put the eggs on our bagels, and they were really good.



Jared could not decide whether he wanted to be inside the tent or outside the tent. It was particularly annoying because he wasn't good about taking off his shoes before going into the tent. They tent was full of sand from his shoes.


Since Julie requested pictures of me, I asked Kevin to take a picture of Derek and me. He did a pretty good job. Be careful what you ask for though, because now you are stuck with pictures of me camping. :)


Jenna and Mom. Love that face, Jenna!


Derek and Jared roasting a marshmallow for s'mores. They were doing this after breakfast. We tried to make them the night before. The wood was damp though, so it didn't burn well on Friday night. We made a couple of s'mores, but then the fire died. Derek was able to get a really good fire going on Saturday morning, so we let the kids make s'mores then. Good parenting, I know. :)


Jenna, Levi, Derek, David, Jared, and Kevin on the hike. Rachel and I were taking the pictures.


Hiking! Sorry the picture is blurry. I wanted to include it because it is the only picture I have of Rachel (even if it is from behind).


The park was beautiful. I love the beauty of the Eastern United States.



Some family pictures.



This is my absolute favorite picture from the trip. I think I might make it sepia, print it and frame it. We shall see.


After we went hiking, we played at the park at the campground. The kids had a great time running around, going down the slide, playing tag, playing pirates (a favorite game lately), and zooming down the pretend zip line.

Jenna playing


Kevin was trying to avoid the camera, but I caught him. :)


Jared enjoying the slide



Derek enjoyed the fake zip line too. :)


Kevin loved this thing. He spent a lot of time on it.

Oddball Tournament 2009

We are very blessed to have awesome neighbors. Kevin, Jenna, and Jared spend a lot of time playing with our neighbors. The children next door are very smart and creative children. A few weeks ago they brought a flyer to our door announcing the first annual "Oddball Tournament." They explained that Oddball was a game they made up. Over the next couple of weeks they taught our children and the children across the street how to play the game. They also taught Jenna, and the little girl across the street (Jenna's best friend), some cheers, as they were going to be the cheerleaders. Kevin was on Team Alaska Bears with the boy next door. The other team was Team Aerodynamics with the girl next door and boy across the street. The kids have really been looking forward to this tournament.

Unfortunately, I was in D.C. for the day with some women from our church, so I didn't get to see it. Derek was there and took all the pictures. Since he is out right now, I will do my best to guess what the pictures are, based on what they told me. All that I know about Oddball is that you can use any part of your body except your hands. Our neighbors went all out for the tournament. They made shirts for the players and pom-poms for the cheerleaders. One of the mothers made cookies and brought medals for all the kids. It was a great day for them. Below are the pictures (and sorry Julie, no pictures or me again, since I wasn't there...maybe next week). I think that Kevin's team won, but I don't know for sure, and it really doesn't matter.

Kevin playing the game:




Even though this picture is blurry, I really like it. It is a great picture of Kevin giving his all.


Jenna and our neighbor doing a cheer. Jared would also do the cheers off to the side. Very cute, I heard.


More cheering. I know this is blurry, but I thought it was a great jump by Jenna.


I love this picture. I am guessing that this is at the end of one of Jared's cheers. Derek did a great job capturing this.


Jared was the equipment manager. They did a good job coming up with a role for everyone. Here he is holding the ball.


These are the awesome cookies our neighbor made. She is the world's best cookie maker. We LOVE her cookies. We are going to gain a lot of weight living by her. :)


As you can tell by their faces, the kids had a blast. I am really grateful we have such awesome neighbors for our children to play with.

Blast Off!

We had a great day on Saturday. I love it when we have the time to hang out as a family outside where the kids can run around, and we can relax, and enjoy each other's company. For Kevin's birthday a couple of weeks ago we bought him a model rocket (Derek's idea, of course). Kevin has really been looking forward to launching it. This was Derek's first Saturday back in town, so we decided it would be the day. The weather was perfect. On Friday Derek and Kevin put the rocket together.

Kevin and Derek putting the rocket together. Please excuse the dishes in the background. We were about to eat dinner.



On Saturday we packed up a picnic lunch and headed out to a soccer field at Kevin's school. Earlier in the week Kevin's gym class had run a mile around the soccer field by doing 5 laps. Kevin really enjoyed it and wanted to take Derek there to run a mile with him. Jenna wanted to run too. She made it about half way through the first lap, but couldn't keep up with Derek and Kevin, so she quit.

Kevin, Derek and Jenna running. Jenna quit right after this picture was taken.


Kevin and Derek running the mile. Kevin ran the whole way, and never complained. I don't know how long it took them. I may let Kevin do some kid's races this year. I didn't in the past, because I didn't think he could run a mile. I don't think he is very fast, but I know that he could finish. Derek looks pretty good for having already ran 9.4 miles earlier that morning.


After the run, we ate our picnic lunch.

Here is Jared eating some of his lunch.


Here is a butterfly that was flying near us during lunch. We enjoyed watching it.


After lunch Derek put the rocket launcher together. He also inserted the engine into the rocket.

Here are the kids watching Derek put it all together.


They got bored quickly, so Jared and Kevin started playing soccer, and Jenna and I threw the Frisbee a little.

Jared playing soccer


Kevin and Jared playing soccer


Kevin wanted me to take a picture of him kicking the ball into the air. If you look closely, you can tell the ball is off of the ground.


Here is Jenna right after she threw the Frisbee


Here is Jenna looking cute


Here is Derek putting in the Engine (this was actually in preparation for the second launch - the kids enjoyed it so much that we did it twice).


Kevin and Derek setting up the rocket for the launch


10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Blast Off! That is what Kevin said before he pushed the button.


Unfortunately, I wasn't able to capture anything other than the smoke. The rocket took off too fast, and I am not that good of a photographer.

Here is the rocket coming back down. It is just to the right of the Light pole a little more than half way up.


Kevin just kept saying how awesome it was. We actually have two more engines, so we will launch it again another day. This was a really fun thing for the kids to do. Good job coming up with that present, Derek. It was a great family outing.

Jenna's moment of Zen:
Jenna's head band was falling out, and she had hair everywhere (a common problem with her because her hair is very fine).
Mom: Jenna let me fix your hair.
Jenna: I'll do it!
She fixed it, and then said: I look beautiful when I fix my hair.

Jared's moment of Zen:
He has been having a rough couple of weeks. I think having Derek gone really took a toll on him. He was doing really well speaking over the summer, but since we have been home has reverted to screaming, yelling, and his new bad habit, hitting. Right before Derek left for school one morning Jared was angry about something, and hit Derek. Derek put him in time-out, but had to leave right away. Therefore, I took him out of time-out after his two minutes. We had the following conversation.

Mom: Jared, why were you in time out?
Jared: I hit Daddy.
Mom: Are you allowed to hit?
Jared: No.
Mom: You have been whining, yelling and hitting a lot lately. I do not like that. Jared, do you know what I want?
Jared: Breakfast!