and friends are friends forever....

do you now have that Michael W Smith song stuck in your head?

your welcome.

we spent a day with some very good friends.  i have to say this special couple are amazing fantastical hosts and we really enjoyed spending time with their family catching up, relaxing, sliding down a giant slip and slide, eating yummy food and drinking yummy coffee drinks, the guys went golfing (took aaalllll afternoon) and the girls went shopping after dinner (honestly the fasting shopping trip to the mall i have ever been on in my life, only one store, as quick as i could get around it all and then back to their place) we also had a bonfire at night (after returning from said fastest shopping trip ever).

some of the day in pics:

ice cream break

the mom's spots for the afternoon

the gorgeous mountain view from their home
sigh, i miss this sight

so i asked my friend to take our picture while relaxing on their deck after dinner.... this is what happened.  my dear dear husband apparently lost all ability to take a normal picture.
seriously. 

Thanks guys for a wonderful day!

Vacation all I ever wanted....

Vacation, time to get away.

Vacation, meant to be spent alooonne.    

So that old Go Go's song doesn't apply to us I guess, cause our vacation was spent full of time with family and friends.  That is what made it so great though.

One of the first things we did was visit a cheese farm.  Not just any cheese farm, but the one that my family used to get cheese from growing up, before it was really an official cheese farm  Just a dutch couple from our church who made cheese on their dairy farm.  Not just any cheese though.  The BEST cheese.  It was such a treat when we had a wedge of cheese from the Appels.  Long story short, it is a special cheese farm.

their old farm sign

my "town" girls loved the farm and the cows

they even loved the fake cow

 

words

We brought home several wedges of fantastic cheese.  The favorites were the smoked Gouda, bacon cheddar, and the raw milk aged Gouda (most like the original cheese that Jack would have made.)  Mmmmmm I love cheese (as does everyone else in my family as it is looonng gone!)

KOA is A-OK

sooooo,

continuing on with Road Trip 2012. 

let me just say that i really really reaaalllllly love KOAs. and we don't camp.  (we really like the idea of camping, it sounds nice and fun and earthy and all, but the reality is:  we don't camp) and i may be just a smidge biased toward KOAs since i worked at one for my summer job through high school and college.

we stayed in Missoula at the KOA.  we rented a "deluxe cabin" (in other words, a cabin with everything included, so you can just show up with yourselves, your pj's and toothbrush and you are good to go)  it was awe. some. 

see:

our adorable cozy cabin had a full bath, two bedrooms, main room with kitchen, fire pit, picnic table, grill, cable tv, and it was super duper clean.  awe. some. ness.

we arrived early and the cabin was already available.  (the staff there were super duper nice and helpful by the way)  the girlies and i hit the pool while chad crashed (remember he is "super driver" and had driven for almost 16 hours)  a thunderstorm rolled in and we got kicked out of the pool less than a half hour after getting in.  bummer.  so we went back to our cabin

the storm hit. it hailed.  chad slept.

post storm i took the kiddos to the playground and exploring around the campground.  the eldest was trying to spot as many different license plates as she could since she didn't seem to remember to look for them while on the road.  then we went back to the cabin and chad was up looking for us.  he took three girls back to the pool (that lasted all of three minutes because of another thunderstorm) and i took our eldest to the shopping center that was located right in front of the campground for some girl shopping time.  i also did a load of laundry to wash out miss j's car seat and clothes from her puking incident.

everyone got cleaned up, chad grilled some food we had packed along from home, the tractor came by and picked the kids up for hay ride (see KOAs are so fun, i tell ya.) 

these girls absolutely loved the campground and our cute cabin.

these two especially loved their cozy bunk room. 

we crashed while it was still light out.  chad and i slept out in the main room on the pull out couch (good thing we were so exhausted that lovely bar jamming into our backs through the mattress was not felt until the morning when we both woke up a little sore, ha ha)

the next day we had a great day of traveling.  we left Missoula by 8:45am and only had to make two stops the whole day (once for lunch and another for gas).  we arrived in Lynden by 5pm. i took zero pictures this day so just imagine sunshine and smooth sailing all day, yay!!!

Grand Adventure (the sequel)

Two years ago we went on a Grand Adventure

This summer was the sequel.  We road tripped it again from the middle of the country to the west coast for a two week vacation.

Having learned a few things from the first time we made a few adjustments. 

1)  We decided to try driving through the night the first night and stop early in the afternoon the next day to rest up.  this would also make the last day of driving shorter since we would be well over half way. 

2) We moved the kids around from their usual seating arrangements and had the oldest and the youngest in the middle seats (so the oldest would not get as car sick) and the middle kiddos were in the back seat (hoping miss j's constant chattering would be a little quieter from way back there, ha ha)

3) We borrowed a different cargo topper thingy that was a little more aerodynamic and sealed properly so our stuff wouldn't get wet.

4) we took the potty chair for side of the road pit stops. 

SO the story:  (not nearly as exciting as the first time around but I am very okay with that)

We left right after the elder two kiddos Vacation Bible School program at this time:

that would be PM

We utilized the DVD player as it got dark quickly and all kiddos were sleeping by 11pm.... aahhhh quiet and peaceful.  We made great time, only having to stop for gas.  By the time the sun was starting to rise we were almost out of Wyoming.  We stopped at the rest area in Sheridan and saw three huge bucks just hanging out right by the side of the road.  We stopped again at the rest area just past Billings, Montana for breakfast. 

chocolate milk and homemade cinnamon rolls, YUMMY!

I took over the driving for a couple hours so Chad could sleep a bit.  But after only a couple hours we had to stop for gas and then Chad took the wheel again.  I am officially a wimpy driver on road trips.

the rockstar driver

 

Starting to get a little restless we stopped for lunch somewhere past Butte, Montana (i think?)  Kudos to the state of Montana for having awesome rest areas along I90.  They are always clean and park-like. 

picnic - packed ham and cheese buns and fruit from home

We were not far from our destination of Missoula and pretty excited we would be there so early when Miss J let out a scream from the back of the van.  She had swallowed her candy nearly whole and it made her gag.  Chad pulled the van off to the side of the road and I pretty much froze.  I didn't know what to give her plus she was way in the back so I couldn't reach her either, the older kids are yelling "she's gonna puke" and Chad is telling me "give her something." I then remembered there were plastic bags in the back of the van so I ran around to the back of the vehicle and lifted the hatch and as I did her seatmate turned around and said "too late, she puked."

I grabbed some bags, paper towels and baby wipes and 30 minutes later I had her and the carseat fairly cleaned up. (Side note: As I stripped her down we found the candy stuck to her belly button and she still thinks it came out of her belly, not her mouth, ha ha.) We were quite relieved that we had less than an hour to the campground we were staying at as the van had a faint smell about it by this time.  (lovely, no?) 

The rest of the drive went well and we arrived at the Missoula, Montana KOA in the early afternoon (I think at 1:30pm but I was all confused with time changes and Chad switching clocks before we hit the time change and some not, so I think that was the time-ish)

This is where I will end there for today's post.  Next up will be our stay at the campground where I took lots of pictures and then the next day where I took zero pictures. Exciting stuff I tell you!

let's pretend

shall we?  let's pretend it is still spring.

nope, just kidding.  i LOOOVVVEEE summer and am loving this summer with all it's heat (but still praying fervently for rain for the farmers). 

however in my little blog it is still spring, because i have not posted anything lately. at all. like ever.  

anyhoo, for this post i shall pretend it is still spring and give a little re-cap:

we said good-bye to "Rusty" and fully embraced being a one vehicle family again.  (Chad was soooooo thrilled that I came running out of the house with camera in hand before he left to take it to the salvage yard)

meet Marie Curie.  My eldest chose Marie to do a biography report on and one day had to dress up like her.  I had never heard of Marie Curie before, but now I know all about her.  (she's pretty cute, no?)

my adorable nephews stayed overnight so their brother could go on college visit with his parents.  we had lots of fun and enjoyed the amazing spring weather.

my school age girlies had the usual spring programs and  performances.

Grandma D came to visit.  and left again. and came back again.

miss j turned 4.

we celebrated a day early since Chad was leaving for school in Michigan the day of her birthday.

and we celebrated again when Grandma D returned.

Grandma D had flown back to Washington when we heard the news that my uncle was not doing well.  he passed away shortly after she returned.  i grew up with him and my aunt and their family as our only extended family nearby.  he will be greatly missed. 

 the girls played a lot of soccer. 

aaaanddd we celebrated the last day of school... woot woot!

so that is the very abbreviated version of spring.  there are lots more pictures i should have added.

like this one:

or this one:



oh and she learned to knit:

awe. some.

I {heart} us

Oh hello.

I have a blog.

It seems I may have forgotten about it. 

I really haven't forgotten. 

I have intended to do a "catch-up" post for the past few weeks.   Really, I have. Honest.

However, today, instead of doing a post summing up our spring, I thought I should "live in the moment" and celebrate TODAY.  That is, celebrating 15 years of marriage. 

What we have shared:

One dog Norman
Two states we called home
Three houses
Four baby girls
Five of the Narnia series books read out loud
Six speeding tickets
Seven vehicles
Eight fans for white noise in our room (okay so that is a guess but it sounds about right)
Nine road trips between Iowa and Washington
Ten long weekend getaways
Eleven months living in a retirement apartment
Twelve employers
Thirteen goats (just kidding we've never had any goats)
Fourteen school years in youth ministry
Fifteen awesome years of marriage as best friends 

Happy Anniversary to us!

Easter blessings...

it was one of "those" weeks leading up to Easter Sunday. 

hubby felt like he was being attacked.  we believe that spiritual warfare is a very real thing and this past week we felt it in a very real way.

it was a week where little things were so much harder than they should have been, or figured they would be.  Murphy's Law appeared to be a true phenomenon.  looking at the big picture, NONE of the issues we had the past week were significant.  no one we loved was seriously injured or taken from us.      

BUT, you know what?  we still celebrated Easter! PRAISE GOD that every single day we can celebrate the amazing sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus.  what a gift.  pure grace.   Satan will not win.  Death has been defeated. 

and so we take heart, even in the times where spiritual warfare feels so real. so hard.   Jesus has overcome.  and we continue on encouraged and feeling blessed.

and guess what else! 

we took our traditional Easter Sunday quick-a-minute-after-church-self-timer-family picture on our front porch:

we took 2 pictures.  BOTH are winners, what?! an Easter miracle. ha ha.  (guess it's time to update the family picture on the side bar of this blog, huh?)