Announcing...

highlights from June

 We arrived in Washington mid-June. The last week of June we joined my family at the Cannon Beach Conference Center for an awesome time! Really good speaker, people to watch the kiddos, fun with family, and yummy Tillamook ice cream from the Coach House--what could be better??!

haystack rock

Thea, exploring the beach with Grandma

Wading in the COLD Oregon Coast water in June!

Oooo! water! one of Thea's favorite things

wave jumping with the cousins

spinning!

running!

say cheese!

Thea loves to smile for the camera

On Thursday of the conference they usually have a little carnival for the kids. It was rainy outside, so it was moved inside to the gym. Thad and Thea had a fun time exploring the booths. Thea, once again, loved the bounce house--but my pictures all came out blurry! Thad got to try this blow up obstacle course thing. He had a really fun time going through it, even though he was a bit smaller than was ideal .

starting off on the obstacle course

through the hole

up the climbing part...a bit of help required for one so small!

wahoo! down the slide!

Thad was excited to try out fishing--you know the drill at these kind of things: throw your line over the cardboard wall, and the person behind attaches something to it. When Thad pulled out his "fish" he actually threw it back at first, being so surprised that it wasn't really a fish!

One of Thad's first fishing experiences...

Look--you caught something

This is a funny kind of fish!

Fishing

We interrupt the highlights to bring you something rather current!

Jamie really enjoys fishing and so that’s something that he has been glad to be able to share with Thad now. We gave Thad a little kids fishing pole for his birthday and he has been able to go out fishing with Jamie 3-4 times now. The first time they went to a couple of fishing spots a few minutes’ drive away. Thad was able to catch two fish on his first fishing expedition!

The proud fisherman--the two Thad caught are on the left

Then Jamie took Thad down to the little stream that runs right under the driveway of the house we are staying in, and Thad caught another fish or two—don’t think I got pictures of that one somehow. But the third trip Jamie’s mom came to watch and she was able to corral Thea while I took some video clips and pictures. (Once again at the little stream that runs under our driveway.)

This is the fish Thad caught (on the fishing expedition show in the photos below)

Thea and Grandma
(you can see the house we're staying in in the background)

The fishermen at work

Thea is excited to try fishing too!

The REALLY funny part is how excited Thea is to take her turn at fishing. She is only 20 months old—but sure seems to catch on to things quickly! She told Jamie after the first time Thad went fishing: “fishing [with] Daddy” like she really wants to go. And the last time they went without her she stood at the door and cried and cried. Yesterday Jamie went fishing with his brother, and then was talking later about the good fishing hole they’d found and that it would probably be a good spot that he could even take Thea. Well even though she was playing in the other room, she stopped what she was doing right away and ran into the room where he was talking, saying, “fishing Daddy!” Jamie had to tell her that they wouldn’t go today, but maybe another time. Tonight we ate the fish he had caught and she must’ve eaten at least 2 whole fish (about 9” long), just kept eating and asking for more. These were some nice brook trout that have the pink-y color of salmon. They’re a pretty good fish. She seems to be a pretty fish-y girl!

catching up: May part 2

Since we were planning to leave 2 days after Thad’s birthday in June, we decided to have his party a couple weeks early. I made a cake with a road on it at Thad’s request (made to represent the road to aviation with a bridge and the ‘hanger’ with airplanes at the end). Our friends graciously hosted the party because they had a bounce house that Thad and Thea enjoy playing in.

Me with the cake--I looked at a bunch of ideas on the internet to figure out what to do: green colored grated coconut for the grass, blue frosting for the water, oreo cookie crumbs for the road, Bush biscuit (like animal crackers) crumbs for the dirt at aviation. We had found these little airplane candle holders at a store, and Jamie painstakingly covered an orange van with white masking tape to make it look like aviation's P2-bus which runs between our centre and aviation.

Top view

See the bridge over the river...there really is a bridge over the river to drive to aviation

Thea LOVED the bounce house! A combination of two of her favorite things: jumping and balls!

Thad loves everything with wheels, so enjoyed playing with the big trucks!

Eatin' cake

enjoying the afternoon

fun in a hoammock!

opening gifts

more fun in the bounce house

playing with the cake--you gotta try out the road!

happy girl!

food & friends! what could be better?!

catching up: May part 1

In May, some of our friends threw us a surprise baby shower. We had fun eating yummy food, playing games, and just chatting together!

catching up: April highlights

Jamie took a few photos on his way to Vanimo (in the NE):

These are some interesting flowers Jamie brought home one day. The outside was really hard, and then these little tiny flowers sprouted out of the little ridges:

We made a paper chain to count down the days until we left PNG for the USA--seemed really long to begin with!

Enjoying some Peeps that mom sent us in a package--Thad and Thea thought they were really funny the way they were colored and fluffy!