Walking in a Winter Wonderland...

Last night some friendly neighbors talked us into a little night time walk in the snow. It was cold but also beautiful and quiet and perfect. They had a little sled for their granddaughter so we bundled Kai up in it and he went for a ride. It was a fun memory and way worth the cold noses!

Relaxing...

We arrived in Ellensburg Friday and have been enjoying our time relaxing and hanging out. It was a long drive here with much snow, chaining up and driving slow, but we are so very happy to be here. There has been a terrible amount of snow in McMinnville and Portland since we left so I am glad we left early!

Kai is in heaven here at Gramma & Pa's with tons of room to run and play and rooms to hide in. He is especially happy hanging with his pal, Tess, the most patient dog in the world. I am typically not big on animals, but this dog I love. Kai is either chasing after her, taking her ball or riding her most of the time and she deals with it all with a little wag of the tail. Here are some pictures of Kai enjoying his time so far:

Hanging with Tess
Licking Gramma's frosting bowl

Enjoying a little reading by the fire

Riding the rocking horse

Tyson and I have been enjoying our time too. It is so relaxing here and it is nice not to have a zillion things I should be doing...well, there still are a zillion things I should be doing but they are at home so I can't do them...and it feels great. I even took a nap yesterday...yay! Today I am working on a cape for Kai...I have seen the idea a couple places and thought it would be a great gift for Kai that he could take it to Peru since it will fold up small. One of the places I saw the idea was from my friend, Jenna, she has beautiful baby items including blankets and tata tents...check out My Sugar Nut. All that to say I am currently trying to make his cape...it is nice to have some time to do it. From the thread on my sewing machine I can see that last Christmas

was the last time I have sewn and it was Kai's baby blanket. Wow, time flies!

Our Holiday Ho ho ho down

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

OMSI Deal

We have been wanting to take Kai to OMSI again. Last time we took him was January and he loved it but was just barely walking and couldn't do very much. See here to see how little he was then. We decided to head up there today and were so excited when we got there and found they were having their $2 days...yay for happening to go on a deal day! It was packed but still so fun. Kai had a great time again, there is so much for kids even at his age. His favorite was anything to do with putting balls in tubes or anything involving balls at all:) I can't say who had a better time, Tyson or Kai..but I do know that I loved watching them together. Tyson is so great at teaching Kai and showing him new things, the kind of dad that gets right in there and participates with his son and I love it.
Wait...Kai's favorite was probably a toss up between balls and the water troughs. We let him play and splash (assuming he wasn't splashing other kids) and he had to be torn away from them. Thankfully Tyson reminded me to bring a change of clothes so he wasn't wet all afternoon...

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with my family in California. Love you family and I am thankful for our time together... My camera had a dead battery but my sis documented for us:)

Kai with his Uncle Cecil

Kisses for Grandma

My with my bro & sis

Kai with his cousin Jaylee

Family pic

This is the view from my parents house...I always forget what a great view of Mt. Shasta they have.

This last Sunday Tyson & I headed to Idaho for a training for Peru with our friends Daniel & Abby. We had three days of training...cross cultural training and a seminar on raising supporters for our ministry. It was a full three days with my mind desperately trying to take everything in. I don't know if I left feeling more prepared or just more aware of how difficult it will be. Well, I don't know that I will process it all right here but all in all it was a great few days. On our way over to Idaho we met up with Tyson's parents and they took Kai home with them for three days so we could focus on our training. A huge blessing to us on many levels but especially knowing he was getting some quality time with Gramma & Pa. Here are a few pictures of him having a grand old time in the hot tub with Pa. I think he must have been getting some swimming lessons because he came home laying on his back in the tub with water up to his cheeks with no hesitation and kicking his legs the correct way. Way to go Pa!

Uncle Kent & Aunt Peggy

This weekend we were so blessed when Tyson's uncle & aunt decided to come down from Washington for a little visit. We love seeing them even though it doesn't happen nearly enough. We had not seen them since last Christmas so it was so great to catch up. They were able to check out the museum with Tyson and Kai and I joined them for a little while and then enjoyed catching up over dinner. Kent & Peggy are the kind of people you find yourself immediately relaxed around and are really just a joy. Thank you Uncle Kent & Aunt Peggy for making the trip down...we hope to see you again soon:)

Pumpkin Carving

Kai had lots of fun carving his pumpkin last night. He LOVED playing with the gooey insides of the pumpkin...he was entertained for quite a while. The boys were a little indecisive about what to carve but in the end agreed on the Super Kai logo...well done Daddy:)

Daddy & His Boy

Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we went to the pumpkin patch with some friends. It was perfect for kids...animals, corn maze, hay pyramid to climb on, hayride to the patch, and lots and lots of pumpkins. Here are a few of the zillion pictures I took...

Camping!

We went camping last weekend as a family and had a ton of fun together. We packed up Saturday morning and went over to Cape Lookout on the coast. After careful review of all the open campsites we decided on what Tyson claimed to be "the best campsite in the whole place". I think he may have been right...well, at least it was the best one for us. It had grass and a hedge of bushes around it so that Kai was pretty well contained (which is always a plus!). We set up camp and then headed over to the beach. We hung out there all afternoon and were blessed with yet another beautiful day on the Pacific Northwest coast. We had lots of fun playing in the water and digging in the sand--and do I mean digging. Tyson decided we should dig a hole to China so we could see The Cube. I agreed that it was a grand idea and Kai joined us because, well, it involved digging in the sand. Although we did not make it to China or The Cube, we did dig a good size whole that we then watched fill up with water...oh the glorious entertainment! Here are a few pics of our fun on the beach:

After a while we headed back to camp to make dinner which was delicious...but isn't all food when you are camping? We took a walk around the campground to try to get the remainder of the energy out of Kai. And what do you know it worked. When it was time for bed we bundled Kai up, gave him kisses, put him in the sleeping bag, zipped up the tent and --- tada! not a sound, not a movement. The crazy kid went right to sleep. I literally pictured having to zip up the tent and let him run around like a wild animal in there until he fell asleep...but no, not a peep. Too good to be true right? Right.

We went to bed a little while later and snuggled into the tent with Kai (we had zipped our bags together). After getting hit in the face by Kai 4 times in the first two minutes I finally found a comfortable position. Just as I was about to doze off...or perhaps I had for 5 minutes or so I am awakened by crying from our boy. We reassure him he is okay but he is in that asleep crying mode and eventually I pick him up and rock him and he is okay...until I put him down again. At that point Ty suggests he is too warm. "How can he be too warm...we are camping", is what I was thinking in my head. But eventually I decided to take off his super thick sleeper and extra socks and that does the trick. It was a classic case of overdressing--guilty as charged!

This might be the end of my story but no. Kai is now happy as a clam but also quite awake having gotten just enough sleep to feel refreshed. He did lay still but he began to go through his entire vocabulary:

"beesh" (beach)
"wawa" (water)
"bee" (any type of bug he sees)
"babble babble babble" (I have no idea)
"bu duc" (big truck...said in a low "manly" voice)
"mama"
"dada"
"woo, woo" (fire siren noise...the worst and loudest!)
(and plenty of others I can't remember because--I was trying to sleep)
Me: "Kai you have to go to sleep...shh"
Kai: "shh" (over and over and over again until we would look at him...then a laugh)


It went on like this for what seemed like hours but it was really probably only an hour or so until he finally fell back asleep. I was then unable to sleep because it started to rain and my baby is stripped down to his diap, but he seemed fine and I was warm so he was probably okay too. Then I kept waking up from either a hit in the face or because he had creeped up out of the bag, and again, diap only...so I would pull him back down. We woke up bright and early to Kai trying to be quiet because he sees us sleeping...so in his not so quiet voice we hear "shh, shh", until he got our attention--clever kid:)

It was a long night but oh so funny and way worth it for the memories! However, we did pass on the hike we were going to go on and headed home for some actual rest. It was a fun weekend hanging together as a family celebrating our first official "Daddy doesn't work Saturdays anymore" Saturday!

Here are a few pics from around camp:


Thanks to my boys for the fun memories!

Beach

We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at the beach this Sunday as a family. I can't remember the last time I was on the beach for so long. Usually it is so cold and windy I don't want to be out very long. This time it was perfect weather and we enjoyed splashing in the waves, playing in the sand and sitting on the blanket in the sunshine watching Kai run around and have a ball. His word of the day was "beach".