Seward campout '09

It was time to head back to our favorite yearly family destination with our adventurous buddies!

Check out the ocean view right out our tent flap!

Our great campsites! Our tent is on the left and the Kroons camper on the right... can you imagine a more beautiful backdrop?

The oldest Kroon Cutie!

The girls contemplating a trip to the mall when they're 16.

Our amazing friends Kep and Rachel

After a missed campout last summer due to new baby girls for us and the Kroons, it was finally time to head back to Seward, our family's favorite place to camp! We camped there the two previous summers with our Home Group families that met for a couple years for a Bible study of sorts... but the Pepperds and Morgans have moved away, so it's just us and the Kroons left to keep up the tradition. And a FUN tradition it is!!! After two years of rain, rain, and rain we opted for June instead of August at Drew's urging. He begged for us to change our dates and try for SUN! And we got amazing sun this year... we all are sporting nice tans/sunburns now! Enjoy the tons of photos we have to share!! Thanks, Kep and Rach for such a great time together. We love to laugh with you about the complexities of camping with kiddos and wouldn't trade one crazy moment for anything!!!

Quaint downtown Seward...

Matchy Dads carrying matchy babies.



Gavin tossing a rock into the beautiful ocean. We saw a group of sea lions both days that were swimming right along the shore.



The beach through Noah's eyes.



Where Drew spent the most of his time in the playgroung playing Lava Tag!



Sweet Annika taking a blazing hot tent nap on Sunday.






Jeremy joining in on Lava Tag fun.



The Camping Kids Gang!



Me and Noah... I love this little guy!




The happy couple relaxing on the beach, and yes, Jeremy was really flying a kite!
It was super windy and perfect for kite flying.



Morgan was forever picking dandelions. She made this bracelet all by herself!



Annika and Savannah are just 2 months apart and are such cuties together! Camping is never dull with 7 kids in tow. And sleep is over-rated too. The wind was blowing SO hard in the middle of the night, I kept imagining our tent flying out into the ocean!

Our campsites were right on the ocean with a brand new park and fun skate park just out our door! We would HIGHLY recommend camping there! The Kroons were able to fit 4 bikes in their camper to keep all the kiddos super happy! We didn't do the Sealife Center this time, but that's definitely something we'll do again in the future. Can't wait for next year... and we'll be stalking those campsites again, so if you're thinking about Seward next summer, watchout!!! :)

Check out the Kroon's take on the trip + more pics!

Give Me Your Eyes

New artist Brandon Heath has a lot of cool songs, but this one has gripped me this Spring! The words echo my thoughts exactly. Take a listen and comment too! Scroll down to the bottom first and pause the music player or you'll get a crazy mix of Brandon Heath and Michael Buble.

God, please show me how to best love humanity.

Brandon Heath - Give Me Your Eyes from Brandon Heath on Vimeo.

How big is baby?

I love these two pictures! I was downloading some pics from my Dad's camera recently and came across these! They were taken just before Easter. Annika even has a place on the growth wall in Dad and Marla Kay's pantry... She had grown a bunch since the last time! As I type, my sweetie is "knee walking" across the family room. She now refuses to walk, and falls boneless when I stand her up to take some steps. She was getting really good... and now she prefers her faster knee version. It's hilarious... crawling without her hands. So if you see a 5 year old walking on her knees someday in the future, she's probably mine. :)

tRiAtHlOn

Well, the Valley Rookies survived the Gold Nugget Triathlon!

I am very excited to say that I completed (without feeling like I was dying) my first triathlon! It was also my first 5k run ever too... then just tag on a 9 mi. bike and a 300 yd. swim on the front and you've got yourself a FUN race! I honestly had so much fun training, getting ready, and racing with these women. We're all game and ready to try again next year with faster times!

Here we are the night before setting up our bikes and gear for the race. We had to leave it all out the night before and weren't able to touch it until we ran out of the pool soaking wet ready to jump on our bikes the next day.

We actually had 13 women on our team... but we didn't all set-up at the same time that day.
I was nervous even then!!!

Lined up on the pool deck waiting for our turn to take the plunge. Don't we look so tough with our numbers on our arms? :)

Thanks Dad, for all the great action shots! (and you too, Kep)

Ready to ride! Drew was trying to catch up to me for a high five. The bike portion was really fun and would have been my favorite minus my brake slipping off and me running into the drink lady at the 1/2 way point and me being lame-o at shifting bike gears... I just learned a couple weeks ago and I still have a lot to learn. I can't wait to get better at that part.

These ol' legs were a tad wobbly off the bike heading into the run. Ooh, that was tough!

But it got better after the first mile. Thank goodness!

WE MADE IT!

What a great day. Don't you like our orange matchy-matchy orange shirts courtesy of Old Navy? It was so cool to be able to so easily recognize our teammates on the course. The bike and the run both had a turn around point, so I was able to see all of my team members during each event. I love that Lynnetta, our triathlon guru, was so encouraging and persistent that we all could do it a couple months ago. I thought it was way too much for me, but that I had to start somewhere after all this work I've done all winter... and she was right. I was commenting to Jeremy afterwards, about how there was no way I could have done this a year ago being 3 months post-partum and that unless I had worked my booty off (literally) all winter I still couldn't have done it. It has really made it all worth it and such a tangible way for me to see progress and time well spent even when it was hard. So goodbye 22 pounds... I don't miss even one ounce of you.

Writer Mama

I came across this book last weekend at Barnes & Noble and it is by far the best book on getting started in the writing business I've come across this year. And it's written just for me! Their tagline is: "How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids" Perfect.

Writer Mama by Christina Katz

I HIGHLY recommend it if you're interested in writing and you're a mama.

Summer is a beautiful thing

A few nights recently, we've been enjoying frozen berries from last summer's harvest in smoothies! Annika was enjoying it and kept stealing my straw...

We have an ant hill in the middle of our driveway and the kiddos were checking it out.

ba ba time

my big sweetie girl

Wow, Space Junk???

This computer generated image, supplied by NASA, shows objects that are currently being tracked in Earth's orbit. Approximately 95% of the objects in this illustration are orbital debris, i.e., not functional satellites. The dots represent each item. The orbital debris dots are scaled according to the image size of the graphic to optimize their visibility and are not scaled to Earth. This image provides a good visualization of where the greatest orbital debris populations exist. The space shuttle Atlantis is flying at about 350 miles above Earth, an area littered with more dangerous space junk than the lower orbits where shuttles normally park at the international space station. (copied and pasted from Yahoo! news)

Wow, I guess I'd never really given space junk much though... but YEAH, were have all those old satellites, rocket debris, etc. gone?? Well, there ya have it. Oh yes, and did I mention this "junk" is flying at 20,000 mph?

April Fool's treat

What can I say? I'm way behind in posting this... this was our attempt at April Fool's this year. At least it ended in a real yummy surprise!!! Gotta love crumpled-up-napkin-ice cream.

Triathlon Mamas

In 6 days, this gang of women, plus 1,400 more will be competing in an all women's triathlon!!! We are on a team of 14 gals most of whom I'm friends with (some I have yet to meet!) and have been working hard to get ready for the big day!

The ring leader of this whole thing is Lynnetta... (the tall one of us in all black)

she started convincing some of us this winter at MOPS that we could do it, and should do it with her! She's amazing, by the way... she'll love me for this: She finished 69th out of 1,400 last year! And it was her first one. She rocks. SO here we are testing out the bike course a week ago.

It's a 300 yd. swim, 9 mile bike, and 3 mile run! I know I can make it, but I really want to feel my best doing it... so here goes this Mom of 4 along with some good buddies making memories and maybe a new tradition! We start in the pool as a team, so we'll mostly be racing together, except for Lightning Lynnetta.. she'll be smokin' us.

But she'll boost our team score, so GO GO GO! :)

And, ahem... please pray for us next Sunday!

At the 1/2 way point in the bike portion... testing it out.

You'll notice one team member on the far right that just doesn't belong! That's our Senior Pastor Larry! He got the best of us in a sermon a couple weeks ago... and we paid him back by making him come on the trial run with us! He's a great cyclist and coached us along the way. You're awesome, Larry and a good sport!

Drew's Baptism

A week or two before Easter, Drew decided he'd like to be baptized! He said he was ready for the world to know he was a Christian. Catch the video below of Drewy taking the plunge! We are so proud to be your parents, son.

As a side note... throughout the video the little voices you hear are Gavin and Morgan desperately wanting me to pick them up so they could see Drew actually go under the water. "I need to, I need to, I need to..." And I love how at the end they were standing there so proudly waiting to welcome their brother back. Enjoy!

Summer days are comin'

Since I have some major blog catch-up work to do, I thought I'd start with a picture from this week! We spent a morning at our neighborhood park last week, and the swing was a hit with Annika! She laughed big belly laughs the whole time. This shot was taken after I stopped the swing so I could get a decent non-moving one! We had a beautiful week, with more sun on it's way!!!


For blog catch-up pic #1, I chose this one that my nephew Zach took while Annika and I were in Tennessee a few weeks ago. I love it because it captures here still walking with help. She is getting really close to stepping out on her own for good. She took a record 11 steps today!!! GO Annie-Bananie!

A few weeks back, I posted a quick picture of Morgan and I at our first Mother Daughter Tea, and here's more from that morning we spent together. Above, we were competing a a Look-a-like contest! We made it to the final round. :)

Morgan and her best buddy Megan!

The two cuties scoping out the room together. They are inseparable. They are 3 weeks apart in age and her mommy Allison and I played together as little girls. It's amazing how God allows our lives to come full circle like that. I would have never imagined.