Our Stay-cation

Several months ago Thomas and I had an idea. Wouldn't it be fun to go stay with his grandmother (who we call Mamena) for a night as if we were going on vacation to her house? Since she lives in town, we usually just see her for a few hours at a time. So a few weeks ago we did! We packed up and had a slumber party at Mamena's house! On Saturday morning we decided to take it a step further and take her with us to the zoo. She hadn't been in over 15 years. She can walk, but the zoo would be a bit much, so we took the wheelchair and thankfully didn't have any catastrophes resulting in her meeting the pavement. What a fun time we had!

Below is Cole on the carousel (you get to do a lot of fun things when Mamena comes along) before it started. A little worried, a little excited.

Here's Mamena and Tyson watching Cole on the carousel.

And here's Cole, enduring the carousel, hating every moment of it once it started.

Here's one happy great-grandma. I think she may love my kids more than I do...what a blessing to have her in our lives and have her in town to do fun things like this with. I pray that God gives us many more years with her!

Summer Fun for $1

Momm would like you to be thinking, "Oh, what a creative mother!" Unfortunately, this activity lasted all of 30 seconds. But she should still get some points for it I think. She tried...it was a dud, but she tried :).

Mommy has recently picked up her love of garage saling and we have lucked out. She found this sprinkler mat for $1 at one (normally she would've bargained them down, but it was for a mission trip and she felt bad).

It was a big hit!

I don't like "uncontrolled water", so this is perfect for me. I can see what's going to shoot where at all times. Tyson ended up with a lot of ant bites from this, but he was having so much fun he didn't cry.

Washington State - the land of beautiful weather

In August we went to a big family reunion in Washington State. My Grandma Sharon was one of 8 kids so there are a lot of kids, grandkids and great-grandkids. Almost 60 of us all together to be exact. But the last time they got together was 10 years ago for my great-grandparent's 50th anniversary. So this year they all planned to get together for their 60th anniversary, but my great-grandpa Wagenaar went to be with Jesus just a few weeks before the celebration. We decided to still get together and celebrate his legacy (remember, there's almost 60 of us!) and the wonderful family God has given us. So we took Tyson on his first plane ride and flew to Lynden, WA for 10 days.

Mommy's Aunt Lu is a hospitality genius. Between her house and 3 campers, she housed 26 of us, everyone who came in from out of town, at the same location! And FED ALL THOSE PEOPLE meal after meal for 10 days! What a wonderful lady! We spent a lot of time in their backyard enjoying the 70-degree weather. It only rained one night the whole time we were there. It was sunny and beautiful!

We even got to see Uncle Daniel!


And we played at a lot of different parks. With that many kids, you need some activities, so we hit up every park in town.



Here we are, only 3 or 4 people are missing from this picture. My great-grandma Wagenaar is sitting in the middle, then her 6 children (Grandma Sharon and great-Aunt Glenice are with Jesus already), their children, and their grandkids. What a great testament to God's goodness to 4 generations!

What we saw in the land of mountains

Mommy and Daddy. Mommy came to this spot 11 years ago with Grandma Sharon on their 7-week adventure to far-flung places. It's absolutely gorgeous.

Snow. Hmmm. Everyone's really excited about this....

I think this is more my cup of tea.

Oh my. How did we get HERE after those beautiful mountains? Yikes. I've never seen a cow from this angle before.

This look says, "Is it safe to turn my back on these gargantuan beasts? I feel like a nice target with my bright red shirt on."

This is a little more like it. Cows behind a fence, me out of firing range.

Happy 1st Birthday Tyson!!

The birthday boy - in great spirits the whole time!

Yes, I decorated it myself :)

Cole, after eating as much hotdog with ketchup as we would give him, is ready for some cake

With the scary look on Mama's face, no wonder he's looking at her instead of the cake.

Cake time!

Hmmm...what's this cake business? Never had any before...

Feels intersting...

Please, Mom, this is a little embarrasing being recorded shoving this sugary goodness in my mouth.

Who cares!! Yeeehawww!!! Cake on my face, cake in my hair, cake in my ears, and a few bites actually made it in my mouth!

Oops...stray piece of corn left over from dinner. It was good before I had the cake. Now that I had the cake, the corn is not so good...rejected.

Time for presents!

The Dent Men - Cole was the one who soiled his shirt with dinner and cake...we don't normally wear snowman shirts in August - make no mistake, it's hot here :)

All 4 of us

This play phone from Mimi has been a big hit

The older kids were happy to help unwrap presents, but Tyson got a little of the action too.

Homemade T-Ball

Cole has loved baseball - bats, balls, gloves, the whole bit - for awhile now. A few days ago we went to a friends' house to play and they had a little t-ball stand, bat, and ball that Cole loved. When we got home he set up his lincoln-log box, balanced his ball on top of it, and said, "Momma, look at this!" Clever little fellow :).

Winding up

Swing and a miss!

Contact!

We have to work on one of the fundamentals of the game..."Keep your eye on the ball"...notice his eyes are closed in both pictures where he actually hits the ball. Baby steps...

Let me outta here!

Tyson likes to watch the neighbor boys go down the zipline that runs through our back yard. I try to tell him he better stop eating so much or by the time he's old enough to ride it he'll exceed the weight limit. Those thighs aren't getting any smaller...

He just smiles and giggles. What a little chump.

Fashion Tips with Cole

If you don't like what your mother dressed you in, cover it up. I recomment carrying around large armloads of animals to hide embarrassing shirts.

If you want to slouch your pants but your Mama won't let you, try this trick. Slouch one pair of your little brother's pants, AND wear a regular pair that covers your hind end. Everyone's happy!

It does make playing a bit harder, but you gotta sacrifice for fashion.