Pennsylvania Trip 2011 Days 1-4

I decided last minute to move our travel dates up one day because as I started packing, I realized that I just wanted to go ahead and get it all together and leave.

The kids in our new van all ready to go

Our favorite way to start an early road trip

The sun was bright red in the sky

So, we got up at 5:30am on Friday, July 21st and left the house around 6:15. We, of course, had to stop for our travel breakfast at Chick-fil-a before we could officially get going. I had expected that Nora might fall asleep in the car as we rode out, but she was too excited...at least for the first little while. After a whole of nearly 13 hours in the car, Nora napping only 40 minutes in total, and a long exhausting delay in stand still traffic, we made it to our destination. We were a bit harried after all the crying, toddler requests, and lack of sleep, but so happy to have made it all in one piece. We arrived at my Grandma's house for a late supper and then drove to "the camp" where we were staying. It was a late night for the kids once we finally settled and Nora was up several times in the night.

 This is how Nora spent just 40 minutes of the car ride

Sitting in D.C traffic

The first day at the camp was spent quite leisurely. We drove into town for some frozen yogurt and a quick trip to Target. The afternoon was spent swimming and visiting with my extended family (we have a yearly family reunion at my aunt and uncle's camp). We spent the evening playing games and had another restless night of sleeping.

 Eating frozen yogurt: our favorite!

 Little Caspian

 Nora's snack box

First time playing the piano

Sunday morning we had a time of worship and sharing outside in the camp gazebo, followed by a potluck lunch and an afternoon of swimming. There was the annual ice cream making, settlers of catan playing, and general enjoyment of catching up with cousins and meeting new babies.

 Seth leading us in worship

 Reading together during the sharing time

 My aunt and uncle playing for us

 Nathan (my brother) and Xan

Caspian

 Aunt Eileen and little Judah

 Aidan and Steph (sister)

 Mom and Caspian

Grandma and Nora

Newest additions to the family

Me and my sis

Monday morning we loaded up and drove a few hours in torrential downpour to a small town right outside of Mifflinburg, PA to spend the week with just my family. It was only about 2.5 hours away, but seemed to take forever because Nora cried the majority of the drive. After arriving and settling in, we drove into town to get some food for the week, leaving the kids behind with the men. We enjoyed a yummy dinner together, a short time of family worship, and played Settlers of Catan after the kids went to bed.

 Playing checkers at the big cabin

 Cousins reading together

Trying corn on the cob for the first time

 Family worship time

Dad and Nora-sweetness

A fast pace

We are running full speed ahead over here and I have had little time for blogging or much else (such as cleaning my apartment). :)

The Lord has been good to us. We are continually learning to rely on Him to work out the details of our lives in His timing. We feel very blessed here. It has been a HUGE transition moving to South Carolina, but we have really felt like God has heard our prayers and provided friendships, a church, a place to live, etc..

We have been through a very testing trial with our house situation and have really struggled financially with the impact of having our house on the market for a full year. Wow! It is so hard to believe. God has been gracious to us and we are currently under contract to sell. Albeit, at a significant loss, but we are grateful again to the Lord. Because we need a significant chunk of money to bring to closing, we have decided to enjoy having just one car for now. We have truly felt that it has been an obstacle at times, but we are learning to not expect any more than that and just thank God for the transportation that He has provided to us at this time and for the ability for Seth to carpool.

That being said, we are, as I write this, working to sell our car and purchase a bigger vehicle to allow a little more freedom and comfort. We have again been blessed with a buyer for our car and a good vehicle to buy. We will be negotiating to buy a vehicle today and may complete the transaction by this evening if all goes well. We feel blessed to be given the opportunity to have a bigger vehicle than our current one before our trip to PA (in 4 days).

We are traveling to PA in 4 days to visit family and then will be back home in time to sign our new lease on our rental house and move in just 6 days after we return from our trip.

Can you tell that I have been busy?

Aidan went to VBS last week and had a great time. I had signed him up for one previously that ended up being pretty far of a drive, and Seth lost his carpool that same week, so Aidan only went 2 days. This time, he went for the full week and had a blast! He has asked to go to another bible school since. Aidan has also been doing the summer reading program at our local library. He gets rewards for a certain amount of hours he is read to. This was something he completely initiated himself and he has been very excited about the prospect of earning a "medal" at the end. He asks us to read to him to help him earn his prizes and has enjoyed putting stickers in his little chart when he accomplishes each segment. We are very proud of him.

Aidan made this crown at VBS

I have started swimming at our local rec center to help with some back problems I was experiencing. It has helped a lot and has been great exercise. Seth and I have talked about running a 5K and then maybe training for a triathlon in the future.

Well, that pretty much sums up what has been going on with us. We are tired from lots of late nights making decisions and running numbers and figuring out what the future is going to look like. It has been very exhausting, but exciting at the same time.

Today we spent some time blowing bubbles and drawing with chalk outside because the pool at our apartment complex has been closed the last 2 days. It was nice to be out in the shade on such a hot day.

Let me count the ways I love you...

Strawberry rhubarb pie for my loving husband of 4.5 years. Because without him, this journey would seem very lonely and sad.

I love you more today than ever before.

10 months

Nora,

I seriously cannot imagine life without your little sweet personality. We are more complete with you in our family and ohmygoodness you are so cute!

You are becoming such a little person. You are mimicking noises we make, waving, clapping, raising your hands, scrunching your nose, yelling, dancing, giggling, squealing, and screaming all the time. You are getting to be quite loud when we are home, but you are a little quiet personality when around strangers. You makes us laugh a lot and we just can't get over your happy easygoing way. You are really good with other people (always happy in the church nursery), but you are definitely apprehensive about anyone else besides Mommy and Daddy. You will lean your head against us or reach for us when you are unsure or shy, but you don't usually cry or act afraid (just mostly confused).

You are still not consistently sleeping through the night, but I love you just the same. You do take two naps and then go to bed anywhere between 8-8:30pm. When it comes to napping, sometimes you will just hang out in your bed talking, trying to open the dresser drawers and pull things into your bed, or just yelling. This can go on for over and hour with no actual sleep taking place. I usually have to nurse you before I lay you down because it helps to calm you down and you are more likely to fall asleep quicker once in bed. I would like to stop doing this, but at the same time, I really love the sweet cuddle time with you. We rock and sing and you lay still against me and it is all very sweet. You love your little flannel receiving blankets still and that has become your little comfort in bed. The crazy thing about you and sleep is that you can go forever without it and act like it is really no big deal. For instance, we kept you out till 11pm for fireworks on July 4th and you didn't even act one bit fazed. You were having a ball. Granted, you did wake up every few hours in the night after that, but whose to blame you. You have no definitive sleep schedule, but if you don't get both your naps in you will think that you are napping at bedtime and want to wake up and play around 10 pm. Seriously. You are just crazy.

You love to play! You keep yourself so contented and entertained with toys and it is a blast watching you play and enjoy yourself. You will sit and play or crawl off somewhere (usually Aidan's room) and play happily and quietly as long as no one is interrupting you or bothering you (Aidan). You really would rather be left alone when playing which has become really evident lately with all the screaming that goes on when Aidan bothers you. You love to play with him on your terms and about once a day I can count on some huge laugh fest between the two of you, but that's about it. You still really love dolls and stuffed animals a lot. And you also love to put things in your mouth and carry them around when crawling (so hilarious).

You are an expert little mover. You are becoming more and more steady with standing and you are cruising along things all the time. You are an expert crawler and you like to crawl with your feet on the ground and your little booty in the air. You are into pushing things around lately and we caught you pushing a little suitcase along the floor and walking behind it the other day. You showed absolutely no interest in walking up until just recently. You love to hold our hands and walk all around the apartment. You don't usually have a specific destination, you  just want to walk around.

You love to eat....still. You are nursing anywhere from 5-7 times a day. You are very attached to me in that way. But, you are also an excellent eater. You have started eating more table food and are pretty adamant about eating when we are, or eating what we have. You like grilled chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, broccoli, green beans, sloppy joes, frozen yogurt, peas, bananas, oatmeal, apple sauce, strawberries, tortillas, lentils, and more. You never pass up the opportunity to eat something and are always willing to try something new. And, I just noticed today that you cut your 7th tooth. I honestly didn't even know you were working on it, but I touched its sharp point today and was surprised. I can't believe how many teeth you already have.

I love you so much and am so blessed by your sweet presence in my life. I seriously don't want you to grow up and not be my baby anymore, but I am also very excited to see who you are going to become and get to know you more as you continue to develop. God has truly blessed me to be your mother.

I love you dearly,

Mama

Cow Appreciation Day: Chick-fil-a

So we are big fans of Chick-fil-a in this house. Favorite place to eat as a family right now. We are also fans of anything free, especially food. Thus the reason for dressing like cows and getting free meals out of it. Perfecto!

Here we are last year

And now this year, with our newest little calf

We had a blast together as a family and Aidan especially loved being a cow...he was "mooing" all night.

Because He Really Cares

I was kinda down yesterday morning. Just feeling sad because my very dear friend, and really first friend here in SC moved to Michigan on Friday. She was such a blessing to my life during these first 8 months here. Wow. I was so grateful that the Lord blessed me with such a wonderful friendship. And while I know that this friendship is not over, I just won't have the luxury of last minute play dates and Starbucks coffee dates with her anymore.


I was feeling kinda bummed too, because we wanted to go to the lake and watch fireworks with the kids and my first thought was to call my friends. So, after going through the list of other acquaintances, we decided to go alone. We drove out to a state park we hadn't been to before and took a nice stroll before settling in on our blanket and chairs. The kids were doing great, even after bedtime quickly came and past by us. Nora started going nuts about this puppy she could see, which resulted in us meeting a nice family that just moved here from San Diego. There was an instant ease to the conversation and they joined us to watch the fireworks. Their sweet little boy offered encouragement to Aidan as the first booms resulted in cries of "I want to go home!" And when all was said and done, we stood there talking together for awhile. We arrived home at 11pm. New friends, numbers exchanged, and a hope in our hearts of future relationship.

It amazes me sometimes that I so quickly become discouraged when change threatens my security. Security in friendship is important to me. And without having family near by, this has been even more evident in my life. And you know, He cares about this. I don't have to worry about finding those friends because He knows my needs, and He doesn't want me to feel lonely. What a wonderful assurance we have in the greatest Friend we could ask for, a Friend who knows us so intimately and wants to meet the deepest desires of our hearts.

I am blessed because He cares.