Our First Camper Trip

We scheduled a close-to-home, one night stay at a nearby state park for our first overnight in the camper. We are learning lots of things like propane management, condensation management, and storage management and it seemed like playing it safe was a good idea. We had so much fun! We even took the bikes with us (see photo) which meant we could go on a family bike ride… which I love to do.

When we arrived, it was getting dark and toward dinner time. JT and Haley sat down to play cards.

I started cooking! I have to say, my work triangle is small and efficient. I made three meals in my little kitchen and it was all so easy. I had plenty of space for what I was doing and had everything I needed. It was really fun!

Then we piled in bed for an after dinner movie complete with popcorn.

The kids were so excited to try out their “bunk beds.” JT sleeps in the converted dining area and Haley’s bunk folds down from up above.

The next morning, the rain let up long enough for us to do a long beach walk. I loved our private camp site right on the water.

Skipping rocks…

Family photo on the beach, thank you GorillaPod!

The kids were glad they brought their Bogs boots, which never ever leak. They waded out in the shallow water as far as they could go without soaking their socks with overrun.

There are two rivers that flow to the salt water in this park, so we explored all around.

Haley took this photo of us (on request), and I lovvvvve it.

Then I took this one of my camper man. 🙂

JT wanted his taken in front of the bridge…

And then Haley joined in too. How cute are they?

We ate lunch at the park and then packed up to come home. It was kind of a lot of work for a 20-hour trip, but part of the work involved was cleaning the camper for the first time (Lysol, everywhere) and getting organized since it was our first trip.

All in all, it was a big success. We are super thankful to have this luxury item to create family memories we’ll hold for years to come. We already have five more trips planned and I’m sure we’ll have more. Hooray!

Haley’s Haircut

Haley has been asking to cut her hair for well over six months… maybe a year. She thinks it would be easier to brush out, style, and it won’t get in the way at gymnastics (critical). Even in a ponytail, sometimes her hands land on the ponytail and that’s not good. So we talked about it over the weekend, Jim gave his approval, and I cut NINE AND A HALF INCHES off her hair Monday night. Gah!

Then she took a selfie to send to Grandma Keene, since we knew we wouldn’t see her anytime soon.

Then I took some more photos as she worked on her piano theory book and hung out with me in the kitchen. She was not happy with this photo shoot but I managed to get some smiles. 🙂

We did her hair for school the last two days and oh my, it is pretty adorable. I’ll have to get a couple of photos when she’s in the mood!

Family Ski Day

I’ve been waiting ohsopatiently for my knee to be ready to get back to snow skiing, and the rest of the family has gone on Saturdays without me since Thanksgiving. January 20th was the day! We got a little later start than planned but the relaxed pace is worth it.

We stuck together in the morning, and then after lunch we split up. Jim and JT went off hiking to get some powder (JT’s idea) and Haley and I went up Forest Queen, where she started getting adventurous and conquered a tough blue square hill with lots of moguls! I was so proud of her!

It was a completely awesome day weather-wise: lightly snowing the whole time, some sun breaks, very cold. It is such a blessing to be able to do fun things like this as a family!

Recognitions

JT and Haley had a big week last week! JT had his first basketball game of the season.

We’ve been working on puzzles like maniacs this winter. This is our second one finished – and JT and Haley helped a lot. They can often be found hovering around the puzzle board before breakfast in the morning!

Haley keeps getting stronger and was recently pull-up class champion at gymnastics. She crushed her old PR of 10 with 14 pull-ups! Her class was chanting “Ha-ley, Ha-ley!” as she finished. Pretty cute.

Haley was also recognized at school for her participation in her the annual Reflections art program. She submitted a piece of visual art to support this year’s theme, Within Reach. Here she is with a friend from school receiving her trophy during an assembly. I love that they are recognizing all kinds of accomplishment, not just sports and reading!

Finally, JT received his Global Learner badge! He had to be recommended and then apply with an essay and then it had to be signed off by the principal and everything. He wears his badge at school and then receives lots of privileges, like open seating at lunch, early dismissal to recess, and walking unattended to specialist (PE, music, library). Woohoo!

We bought a camper!

Jim and I have been looking at truck campers for a loooong time. We have visions of four-season camping (not just summer) and we love the idea of doing more adventures with our kids. New campers are crazy expensive, so Jim scours Craigslist for used campers in good condition often. Every end of the summer, we say “next year, we might have a camper” but we hadn’t found the right one for the right price. Jim and I each have a list of must-haves: dry bath, bunk bed, a/c, driver side slide, generator, awnings, etc.

And then he found it!

It is a 2008 Lance 971. It was previously owned by an older couple, no pets or kids, and stored under cover. They didn’t use it much (only 11 hours on the generator) and sold it back to the dealer they bought it from. This was ideal! We went to look at it with both kids to make sure we felt comfortable inside with four people. It is perfect for us, and it is so clean and well maintained… with neutral décor instead of the horrible dated pink and teal you sometimes see in RVs.

The dealer was closed over the holidays so we had a week to pray about it. When they opened again after New Year’s, Jim called and said we would put a deposit down until we could come pick it up. Then the “fun” began… they ordered parts for our truck so we could pay wholesale and Jim installed them over the course of several late nights (one into the wee hours of the morning) before we picked it up.

On Friday we put the kids on the bus, went to the bank to pick up our check, and went to the dealer. They had fixed everything on the list – some even better than promised – and threw in a side awning and cross bars on top so we can bring our pod with us for extra storage. We were thrilled!

We did a walk-through and then started loading… I’m so glad this is Jim’s job, not mine!

Jim was so happy with the way the truck handled it on the way home. The extra work he has done to the truck paid off, and we think it will handle the load with no problems. We tucked our toys in for the night in the shop and closed the door – another blessing that we never thought we would be able to do. How many people can fit their truck, camper, and boat in their second garage?!

We have a local one-nighter planned so we can do a dry run with the camper before we take it somewhere more fun… like a ski weekend at Crystal Mountain!

Roomie Reunion 2018

We so look forward to our weekends in Naches with our group of friends from Jim’s house in college. We’ve been reunioning for the past seven years and it is so fun to watch our families grow together. We stay at http://www.bethelridgeretreat.com – reserving both cabins plus the main house for our 6 families with 12 adults and 17 children.

We arrived Friday night fairly late, and enjoying some “adulating” Saturday morning in the main house while most of the kids played Legos downstairs.

After lunch, Jim and the kids hit the hot tub while I read by the fire (read: napped by the fire).

After that, it was out into the snow! I love how kids from all six families are comfortable playing, hugging, sledding, and laughing together all weekend long. It’s like extended family you see at holidays.

Jim and Haley started a 300-piece puzzle before dinner… it was finished by the next day!

 
JT packed his rifle and got some shooting time in as well.

Sunday before dinner, we had a kids’ Bingo tournament. Every family donated prizes and Jim was the caller.

Sunday also included a ladies’ walk/hike in the snow. It was so fun to get out of the house for a bit and enjoy the peaceful scenery together!

Both nights we’re there, we leave the kids in the cabins (watching movies and then sleeping) and all of the adults gather in the main house to give updates on our lives. It’s a precious time of sharing real life – the good and the hard – with people who will be praying for each other all year long.

We are so thankful for these guys…

…and the women they married…

…and the family memories we share! 

Winter Flooring Project #4

I can’t believe we are done with winter flooring project #4. I also can’t believe that we did four flooring projects this fall/winter! We are done, for a long time. We (mostly Jim!) has now replaced the upstairs carpet and hall bathroom, downstairs mud room/office, and now play rooms.

This project had us ripping out carpet and removing trim. We prepped the room ourselves to save on cost, and did this part the weekend before New Year’s.

I found new rugs that I loved at Costco for great prices. One was in store and one was online in the matched set. They are very soft but easy to vacuum, making everyone happy. Jim had to clarify this process: “We’re ripping out the carpet. And putting in hardwoods. And then you’re buying new rugs to go over the hardwoods.” Yes!

The rooms were ready for installation late, late on New Year’s Day.

On January 2, the hardwood guy and his assistant showed up and laid the entire floor. They are so fast!

On January 3, we moved out (and I had LASIK done, separate post!). The varnish was beautiful but soooo smelly and they had to turn the gas off to our house because even a pilot light can ignite it, apparently. So that meant no heat, no hot water, no range to cook on, and no clothes dryer. Hmmmm. Fortunately Jim’s parents’ house was vacant so we packed up food and overnight clothes every day and I worked from their house during the day. We had picked this week to get the floors installed knowing this would all work out!

On January 5, Friday, we could move back in. And now it looks like this!

Hot tip: Jim found out that putting cans of coffee grounds around the house will absorb the smell of the varnish. And yes, it works. We are now three days in and can’t smell any varnish at all. When you consider how bad it was, this is amazing.

White Water Hardwoods did an amazing job matching our current floor (bottom of this next photo) with the new finish. It looks amazing and I love it!!

Becky gets LASIK

I’m not shouting… it is an acronym: LASIK. Jim has been telling me I should get LASIK done ever since he did, twelve years ago. Finally, I decided to go get a consultation last September. I was tired of getting water under my contacts when splashing with the kids in the pool or lake, or not being able to see while I water ski, or switching my contacts early because my eyes are too dry, or forgetting saline when I travel and having to Uber to a CVS late at night to get some. Plus, recently the rules changed so people can use FSA money (pre-tax!) to pay for LASIK. When I got my consultation, I found that I was an excellent candidate. Apparently I have thicker than average corneas, which is good because LASIK basically shaves off some of the cornea to reshape it. They also look for a stable prescription. My prescription is the same in both eyes and hasn’t changed for about 15 years! I picked one of the two places where I received a consultation and booked it for January 3.

The big day arrived! Jim took a picture of me in my glasses before I went back. In about ten years or so I’ll need reading glasses, but until then –

It was simply a little uncomfortable for a grand total of 30 seconds per eye – two separate 15-second procedures per eye. I’ll spare you the details because I really didn’t care much for words like “cornea flap,” but Jim got to watch the whole thing on a monitor showing what was going on inside my eye so he can tell you all about it!

I went home and took a nap, doctor’s orders (how often does that happen?!). I used my special “comfort drops” every fifteen minutes for the rest of the night but was quite able to make dinner, pack lunches, and all of the usual evening work. I could tell that the slight fog was wearing off because I could see across the house by bedtime.

In the morning, I went to my follow-up appointment in Bellevue. On the ferry, I could see the details of all the trees on the water and I thought I was already around 20/20 vision, which is awesome. But at my appointment, I surprised the optometrist by reading the 20/15 lines in each eye – and 20/10 with both eyes. Apparently this is unusual and she was really excited for me because my vision should actually sharpen up a little in the next few weeks.

It was a great experience and I am sooooo happy. I can’t wait to swim and ski without contacts!

Happy New Year

We had lots of things going on for New Year’s this year. It started with all of the neighbor kids getting together to video record a play they had written. There were scripts and photocopies and everything. JT used our old Flip camera to take the footage. Apparently there will be a video showing after it’s produced… we’ll see.

Then we went to my brother’s house for my nephew’s birthday party. We didn’t get any photos of the birthday boy (?) but we did get photos of me and my nieces wearing ridiculously large stick-on nose gems to emulate a potential future piercing.

We transitioned to our housed for New Year’s Eve and hosted a group of people playing basketball and ping-pong, enjoying a bon fire, and eating snacks. That’s right: a ping-pong table. Jim went and bought a new outdoor table to keep in the shop. It’s so much fun!

On New Year’s Day, we hosted my family and our friends the Bonnell family for the Alabama game. They won against Clemson and are headed to the National Championship game next week, so everyone was happy!

Starting the new year with people we love was a perfect day.

An Evening with Cousins

We spontaneously had Preston, Madi, and Ali over for dinner and games one night while everyone was home (well, except Jim, but everyone else!). It is rare for this to happen between work and college and sports schedules. So dinner for six it was…

And The Farming Game for hours, which ended up being super funny toward the end when Preston drew a card proclaiming that he had to pay operating expenses for the entire year (the last round we played) but collect no income. He then referred to the card as a “Doomsday Card” which JT and Haley thought was hilarious. So the joke went on the rest of the game, getting the same giggles every time. It was pretty funny!

We were at the table together for hours talking, laughing, and loving every minute.