The First Shall Be Last

10/10-10/11/2009
Braylen's turn to go camping with Dad! Being our oldest son, we thought Braylen needed his camping trip to be a bit more adventurous than his brothers' trips were. Derek planned to take him to a faraway campsite in the forest. He looked up the 4-wheel trails and planned a fun trip. What he didn't plan for was an early October snow and bronchitis! Plans changed, but the trip was still a success. Thank goodness for our family's cabin, which happens to be surrounded with some pretty neat 4-wheeling trails. Derek, being the trooper that he is, took his antibiotics and cough drops and forged ahead with this trip.

We woke up to snow--Ginger's first time seeing it! She was mesmerized!

Kaleb plopped down in the snow to build a fort.

Aaron and I built a snowman. This is how it looked 2 days after the snow fell.

Strangely enough, there wasn't any snow at the cabin. Plenty cold though! Derek let Braylen drive the 4-wheeler around the property for a while. He went through every dip and mud hole he could find! Once on the trail, his confidence wavered a bit. I think the ruts on the trail had something to do with that. Braylen drove off the trail 5 or 6 times. Derek brought tow ropes along for that very reason! Amazingly, he didn't need to use them. He was able to drive Braylen's 4-wheeler back onto the trail every time. :)

Aren't they cute?

Back at "camp," Derek took the opportunity to talk with Braylen about growing up; changes that lie ahead, friendships (including the g word--girls), and making his faith his own. He used several role-play situations and Dr. Dobson's book, "Preparing for Adolescence." They enjoyed going through the workbook together. Derek and I are trying to learn how to be intentional parents. To address issues important to us instead of hoping our kids will catch on somehow. This trip was all about being intentional with Braylen. When my two guys came back home, I asked Braylen what his favorite part of his trip was. With a big smile on his face, he replied, "Just being with Daddy."

I have to say, Derek did a FANTASTIC job taking pictures during his 3 camping trips with our boys. What a guy! :)

Girls Only

My husband loves to hunt. We have very good friends that come and stay with us every year during deer season. Derek gets to hunt with his hunting buddy, and I enjoy time with my dear friend! We also get together for turkey season, and deer season's choice in January. I really do like to see my husband enjoy his hobby. Well. It was time for me to enjoy a little getaway of my own.

My mom-in-law, sister-in-law, and I loaded up and left town for a visit to my other sister-in-law's house. She just happens to live in beautiful Colorado Springs--yay! This trip has been "in the works" for 21 months. We'd schedule it, and then a tragedy would occur. A literal tragedy. This happened twice. Because of that, I really didn't think this trip would happen. Praise God, no disaster happened this time! Away we went!

I love being with these girls

First thing we did in the Springs was visit a massage therapist where the 4 of us had hour-long massages...heavenly. The crease on my forehead from the pillow lasted all evening! I was glad The Elephant Bar was kind of dark inside--that's where we ate supper. Very yummy. Being a girls' weekend, we stayed up late to talk. Of course I loved it. :)

On Saturday we shopped here and there and enjoyed lunch at Panera. What a treat to do things that I wanted to do instead of what my kids wanted to do. I intentionally did some shopping for my husband on this trip. He rarely tells me he needs something--unless it's hunting-related. :) He does have a thing for gloves and boots though...

We grabbed a quick supper at Chick-Fil-A and then saw the movie "Love Happens." Cute movie, kind of sad at times, but still good. When I think of us sitting in that movie theater, I'll always remember my sis-in-law passing all of her candy down the row--Whoppers, Reese's Pieces, Twizzlers, M&M's, etc... You'd think we hadn't eaten all weekend! Hee hee! Her boyfriend came along with us to the movie, so afterwards we visited his new place. Very nice--it even has a Colorado yard of rocks and a little patch of grass. :)

Sunday we went to church and out for lunch at Jason's Deli. I enjoyed not rushing out of there right away, even though it meant a late night for us to get home. The time goes so fast, as it always does, but that must mean we had fun!



My husband took Friday off so I could get away, and he made the most of his day off with our little Aaron. They enjoyed lunch at McDonalds and went 4-wheeling while Braylen and Kaleb were in school. Lucky Aaron! They picked some gourds and pumpkins from a friend's house during their 4-wheeling time. It was like visiting a private pumpkin patch. :) I told Derek ahead of time that Aaron's word for gourds is "orgs." Too cute. My boys had great "Daddy time" with their amazing daddy. They played games, played in the yard, repaired a picnic table, and deep-cleaned our family room. I never worried how things would go, I didn't leave instructions--only medicine doses in case they were needed. They weren't needed. My dog was VERY happy to see me when I got home, which made me feel good. She's such a Daddy's doggy that I was surprised to see she loves me too! :)

Braylen playing chess with Daddy--I don't even know how to play!

Monday morning brought me back to reality, but I was refreshed and ready to be home again. It couldn't have been a better trip!

The Little Things

Ginger is 6 months old already

Nobody takes my frisbee!

2 weeks of our life have gone by and all I've blogged about are camping trips and sicknesses. There's a song out there with this line: "So you fall into bed when you run out of hours; and you wonder if anything worth doing--got done?" That is me every single night. I run and I run and I run all day long. On Wednesday I don't think I stopped at all.

This paragraph is just for me--you may skip it if you'd like. But someday I will forget what my life is like right now, and this will remind me. :) Wednesday went like this: wake up and shower, wake up boys, let dog out and feed dog, sign planners, pack snacks and water bottles, pack lunches, pack show & tell, pack snack for entire preschool class, serve breakfast, brew coffee for myself on my way out the door, realize I have no time for my breakfast, call dog in, she ignores me, take everyone to their schools, meet with a good friend for half an hour--an oasis in my day, run all over town paying bills and running errands, pick up preschooler, feed him (and me) lunch, make menu for the week and make Walmart list, sort coupons, go to Walmart with my preschooler, unload groceries at home, put the dog in the car and go pick up my 2 big kids from school, come home and pull all plants out of garden before this weekend's big weather change, make and serve supper, leave late to pick up son's friend for Awana, go to Awana and lead games, get everyone home, put kids to bed, stay up till 11:00 making pumpkin muffins for my preschooler's snack, fall into bed asleep before I hit the pillow....my life.

Making pumpkin muffins was the LAST thing I wanted to do Wednesday night. But since this is Aaron's week to bring the snacks for his preschool class, his 3 picks were Go-gurt, rice krispie squares, and muffins. He'd already brought the 2 easy snacks. I could have told him no muffins. I could have bought boxes of granola bars or fruit snacks for Thursday's snack instead. But I'd promised him his muffins. Since I only have one tray of mini-muffin cups, I could only do 12 muffins at a time. That's why it took me 2 hours to make these muffins. I even bagged them up in little Halloween treat bags. But you know what? I was in his class on Thursday when he passed out his snack to everyone. He was so proud of those muffin bags. He came over to me and said, "Thank you for making my muffins Mommy." He gave me a big hug and kiss. I had to bite my lip to keep from crying. Such a little thing--muffins--and I didn't even want to make them. But I'm so glad I did...

A quote from my mothering calendar really spoke to me this week.

"The great doing of little things makes the great life."

It's the little things that add up to make a really big difference. At least that's the lesson I'm learning these days.

Funnies from Aaron this week:

"I had chocolate-hot in preschool today!" (hot chocolate)

ta-pato soup (potato soup)

"Can we go to Walmart today? I want to buy my very own big jar of salt." (Aaron loves salt!)

Enjoying our last bit of mild weather before the snow falls

Camping With Kaleb

Okay, so I'm a week behind...time to catch up. Last Saturday, Sept. 26-27, Kaleb and Daddy went camping! What started with Aaron will end with Braylen, with Kaleb's trip in between. How appropriate! I like to see Derek carving out time for each of our boys. This post is all about our middle son's turn!

Kaleb and Derek left for their campsite on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. After setting up the tent, they searched for firewood...all the wood was wet. Hmm. Lots of paper and leaves were needed for kindling, and they had a nice fire for their hot dog roast. Kaleb was so afraid he'd burn his hot dog that it was barely warm! After supper they went on a bike ride--11.3 miles! Kaleb wanted to practice his turkey calls, and it must have worked. They got within 15 feet of some turkeys! Kaleb's fascination was seeing a burned bridge. Derek says he could have stared at it forever.

Kaleb gazing at the burned out bridge


See those turkeys? They have blue heads!

A beautiful sunset for Kaleb & Daddy to share

Back at camp, Daddy and Kaleb played football and soccer. When Derek was ready to roast marshmallows, Kaleb agreed to have one. Just one? First Aaron, and now Kaleb...they only want one marshmallow. Derek wanted more than one! :) Kaleb kept saying he was tired, so after some stargazing and a trip to the bathroom, they crawled into the tent for the night. The wind came up during the night but Kaleb slept soundly. Ah, that's my boy. :)

Snuggled up together in the tent

Sunday morning Daddy cooked Kaleb's favorite breakfast--pancakes. :) They spent their morning playing more soccer, riding bikes again, and sharing a Bible lesson from Philippians 2. The wind was really blowing, and it blew the tent over on Kaleb as he was zipping it up!!! Derek and Kaleb laughed and laughed and laughed at that. :) Their things from the tent just about blew into the fire pit, but Derek grabbed them just in time. I'm sure it would have been hilarious to watch them take the tent down in that wind. At least it gave them some good memories. ;)

Some things Derek noticed about Kaleb on this trip:

Kaleb did not always have to be doing something...he was content to sit and watch what was around him.

Kaleb did not want to fish. He was all about riding his bike to that bridge!

Kaleb didn't have lots of words to get out...he's quieter than his brothers.

I love to see how different our boys are, and Kaleb is sure different from his brothers. Derek really enjoyed having Kaleb all to himself for this trip, and Kaleb enjoyed Daddy. It doesn't get any better than that. :)