Celebrating Nine Years

I should have known at the beginning that it would be an adventure.  The Pastor said you may kiss the bride, not dip her!!!  Crazy.  We kicked off our weekend by going to a Japanese Steakhouse with the kids to celebrate mommy and daddy and then we went to a Friday night marriage conference. 

By celebrating the adventure of marriage, we got adventurous!  Saturday morning, we headed to Wild and Wonderful West Virginia where we went White Water Tubing!  I have to admit there were times on those rapids I was scared, but Patrick held onto my raft very tightly.  I felt secure.  I knew if it would come down to it, he would give us his life for me.  No question.

Although we were exhausted from the 3 hour river excursion, we did manage to just relax for the whole day. It was beautiful country and a great way to bring in the Fall.

We got hungry and stopped by a Vineyard on our way to the hotel.  We tried something fun and did food pairings with their six wine tastings.  Very rich and decadent...from wild boar prosciutto wrapped around local goat cheese, smoked trout, to chestnut truffles rolled in pecans....

Celebrating us.

We then checked into a hotel in Ashburn.  After looking at a dozen hotels, I chose this one for many reasons! 
1.  The closeness to my sick toddler.  Poor Tristan had a temperature and wasn't himself.
2.  The evening cocktail reception from 5:30 - 7:30.  Hello, free drinks for two hours. Wow.
3.  The King Suite with a whole living area where we ordered Vietnamese food and hung out.

4.  The delicious breakfast.  Unlike other hotels where you pay an arm and a leg for a nice breakfast or you get a cheapie continental muffin breakfast, we got a real made-to-order hot breakfast.  Patrick was so impressed with his delicious omelet! 
5.  Finally, the value  All of this for $92 with tax.   Priceline rocks.

We did a devotional in the morning after our breakfast and headed home to this!  Their usual dancing after breakfast to my Zumba CD.  





Happy Anniversary!  Thanking God for the gift of marriage and for the man who fearfully and wonderfully loves me and is showing me daily what it looks like to be the bride, caring for me and giving up his life for me, as Christ loved.

Summer Lovin' Happened So Fast!

Even though Labor day has passed and Micah started school, I just can't say goodbye to summer.  It went fast.  We did most of our Summer Bucket List (hooray!), and squeezed in a lot of things we didn't plan for.    Like our cousins who came to visit from Michigan!

Another highlight was mom's birthday.

 

While we had a lot of summer road trips, and plenty of pool time,  nothing beat summer days in our neighborhood.  We had some birthday parties and barbecues, but every day looked something like this.    Caelan rules the school, he's so cool.

Taking a bicycle break after the 20th time circling around the square.

 

Forget the stroller.  Tristan is a big boy with his scooter.  So what if he's wearing a diaper!

 

Also to note--Micah and Caelan took private swim lessons this summer and can swim (video in next blogpost!)  This wraps up our summer.  Sad.  But we've already started a Fall Bucket List....

• Apple Picking (done!)
• Fall Wineries Crushing Grapes
• Corn Maizes & Pumpkin Patches
• Camping, Smores, Firepit and Hiking
• Hosting Neighborhood Fall Festival
• Hallo-lujah Event Ring Family will be Star Wars Heroes, featuring Tristan as Yoda!

      ....and much more.....

What will you be doing this fall?  Send me an email or comment so we can add it to our bucket list!

 

Micah Thrived and Mommy Survived!

Our first week of kindergarten came and gone and here's a snapshot of the week:



First day at the Bus Pick up Afterschool:
Mommy:  "Micah, how was it?"
Micah: "AWESOME."
[Wow, he never used the word awesome before.  Gosh, he LOOKS older too.]
Mommy: Um, did you see Mommy cry this morning when the bus left?
 Micah: No.  You were turned around, but I knew you did.

Day Two:
 Micah: Mommy, they don't talk about Jesus in Kindergarten, do they?
Mommy:[hesitation] No baby, they don't.
 Micah: ...Yeah, I didn't think so.
Mommy thinking: I can't believe he noticed that right away!  I did something right?@!

 

Day Three:
Micah: (Excitedly)  Guess what mommy?  
Mommy: What??
Micah:  I got my first library book!  [Serious face]  We have to return it next Thursday.
Mommy:  [Equally serious tone]  Okay.

Micah's Teacher

Day Four:
Mommy:  Oh no Micah, is that the bus??  It's early.  We missed the bus.
[A look of shock, and then horror, and then panic.  Breaking out into tears!]
Mommy! Oh no!  What do we do?
Mommy: Well, Micah, I'll just take you to school.
[(Still a mess.  Massive bucket of alligator tears]  Ooohkkaayy...but I LOVE the bus!

Day Five:
Mommy: What's your favorite part of Kindergarten?
Micah:  Recess.
Mommy:  Hey, me too.

First time seeing the gymnasium.  Response:  "Wow."

Micah absolutely LOVES Kindergarten.  He was made for this.  In fact, missing a day would result in an Oscar-winning performance of Child Traumatized.  Missing the bus this week was a good teachable moment for him.  After he immediately went HYSTERICAL, I was able to give him a talk about handling tough situations.  I asked him, "What is still good with this situation?"  His first response was, "Well, you can still take me."  That's right!  I made him repeat it three times that it's not a big deal.   Then, I said, "Well, what else did we learn?"  Without any prompting, he said, "We could leave earlier tomorrow."

Joey and Micah in line - first day of school. 

Yes!  That's right.  We learned something and if you do the same thing, you will produce the same results.  So, let's do something different tomorrow.  What a great opportunity to teach him a positive approach to responding to negative situations.  It's official:  We're learning something at school!