Our weekend in the UP

We had the amazing privilege of spending last weekend in the UP with our friend Lonnie at his grandparents' fishing cabins.
We spent time exploring three of the great lakes (Superior, Heron & Michigan), hunting for crawdads and frogs, playing in the wanter, having a camp fire with sparklers... among other totally amazing activities.

There is a story behind the top I'm wearing... as I will be in my sister wedding later this summer, and wearing a strapless dress I have been trying hard to keep the strap tan lines at bay... so this is my beach outfit.
The reason I'm wearing it here is because I misunderstood that we were going on a hike before we hit the beach... I thought we were hiking to the beach... so in a lot of our pictures I'm the dork hiking in a tube top and tennis.

Tube top and all it was a weekend full of laughs, games and fun!
Thanks, Lonnie for the rousing games of peanuts!

Crazy Fluke

While trying to retrieve a match box car from this little bike Jadon got his arm literally stuck in the tunnel!
I tried everything I could think of to get it un-stuck... which led to a lot of tears and wincing in pain for J. We resorted to margarine even... but to no avail!

Instead we called Dad, who told us to stay put and if he couldn't get the bike apart we'd take him to the ER...

So Elie and I made Jadon as comfy as we could...

Devoted sister that she is, Elie brought Jadon his blanket and passy...

When that worked it's magic they decided to play a game until Dad got home...

It took Bryce literally two minutes to get his arm out! The miracle of Dad's!!!
(seriously, I tried all the same things he did - what's up with that??)

All is well now. We know not to stick our limbs into small spaces... lesson learned, for the time being.

Dress Up

My son, King Saigon My daughter, Queen Esther

Oh the fun that kids come up with on a cloudy day with a box of dress-ups! (By the way, the costume Elie is wearing was mine for my Jewish pre-school festivities - I was Queen Esther. Thanks, mom, for years of fun!!!)

(And, no, I'm not Jewish by heritage, race or religious preferences... it just happened to be the community pre-school in Denver, Colorado.)

A Conversation

This is a conversation that took place on our family walk tonight and so eloquently depicts the differences in personality between our son and daughter.

Bryce and Elie had been behind Jadon and I to fix Elie's shoe. Elie had caught up but Bryce was still behind, jogging to catch up. ( A favorite game with the kids is that Bryce and I are the monsters when they run ahead) Jadon had a firm hold on my hand, and had been displaying his manhood by "helping" me walk.

Elie: Breathless and giddy with anticipation, "The monster is coming!!"

Pause, as Jadon languidly looks back. "Yeah. I know." Hand firmly holding mine.

Elie: "Run!" squeals, "Run, Jadon - the monster is getting closer - Run!"

Jadon: "What for?"

Elie: "He's going to get us!!!" And she runs ahead squealing.

Jadon: Deep breath. "If you say so." Hand still firmly holding mine. Another pause, languid look over his shoulder, then decides it might be fun to run and takes off.

God In My Tummy

I woke up this morning to sweet cuddles from my boy. My daughter was already dressed and eating breakfast in the kitchen. When Jadon heard the noises he turned his tussled head so that our noses touched. "Mommy," he said, "are you hungry too?"

"Mmmmm," was all I got out, as I forced my eyes open to look at him.

"Well," he says, "God is in my tummy and He's yelling for food now."

I chuckled and kissed his forehead, "okay, hon."

"He is in my tummy, right mom?" Jadon persisted.

"Well, not quite," I began, willing my sleep muddled brain to work out a logical 3-year-old explanation.

"Okay, if you say so," He responded doubtfully, "But Someone's yelling for food down there."

First Fresh Produce...

From OUR garden!!!!
We've got bell peppers that will go into chicken fajitas tonight!
And a couple of green tomatoes that Jadon got ambitions over:o)... He's just 3 after all! But that gives us a chance to try our hand and making fried green tomatoes - a Paulson family favorite!!
Thanks to Lonnie Allen!!!

Day at the Beach

Today was beautiful! It was a bit overcast as we headed to Gun Lake with the Eaton family packed into our car. We were treated to an amazing sandy beach, cool water and beautiful sunny weather as the clouds blew away. The kids had such a blast playing in the sand, swimming, eating lunch and meeting friends. Check out the photos here: Day at the Beach

Outing to the Zoo

We decided to visit the zoo while Bryce was in Memphis, Tn. We met our friends, the DeVires family there and ate lunch, played and checked out the animals. It was a blast!

Here is Elie and Micah on the TrainJadon loving on a goat in the petting zoo

Playing the drum - just like in Africa!

Petting a milk snake... the Mom's didn't do it.

My Flowers!

My flowers have bloomed!

Okay so I just posted about Jadon... but as I sit here typing Elie is in the kitchen sounding out words! She is so cute!!! I'm not sure what she's reading, as the sounds haven't quite come together, but she's happy as a clam just sounding out letters... I just had to blog about that:o).

Big Boy Now!

I hesitate to even write this... as we went a week in underpants before, but suddenly had a day of accidents... however, as of today Jadon has gone two full weeks in big boy underpants!!!

I actually had a picture of him in his new undies... but it is now lost in the abyss of my files, so this one is just for a visual of my big boy:o).

We went the whole week at camp in underpants, with the exception of nights, where we used a pull up - but, we never had a wet pull up!

Dare I hope we've seen the last of our diaper days?!!

A week at Family Camp

As this summer's big events consist of traveling back to the NW to celebrate family weddings and spending time with tons of friends and family we decided that we needed to do something just the four of us. As it turns out our church is part of the Bible denomination, and is affiliated with a camp called Grace Adventures Camp. We signed up for a mini family camp - and were totally blown away!

The camp is basically just like youth camp grounds, with cabins, a lodge and a chapel. They also have a retreat center, which is where we stayed. The theme was "Spur On" and they used horses from their ranch (Paradise Ranch) to draw visual examples - which of course, our daughter LOVED! The staff was AMAZING!! And everyone in the family was provided for and loved on by counselors. There were family activities, age appropriate activities while the adults had some time for teaching as well as to be alone together, all w/ Biblical teaching on encouraging each other and ministering to others as a family unit. Baby sitting was offered for afternoon free time, as well as a multitude of activities from skeet shooting to water skiing, and if you wanted to take a short drive to the ranch, horse back riding.
We were built into, encouraged and loved on. Bryce and I could hardly walk 10ft the first day without being stopped by someone wanting to welcome us. The kids were being greeted by name on the first day by staff, and on the last day one of Jadon's counselors cried when he hugged her good bye. Elie made so many friends with the other kids in her break out sessions, and came away with one very special friend, Joshua, who's family we are planning to get together with later on this summer. The two of them were inseparable whenever given the chance to be together. Joshua has a little sister, Anna, who was very fond of Jadon as well:o).
So many of the families have gone year after year - a couple people we met were on their 13th, 18th and 20th years, with their kids having grown and married at the summer camps. There were two multi generational families as well! We hope to make this one of our family traditions too.

We were horrible about remembering the camera - but got a few events captured in photos. You can view them here at: Family Camp Photos

And below is one of the video clips we took. Enjoy! And may you all be enriched and encouraged deeply this summer!!!

Feeding the Cows

We spent a week at a family camp hosted by Grace Adventures... we were not very good about remembering our camera... but we did get a few pictures of our time. Here is a video of the kids feeding cows at the end of our time. We visited a dairy, where they were giving out free icecream and allowing people a close up of life on their dairy farm.

Veggies! Veggies! Veggies!

Our garden is blossoming!Quite literally, actually!
These will provide beans... yay! (the green kind)

We hope to be eating tomatoes off these in a week or so!!

Bell Peppers... yum!

And, our sad little row of broccoli and cauliflower... not exactly sure of what's going on here, other than we think they might have nourished a mole. So sad. But, hey, at least they are feeding someone!

We also have carrots, squash and one other variety of pepper... all doing well!!