September is Upon us!

It is amazing to find that summer is truly on it's way out. I have to say, I have been pleasantly surprised at the weather we have had, and feel that I met my goal of spending a lot of time tanning and laying out. It is pretty hard thinking about the upcoming winter months, considering how much Thomas spends outside. There is no way I will get away with spending time indoors with his energy level going full throttle unless his eyes are closed. I'm gearing up for my flannel-lines pants and snow suit to get me through the "freezing" temps (Bruce and Lil can laugh now!) And let me tell you, my hands and feet are cold and my nose runs even when indoors on some winter days, so you can imagine my pain while trying to pretend to have a good time outdoors.

Gym Class- Gym class at Gym Star Sports started up on Wednesday and the teacher remarked at how much Thomas has matured since spring. It was a lot of fun to watch Thomas actually sit during circle time and pretty cute to see him actually sit and try to do the stretches she is trying to teach them. In the spring, Thomas was the little boy throwing a fit and crying as I tried to wrestle him into a sitting position. Circle and singing time was a total hassle for him and he had no patience for any of it. This time he made it through the song and the stretching without complaint, and actually seemed into it. I chased him around for the remaining time, and when we were waiting to get out goodbye sticker, he said to me, "Mommy, I tired out. Need a break. Mommy, I want water." No complaints from him as I packed him up to head for home. We headed into town for our juice and banana bread at Starbucks, then spent the rest of our morning playing on the beach. I love these days because naps after gym are so long. Have I mentioned how much I love naptime?!!!

Words he says- "Oooohhhh, super, super cuddly. Definitely not rough, Daddy!" when talking about his jammies. "Put my diaper on, put my diaper on!" when needing to go to the potty. He wants very little to do with the toilet at this time, and we're not pushing it. "Gas out of my bum-bum" when he passes gas. "Me no like it, Mommy." "Me want my working shoes on."

Enjoys playing "Nest" and pretends he's a bird and wants us to play our proper roles in our own nests. Sometimes he wants to share his nest with us. Pretends to be a baby, pretends being monster trucks, lifters, cement mixers, and various other types of equipment. Enjoys cuddling his stuffed animals and wants to pretend with them. He wants to be Diego and assigns someone to be Dora. Pretends to be a crane lifting different things.

The Vankemsekes come to town! August 24th-27th

Andrea, Billy and the kids rolled into town today, much to our excitement. It started off a bit rocky, though, as just an hour before they arrived John mentioned he was sick to his stomach. This had us scratching our heads as to what to do about exposing the entire family to what could possibly be the stomach flu. Before really deciding what to do, they were here, and as I began to explain, Andrea told me that on the way over she noticed Jake's nose running....So, what can you say other than BRING IT ON!!!

The kids had a lot of fun, and Thomas seemed to explore his newfound ability to bully someone smaller than him...Grace. He tried to be toddler sneaky about it, but you couldn't miss the little push here, the stomp here, and the pinch there. Jake didn't scare Thomas as much this time. I think Thomas is getting used to the roaring Lion. By day two, though, both boys were tiring of each other, and let the games begin! Of course, Drew was his usual sweet self, and Thomas couldn't get along with him better. Once John began to feel better, he was able to take Drew, Billy and Thomas tubbing, which I was very glad for, and Drew even got to go sailing. I really wanted Drew to have a great weekend before he had to head back to school. I'd like all the boys (and Grace) to be able to enjoy all the fun times they can together out on the lake. On Friday when I was at work they all headed down to Marine Park to play and then we mostly stayed around and played by the water. It was a lot of fun, all one happy family in the downstairs, and I think it was a big success.

Friday Night Adventures/Whistler Vacation

Well, Thomas held true to form-always get sick at Whistler! Except that this time he prepared for Whistler by getting hideously sick the night before we were to leave. But for his 1st trip to Whistler/Nature's Door at six weeks old, Thomas has gotten sick every time we've been there, so it should have not been such a surprise to us that he woke up Friday morning complaining of a tummy ache. By mid morning John reported the biggest blowout he's ever seen, and by 2 in the morning, I was bracing Thomas by his hips and arms as he learned the fine art of throwing up over and into a bucket or onto a white towel for aim practice. You see, up until this point Thomas has simply launched onto me. At least we have made some progress with him, but what a way to go, huh! By 5 am, Thomas' guts had given up and I hauled myself off the floor in his room and crashed into bed. We all slept until 9, trying to determine if the trip was still possible. What a decision! After lining the backseat with vomit-catching towels and keeping a bucket handy, we took off, hoping that the worst had passed. And the Lord did answer prayer. We had a fabulous trip and lots of sleep!

We stayed at the Pemberton Valley Lodge, which was in a beautiful canyon 20 min East of Whistler, and we enjoyed numerous trips into the Village for play and food, as well as drives through the town of Pemberton. I think the best part was the time to just hang out, listen to music and watch Dora, enjoy quiet drives back and forth, relax and play in the pool with no agenda. Thomas was a great traveler, although each night he asked to go home, saying, "Mommy, want my crib, want my home now!" I had to remind him each time that we had adventures waiting for us, and that all was well with our hotel room. He had a great time entertaining the folks in the pool area, and one particular gentleman seemed to get a kick out of him, calling him the "Blonde Bomber" on several occasions as Thomas launched himself time and again into the pool. While out for day two of McDonald's breakfast from the OK Corral-like themed building, John reported back that Thomas took a running jump into the pool-without his lifejacket. Thankfully John was not far behind to scoop him up, and remind him that he still can't float

MercyMe in concert!

Lil and Bruce generously offered to watch Thomas so John and I could run away to another concert tonight. John's cousin, Scott Brickell, who manages MercyMe, wasn't in town with the band to meet up with, but we were still eager to listen to the group we've been following for several years now. The crowd was amazing, and it was really incredible to sit back and listen to the beautiful voices flooding out of the grandstands. It was quite amazing, actually, to know that so many people were singing, praising God, in such a beautiful way. Interpretive dance girl distracted during I Can Only Imagine, but if you blocked your hand just right or leaned a certain way, you could try to block her out of sight line. Bummer for John as that was the only song he was really interested in, but I was able to hide against his shoulder and block her out. What can you do when the Spirit moves someone, huh? Not a whole lot. Just got to hope God was smiling on her flowy body!

Family Visits

After several attempts to make it over, the family was finally able to come on over and hang out in the good weather. We didn't do much but have a blast out in the water. Drew wins the award for fish-of-the-weekend, as I think he spent about 90% of his time in the water, playing with Lily and the boys, or hanging out with Thomas. While here, Mark and Robin had a family of friends over, and the Lawrences came down to play as well. It was wonderful to hang out and cuddle with Grace and Jake and Thomas played well together, despite some meltdowns from a super sensitive Thomas who fell apart when Jake asserted his dominance with a loud roar! What that boy lacks in size he makes up for in volume and gusto! I'm so thankful that they were able to come over and hope that they enjoyed their time playing and hanging out with us.

Lynden Fair 2006 Thomas 2 Years Old Part 1

Today we decided to go up at the last minute, based on the weather and Thomas' sunny disposition. I had the bright idea to catch the "1st Annual Opening Parade" and what a STUPID idea that turned out to be. Now, before I totally trash myself, I have to point out that I was not the brilliant board that decided to shut down at least three key gates into the fair on the same day that they were trying out a new (and extremely slow) computer system, on the SAME day that they advertised for a fabulous grand opening parade!!!!! Thomas and I gave up waiting for the parade to start after waiting on a street corner for 20 minutes, and we headed for the main entrance, having found that the side entrance was blocked off. While we waited in the front entrance line that wrapped around the block, we were fortunate to catch the "amazing" parade...complete with approximately 6 wagon teams of Clydesdales and a handful of ponies! You've GOT to be kidding me? We waited in 80 degree temps for THAT??!!! In total, we waited 1 hour and 7 minutes to get through the gates, and by that time it was time for Thomas to take a nap. I pushed him through, bought a wristband for rides, and hurried him along to get in line yet again. Within minutes, ride by ride, the power went out at the kiddie section. Before I unloaded and embarrassed myself infront of my son, I pretended that waiting in lines was our outing for the day and we hustled out of the crowds, who were all milling around like cows waiting for their feed (aka-the power to go back and the rides to start up again). By the time we made it back to the car someone was exhausted, drenched in sweat, cranky, hungry and thoroughly annoyed, and it wasn't Thomas. Thomas just went along for the ride, content just to be my buddy for the morning.

Lynden Fair 2006 Thomas 2 Years Old Part 2

This evening, after John got home from work, we all headed back up to the fair to play some more and hopefully have better luck than the morning excursion. It was definitely a lot more fun, with time for rides, tractors, ice cream sandwiches and kettle corn. We didn't get tickets for the demolition derby, but Thomas was able to watch perched high on Grandpa's shoulders. Lots of oohs and aahhs as he watched all the action. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed the evening together.

Trip to White Rock, B.C.

Today I wanted to head up to Pemberton, up near Whistler, to get away for a while, but the hotel I wanted to try out was booked up tight. Instead, while John headed down to a preseason game with his dad, Thomas and I headed up to White Rock to check out the beach. It was a beautiful evening for playing in the water, and I think Thomas enjoyed the warm waters to play in. I would have liked to try out one of the fish n' chips shacks that dot the boardwalk, but Thomas was eager to get back home. He's not used to having to dry with salt water on his skin instead of his usual hot water bath. The border trips were great and it was super easy to get up there. Hopefully we can take the family back up and enjoy the water together. Up there Thomas had O'donals and back down we had KFC and gelato. That was how "on vacation" I wanted to be.

Tommy tubbin'

John was playing with the camera tonight while I was out getting Thai takeout. It is amazing how the days continue to fly by and my baby turns into such a little man. This kid hasn't taken but a handful of baths in the inside tub this summer, and come winter, I wonder what we'll do about the outside tub time.

Sleepy time

Friends at Play

Daddy and Tommy tubing for the 1st time

John was able to take the kids out together again for his first time tubing with Thomas. Lauren doesn't look like she's having fun, but she actually was, and seemed to have a great time out there.

Mamas lovin' on their babies

Ist Tubing on Lake Whatcom, July 22nd am

Before I succumbed to the attack of the Killer Avacado, I was able to enjoy the morning with all the friends and cousins who traveled into town to play with us and try to beat the heat. Jodi was brave enough to take Lauren and Thomas out on their very 1st tube ride on Lake Whatcom with John driving. I believe Madeline tried it out last summer, but I can't be positive. They loved it, and Jodi reported back that Tommy was hollering, "Daddy, asser, asser daddy!" (translated "faster daddy!") as loud as he could. What a brave bunch we have with these little ones!

You can see Lance is having to drag Madeline out to give the older boys a turn, Lauren is having none of it and Thomas is backing away trying to find an opportunity to bail out. They were none to happy to give up their ride and share!

Friends Playing at Lake Whatcom

The biggest and best plans for summer are the ones unplanned. This is where people just call and then show up on the property to swim, tube, BBQ and play with the kids. These days it is very easy to hang out, as the kids are all at an age where they're easy to manage and keep track of, and they all take care of each and play really well together.

Men Supervising Children

New Happenings

Things have been going crazy lately, and I've yet to actually come to terms with the fact that it's NOT June anymore. I'm finally off the Tylenol drip (I'm being sarcastic) that I've been hooked to for about two weeks now, and I was beginning to worry that Tommy's mommy was going to become dependent on mass doses of painkillers again. The headaches were back, the asthma was back and the pain was constant, which made me no fun to be around. But, gone is everything but the asthma, and after numerous test that all came back good, it looks like we'll just have to play this asthma round out and see where it goes.

Thomas has been taking it like a champ, though, but he has no sympathy and continues he wear us all out. He's big into pretending now, and throughout the day we're playing cars in the garage, on the car table or out on the beach. Sometimes he'll throw trains into the mix, but most of the time he's picking out cars for us to be and then we have to follow his lead. "Mommy, play carssssssss!" he'll call, "Grandpa, play carsssssss!" and so on all day long. When outside we race around the landscape playing monster trucks, and he's big into picking the pea pods off, picking apples and rolling down the big mountain of dirt up in the orchard. He's singing songs with grandma and counting a lot, but loses track and counts all over the place. He loves to dive in the water with John, but has finally figured out that Lake Whatcom is COLD, so the majority of his time is spent in hot bath, where he loves to play waterfall and pour water from different containers. He's big into hiking with me and likes to go up to Arroyo Park and hike to the waterfall. Of course, it's always a big game as to how far back down the trail he'll make it before clinging to my leg, saying, "Mommy, hold you, Mommy, hold you." Then it's up to me to get us down and back out of the canyon to the car. Good for my workout, that's for sure. I'm so thankful he loves to be outside hiking and playing. It's great to know that the weather should hold for a while longer, but I'm worried about how he'll handle the winter when we're shut in again. I try to remind myself not to worry about things I can't change, but he sure is enjoying living his life outside.

Mom and Dad arrive post-surgery

Mom and dad showed up today to help out with anything that might need helping out post-surgery. I was bummed that I'd be out of commission during their stay, but thankful that they would shoulder some of the responsibility for caring for Thomas. I wasn't much company to them while they were here, but it was good to have them here to play with Thomas, especially since he seems to be coming down with some nasty cold again. I'm sad that they can't see the normal Thomas in action, and instead get a cranky Thomas, but it's good anyway to have them hanging out with him and entertaining. We didn't do much as I was supposed to sit on the couch and recuperate, but we did sneak out and go down to Fairhaven to look around and eat lunch together. Although not in pain, whatever they gave me knocked my legs out from under me, and I was like a zombie for 3 days. Maybe it was the meds, maybe the lack of food, maybe the nauseating taste of blood in my mouth, maybe the fact that Thomas was up sick in the night, but I wasn't much of anything while they were here. I know Dad was worried that something was wrong, but other than exhaustion, everything was good. Hopefully the next time they're here I'll be just as spunky as ever. Nothing like pulling 4 teeth to ruin the party!

Wisdom Teeth Extraction

Today was the day I've been putting off forever. Forever being since the day I saw my best friend's face all blown up from her own ordeal way back in high school. You hear all the horror stories, some from back in the day, some recent, and then I had Stephen's hospital/surgery scare from last summer playing around in my mind, as well as the most recent story of a distant relative having a stroke in the dentist's office. Combine those with the fact that my husband had his pulled without anything but the standard dentist needle because his doctor dad told him that there is a risk of dying anytime you go under. Oh, gee, that's comforting! Needless to say, I was less than thrilled about the prospect of going in and possibly....oh, well, say DYING!!! Don't think I didn't rehearse what I would tell John before I left him in the waiting room. Something along the lines of "Tell Thomas he is the biggest joy of my life, my everything, don't keep me alive on machines, get on with your life, tell our baby how much I love him and always will" kind of stuff. Unfortunately, all I got out was a quick kiss and I was out of there, hurried along to face whatever condition the surgeon and nurses were in after a night of 4th partying.

Talk about a non-event! I didn't even get to do a countdown like you see in the movies. Spray my hand with super, super cold stuff, tell me my legs might itch, I lean my head back and the next thing I realize is one eye is open and I'm peaking out from under a blanket in some strange room. I shut that one eye again, hoping the next time I'd open it I might remember where I'm at. No worries, though. Someone tells me they're going for my husband. Two eyes open up then. And everything is foggy from that point on.

I cooked some dinner for Thomas that night after sleeping until midday. I didn't need any good narcotics from that point on either, but was suspicious that things were going too well and I'd face some calamity later. My face wasn't swollen and nothing seemed much out of the ordinary, other than a nasty taste of blood a now constant. Without that, things would have been great. Hmmmm...I'm wondering when the "horror" story begins!

4th of July 2006/Lake Whatcom Boat Parade

Today our friends that now live in Paraguay, on their way to Chile, stopped over for a visit with their little boy Ethan. It was a great time seeing them again after so long apart. Carey blogs pictures and stories, so I still feel connected to them, but it was our first time meeting little Ethan and what a great little boy he is! They are so blessed with a beautiful, happy world traveler, and I so wish we still lived in the same town where our boys would grow up together. Unfortunately, while Thomas is learning to sail and wakeboard, Ethan will be traveling to exotic locales and speaking Spanish like a pro.

We participated in our 1st annual Lake Whatcom Boat Parade, after John and Bruce spent a great deal of time decorating the boat all up with red, white and blue flags and streamers. It was a lot of fun to be a part of the parade and Thomas and Matthew got a big kick out of the pirate-themed boats that were squawking back and forth with blow horns. Thomas was able to stay up well into the night as the fireworks began to go off, and we enjoyed a night-night boat ride out into the choppy waters of the lake for a great fireworks show all around us. By the time we arrived back at the dock, Thomas was ready for bed and we called it a night soon afterwards. We were all anticipating an early morning wake up call for my wisdom tooth surgery scheduled for o'dark in the morning.

"Mommy, s'that noise?" "Super, super, super crackery!" "Oohhhh, super, super loud." "Amazing!" "Grandma, play cars!" while all around flashes of lights and booms. He wasn't that interested.