Riding on a sleigh with the Reindeer

Two weeks ago, we went to one of the local nurseries in the area and they had pictures with Santa's sleigh and two of his reindeer. The kids thought it was cool, although they kept their distance from them at first. Noah was the most brave, probably because he wasn't aware that he should be scared. The kids, of course, wanted a fan going while we had pictures so that it would look like we were really flying. Maybe next year.

I was kind of afraid that the kids would spook the reindeer causing the to frantically flee the scene still attached to the sleigh with the boys having their free ride on the back." Sometimes I get these little visions before an event and surprisingly enough, I am right most of the time. Thankfully, I wasn't correct this time. We had a great time. They all thought it was cool that Santa came down with two reindeer for the day to Silverdale, WA.

Rebecca has been working on making the kids sweaters this year, and she finally finished Noah's right after Thanksgiving. They all turned out great. Noah loves his the best because his favorite color is red. It is like a movie from the 1970's when Rebecca tells the kids to all get dressed up in their sweaters for a family picture. They all think it is cool that mom made them sweaters.



Happy Holidays Everyone!!

Documentation of Flooding 2007

Here are some of the pictures of the flooding that took place here on Monday. The whole thing was so surreal since it came on gradually. As we said in our last post, we had some snow on Saturday, then dumps of it on Sunday. It was great. The kids loved playing in it, it was beautiful from inside, and best of all, it didn't interfere with school since it was on the weekend! Then came the consequences... The snow turned to heavier, sleet-like snow/rain mix by Sunday evening. We thought that was fine because it meant no road problems on Monday for school and commuting. Could we have been more wrong?

By Monday morning, since it had been raining all night, the ground was really wet. Not only did we have the current rain, but it combined with all of the melting snow to produce twice the run off. By 10:45 on Monday morning, our school was being emergency evacuated. At that point, many roads were already closed due to what was then referred to as the innocuous 'water over roadway.' By Monday afternoon, when the rain would just not stop, many people had been stranded or stuck for hours. Robb was on the south side of a freeway closure to our south. He wasn't sure if he might have to turn around, drive all the way across the bridge, through Tacoma, and back north to the ferries just to get home by Monday night. Fortunately, he was driving in the right direction...The other side of the freeway was under about 4 feet of water, but they were letting cars through slowly on Robb's side.

My dad had to run out to try to find a sump pump to pump out the 17" of water from their crawl space under their house. By about 7 hours later, there were still about 5" of water left, even with the pump. We were going to use their pump for the 15" of water sitting under our house until the rain finally subsided, and our curtain drains were finally able to handle what was left of the load of water drainage.

Tuesday our entire school district was closed due to widespread road closures and power outages. Fortunately for us, the high winds stayed mostly to the coast, so the projected power outages were nowhere near as severe as we had feared, and we remained with power the whole time, despite a few flickers. Wednesday, the rest of the district was back open with modified trainsportation for all buses. All of the district that is, except Brownsville Elementary. The website gave 3 reasons: road closures, no phone or computer service, and no fire alarm service. The latter two issues were resolved before lunchtime on Wednesday, but the former remains a problem. As I write this, the older boys are on their way home from school on the bus. Though I know they are safe on the bus, I have no idea how long it will take them to get home. On a normal Thursday, they are usually walking through the door exactly at this time...At this point, there is only ONE route in and out of the school, the other 3 ALL have sinkholes. See pictures below...

The picture above on the left is on our way to school. The one above on the right is the alternate way to school (the one I take if I go to Starbuck's on the way...). The one below on the left is in Silverdale right near our bank. The one on the right is the Fred Meyer parking lot.

sunny, snow, more snow, monsoon rains, flooding...

It started snowing on Saturday afternoon and the kids had a great time in it as it started to fall. By the evening, it had turned to rain and the streets were clear again. We had heard that most likely, it would be raining when we woke up Sunday morning. We also new that there was a big storm coming that would hit on Sunday with high winds and 2-4 inches of rain, so we were told.

You know the drill. The kids get all suited up, they go out and play for twenty minutes, come back in cold and wet wanting a cup of hot chocolate. That is all part of the experience.

On Sunday morning, we woke up to dumping snow at 6:00 am. You may ask why we were up so early and the short answer is that we have kids who were hoping to see more snow. We thought that it would change over to rain within an hour or so, but it wasn't until around 3:00 p.m. that afternoon when it turned to more sleet. It snowed from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 non-stop. It was beautiful, but we were amazed at how steady it was all day long. We didn't go to church, canceled a lunch with family and ended up staying home and letting the kids play. Little did we know that after it changed over to rain, it would dump more than 12 inches of rain in Bremerton in a 24 hour period. With so much rain, everything started to flood. The snow was gone by Sunday night and it rained all night long. It also rained all day Monday, canceling school, flooding roads, downtown Silverdale, parts of Bremerton, and filling the crawl space underneath our house with water. The whole day was strange to see so much widespread damage. The kids came home early from school on Monday, were out today, Tuesday, and are also going to be out of school tomorrow because their school doesn't have any phone lines. There was also a lot of damage to the roads near the school with them washing away, so bussing children is going to be tricky. All of this was amazing and scary to watch. Who would have known that over the weekend, we would have had so many different types of weather. We are grateful that our family is safe. Expect the unexpected.

Christmas tree hunting!

I am sure that this man loved all of the questions that the kids asked while he put the tree on top of the car and tied it down. He was the owner of the tree farm and wasn't a big talker. The kids watched as he tied the tree down, giving some tips as the process went on.

We went on our annual Christmas tree hunt this year the week after Thanksgiving. We decided to go on Saturday because it was supposed to snow that afternoon and we wanted to get it before all the mayhem. It was quite cold that day, which we learned as we got out of the car to look for the tree. I would have to say that we made a new record this year with finding the tree the fastest this year. Sure, it may have been due to the cold weather, or just that we have a really good eye now and we know what we are looking for. Call it what you will, it took about 10 minutes.

Jacob brought his backpack filled with rope, candy, you name it, he had it. We were well prepared that day. Jonah wore his camouflage clothing, he fits right into Bremerton, and Noah sported his hat from when he was three--it makes him look so much younger in his face.

Noah was given the task this year to tie the yellow ribbon around the tree that we picked. He was so excited this year, because he had learned how to tie a knot. He did a great job and of course did it with such enthusiasm, asking all of us to look at the great job he had done.

Jacob had, of course, brought suckers for everyone, just in case of an emergency.

Later that day, it did begin to snow, but we had already gotten home with the tree. We had a good time.

Thanksgiving in Leavenworth, WA

This year, we headed up to Leavenworth with Rebecca's family (Mark and Sue, Hannah, Sarah and Josh, and the five from our clan. We rented a house with four bedrooms to make sure there would be plenty of room for all of us. It was a fun house to have for five days. It had a jacuzzi in the garage, so the kids were in and out of the 102 degree water every couple hours. It was pretty cold up there and sunny. We had a great time.

One of the things that the kids did was head down to Leavenworth and they made these lanterns with glow sticks inside of them. The town was supposed to have a small parade at 5:30 one night where all of the kids and adults could walk the streets with their lanterns. The kids had a fun time decorating them and the glow sticks were an added bonus. If you ever need hours of fun, get some glow sticks. The kids went to sleep that night with them hanging from the ceiling. They had a good time.

We went on a walk one of the days down near the river and it was certainly cold that day. The girls went off to the yarn store and the guys went walking. It wasn't long when the kids went into a deep freeze and we needed to head back to find the girls. Pictures below were of Sarah and Jacob playing the Wii. They had a great time with the Wii, although it was the closest this country has come to world war III. You think the world is worried about Iran or North Korea, well just put our kids in a room by themselves with the Wii, and there is now a new "country" to be worried about. I think this is why we don't have one at home just yet. The other picture was "Christmas list central". Mark was taking down all of the Christmas requests for the season. Yes, we were actually getting organized.

We were also able to squeeze in making Christmas cookies with the kids. The best part is always decorating the cookies and licking the frosting.

It's a hard job to eat cookies all day long.

We all chipped in with the cooking, although Mark and Sue tackled the bird and stuffing. It was fun to be away from any one persons home for Thanksgiving. It hopefully took all of the burden off one person to have it at their home. We played games, took walks, got some reading in, and saw two movies. It was a great time. The drive home Sunday was without snow or incident. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

What is this? Another home remodel project?

To those of you who ask if we are crazy or not, the short answer is, absolutely. Since I am into my fifth week off in my seven week "sabbatical", we decided that it would be the perfect time to rip our leaky shower and toilet out and replace them. So, as you can see, we ripped out everything down to the studs and slowly built it back up. My dad and I have done our other bathroom last year, so we have enough skill t be very dangerous. In between mini-trips here and there, we have chipped away at this. Now that going back to work is looming in the distance, we rev ed things up a bit this week. This last weekend, Rebecca and her mom tiled the bathroom because they do it so well together. Sue cuts all the tiles and Rebecca lays them. I got child duty for the day on Saturday, which wasn't a bad coin toss. They did a great job all day long right up until 5 p.m. when Rebecca changed so we could meet some good friends for dinner in Seattle. On Sunday, the grouting took place and tomorrow we will see how it all turns out. It looks great. Now all we need to do is tile the floor and put in a new toilet, and we are good to go. All before we leave on Thursday for Washington D.C. Picture of the shower as we were tearing things out. What a job, but it does feel good to get rid of the old dry wall.

Picture of Sue cutting tile--hard to see. I couldn't use a flash for fear of her seeing me taking the picture and then killing me.

Rebecca today grouting the tile. We will take some pictures when it is done so you can see the finished product.

The best part of all of this is that in the midst of Rebecca tiling, she comes down with hives all over her body and has to go on antihistamine and steroids from the doctor to deal with the extreme itching. No idea where it came from, but the timing is perfect. So this picture is of her grouting in a medicated fog. Rebecca is a woman like no other. Noting slows her down. If we all had the drive that she had, we could conquer the world. We will update as I am allowed to take more pictures.

RnR

Our 100th Post...Happy Halloween!!

Sure, a little late, but here you go none the less. Pictures of the ever popular Halloween. The kids had a great time all day long with parties, candy, cupcakes, and the excitement of filling a bag full of candy for mom and dad. Jacob wanted to be Superman and Noah followed along with being spider man. Jonah, on the other hand, wanted to be a skeleton. It fit him perfectly. Rebecca bought the shirt and then painted the bones on his sweats with white paint. It looked great. The scarecrow in the picture just came a long for the ride.

The best part of Jonah's costume was getting his face painted. They couldn't do it for school, so he was excited to have Rebecca do it before we went out that night.

Jacob wanted his hair painted blue, so he thought that was great.

Noah went to school that day and his best friend, Marcus, was dressed up as the evil spider man. Noah didn't know it was him at first in the hallway until someone called his name. Pre-schoolers are so oblivious, it;s great. He had a great time with his friends at school. they all got hot in their costumes within 15 minutes and ended up taking them off for the remainder of the class.

We had our annual chili dinner prior to going trick or treating. The kids always want to race through dinner and want us to get out the door asap. No one got hurt this year running up dark driveways. They had a great time, but boy were they tired.

Happy Halloween 2007

Octoberfest in Spokane, cousins, and crisp sun

We headed off for Spokane on Thursday for our annual weekend in Spokane. We love heading up to Green bluff which is an area where there are a lot of farms, pumpkins, apples, and fun for the kids. It also happened to be our nieces 13th birthday, which the kids thought was great. We first headed over to Idaho and spent time with friends from college, and the kids had a fun time playing with kids their own age after the 6 hour drive. We spent the rest of the weekend with my brother and sister in law, who live right near Whitworth University. These are some pictures of Green Bluff, Hannah's 13th Birthday, and walks around Whitworth. We had a great time. The weather was bright, sunny, and cold--Fall. Our kids aren't used to the sun, so most pictures are of Noah, closing his eyes. He asked why the sun is brighter in Spokane. That is a good question.

Wow, all three boys standing in one place at one time.

This is Jonah taking a break from all of the running and playing at the hay maze. There were hardly anyone there since it was Friday. We had the whole place to ourselves. The even had the pumpkin cannon that was operational.

I caught one for a picture. We had a great time watching them run around, weaving in and out of the maze.

Hannah had a great time opening gifts and having dinner with the whole family. The kids get so excited for her and wanted to buy party hats for her with soccer balls on them. Hannah is very good at sports and Jonah really looks up to her. She is great with our kids.

She was a good sport, putting on the party hats. We had a family dinner, followed by presents and cake. What's not to enjoy about an evening with the family.

We all took a walk to Whitworth , which is down the road. Mike got the privilege of herding the flock down the street.

While the adults were watching a Whitworth soccer game, all the kids were running around the grass and playing in water pipe. They could have stayed there all day long.

We walked around campus and Mike showed us some of the new buildings they are working on. The kids used this time to throw leaves a each other. Astrid and Noah had a great time playing int he leaves.

No comments from the peanut gallery. This is our tour guide and his wife, Andrea...or should that be the other way around. It is always very beautiful on campus in the fall, before the snow begins to come. We showed the kids where mom and dad lived while we were in college, where we ate meals, and where we studied for hours in the library (believable, huh?)

Astrid was good enough to take on some extra baggage on the way home since little legs don't carry you very far. All of their cousins are so loving and helpful. They love having older cousins to play with. Astrid usually watches out for Noah and takes care of him.

We had a great weekend of birthday celebration, soccer games, and a lot of playing. We came home rested and tired. All the kids hit their pillows hard on Sunday night. Now it is back to school, making up homework from missed school on Friday. Thanks to Mike and Andrea, who were great hosts.

The LeRoys