Joshy's First Haircut!

After having two baldies, my third baby turned out a large head of hair. So much hair in fact he was starting to look like Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber. So last night at about 10pm, we buzzed him. This morning Jake said we can't call him Josh because he looks like a new baby now.

Before...

During...

And the transformation...I think his eyeballs look bigger.

The Alaska State Fair

Here are some pictures of our fun day at the fair. The kids had a blast petting animals, riding rides and eating goodies.

And this is pretty much the extent of Joshy's fair experience...

Sweet Big Brother

Usually when my kids are playing quietly out of my sight, the results are disasterous. Today I expected to find something broken, TP stuffed in the toilet or the entire contents of Jordan's closet unloaded on her floor. Imagine my surprise to come across this scene, Jaycob "reading" Jordan a story quietly on the floor of the playroom. Such cuteness.

Learning to Walk

Well, my baby thinks it's time to learn how to walk. All of a sudden he's cruisin' around any way he can. This was his first outdoor walking experience. He got tired really fast and then he just wanted to crawl through mud puddles.

College Begins!

Right now Darrin is enduring his first day of college at Wayland Baptist. He has to sit through a four hour class every Monday and Thursday night. I offered to take a picture as he was leaving for class but he wouldn't let me.

The HORROR!

When Jake was about 18 months old I found him sitting in his bed after a nap, holding a piece of doody in his hand and asking if it was a "rop?" I had been forwarned that this would happen to me and I was blessed with a very minor incident. So blessed in fact, that Jordan never even thought to check her diaper at that age.

Today I made the mistake of running downstairs to do a load of laundry. I left Jake and Jordan upstairs watching a video and Joshy nearby (dressed in just a diaper) with a pile of toys to keep him occupied. Well, that pile wasn't good enough because I returned upstairs to this one...

My carpet! My couch! That smell lingers for eternity.

Seldovia

For Darrin's birthday weekend, we took a trip with our friends, Ryan and Carly, to Ryan's hometown of Seldovia, Alaska. First we drove over four hours to Homer where we had to board a boat and cruise for about twenty minutes across the bay to Seldovia (you can only get there by boat or little tiny airplane). This was our boat.

After docking near Seldovia, I tossed Jake onto the dock were he was greeted by a friendly old dog that scared him to death. He turned to flee in a panic and bashed his head into the boat battery that Ryan was carrying down the dock. This is his owie...it didn't get stitches so I hope it didn't need them.

After settling into our little cabin on the boardwalk, we headed out to Outer Beach for a BBQ and some fun in the ocean. Here is some of our fun...

The next day, Ryan's parents watched all three of our rascals in addition to Ryan and Carly's two toddlers and we headed out on a 4wheeling adventure to the top of Red Mountain. There is an abandoned chromium mine at the top so there is actually a road that goes there. Unfortunately, the road is washed out in two places and we had to hike up the last bit. About ten minutes into our ride down the road, we saw the first of the five bears that we would see throughout the weekend. He posed for me, wasn't that nice?

The following day Ryan, Carly and I took the 4wheeler down to the beach to do some clamming. This was something I'd never done so I was a little excited about the spurts of water shooting up all around me (and on me). But we loaded up a couple buckets and the three of us piled back on the one 4wheeler with our buckets and shovels and headed back. Carly and I dubbed ourselves the "Clam Killers." More pictures...

The kids enjoyed sorting the buckets into big and small and back again.

After clamming, we took a short breather and then headed out on the high seas in a little ski boat for some halibut fishing. The current was pulling pretty hard and our boat was drifting to the point that we couldn't keep our hooks on the bottom. Never the less, Darrin hooked dinner within ten minutes. Jake was excited to come along but he was a bit disturbed to watch the halibut flopping around the boat and he got really upset when Ryan stabbed it in the head to kill it. But daddy had a talk with him and calmed him down. We headed back shortly after that because I managed to get myself quite seasick. By the time we got to the dock Darrin had convinced Jake that we were going to eat the fish for dinner. He agreed but said he was going to eat the tail.

The following day was our very last day and we were sad to leave. Rather than boating back across to Homer, we took a charter flight. Our family filled up the entire 5 seater airplane. It was my first ride in a tiny little plane.

Here is Jakey in the cockpit...

We all had such a fabulous time. What an adventure! We can't thank our hosts, Russ and Sandy Geagel, enough for their hospitality and babysitting services. And we also thank Ryan, our official tour guide and Carly for helping put the whole trip together. Can't wait to go back.

Back to School!

So, yesterday was a big decision day for our family. Darrin signed up for college! He is going to be completing his Bachelors Degree in Business in three years. He starts classes on August 20th. We were pleasantly surprised that he had already accumulated about a year's worth of credits from previous college courses, his military training and having been at the same job for four years. We are excited about this new phase of life but a little nervous as well. Darrin has made the difficult decision to quit coaching during this period he's in school. It will be hard on his heart as well as our finances. But we believe this is God's will and he has always taken care of us. We don't doubt that he will continue to do so. But we sure wouldn't mind the support of your prayers!

Back from Church Camp

We just got back from Jr High camp yesterday. We had a fun and exhausting week. Our kids were real troopers. Jake loved canoing but Jordan hated the life jacket. They both enjoyed dancing to the praise music at night and little Joshy loved crawling around and eating trash. It was nice to have dozens of babysitters on hand too.