I Can See You!

Chancery thinks she’s such a clever girl!

Happy Friday, Everyone!

Over the River & Through the Woods...

...to Great Grandma's house we go!

Since my family hadn’t been back to my Grandma’s place since Christmas of 2006, we decided that a trip to see all the cousins, aunts, uncles, & Grandma was in order.
 

We started off with another ferry ride

(followed closely by a trip to Starbucks)

 

Then we spent a few hours in Grandma’s yard exploring, playing, seeing the kittens & chickens, picking cherries, & swinging.

Poor Great Grandma had to put up with Asher’s endless ringing of the doorbell.

After that we were off to a BBQ at my cousins’ place.

Obviously we’re a very photogenic family…

(they do it to themselves, you know)  

  It’s a shame we got to see so little of these people…

Nightlights

When Asher was about 1.5, we had issues with him waking up too early in the morning & constantly asking for us to come & get him out of his crib.  We didn’t allow him to get out of bed before 7am, but we didn’t know how to let him know when it was the right time.

 

I looked online for some suggestions, & all the ones I saw were about telling him, “when there’s a 7 at the front of the clock, you can get out of bed,” or, “set a clock radio to play music when it’s ok for him to get out of bed.”

 

Due to his age, the “read the clock” advice wasn’t going to work, and we didn’t want to wake him up if he was still sleeping at 7, so the music solution was impractical as well.

 

So, I decided to try putting a nightlight with a timer in his room, & I told him when the nightlight came on, then he could get out of bed.  It worked like a charm.  Occasionally he’d wake up too early & ask to get out of bed & we’d call back to him, “Is your nightlight on yet?”  When Chancery was about 1.5 we put a nightlight on a timer in her room as well.

 

When we travel, we take the nightlights with us & when we change time zones, it makes it that much easier, since the kids know exactly when they can get up.

 

Now, at age 4, Asher still abides by the nightlight for night time & for naps.  Sometimes he even helps us out when Chancery starts talking, by calling out to her, “It’s time to sleep, Chancery, and when your nightlight comes on Mummy or Daddy will come & get you!”

 

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When we were in Alberta visiting PChad’s family, Asher had the opportunity to have a sleepover at a cousin’s house.  At 7:30 all the other kids had been up & running around for awhile, but Asher was still in bed.  Then Tara heard a tiny voice call out, “May I get up now?”  We had sent Asher without his nightlight…

 

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The other night, the kids were in bed, PChad was upstairs, and I was on my way up as well.

 

PChad called down to me, “Can you come & help me a second?”

 

From Asher’s room we heard a voice say, “Umm, Daddy, I can help you after my nightlight comes on, so I can get out of bed then.”

 

We could tell that he really wanted to help his daddy with whatever it was he needed help with, but he knew he wasn’t allowed out of bed yet.

Pike Place & Pizza

Asher had been looking forward to taking the ferry ever since we told him that we were going to visit my parents.

He was thrilled when it was finally time to go on the boat, but do I have a picture of him on the ferry?

   No I do not.  This is my mom, brother Kurt,

Chancery & nephew Layne… on the ferry.

Chancery & Asher ready for a day at Pike Place Market.

Notice that Asher (the oldest), & Noah (the youngest) are the only ones who fell asleep.

After all that walking around, it was time to hit family favourite, Stella’s, for dinner, and BOY, were we excited!  While waiting for dinner, the kids found ways to entertain themselves…

Meghan coloured (or watched Kurt colour)

Layne played with his straw

Chancery peeled the paper off the crayons

Asher just drank his chocolate milk

 Noah used Brian’s head as drums while Brian looked back over the day’s pictures 

Another great day with the family.

Smarty Pants

Friday I had to take Chancery to the public health nurse for some more shots.  They do a few other tests there as well, and this time, it was an eye exam.

 

The nurse put a caterpillar finger puppet on her finger & moved it up & down, then covered one of Chancery’s eyes & did it again.  Next, she changed the caterpillar puppet to a zebra one.  She kept telling Chancery, “Watch the horsie!  Where did the horsie go?”  Chancery was paying absolutely no attention to it & the nurse seemed a bit mystified.

 

Finally, I pointed to the puppet & said, “Watch that, Chancery.”

 

To which Chancery told the nurse, “That’s not a horse, it’s a ZEBRA, Lady!”

Sunday Pictures

Asher – 4 years

Chancery – 1.5 years

*********************************************Chancery: “I guess we’re starting this again…”

Asher: “Let's try to alternate smiling.

I’ve got this picture, you get the next one, ok?

Cheese!”

Chancery: “Interesting idea, but won’t that make this take longer?

Cheese!”

Asher: “Maybe Mummy will finally get fed up with this whole ‘Sunday Pictures’ thing & give up on it altogether.

Cheese!”

Chancery: “That would be DELIGHTFUL!

Cheese!”

Asher: “Wouldn’t it though?  Imagine the possibilities!”

Chancery: “We’d have 10 more minutes to play every Sunday morning!”

Asher “Just don’t give up on that dream, Chancery!”

Sunday Pictures: the lost week at Grandpa & Grandma’s

Meghan – 5 years

Asher – 4 years

Layne – 2.5 years

Chancery – 1.5 years

**************************************Meghan: “Cheese!”

Chancery: “Oh, don’t bother smiling in the first one, she’ll take about 10 more anyway…”

Meghan: “Are you sure?  My mom & dad told me to smile whenever there’s a camera around.”

Asher: “Yes, Chancery’s right.  It seems whenever we have our church clothes on, Mum decides to take a whole roll of pictures.”

 

Meghan: “Will it be over soon?  My cheeks are getting sore…”

Chancery: “I warned you!  But, I have an idea…”

Chancery: “This usually works.  If I try to make an escape, Mum figures she’d better hurry up & get the money shot.”

Chancery: “Ready, guys?  Here I go!”

Layne: “That was brilliant, Chancery!”

***********************************And as an added bonus, here’s a pic of the whole family

(minus PChad who didn’t make it for this leg of the trip)

I won’t tell you how many pictures were taken to get this one good one, but let’s just say that “Sunday Pictures” runs in my family…

Dungeness Spit

While I was in Washington visiting the family,

we took a day trip to Dungeness Spit.

 

It was cold, but the kids had fun playing on the beach.

 

There were lots of logs that begged to be sat upon.

 

  And buckets to be filled with sand, or rocks.

Chancery’s bucket got so heavy she couldn’t lift it anymore.

 

The adults sat & relaxed.

 

Of course, the photographers were out in full force.

 

 

There was a search for the perfect walking stick…

 

  Quality time was spent looking out into the ocean & pondering life

 

And the grandparents seemed to have a good time too!

Reconnecting

When we lived in Grand Rapids, I became really good friends with Kami.  When I got pregnant with Asher, she discovered she was also pregnant, with twin boys.  We had our boys within 6 weeks of eachother, and for the next year we got together often for playdates.

The next year found us in Ontario, & Kami in California.

A year after that, we were spread as far as possible in North America, with us living on Prince Edward Island, and Kami in Savoonga, Alaska


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Recently, Kami moved from Alaska to Southern Washington, so when I went to visit my parents near Seattle, we knew we had to see eachother.


So, Kami showed up at my parents’ house & we headed to the beach to see what we could find.

A big starfish…

…and a little starfish.











  We tipped a lot of rocks, & found crabs of all different sizes, eels, hermit crabs, snails, & even jelly fish.  We had a great time seeing each other after 3 years, & the time together was too short!

When it was time to go, Logan & Owen were unimpressed!