Well, we just returned home from our annual adventure to the fair, $200 lighter than when we left (yikes!). We had to park at the absolute farthest parking area possible, so we all got our exercise! We all had a great time, though. Uncle Ed was kind enough to join us and he took Christian for a little while to the bigger kid area. Christian won a big green mouse stuffed animal and a blow-up stick. He also bought a plastic trumpet which he and Alyson both loved, but it sadly was a casualty today – it disappeared at some point (shhh… he hasn’t noticed yet). Brandon and Daddy had some time to themselves too and had a blast going on the little kid rides. Brandon also won a fish! So of course, we had to buy the tank and a second fish. The fish are currently named Max and Braden (who knows how long those names will last). We have to pick up fish food at the store tomorrow. Brandon also won a big blow-up hammer and two stuffed puppies for Alyson (although one of these was also a casualty today). Alyson and I wandered through a couple of the animal barns and the exhibit areas. She tried to win a fish too 🙂 She brought home a Dora beach ball and carried it all over. We really enjoyed the shaved ices this year – we had to pick the hottest day of the weekend to go! Well, there you have it… another year into the history books.
The Fair!
September 2nd, 2006Surprise!
August 31st, 2006
Two days in a row 🙂
Christian has just been moved to the 2nd/3rd grade split class now. Why? We’re not really sure, other than a couple of 3rd graders moved away so Christian and one of his friends get to move to the 2/3 class and balance it out. Other than the fact that we’re now reconciling with a 3rd supply list, we’re happy about it. It’ll still be a smaller class than the straight 2nd grade classes, and he’ll still have math with just 2nd graders, but it’ll be interesting to see how he does with the 3rd graders 🙂
Updates!
August 30th, 2006Sorry you had to call me to get an update, Angie, but it was great to talk to you!
Updates:
Christian: Christian can now ride his bike without training wheels. He’s going to be in a 1/2 split class at school this year. I was worried about that at first, but then I talked to the principal for a while and she assured me that it will be a great fit for him. Christian really needs more help with reading. The 1/2 split class with have a lower student/teacher ratio than a straight 2nd grade class. And he’ll get to be one of the big kids in class. He has also started playing soccer. His first game is Sept 9 and he got his team shirt today. He’s number 1 again (the same number he had for the last two seasons in baseball).
Brandon: Brandon is really looking forward to starting preschool next week. I’m taking Friday off of work next week to take him on the first day 🙂 We dug out his backpack and he’s all set. Any time we pass Trinity, he tells Christian “Look, there’s my school. It’s BIGGER than your school!” He’s SO competitive. At swimming, he passed Preschool Swim 1 after the first session this summer. Christian did NOT pass Youth Swim 1 at the first session, so Brandon held that over his head for the 5 weeks of the second session. “I’m in Preschool Swim 2 and you’re still in Youth Swim 1!!”. LOL
Alyson: Alyson is amazing. Tonight she WALKED down the stairs all by herself! She won’t even be two for another two months. She LOVES to color and draw more than anything. She lays down on the floor on her tummy, with her feet in the air kicking, coloring very intricately. She colors more carefully than Brandon! She also loves to read books. She dearly loves her big brothers. She follows them around everywhere, and loves to play Ring around the Rosie with them.
Me! Taxes have picked up again (more returns on extension that I would’ve guessed) and I’ve been spending a lot of time preparing for the new compliance season at work, so I’ve been swamped. The new Sunday School year starts in a week or so too, but that will be fun. I’m thankfully finished with the Intro to Programming class I took this summer. That was really fun. Now I’m trying to code a program that will calculate the fees for tax return preparation (although my software does that too and my rate schedule is really simple LOL).
We’re looking forward to going to the fair next weekend as usual. Other than that, soccer is going to take up at least part of every weekend through the beginning of November, so it’s going to be a crazy fall!
That’s really all I can think of! I promise to try harder to keep this thing updated!
Kids’ silliness saves the day…
July 13th, 2006Today has been filled with highs and lows, laughter and tears…
The lows…
I’m filled with sadness for Mom and a couple of my best friends. I don’t know what it is in the air lately disintegrating relationships. BIG hugs to you, Mom. I hope this mess with Johnny sorts itself out quickly in one way or another. Two of my best friends are going through surprising sudden divorces… these were two of the couples that I always thought were the most stable. It’s seems so senseless and painful.
But there have been great laughs today too…
coming home to Alyson, sitting quietly on the couch, with a butterfly net on her head(!) was definitely worth a smile (I’ll get a picture posted)
but the BEST part can be found on bill’s blog. Check out the .mp3 attached to the VBS Skit article. Bill came home from VBS today with homework for our family. They needed an audio skit recorded for tomorrow(!) Christian and Brandon each did a wonderful job, and it is SO hilarious to hear them say their lines!
ANOTHER big day for Christian!
June 13th, 2006Wow, Christian has had such a big year! Today was the final Chess Club meeting and in addition to his participation award, Christian earned the 2nd place trophy for First Grade! That’s awesome considering it was his first term in chess!
Tonight is the baseball awards night too, where Christian will get Most Improved in addition to his participation trophy.
He has had such a big year, and we are SO proud of him!!! 
***** Edited 9pm ******
Here’s what Coach had to say about Christian at the Reds team party tonight… He said Christian is the reason he coaches baseball… no matter if it’s a practice, game, rain, shine, good day, bad day, Christian ALWAYS has a smile on his face. He wasn’t intimidated by being the youngest player on the team, and he was the most improved player. 
The Reds Win!!
June 10th, 2006The Reds are the Pacific Little League Farm Champions!!! It was not an easy game, even though it was the 2nd game of the day for the D-Backs. The Reds pulled off a win by 2 runs, 17 to 15. What a nail-biting few games this week! Bill has some great pictures on his blog.
Now we have to start looking at Soccer for Fall
Christian’s hair
June 9th, 2006
Christian’s birthday party last Saturday was a huge success. We had 11 pirates and 3 princesses running around! Whew, glad it’s over
The latest fad for the boys on Christian’s baseball team is for them to have their brown hair dyed blonde on top… because he has worked so hard this year, we let Christian do it too. It’s pretty cute, sorry the picture really doesn’t show it very well.
He has also lost 2 teeth in the last week, so it’s been a very busy week!
Baseball playoffs!
May 31st, 2006
It has been such an exciting two days for Christian and the rest of us!
Yesterday, Christian was whisked away from Chess class to go to his Kindermusik graduation at a special early time, 4 pm. Christian’s favorite part was when the pinata broke open and they all got to look for 10 items.
Christian also had a baseball playoff game against the D-Backs at 5 pm, so it was a crazy evening. He was able to get there about 5:30, in time to help his team pull off a nail-biting win!
And to top it all off, Christian lost his very first tooth during the last inning!
Their win against the D-Backs last night won them a game tonight against their biggest rival, the Royals. They’ve been formidable competitors all season… they are the only team the Reds lost to all season! Tonight, the Reds pulled off another WIN! What a great start to the playoff season!
Their next game will be Sunday 6/4 at 6 pm (so yay, no conflicts with his pirate birthday party on Saturday)!
Welcome baby Holcer!
May 23rd, 2006*Happy Auntie Dance*
Welcome to little miss Abigail Jean Holcer! Congratulations Angie, she’s another beauty
San Juan Island!
May 14th, 2006Yesterday, Christian, Crystal, Joy and I embarked on an adventure! Christian had been saying he wanted to be a dolphin trainer when he grows up, so for a special day I planned a trip to San Juan Island to the whale museum.
Here’s the itinerary as we originally planned it:
5:15 am Leave Lynnwood
6:45 am Arrive Anacortes
7:45 am Ferry to Friday Harbor
9:30 am Arrive Friday Harbor
10 am Whale Museum and misc sightseeing
1 pm check in at Roche Harbor – San Juan Safaris
2 pm Sea Kayaking – San Juan Safaris – 3 hours
6 pm dinner
7 pm be in line for ferry
8 pm ferry to Anacortes
9:20 pm arrive Anacortes
10:50 pm arrive Lynnwood
Surprisingly, we actually stuck really close to our itinerary. We left about 10 minutes late, but arrived in Anacortes on time. We had an expensive breakfast at the ferry terminal and re-bought the map that I had bought and forgotten at home in the gift shop. When we got to Friday Harbor, we found that the town doesn’t open until 10, so we walked around a bit, found the public restrooms, and went back to the whale museum at 10. The weather was ok… a little cold and sprinkly off and on all day long, but we had times of beautiful sunshine too. Gotta love WA weather!
The whale museum was fun. The kids got to play with sound recordings, which was their favorite part. They got to hear what different types of sea life sounded like as well as recording their own voices. They had various skeletons on display and Christian thought the preserved baby harbor seal was cool. We also watched a bit of a movie about a whale researcher. Admittedly, most of the time we spent at the whale museum was spent in the gift shop I picked up a couple of books for Christian and he and Joy each got a package of squeaky sea life toys (whales, squid, etc).
So from there, we played with the navigation in Crystal’s new van and had it direct us to Lime Kiln State Park. The scenery was beautiful. We even saw a fox on the way! When we got there, we had a snack and followed a trail to a whale watching spot and on to the lighthouse. It was a nice short hike, and it was Christian’s favorite part of the trip. I learned that Madrona is a kind of tree (silly me, I thought it was a community).
Then we headed on to Roche Harbor. On the way, we saw a beautiful bald eagle. I tried desperately to get his picture, but he was too far away to get a really good picture. When we first saw him, he was really close, though, so it was disappointing to not get a better picture. We also saw horses, cows, sheep, and alpaca on the way, and we passed the Lavender farm.
Roche Harbor is a tiny little place. You park at the top of a hill and walk down into the town. Kinda strange. Anyway, we walked down and stood in line forever to have fish and chips and chowder. The fish was fabulous. The chowder wasn’t really anything special. Before we knew it, it was time to check in for our kayaking trip. The kids had been really nervous about kayaking. They both insisted they don’t know how to swim and who knows what other arguments they had to not go LOL. We were a little worried at first, because the guy who checked us in warned us we’d be expected to keep up with the other couple that was booked on our tour, but thankfully it all turned out to be fine.
We got the full rundown of what to do, got suited up with life jackets and ’skirts’, got settled into our kayaks and off we went! They did warn us that with the light kids up front, it could be more difficult to control the boats and I experienced that first hand. We had some time to get used to kayaking and then we crossed a channel and when we got to the other side, Crystal and I managed to run into each other and I got turned the other way and there was no possible way I could get turned back toward the group. I fought with it for several minutes, but then the guide Becky called out that they were going to come to me and we’d go the way I was facing instead. She said I’d been doing the right things but with light little Christian up front it just wasn’t going to happen.
So we continued on (looking now at a map we must have been going around Henry Island) and the next bit of adventure was the HAIL! It started outright hailing and we had to go back a bit and hold on under a dock for shelter until it passed! The hail hitting the water looked pretty cool, but those little chunks of ice hurt! It wasn’t long before it passed and we were on our way again. We stopped on Posey Island for a break and to look for sealife. We saw crabs, barnacles, limpets, lots of tiny snails, some fish, and oysters! For some reason, I had no idea we had oysters here.
The kayaking was fabulous. We all really enjoyed it! Christian and Joy paddled the whole way, which was amazing according to Becky. She said any 6-7 year olds she’s ever seen on the tours have given up paddling after the first 2 minutes. Those two sure were troopers and I could sure feel it when Christian was not paddling. It was a bit difficult to try to match his strokes and he did get me soaked but it was great. I loved every minute of it. Christian and Joy had quite the competitive thing going on (I’m going to beat you! No, I’m going to beat you!) LOL. We also saw Harlequin ducks, Cormorants, and a mink! So very cool.
Anyway, we returned to the harbor, and I was really proud of us for bringing the kayak perfectly back into the slip. Then it was time to leave Roche Harbor and go back to Friday Harbor in search of dinner. In Friday Harbor, we found Fridays Crab House and wow was it wonderful! Joy and Christian shared a whole crab, Crystal had a crab, and I had salmon (ok, I shared everyone’s crab too!). It was a perfect dinner! We ate outside on the top deck (which we had to ourselves). It sprinkled on us again a little bit, but not too bad. The kids were still as goofy as ever. Christian has decided that crab is his favorite food
We got the van into the ferry line at 7 (which was laughable because even when the ferry arrived there were only 5 or so cars in line) and then we walked over to the ‘Doctors Office’ which was a little shop that served coffee, ice cream, treats, and some food. Crystal and I were still stuffed from dinner but bought some treats for the road (peanut butter bar, a brownie, that sort of thing) and the kids both had ice cream. We thought they were crazy – we were cold!
On the ferry home, we saw the most beautiful sunset! Crystal got some wonderful pictures. We saw the mountains in the distance and the snow was reflecting pink… beautiful. We weren’t sure which mountain it was… seems like it must have been Baker? And on the drive home we saw the biggest moon! I’m sad my pictures of it didn’t turn out (but there’s only so much you can do from a moving vehicle).
Anyway, it was an amazing day all around and we’re definitely planning on going again!
