Papa and Nana Visit

 We are overjoyed to have my Dad and Mom visiting us!  They will be here for two weeks and we are soaking up every minute of love and fun.  The weather has been typical-rain, rain and more rain, but we are not letting that stop us. 

The first day they were here we did a fun craft project that I found on Pinterest.  Papa was Naomi's helper and Nana was Jacob's.  We had a lot of fun doing them and they turned out super cute.  Now we just have to keep them moist and wait for the seeds to sprout!

Friday, we went to Snohomish for the day.  They have a lot of neat shops to browse in.  We enjoyed a yummy lunch at the Snohomish Pie Company.  We had soup and sandwiches and shared a few slices of pie.  Then we walked around and we found a few treasures.

Friday night we went out to dinner at Blazing Onion, which was Darrick's choice since he was at work during the day and did not go to Snohomish with us.  We enjoyed awesome burgers and fries.  Then we shopped around Fred Meyer and showed my parents what it was all about.

Saturday morning is chore morning at our house, so Papa and Nana relaxed while the Hays family cleaned and did their Saturday chores!  After a quick lunch we headed to Lynnwood to see our friend Steve display a model he made for Darrick in a model show.It is the John Paul Jones, which is Darrick's favorite ship that he has been stationed on.  Steve built it for Darrick, during the 13 months that he was deployed to Cuba, to give to him as a surprise when he returned.  He took 2nd place in the ship category!  Then we went to Hobby Lobby because we had never been there.  We enjoyed homemade stone soup and rolls for dinner and chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert.

Today was church and then we started prep work for the kitchen and out project we are doing in there!  I will post pictures about that soon!

Preparing the Backyard

 We have big plans for our backyard!  We want to build some raised beds.  But first we have to clear the way.  The current raised bed is made out of railroad ties, which leak chemicals into the soil.  We had to remove those, cut down a tree and clean up the flower bed, which had a tree and rose bushes in it.  We also had to salvage what plants we could.

We were able to save a few rhubarb plants and a bunch of strawberry plants to put in our new flower beds!

Bye Bye Monster Tree

 When we moved into our home there was a Japanese Maple Tree in our front yard.  It looked ok when it had no leaves but when it did have leaves it looked like Cousin It.  So I called it the Monster Tree.  Our friends wanted the tree so Darrick decided to take it out so we could give it to them.  It started out ok but eventually the top pulled off...so we could not give it to our friends but we did get the tree out.

 We took some patches of grass from the back and filled it in a bit and also laid seed down.  Now we just wait for it to all fill in!

A wonderful visit

 Today we had the most wonderful visit with our dear friends Kelly and Max.  We have not seen them for two years because they are stationed in Germany.  Unfortunately Kelly is battling cancer so she is here getting treatment. 

Everytime Max and Naomi are together, Kelly and I cannot get over how they always seem to have such a deep special bond.  They picked up like no time had passed.  When we adopted them, Max was 1 and Naomi was 2, now Max is 4 and Naomi is 5!

There was a lot of wrestling and playing and laughing today.  We wished it didn't end.  We love them both so much and we were so honored when Kelly asked us, with tears in her eyes, if we would be Max's guardians if anything happened to her and her husband.  It was a very touching moment and one we will never forget.

Walk for Hope

 Yesterday our family participated in the Everett Gospel Mission's Walk for Hope!  They gave out blue beanies to all of those who walked.  We had to be there at 8:30 am.  After we checked in we were able to have a tour of the Women's shelter which is where the walk started. It was a 1.8 mile walk to the Men's shelter.  We brought a stroller because Naomi was crabby and did not want to walk.

There were about 20 people from our church who walked and we raised over $1800 for the shelter from just our church.  When we arrived at the Men's shelter we were given breakfast which was a breakfast sandwich, muffins, fruit and juice.  After our breakfast were toured the Men's shelter.  We took a shuttle back to car and enjoyed some warm soup after we got home!

Following Lewis and Clark

 This weekend we decided to take a last minute outing.  Sunday after church we were having lunch and decided to go on a little trip since Darrick had Monday off and the boys have no school.  One of the classes the boys are taking this semester at Port Gardner is called "Lewis and Clark".  So we thought it would be fun to see some of the places they were.  We packed up and drove 4 hours south to Astoria, Oregon.  We stayed the night at a Holiday Inn Express with a pool and an awesome view of a bridge out our window.  We had fun swimming and then had a goodnight sleep.  We enjoyed our continental breakfast and then hit the road to do some learning!

Our first stop was at Fort Clatsop, Oregon.  Naomi was entertained by crafts while we viewed the museum and watch a short film.  Jacob really took a liking to Lewis' dog, Seaman, which is why he is hugging him in the picture below.  For his souvenir Jake picked a stuffed Seaman and a picture book about him.  Micah picked a postcard and 3 pencils. 

Jake ready to travel with Lewis and Clark

Micah and Jacob with Lewis and Clark

 After the museum and movie we headed outside to view the Fort.  Darrick and Micah had fun pretending they were guards.  We looked all around before we headed back to the museum.

 On our hike back Jacob spotted a salamander under a log.  I have no idea how he saw it because even when he pointed it out to me I still couldn't see it.  He picked it up and held it for a bit before he set it free again.

Micah also found some neat things.

 Then we drove across the big bridge(in the first pics) to Washington to Cape Disappointment and the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.  It was very hands on and the kids got to try out a lot of things and do a lot of exploring.

It was a fun time and we all agreed that we would like to visit again in the summer, when the weather will be nicer!

Happy Valentine's Day

 If you know me, then you know that today is my favorite day of the whole year!  We were busy with appts. and classes today but we still found time to celebrate!  For our afternoon snack I made homemade soft pretzels in the shapes of hearts.  I served them with spicy hot chocolate.  Everyone LOVED the pretzels but only Darrick and Jake liked the spicy hot chocolate.

 For our annual candlelight dinner we had chicken Parmesan, noodles, Caesar salad, strawberry pretzel salad and sparkling limeade and pink lemonade.

 After we got dinner cleaned up, we all sat around in a circle, ate the chocolate covered strawberries we made and read our Valentines we made for each other.  We read them one at a time and have a lot of laughs.  Below I will list some of our favorite poems this year.

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! xoxo

To: Naomi "Roses are red, Violets are Blue, You are Brown and I love You" From: Micah
To: Jacob "LEGOs are red, Footballs are brown, I'm so happy, when you're around" From Micah
To: Jacob "Apples are green, blueberries are blue, Bananas are yellow and I love you" From Mom
To: Micah "You are as awesome as awesome sauce" From Jacob
To: Mom "Roses are red, violets are blue, Honey is sweet but not as sweet as you" From Jacob
To: Dad "Seahawks are good, Dad you are better, in every situation, especially headers" Love, Jacob
To: Naomi " Roses are red, violets are blue, brown sugar is brown, but not as brown as you" Love, Jacob