It's All Relative

We set out for beautiful Jacksonville, Oregon to visit Grandpa and Nana, aunts, uncles and cousins. It's about a six hour drive, depending on how many stops you need to make. Which, of course, all depends on your kids! Car trips have not been smooth sailing since the addition of Zak, but things are looking up (or at least they did on the trip down!). A quick lunch stop and we were on the road again. Here are our two great travelers!

The Jensen cousins were also up for a visit, so the kids had lots of fun playing together.

Joanna, Caleb, Sam and Zak.

We also got to meet the newest cousin, Selah. No one is quite sure who she looks like, but I think she looks like Nana.
The weather has been gorgeous so we went on a little hike. The kids enjoyed running around the trail.

Sam, Joanna and Caleb

But, I think they had even more fun playing in the gravel in the parking lot!

Sam and Grandpa enjoying a rare snuggle.

We'll head back home in a couple of days and I'm sure we'll hear, "Why did we have to leave?", which is what we usually hear on our way home. It's always fun at Grandpa and Nana's house!

Seen & Heard

Although this may be a repeat for the grandparents, we wanted to remember a few things that have been seen and heard at our house lately.


Just imagine a little boy working on a puzzle, singing “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart”, and this is our view…

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I was teaching Sam how to play “Red Light, Green Light” recently, and it became apparent that he may be able to pass his driver’s exam sooner that we thought.

He was doing a great job stopping on “red” and running on “green”. Suddenly, after I had called out “red light”, he stopped and then started running again. I told him that he couldn’t go again until I said “green light”. He just looked at me and said, “Mom, I’m going right on red.”

Who can argue with that?

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This is the Bible that we use for Sam's devotions every night.



He loves to look at it when he’s in bed, so even though he is typically very careful with his books, it’s seen its share of repairs.

I walked in to check on him one night and this page was torn – quite a big tear.


I asked him if he had torn that page and he said, “Yes.” I told him that he knew better than to tear pages in his Bible and if he couldn’t treat it respectfully, he wouldn’t be allowed to read it in bed anymore. “But Mom,” he said, “I was just cutting Samson’s hair.”

He still gets to read his Bible in bed.

Let The Blogging Begin!

Yes, it’s true. I’ve been sucked into the world of blogging! Hopefully, this will be our way of keeping track of life as it happens.

Yesterday, the boys and I went to visit Matthew at the Fire Station since it had been a while since our last visit. Of course we rarely go empty-handed. Sam and I made Rice Krispy Treats after breakfast and enjoyed a few samples along the way.

Sam just loves going to the Fire Station. He doesn’t quite understand that not every little boy has this opportunity. He has a whole list of things that he has to do once we get there. Visit the fire engine, of course. Turning on all the lights and “driving”. Usually he climbs around the rehab unit (because it has a toilet and a light switch), but unfortunately it was out while we were there. He walks on the treadmill in the exercise room. Slides down the pole (just from as high as his Dad can hold him up). Investigates the insides of all the cupboards in the kitchen. Checks out his Dad’s bedroom to make sure his artwork is properly displayed. You can see that there is a lot for him to do! This time he got on the public address system with one of the other firefighters. He loved hearing his voice boom across the station – he would start laughing before he could even finish his sentence.

As you can see, Zak also got in on the action on this visit.