Visiting Friends on the Mountain

For Labor Day we headed over to the other side of the state to visit our friends, the Michaelis. They live on a beautiful property on Mingo Mountain, overlooking Lake Roosevelt and Kettle Falls (I love this picture of Ally on the hay ride that shows their amazing view in the background). Judah refers to them as our "friends on the mountain" and every time we can see the mountains from our house he mentions that they live over there. The drive over went very well, it was Samuel’s first long road trip and we managed to only have to do two stops! He slept most of the way. Judah enjoys watching movies on our travels. This time he only watched one, The Lego Movie, or as he calls it, The Everything is Awesome Movie. And he watched it 3 times in a row! Thankfully we had brought his earbuds so didn’t have to listen to it over and over. We did know where he was at in the movie because every so often we would hear him say, “spaceship, spaceship, spaceship!”.

Once we arrived we commenced with playing and relaxing. The dogs got to know each other again and the kids hit it right off. The kids even got to have a movie night with Rio 2. Samuel was a big hit with all the kids, they very sweetly entertained him as he lay on the floor, giving lots of smiles and laughs. On Saturday we took an adventure over to the next county over’s fair. We got to see lots of animals, horse races, eat fair food, and ride a carousel twice. Judah really enjoyed the carousel the second time, the first he spent hanging on very tightly. On Sunday we got to take a hay ride all over the property, including up to the cistern that provides water to the property from a natural spring. The dogs tagged along behind us, getting super muddy in the puddles by the water cistern. Ally was so tired that night. We rounded out the night with a hot dog and marshmallow campfire. The next day we had a lazy morning with breakfast and packing before we headed on down the road for home.

 

What to do with Gasoline in Clothes

Today Judah was being a super helper to his dad, helping change the oil on the lawn mower. He held the cup to catch the oil as Jamie poured it out the spout. Unfortunately, our mower has a bad gas cap (that may or may not have been run over accidently) that leaks and when the oil poured out so did gas...all over Judah’s arm. He was a trooper though and didn’t move the cup at all, even while being doused with fuel. He came in reeking of gas so I grabbed his shirt and tossed it into a load of laundry I was just about to put in. BIG Mistake. Don’t ever do that. I didn’t even think or better yet, google. Needless to say I ended up with a load of laundry that all smelled of gas. And because I have a huge washer, it was a big load. So I went to my friend google and this is what I did salvage our clothes.

1. Removed the offending shirt and rewashed the load (this was before I googled).

2. Washed with 20 oz Coke, Baking Soda (a box full), and apple cider vinegar.

3. Soaked in baby oil all night long.

4. Rewashed with laundry soap.

5. Hung to air dry in the sun for 6 hours. (this finally killed the smell in most of the clothes)

6. Rewashed with laundry soap.

I still have yet to deal with the offending shirt, which sadly is his Seahawks champion shirt. We shall see if it survives. At least now I know what to do (and not do). Let this be a lesson to everyone else, learn from my mistakes. Now back to the rest of my laundry.

Historical Picture Recreation (Ben and Andrew)

Have you seen those pictures around the internet where grown adults “recreate” pictures from their childhood. Some are quite funny (and some are a bit disturbing). Well, while visiting my folks this summer I was looking for a picture in the album and stumbled across a really sweet one from 12 years ago of my cousins, Ben and Andrew. Well, the stars aligned and they happened to both be at the lake at the same time and it turns out we had almost all the original props too so we had to recreate it! So here it is the original from 2002 and the recreation from 2014.

Judah Prays

Judah just asked to pray at dinner tonight with our neighbors and did an amazing job. He totally nailed it, thanking God for the food and our friends. My favorite was part was when he thanked God for our neighbor's baby (she's pregnant) and our baby. He struggled a little at how to close it but Charlie, his buddy, jumped right in with a hearty AMEN!

Riding the Dog Like a Small Horse

The fact that Ally puts up with this astounds me. She is a great dog. Don't worry, I asked him to get off right after I got the picture. I love this example of Judah dressing himself. Camouflage pants and a striped polo shirt. Hey at least the colors match :)

Brothers!

Samuel is still a bit unsure of pictures with his brother.