The Joys and Pains of Learning to be a Father

An interesting couple of anecdotes for you to emphasize the magnitude of grace present in the love of a son for this Dad. After a week apart, there's nothing more amazing than checking in my family for my flight home, and hearing my son call "Dadddyyyyyy" across a busy airport terminal, and leaping into my arms to hug me around the neck and play with my beard as he tells me how much he's missed me. Brings tears of joy to my eyes to think about this precious bundle that loves me far more than I deserve (case in point coming up...) At a birthday party in a park, my son finds a 5 foot almost completely straight branch on the ground and picks it up, overjoyed to have found such an amazing sword/poking tool. Concerned for the eyes of other children at the park, I start walking towards him as he pokes his friend Chloe in the chest and she exclaims "Owww!!". I ask him to be careful as I'm approaching him, and he stops poking and starts swinging it around like a 2 year old Jedi Knight. I reach him, and gently take away the stick (which was quite amazingly straight), take his hand and tell him that if we can't keep from poking people, we can't play with sticks. I now have a 4-5 foot stick that I'm trying to think of where to put that another kid won't just pick up and start swinging, and I do the only thing I can think of....using the hand that isn't holding my son, I hold the stick and step on it 5 times, breaking it into 10 inch sections that no one could ever enjoy. Judah sits down and slowly starts to sob big heaving sobs, after picking up the remains of his stick and holding them to his chest. Wow, I still feel horrible and it's days later. I'm thinking I'm too responsible for other people's kids eyeballs...

Drinking Problems

So remember that scene in Airplane when he says “that’s when my drinking problem started” and then throws the water in his face? Well, seems I’ve developed some of that. It has been going on for years but recently I’ve had a flair up. Yesterday I was drinking from my Starbucks reusable cup (the plastic ones with a lid that look like their disposable ones). Its actually like a sippy cup because it has a lid, even so, I managed to miss the drinking hole and pour my drink all down the front of my shirt. Then today I went to take a big swig out of my wide mouth Nalgene, which I have a drinking spout inserted into, and overshot my swig and the water came out of the second hole on y drinking spout, all over my face and down my shirt. Anyway, this happens way more frequently than I like to admit, just thought I’d share because its a bit humorous when it happens, unless it happens to be red colored and land on the carpet or a nice shirt. So if I show up with a wet shirt you’ll know what’s going on :)

Rendering Lard

Some back history on how we got to rendering lard, something I never thought I would do. First, we bought half a pig last Christmas and as a part of that got a bag full of frozen pig fat, which I had no idea what to do with. Someone mentioned rendering in passing but I brushed it aside since what do you do with lard? Anyway, then a few months ago I was invited to a soap making party where a bunch of us got together to make several large batches of various soaps. It was lots of fun and a neat thing to learn how to make. After getting excited that evening and doing some internet reading I realized that hey, you can make soap from lard! Wouldn’t that be an interesting experiment? And what do you know, I have a bag full of fat in the freezer right now that we could render into lard! Queue more internet reading, this time on rendering lard, and a few weeks go by before I really get serious about doing this thing.

I should also note that I made use of some excellent resources on this subject not found on google, my Grandparents and Great Aunt Arlene! Imagine that, they actually remember their mothers and grandmothers rending lard on the farm. We had a fun discussion about life on the farm in North Dakota back in the “olden days” when they were growing up. Interesting stuff, I am really blessed to have the ability to sit down and share in these memories with them. Life was hard on the farm in those days, they worked super hard all summer and fall to store up food for winter. They used root cellars for storage and when those were too cold in the ND winter, they would put food into the grain bins which provided better insulation. Some of the fun ones were Grandpa and Arlene remembering coming to their Grandma’s (My Great Great Grandma’s) house and finding the door locked, something that never happened in the small town of Parshall, ND. Turns out Grandma was inside ironing all of her money. You see she saved away all her egg money in a jar in her coal bin for years and years and it was time to take it to the bank, so it needed to be ironed (obviously). The kicker? There was something like $20,000 in there!

I found a great resource online HERE about rendering lard in a crock pot which seemed an excellent way to go. Funnily enough I mentioned this method to my Grandparents and Arlene and they had to think about it a bit because during their experience there were no crock pots to use in rendering lard! The other piece that gave me the courage to just go for it was having our friend Adam, who is a butcher at our house at the time. He had done it before and made it much less an intimidating thing to start.

I really debated about when to start it cause it could take like more than 15 hours! I didn’t want it to be all ready to go at like 2 am so didn’t know what to do. On the advice of Adam that it could take a really long time I started it at like 11 pm on Friday night. The benefit of this was that he was leaving to go to the ferry at 5 am and could double check it for more before he left. So off we went, with two crockpots full of fat to render. And it took a really really really long time. I started pulling it out into cans midday on Saturday (like 12 hours in) and continued that all the rest of the day. When we got home from our date on Saturday night I pulled more and then consolidated to one pot and let her go over night all the way to Sunday afternoon. Not sure if this is what its supposed to be like but even with all that time we never got those awesome cracklings they talked of. Maybe we needed to let it go even longer but I was kind of done at that point. In the end we ended up with 6.5 (16 ounce) jars of nice white lard and 1 jar of the “savory” lard from probably around 10 pounds of fat.

Jamie was anxious to try it out and we had planned on making some cornbread for a BBQ we were going to, so he substituted it for half the butter and to anit-stick the cast iron pan. It seemed to make the best crunchy textured crust on the cornbread. We’ll have to keep experimenting and see what other tasty things we can make and if all else fails we can make soap!

Minnesota Lake Visit

In the lead up to our trip to Grandma’s this year we had told Judah “so many sleeps until we go to Grandma’s” and that he would get to help wash Grandpa’s boat when we got there. He loves helping with the hose and only sometimes sprays you with it now. The day before we left Judah says, “one sleep, go to Gwammy’s house, wash boat”. This was the first time he had even tried to say Grandma. The trip itself was particularly fun for Judah as we got to take a bus, train, and airplane! We were met by David and Grandma and headed home to meet  a bunch more family who had come to see all of us. There were Shaun, Ann, Zeke, Grandma Great, Grandpa Great, Grandpa, Grandma, Auntie Mandy, Jason, David, Andrew, Stacy, Ben, Sandy, Jennifer, Faith, and Eli. Judah was very overwhelmed by the crowd of unfamiliar faces which made us realize that we needed to do better about working on these with photos before our visits. The lake was full of new fun though, including an awesome play house from Costco that Shaun and Dad were busy putting together. All the boys loved that, especially the doorbell, “ding-dong”. Other big hits were the basketball hoop, the giant swings Dad installed with the tree trimming cherry picker. We got the tractor and trailer out and I climbed in with Judah for a ride in the trailer. We asked if he wanted anyone else to go with him and he pointed right at Grandma Great, so she hopped in with us! Judah also had fun helping Andrew wash his truck, hosing off the soap really well. On Monday our friends Anne, Justin, and Krisha came for a visit. It was nice to get to catch up with them after too long apart. Krisha even stayed and hit the hot tub with us.

On Wednesday we headed to Fargo for a quick visit. The highlight here was getting to watch movies in Gwammy’s car. We started at Conrads where Grandma, Hannah, and Judah hung out for a nap while Ben, Rick, Jamie, and I headed out to the farm to do some shooting. Jan came out and met us while we were finishing up so we got a tour of his and Sandy’s new house. Then it was over to Jessie and Faith’s for some playtime with Judah and Eli and dinner. It was rainy so we got to see all the farmers, even Garret made it home for dinner. The boys had a bath together before heading to bed. In the morning we had a nice big breakfast and the boys played some more before we headed outside to explore the farm. The “stinky cows” were our first stop, and they sure were stinky. We also saw the big tractors, planters, tree house, and swing before we took a ride in the Prawler with Jessie. Faith made yummy BBQ for lunch and Jan gave the boys a really long ride in the wagon so we could enjoy it. When naptime came around we headed home to the lake.

Grandpa had been busy doing projects while we were gone, he was right in the middle of finishing facing everything in cedar. There were other projects, including placing a big bell on the deck roof which required a few extra hands in lifting and Shaun and him on the roof. While we were there we were able to get all three boats in the water, though there was some issue with the battery on the pontoon. Judah loved launching the boats, probably because he got to ride to the boat launch in the truck out of the carseat (I know, we’re bad parents but it wasn’t very far).

Saturday Mom and I left the boys at the lake and headed to town in the convertible to go to Anne’s baby shower. I shockingly was in town to get to go! It was nice to see some old friends while there and celebrate baby Tucker. We also got to visit Target for a few needed items. Sunday was also a big event, the graduation party for Katie and Kelsie Bell. It was fun to actually get to attend this party too. Judah had lots of fun watching movies on the ride and then playing all their outdoor games while skipping his nap. Thankfully they got a beautiful day. While Judah played with Grandma I dropped Jamie off at the airport for his trip down to Iowa to work. Once we got home we all jumped on mowers to mow the lawn, including Judah! He rode the tractor with Grandpa the whole time and loved it.  

Grandpa also went back to work on Monday so it was just the 3 of us. We had some quiet days at home and played outside, took walks, and played toys. We even did some projects like fill tree root holes with dirt using the tractor and sweeping the garage. A highlight of our days was when Grandpa got home and if Judah had gone #2 in the potty he got to have ice cream. The crew came to plant trees one day but sadly got rained out so we headed to town to get boat registrations, have pancakes at Perkins, and go to Target. One evening I also got to meet my Dad at the range and do some shooting. The tree planting crew came back and finished up which Judah really enjoyed, they had a bobcat! Another fun highlight of our trip was Judah enjoying the lake photo books that Amanda has put together over the years. He liked learning everyone’s names and got really good at Hannah and Stacy, as well as Big Ben and Jason’s Mommy. There were some funny moments during our visit, including when Judah asked his Daddy why he was going to the bathroom and then repeated in a sing song voice, “Daddy going poopy in the potty” while Grandma, Grandpa, and I laughed in the kitchen. Another one was when Grandpa was pushing Judah in the cart and saying, “Geese Louise, who cut the cheese!” To which Judah says, “Gwammy!” and my Dad thought that was a hoot. (I think he said that because he saw Grandma). After that Judah kept asking for Grandpa’s song during bed time. I didn’t know what he meant but finally figured out he wanted , “Geese Louise, who cut the cheese!”

When it was finally ready to go home Judah was all ready. We told him what we were going to do on our travel day and he kept repeating all the steps, “watch movies Gwammy’s car, airplane up high, toot toot (train), bus, my car”. I think his favorite part was of course the bus which was our shortest leg of our journey.

Potty Training Followup (or the Poop Saga)

WARNING  contains graphic poop talk

Ironically, on Monday I was sick as a dog starting mid-day with nausea. When Jamie got home I took a test and found out I was pregnant! Wow, boy was I glad we trained when we did, before I felt like puking myself. In the days after training pee continued to get better and better. We ventured out mostly successfully! We did have some challenges on the #2’s. Including going to a BBQ on Tuesday (after not having pooped for two days) that resulted in 3 trips to the bathroom for pooping in the undies. We left while on our last pair of undies.  Thursday we took an outing to the beach with some friends for dinner. We brought our portable potty and Judah used it to pee!

Fast forward a few more days to Friday when I find that I am miscarrying. Devastating. And in the midst of that, Judah hasn’t pooped in three days and is going to bathroom every 2 minutes because he needs to go and saying “my tummy is hurt-ing” in the cutest sad voice ever. We are grieving, stressed, out of patience, and not sure what to do. On Saturday we load up on the fruit and keep on going. That night we had a dinner with friends that took forever to schedule and we were reluctant to try to re-schedule. They have 5 kids so we told them what was up with Judah, brought the potty, and went. Another 17 trips to the bathroom, sometimes with pee success but mostly for the poop and I was done. Dad took over and made Judah sit instead of pop right up again...and he went! Amazing. And he went in his potty two more times, with only once having some in his undies.

The next week was poop accidents in the undies, leading right into our trip to MN on Saturday. Jamie and I were freaking a bit, just dealing with public toilets in the airport and plane is one thing, but poop too? Thankfully Judah did great, peeing in the family restroom at the airport and even on the plane! Jamie took him once and I took him two more times (unsuccessfully) on the plane. The trip to Grandma’s included an unsuccessful stop at Culvers and two by the roadside. Thankfully Mom’s neighbor had borrowed us a little potty so once we arrived we were set. After several false alarms to the potty he finally pooped, though under protest. I had to sit and hug him while calmly coaxing him to relax but it worked.

Finally on June 2, we had a breakthough. More constant trips to the potty because, to quote Judah, “it coming out of my butt!” (adorable! and also sad). Jamie has headed to Iowa for work so its me and Mom. I decided to give him a bath that evening to hopefully get him to relax enough to go and what do you know, it worked! He stode up in his bath because he needed to go, I sat him on the potty, hugged him and softly whispered “push, push, push” and he did it. He got a bowl of ice cream as a reward, which I had tried to bribe him with earlier. Turns out ice cream is a good reward, he has since gone twice more on the potty and each time jumps up saying “ice cream!” He also got a tattoo and pop pop (tick tack) for his efforts. Here’s to hoping we’re over this particular hurdle.

Potty Training

WARNING contains graphic poop talk

So we embarked on potty training using the 3-day intensive method. I thought I was prepared but boy was it tough! First off, I totally forgot to plan dinners for the event that were easy to whip up. Thankfully Jamie was there for most of it so we made do. Secondly, I bought some juice and things I thought he’d like to drink, but we needed an emergency run for different juice after the first day. Thirdly, it was really really trying on the patience, more so than I anticipated when I thought I was ready!

Anyway, the other complicating factor was the fact that I had planned this time for weeks, working around our schedules to find the 3 days. What I was unable to know in advance is that Judah would get some sort of stomach bug two days before the big event. I was sure we should just cancel and bummed since our next window was weeks away, plus it sucks when kids are sick anyway and it really sucks when you get barfed on as a result.

So, on Friday morning we woke up and Judah was himself again, I was wavering on whether to go with training or not and when he threw a tantrum when I went to change his diaper I said “that’s it, lets go with it.” Figuring we could always just quit if we needed to. So off we went. Diaper off and first thing he did was pee in the toilet!  He got a special present and an M&M. As the day went we had very few chances to practice because he was not interested in drinking my selection of beverages. That said, we still made lots and lots of trips to the potty to try as he had figured out the M&M reward system. At first I was giving him one for just trying but I soon wised up to him wising up and we switched to sticker on a chart in the bathroom which he really liked. He had an accident on the bathroom floor when he went in and was hiding behind the door.  And then came the poop. Remember I said he had been sick, well that made his poop super duper runny. He looks up really alarmed and I say “run to the bathroom!”. As I run after him I swooped him up and we made it to the hard flooring before it started running out all over the floor. Yeah, that happened...twice.

Since I mentioned the poop let me say how I dealt with it. I am not a cloth diaper-er so I had to have a few crazed text exchanges with my friends who do. Turns out they scrap it or spray it into the toilet. Since I didn’t have a sprayer for our runny mess I substituted the shower spray wand and cleaned the bathtub after. Another friend had the helpful hint to have a bucket of water and oxyclean to soak the dirty undies while they waited for washing. She even loaned some oxyclean to us which Jamie picked up on the way home.

I had been wavering on whether to go all the way and try to night and nap train. After discussions with friends we adopted “night night” pants which were basically the special training pants with a washcloth insert and rubber cover. Crazily, he ended up waking up dry or when he was needing to pee! Not perfectly of course but it made me realize it wasn’t as far off as I thought. The sad part of that of course is that during nap it was like an 1-1.5 hours into what is typically at least a 2 hour nap. Oh well. One other helpful training hint was to make his bed with multiple layers of sheets and rubber sheets. So I did two layers of matress pad, rubber sheet, and sheet.

Most of what I remember of Day 2 is more accidents and some successes. Oh, and getting barfed on again. After his lack of drinking on Day 1 we loaded up on juices and started offering them right away. So before he ate anything for breakfast he had orange juice and like two other juice boxes. It turns out that if you don’t ever give your kid juice its probably not a good idea to overload their system with it like this, and all on an empty stomach. They will barf, all over you. So now I’m thinking I’m the worst mother of the year, potty training while he is still sick with the stomach thing. We had no idea of what to do, continue or quit. He kept telling us when he had to go to the potty and acted his normal self again after some breakfast so we kept on (when he had the stomach bug he was a rag doll in my arms all day and napped most of the time so acting his normal self was a good clue that it was just a sugar overload).

Day 3 finally arrived. I had been texting for moral support with several friends who all encouraged me that it might not click until the last day. This was very helpful, if you train get yourself a support group of friends. We had one or two accidents but overall it was much much better. He even pooped in the potty for the first time! That was very encouraging that we were going to be ok. I had debated trading my work day on Monday for a Day 4 but my sitter was game to have him over and give her son some experience to the training so we went back to our new normal life on Monday!

Potty Training Prep

In preparation of potty training I got busy being crafty and made some special training pants. I think I saw something like it on Pinterest first and thought it would be good to try. The project was basically taking a set of Gerber white training pants and adding additional padding on the inside and then adding PUL, the water proof fabric used for cloth diaper covers, on the outside. That way if an accident occurs it will be somewhat absorbed and contained within the training pant. I thought this would be helpful for giving clothes and bedding a better chance of staying dry, as well as being helpful for trips out and to his babysitters while I work. I got the PUL at Joann’s, I got a package with three colors, it was about $15 but I used my 40% off coupon. I made 9 pairs and probably used a little less than a third of the PUL I got in the packages. Judah picked the package and chose the red, yellow, and green set.

The link to the instructions for the training pants is HERE.

The other project came from some input from friends and an idea I saw on pinterest for a carseat cover saver HERE. I had lots of left over PUL and some fun extra fabric so away I went. I decided not to do the pattern from Pinterest, instead keeping it a bit simplier. I also decided to make mine so I could use a cloth diaper as the absorbent padding, which could be removed and washed with the cover. So mine has an open side, which happens to be on the front, where there is also a indent for the buckle to come through. In retrospect, it would have been much easier to make the opening in the back, lessons learned. The opening also has velcro closures to keep everything in place. I sized it so that it will fit a folded in half cloth diaper insert and would fit on the seat of the carseat. So far it has yet to be tested by an accident.

Adventures in Babysitting

This weekend we attempted a challenge, taking care of five kids under 5 for the day. We had the Rikalo kids over Friday night while their parents had a getaway. We had pizza, bathed and got them to bed relatively unscathed, though we were tired afterward.
On Saturday we woke up and had eggs and pancakes for breakfast before the real challenge began when the Day girls joined us. We somehow managed to gather all of our stuff and load up in the Suburban by 9:30 for a trip to the beach. Five kids, two adults, and a wagon of stuff. We arrived and sunscreened all the kids as they excited the vehicle and sat in the back. The it was off to the beach, while Judah helped pull an Charlie helped push the wagon. What helpful gentleman. The girls held hand and led the way and Jamie brought up the rear with the lunch cooler.

After some rolling in the grass hills we hit the sand. The kids all were in bathing suits and immediately headed to the water to get their feet wet in the waves. Joe was able to join us after awhile and it was really helpful to have another adult for potty runs. We had a picnic lunch of pizza and grapes. Then the kids took a walk down the beach. Sadly Jamie and Charlie stepped on something pokey which made Charlie very sad. Be snuggled with me for awhile after that while the kids headed back to the grass. Soon enough it was time to pack up. We only had to stop once on the way home to get water out of the back for Brynn and Chloe. The boys went right to sleep and the girls had quiet time.

After quiet time the girls and I headed out to the pool and sunshine. They ran through a makeshift sprinkler and tried to swim. It was too cold though so I tried adding some hot water to no avail. These were the same kids in the sound that morning. After awhile they got dressed and the boys started waking up. Jamie made popcorn for snack and we continued to play and enjoy the sun. We ended in the front with wagon rides and chalk when Jentry arrived. We made dinner for the rest of the kids and did baths as Rikalos arrived.

Friday also happened to be my Birthday. So to celebrate Jamie arranged for Mallory to babysit so we could go to the iPic theater in Redmond for Iron Man 3. It was a great end to the day!

Judah Update

Judah loves playing in the car. After he gets out of his seat he wants to play for awhile all over the car. So we have to budget some time for this. It actually works out quite nicely if I have to unload a lot of groceries or stuff from the car. Yesterday we weeded part of the garden adn found some left over carrots. So we dug them out and brought them inside to eat. Tonight I made a carrot soup using the smoked chicken broth I had made and froze, it was amazing. We also had homemade artesian bread, the fact that that is just mentioned in passing shows how awesome the soup was. Judah told me “good soup, mommy”. Judah had his bath and was running around naked after. I warned him sternly to come back to the potty if he had to go peepee (after learning the hard way that he just will pee on the floor). So he ran right back when he had to go and sure enough went right on the potty. Jamie has been sending video updates each morning and Judah loves to get a video from Daddy, he thinks it’s like a video chat and responds back to his Dad. He just started watching Veggie Tales and tonight wnated to watch “Bob”, I think he knows the characters from reading the books. Or maybe because he’s red, like Elmo. All things red are Elmo. On Monday I heard him count to three for the first time. We were listening to his music on the way to Stephanie’s, and they sang “here come the one, two, threes!” and Judah repeated it. He always had gotten stuck on two, repeating one, two, one, two. Yesterday he also said Charlie and Kaci for the first time in my hearing. When they had to go home for nap he cried very sadly and said, “my friends, my friends”. Good thing they came back over for bath, dinner, and playing.

Cleaning - The Oven

OK, so I've been trying to find a way to really get my oven clean for several months now. I tried a few things including the baking soda paste and elbow grease. Last night I tried something I saw on Pinterest, I know Pinterest, and it actually worked! I was amazed. I totally laughed while doing it too, at the fact it was actually working. I'm super bummed I didn't get a before picture in all it's hideous glory. I got a pic mid-way to try to show what the WHOLE glass area looked like before. The second pic is my clean oven door, really, that is my oven door. The magic tool in this cleaning experiment? The razor for scraping, it did the trick where rags and scouring pads wouldn't. Here's the link to how to do it. 
-Michelle

Snow Camping Adventure!

Here's some fun pics from our first snow camping adventure.

So, I had been wanting to go skiing all winter and I thought I wasn’t going to get a chance when it was already the end of March but I was wrong! We ski really late in Washington it turns out. Our friend, Chet, is a ski instructor up at Snoqualmie Pass and mentioned he was going to take his kids up the first weekend in April if the weather/snow cooperated. Hearing this we hatched a crazy last minute plan to take the trailer up and give it a go on the winter camping, plus show Judah real snow and maybe let me ski. It was a bit back and forth all week on whether to go, since the weather was more rain than snow. 

Finally, Friday morning we pulled the trigger on going. The benefit of going so late in the season was that we didn’t have to worry about crowds and getting a spot with the trailer, and parking. This was somethign that was concerning when we looked at Steven’s Pass and where they park trailers (up a switch back hill, parked within feet of each other, and requiring a turn), plus it fills up very fast. In fact, there was no one there when we arrived, we got the pick of the lot! So we put it right by the on/off ramp into the parking lot, over looking the slopes from our kitchen window. 

At this point it was pretty much just raining and we got pretty soaked in our venturing outside to unhook everything and play in the snow. So we started learning quick about how to deal with wet and cold while trailer camping. We had a dedicated door blanket for boots and gear. Wet stuff was taken off and hung on hangers in the shower to dry. It was definitely smart to have multiples, especially of gloves. I was really happy that I found some great kid gloves for Judah at the REI clearance rack, they held up really well to puddle splashing with the hands. Judah got to watch his very first ever full length feature film, Shrek, on the computer at the table. We made tacos for dinner and settled in for the night not expecting snow or skiing in the morning because it was still raining pretty steadily. 

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast adn played outside. The rain had started to turn to snow! By the time the Kaufman’s arrived it was snowing nicely. We all bundled up to go skiing while Jamie and Judah watched from the warmth of the trailer. The conditions were pretty hard, lots of wet snow that was hard to turn in and started catching your skiis as you got lower down and it was slushy. It was also super wet, definitely a multiple hat and glove day. I ended up hanging my absolutely drenched coat in the car to dry over the weathertec mats. Odessa was done after one long run and a few turns on the lower slopes on the magic carpet, so we skied right up to the trailer and she joined the boys for hot cocoa and movies. Chet, Dexter, and I did a few more runs before lunch. We had lunch and warmed up in the trailer while the kids watched movies. 

I took Judah’s tent out of his bunk and they enjoyed playing in there for awhile. I headed back out for a few more runs after lunch, while Kaufman’s decided to call it a day and Judah headed down for a nap. Judah had a hard time falling asleep, but ended up sleeping until about 5 when we went out to play a bit more. He wanted to run with the kids the next trailer over, but they were bigger and too fast to keep up with. We had a yummy dinner of mac and cheese and green beans and then Judah headed to bed. 

We woke the next morning to snow...lots and lots of it. About 6 inches. Oh, and avalanche cannons, lots of them, thankfully they started after 8:00. At this point, having not driven our Suburban in the snow really at all, much less towing a trailer, Jamie started to get a bit worried about making it out of the parking lot. We had a quick breakfast and then started packing things up. Just as people were starting to get there to enjoy the snow we got the truck all hitched up and headed out...with no problems at all. Our Suburban did great! Turns out the bigger concern is not getting blocked in by all the arriving skiers. We got right out onto interstate and less than 2 miles down the road the snow was all gone. So we didn’t get stuck, but had we gone the next weekend, they ended up with tons of snow, closing the pass, several avalanches, and a few people lost their lives. So always good to be prepared to stay a few days, extra food, clothes, and maybe some survival gear in the car?

Easter Weekend in Friday Harbor

Early Friday we headed up to SJI to visit the Zaehring clan for Easter. After a super foggy ferry ride over it cleared up and became beautiful for the rest of the weekend. We spent lots of time outside on the deck. The kids got to use the water table and ended up completely soaked in water. Ally was awesome in the yard, she stayed super close and always came when called. Sadly, her table manners left much to be desired as she grabbed food off the counters several times. Friday evening we planned dinner, making the Pioneer Woman’s Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork. Jamie fried up corn tortillas and Bryan made salsa fixings for them.

Saturday we got to have a farm adventure at Mike Carlson’s (Andi’s boss). We saw a baby calf which Judah got into the pen with Mike to pet very gently. They had a great dog that Judah also liked, as well as horses, more cows, and chickens. They also had tractors, buses, and trucks - oh my! Judah was in heaven, he got to sit on the tractor and drive it. He sat on Mike’s lap to drive another piece of equipment which was running which scared him quite a bit, so he went back to the non-running tractor. During nap Jenn and I loaded up the eggs and hid them in the backyard. Then we ran away from home for a little while and found Judah a monkey backpack at the Sand Pebble and got some more groceries. When the kid woke up we did a cooking craft and made Resurrection Rolls (also called Empty Tomb Rolls) which I found on my friends blog here.

While they were baking we took the kids out to hunt eggs! We assigned all the kids their own colors which helped since they hunted at different paces. They loved finding the eggs and opening them and eating the candy! We then had a lovely salmon dinner that Bryan prepared on the grill.

Sunday we all headed to church and made it there all looking put together, so we took a family picture. Our Easter lunch was yummy sandwiches back home before we headed out to catch the ferry. Judah was super tired on the ferry since it was nap time and he just sat and hung out in the booth with us. He fell asleep in the customs line which took an hour to get through and stayed asleep all the way home! Almost a 2 hour nap in his carseat, pretty awesome really. He woke up driving through Anacortes and said, “what you doing Mom?”, to which I answered driving and he fell back asleep. When we got home, our friends graciously invited us over for a dinner of ham, not just any ham though. This was from the pig we bought with them, that Jamie helped to brine and that was smoked on our smoker. Judah gobbled it up and kept going back for more. It was a great end to our Easter weekend.

February Arizona Visit

We headed south again this year, this time because my sister finally got some vacation after 6 months of her new job in CT and was going to visit with Jason too. We hadn’t seen the Asuzu’s in 6 whole months since they moved so it was definitely reason to go south again. Jason was 11 months and almost walking so we were excited to get the boys together to play. We had a whirlwind weekend, jamming in lots of activities around naps. We got in on Thursday afternoon and got to spend some time with Mom, Dad, Gma, and Gpa that evening.

One awesome story that must be mentioned was that Grandma took Judah out to have him help fill the fountain. Somehow Grandma surrendered custody of the hose to the two-year old and the next thing I knew water was hitting the kitchen window. I ran over to see Mom running around the backyard, being chased by Judah’s hose spray. I debated for a few seconds whether I should go out to rescue her, thinking I’d rush Judah, thankfully she was much quicker thinking then I and in that time went for the faucet.

Amanda and Jason arrived on Friday and Mom and I were able to go pick her up. Judah and Jason hit it right off, wrestling and playing with Aunty Mandy and Grandpa Mike. Grandma had also gotten some new lego toys to enjoy which Judah did. On Saturday we were able to go with Dad to the shooting range and check out his new guns. It was pretty fun to try them all out, we spent more than an hour on the range. Over the weekend Jamie, Mom, and I were able to enjoy two 9 hole rounds of golf over the weekend while Amanda and Grandpa graciously watched the monitor during napped and hung out with Judah when he woke up.

Sunday we got to go with Mom and Dad to church. The boys went to the nursery and had a great time. Afterward Grandpa Great made us a lovely brunch including an awesome egg bake. Monday was a huge day of shopping at the mall. Grandma treated Amanda and I to Pandora charms for our bracelets and the boys to new shoes at Stride Rite. Judah also got a fun new pair of cowboy boots on an outing with Grandma and Grandma Great. After shopping we went back to the gun range and shot again, this time with some gun rentals so we could try out some other types of guns. Tuesday came too soon and we headed back to the airport to go home super bright and early. We were able to help Amanda and Jason to their gate before heading to our gate.

Saying Goodbye

January 11th, 2013, at 8 am, Michelle Beaver Zaehring was 17 weeks pregnant and we were both excited to soon be sharing our expectant plans for next June on Facebook.  By 11 am, we were weeping in an Ultrasound room on Capitol Hill, as our future dreams and our family of four became a grieving family of three.   
These photos are the only glimpse of the precious hands and feet of our son we'll get to see this side of Heaven.  Our unborn son, whom we'll never get to hold, will never be forgotten.  
That day in a darkened room, when that nice doctor man told us our baby was no longer alive, we felt such an aching loss and were overwhelmed with a moment of panic.  How can we make it through this?  The grief, sadness, and shattered dreams hit us like chaotic waves, yanking us this way and that while time seemed to stand still.  And yet, in the midst of it, almost covered by the darkness was a quiet voice of total confidence whispering.  Jesus is in the boat with us.  We live, and love, because He first loved us by dying for us.  He brings peace to our stormy hearts.  
Matthew 8:23-27 was so encouraging to us during that first week:
"And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him, saying, Save us, Lord; we are perishing. 26 And he said to them, Why are you afraid, O you of little faith? Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 And the men marveled, saying, What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?"
We are healing now, one month later, and wanted to share the joy of the brief life of our son with all of you, as well as share our love for Jesus for loving us enough to "ride in our boat."  
We’ve been reflecting on Psalm 42 and learning a song called “Satisfied in You” as we wrestle with this loss.  Please take 5 minutes and listen to it while you think of us. 
The words of this song say our feelings best: “Let my sighs give way to songs that sing about your faithfulness, Let my pain reveal your glory as my only real rest, Let my losses show me all I truly have is you.”  We are learning to trust and worship Jesus in this, even if those two ideas just got a lot harder and a lot more real, from our perspective. 
We ask that you hug and cherish your little ones who made it into this world safely a little extra tonight.  We certainly will.
More thankful than ever for God’s unfailing love,
Michelle, Jamie, and Judah Zaehring