Will started preschool yesterday… in our basement.  He was very excited, and as he completed/learned things he was very proud of himself, and couldn’t wait to show his daddy what he’d done.  A lovely thing about preschool is that everything is so basic (learning how to print the letter A, for example), and we don’t have to cover very much for him to learn something new.  It also worked very well to do school while the younger boys were napping.  Aiden is actually napping better when he’s by himself, so this is a good thing all around.

 Now I’m off to begin Day 2!

This was one of the most relaxing weekends we’ve had at home in a long while.  Aside from leading worship in just one service on Sunday, Dan had 4 days off work.  Delightful!  We had a lot of time to hang out with each other and the boys, and he was able to get in some good guy friend/video game time as well.  Dan and I also got to visit the newly remodeled Manchester Starbucks.  While very nice, it’s rather small seating-area-wise.  Bummer.  It isn’t “ours” anymore, that’s for sure.  Still, it was nice to go out for coffee by ourselves for a little bit.

Some pics from this weekend:

At the park:

(Can I just say I love this child’s exuberance?)

Swimming:

Sno-cones:

sprinklers and sidewalk chalk:

Hope you had a great weekend, too!

Dan and I started our blogs at the same time, just before last Christmas.  He cranked out 3 posts, then took a long sabbatical.  This past week, though, he’s posted every day - mostly to hold himself accountable to his recent commitment of running (nearly) every day and to jot down his thoughts as he reads through the book of Isaiah.  Check it out!

There are too many pictures for one post, so I’m going to break it up a bit.

As we left the driveway…

…and about 30 minutes later.

Due to a late start and a long dinner stop, Dan and I decided to just drive through the night.  The boys all slept rather fitfully, and I only contributed 2 hours of driving just before dawn (I get tired really easily driving in the dark), so we were all pretty pooped by the time we pulled into a McDonald’s just west of Denver.  As soon as the car stopped, Aiden started throwing up.  I hauled him out of the car and onto the grass, then took him in to change him.  He acted fine after that and loved running around in the playplace (known as “Candy Mountain” to our kids), but then threw up again in Boulder and again on the way up the mountains to Estes Park.  Thankfully, the place we stayed at had a laundry facility, so I was able to wash his clothes and the cover to his carseat, which smelled pretty rank by that point.  I was afraid it was due to altitude sickness, and that worried me (since we’d be driving through the mountains a lot the next day) but he never got sick again, so we figured it was due to his poor sleep in the car the night before.

Walking through one of my favorite towns ever.

Dan and the boys eating some amazing chocolate from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  Mine was macadamia nuts and caramel covered in dark chocolate.  Yum!

We camped in Estes, and the boys loved it!  It actually turned out to be a great experience  :)  Here are the boys Saturday morning after a good night’s sleep.

Munching on donuts while Dan and I packed up the gear.

I spent a year at a Bible school located on a mountain just behind the guy taking this picture.  I got to look at the gorgeous valley of Estes Park and the peaks of Rocky Mountain National Park every single day.  Spectacular!

We drove through RMNP in order to get to our final destination (Steamboat Springs), and stopped a couple of times to stretch our legs and take in the gorgeous-ness.

Here are my guys

Look at this!  The beauty of these mountains never cease to take my breath away.

The next several photos were taken by Will as we hiked up the trail at the top of Trail Ridge Road (the highest road in the US).

Another lovely view.

(photo by Will)

Climbing on the rocks with Joshy.

(photo by Will)

Cute Aiden.

(photo by Will)

A cute Daddy. 

(photo by Will)

 “Higher now, up in the sky, you make me feel like I could fly, so high, elevation… woo-oooh” 

Notice how Josh has no time to mess with getting his picture taken.  There were millions of small rocks that needed to be rearranged, people!

A rare picture of Dan and me together.

(photo by Will)

This one might have to be the Christmas card picture.  Maybe.  (It’s so ridiculously difficult to get all 3 of our kids to look at the camera, much less smile, at the same time.)

Will is quite the climber.  And Aiden actually did really well for being the family klutz.  Which I am too, but I’m also a decent rock climber.  Maybe the uncoordination doesn’t extend to that aspect of physical activity.

After we reached Grand Lake, on the west side of the park, I drove so that Dan could read Out of the Silent Planet by CS Lewis out loud (he read The Princess Bride out loud on our honeymoon, which was delightful - he’s a great reader because he’s good with voices and such).  It rained a bit and was rather cloudy and windy, and we were had just finished coming down a really steep grade out of the mountains when this happened:

I failed to see, and thus ran over, a steel rake in the middle of the road.  Not good.  Dan tried to change the tire but our jack broke.  He headed towards the nearest ranch house (which was thankfully very close), and a sweet lady gave him the numbers to a tow company and a couple of auto stores.  Thankfully, we were only a couple of miles from town, so the tow truck came, we all fit into the cab (a great adventure in the boys’ books), and the tire store stayed open late for us - answers to prayer. 

Not a desirable occurance, but W & A actually thanked God for letting them ride in a tow truck, so it became a memorable part of our vacation.  Will was also very sweet to console me and remind me that they loved me while I was berating myself for running over the rake, which did my heart good.  And Dan did not allow me to beat myself up for it during the remainder of our trip, which I am apt to do.  My boys love me well! 

Once the new tire was put on, we found a pizza joint (with all you can eat pizza and salad and kids under 5 ate free!), then it was off to the lovely, cozy cabin 20 miles from town where we spent the next week.  More to come…

That is the question, apparently.  At least for my oldest two - Josh is still a hardcore napper, though usually just once a day.  Will and Aiden, however, are seriously debating the virtues of napping.  Some days they are ready, and fall asleep without much trouble.  Other days, though, they fight me on it, and hard.

This afternoon is the first day all week that all of the boys have slept.  And boy did they need these naps!  It is delightful.  I might try to squeeze in a few minutes of rest, myself.

And let me tell you, it’s a beautiful thing.  As I’ve mentioned here before, Dan has watched Pride and Prejudice with me three times - the 5 hour BBC version twice and the shorter one which came out a few years ago one time (which is as much as I’ve seen that one).  I lovelovelove this story, and adore the book as well, and it pleases me to no end that Dan loves it too, that we can talk about the story line and characters, and that he appreciates the genius of Jane Austen that is this story.

After the last time that we watched P&P, about a week before our vacation, he asked me if I’d ever read/watched anything else by Jane Austen, and although I want to read more of her books, the best I could do was say I’d seen the movies Sense and Sensibility and Emma, both of which came out when I was in high school.  I really liked both of them, though, and after I’d described the basic plotline of each (pretty similar stuff in all those stories) he said it would be fun if we could watch them in Colorado (where we first watched the BBC P&P).  We found them on Amazon, and they were delivered to our house the day before we left.  We watched them.  I cried.  Dan liked them!  I was a little worried, because let’s face it, P&P is the crown jewel of all Austen’s gems.  Yet both S&S and Emma are sweet and aptly acted in those movies, so I was glad he liked them. One of the reasons he likes them, and why all guys should watch at least Pride and Prejudice, is because of the totally studly, chock-full-of-integrity male heroes of these stories.  My favorite thing that Dan does after we watch is compare himself to, say, Mr. Darcy, and find similarities they have.  I’m so glad to have married such a guy as can be compared to Mr. Darcy! 

Tonight I’m going to review a few new children’s books that I read to my kids recently.  

The first is God Gave Us Heaven by Lisa Tawn Bergren.  This is her fourth book in the series which begins with God Gave Us You, which we also own and my boys have enjoyed.  Each book centers around Little Cub, a polar bear, and her family - Papa and Mama Cub, as well as two little twin baby cubs which arrived in book two.  Little Cub is very curious and asks her parents a lot of questions, which they answer gently, wisely, and with the truth of the Lord.  In this particular book, as you might have guessed, Little Cub is wondering about heaven.  Throughout the course of the day (and the book), she and her papa have great conversations about heaven, including how it will be the most amazing place ever, how we get to eat there, that we won’t be angels, that we’ll get to see God, and, most importantly, how we get there (through Jesus, who became like a bridge for us because of the bad things we’ve done).  It handles harder questions well, including death and what God looks like.  I loved getting to read this to Will especially, because he has asked us a lot of questions about heaven in recent months, and has even expressed an anxiety about going there, since he just can’t imagine being anywhere but here, and since death is a bit of a scary thing for him.  I have seen other books on heaven, but most of them appear to be a bit wishy-washy theologically, and I appreciated the Biblical foundation of this one.

The next two books are by Dandi Daley Mackall, whom I have never read before.  Both God Loves Me More Than That and When God Created My Toes are written in rhyme, and are creative and rather perky, if that word can be applied to book content.  The first uses comparisons to help children “grasp how wide and long and high and deep is love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:18), and the second follows a rather mischievious little girl and she asks (sometimes silly) questions about what God might have been thinking/doing when He created her.  The boys really enjoyed these books as well.

All three are available from amazon.com:

God Gave Us Heaven  

God Loves Me More Than That

When God Created My Toes

A conversation from last night before bedtime:

Will: When I get married to Ellie (the sweet 13-year-old girl that he’s decided to marry) I’m not going to live with you guys anymore.

Dan: That’s right, bud.

Will: (thinks for a moment, then bursts out crying) I’m going to miss yoooooou guys! 

He continued to sob for several minutes, interjecting “I’m really going to miss you!” at various points.  We tried to reassure him that he would still get to see us, and that we will always love him and he’ll always be our little boy, even when he’s married.  Dan also reminded him that he won’t be getting married for quite awhile.  It was sweet - despite his stubbornness and struggles with selfishness, Will has a very tender heart, and it’s amazing how quickly he gets upset at something that really matters to him.  Even though him getting married is likely a couple of decades down the road, I’m already struck by how quickly he is growing up.  He’s becoming a bigger and bigger boy every time I look at him, it seems.  I know everyone says it, but I am trying harder to treasure these times, because overwhelming as they often are, they are precious!

Dan and I visited the OB today for our big ultrasound appointment, and the babe looks great!  We chose not to find out what gender we’re having, and are hitting the baby-name books at this point (I feel like we’re back at square one with this naming business).  I’m very thankful that our baby looks healthy and strong, and I’ve started feeling some flutters in there!  I’m also getting really pokey - I’ll have to post a picture of the belly sometime :)

We are back from an amazing, beautiful, restful, fun, wish-we-were-still-there vacation in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  That quaint and lovely town is where Dan and I spent our honeymoon, and our last day there was our 5th anniversary, which was kind of neat.  Colorado is probably our favorite place on earth (that we’ve been to), and it was so much fun to enjoy its beauty as a family.  I don’t have the pictures dumped on my computer yet, so I’ll do a picture-post with some highlights soon.    We spent the week in a cabin owned by some dear family friends, and we are so thankful for their grace and generosity in allowing us to stay there.  We were about 20 miles from town, and we maintained a good balance of “doing” things in/near town - hiking, playing in the river, eating out and walking around, and “being” - staying at the cabin, playing games, playing outside, eating in, reading, sleeping, and watching movies together.  Suffice it to say, this trip was a gift from God, and was just what we needed.