A Stroke of Luck

Unfortunately, it was Tyler's...

Yesterday, Ally took Tyler's humongous water jug, filled to brimming with ice-water, to volleyball practice. During a water break, she tilted said jug fully and completely over her head, ready for a refreshing and life-giving swig. She got more. Much more. The spout fell off in her mouth and water poured forth, over her face, down her front, and all over the gym floor. She stood there, much like Tyler usually does, with a look of "really?" on her face, as other members of her team literally rolled with laughter and her coach proclaimed her the winner of the wet t-shirt contest. Keeping her composure, she marched herself to the janitor's closet to retreive some towels with which to clean the remnants of the deluge.

Indisputable

I've mentioned in previous posts that misfortune is uncannily drawn to Tyler. Further proof surfaced last Friday: Robben's stomach spontaneously emptied itself of all contents, via the oral cavity, while we were en route to Tara's house for a day of swimming. Realizing that I had a plethera of books strewn about the floor of the backseat, I proclaimed my dispair at the certain damage caused. Kurstin's reply from the backseat: "Nope. It only landed on Tyler's swim shorts." At this, a look of unsurprised acceptance of defeat from Tyler.

Express Lane

Thursday of last week, we went to Walmart to procure new innertubes and tires for Elissa's bicycle. (Living in the country, tires don't last long.) An hour later, we clumsily made our way through the express lane with 3 bikes, a plastic pool, and some rope with which to lash it all atop our vehicle.

Archive Photos- Fall 2007

Fall of 2007... Elissa was in 1st grade, Kurstin in 5th, Tyler and Ally in 8th, and Wesley a Junior in high school... Robben was in my tummy. As I look back, I realize that a lot of these activities have actually become traditions. We do the pumpkin thing every year, and Santa Cruz for Todd's birthday was a couple years running. We skipped it last year, but I know he loves it there, so we should consider it again this fall. In any case, I look at these pictures of my kids' childhoods and realize (again) that they are very blessed to have a strong foundation of family and love and fun and togetherness. I really couldn't ask more for them... or for myself.

Mix-Match Day at Fairmont. They really embrace it :)

It's actually pretty alarming how many pictures of critters we have. You've seen the tree frog, now here is the tarantula the kids found in the wood pile way out back. We also have pictures of a possum (in our laundry room), a skunk out front, and I'm not sure if we made any photographical records of the squirrel in the kitchen...

All our kids and their jack-o-lanters. The kids are the ones that aren't orange.

... and in their costumes.

This is at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The carousel is actually pretty fun because they have the rings you try to toss into the clown's mouth. That, and who doesn't enjoy a nice circular ride on a colorful plastic horse?

It was like pulling teeth for Todd to get the girls on this pirate ship... and then it was like pulling teeth to get them back off :)

Even kiddie roller coasters are scream-worthy.

If you haven't been to the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz, GO! It's crazy and unexplainable. Look at these pictures of the kids standing as upright as possible in this shack :)

Archive Photos- Summer 2007

These are photos of a camping trip we took to Gags with Grandma Alice, Jassen, Crystal and Melody in August of 2007. I was pregnant with Robben... that puts a whole other spin on camping, let me tell you!

Uhhhh, who thought this would be a good idea? I can tell you it was not me!

The girls on a rock...that Elissa later fell down. She actually had a pretty rough time. She kept falling all over the place and getting scratched and bruised and banged up. By the third day, she finally fell into the creek and just laid there and cried until someone went to retrieve her :)

Todd and the boys made up a new sport: tree vaulting :) They climbed a high rock and noticed a flimsy-looking tree. Todd thought, hey, I bet we could jump off this rock and glide down while holding on to that little tree! And tree vaulting was born! They even got Grandma Alice to try it!! (So Todd's pelvis-breaking incident 2 years later wasn't so much an isolated event of risk-taking stupidity after all!)

The kids found a tree frog and passed it around to those brave enough to hold it... which was probably everyone but me :) I love Melody in the background, waiting anxiously for her turn, hands cupped in anticipation.