Burger King - this one's for Papa!

Since we moved to the Tri-Cities, Papa (Steve's dad) has sent the kids Burger King gift cards a couple of times which have provided us with great excuses to get out of the house on a number of occasions. What makes it even better is that all the Burger King's around here have playlands!  The last time we were there I got some great photos of the kiddos that I subsequently had some fun with. Thanks Papa!

 Notice the chicken nugget in the mouth.

Ezekiel George - Special Ops

Seattle pt. 2

A few weeks after we had the chance to explore Seattle with Nonni and Poppi, Steve had a day's worth of work to do in Tacoma so we all tagged along and made a weekend of it. We spent Friday at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma while he was working at the University there, then headed up to Seattle where we enjoyed Embassy Suites breakfast, the Bremerton Ferry ride, exploring the beach there -- we made it kind of a trial run field trip for our exploration of aquatic ecosystems we're planning for science this fall.  Here are some of the highlights:

When we first dropped Steve off at work and headed to Point Defiance - the most amazing city park I've ever been to. Out of all the things to do there, my kids, of course, chose the beach.  As we arrived, a couple of people from the park's aquarium were setting up a demonstration for a school group that hadn't arrived yet, so we crashed it :)

Grace found this fine specimen all on her own!

It was NOT warm - maybe in the low 60's, but that never stopped my crew from living dangerously when it comes to the probability of getting wet!

Best attempt at a group shot -- Elias did NOT want to sit on that log, and since I was by myself I didn't have a lot of options as far as keeping him on while getting the camera far enough away to take the photo.

Love this!  It just captures his personality!

And now we're totally in the water . . . Did I mention it was cold?  They obviously don't care!

That tiny black bump is a seal that we spotted from the beach.

The rhododendrun all over Tacoma are so huge it took me awhile to figure out what they even were.  In the park they have an entire rhododendrun garden that we didn't get to because we spent 3.5 hrs at the beach and because kids would much rather search for little sea creatures than look at flowers that they aren't allowed to pick.

Other wildlife we came across:

Best of the bunch from attempt #2 to get a group shot on my own. Again, Elias did NOT want to cooperate. He was way past ready for a nap.

My beautiful girls:

 Enjoying the view of the Seattle skyline from the ferry.

 Grace in her element.

 Just checkin' out whats livin' in the log.

 Zeke being Zeke.  Those dimples are going to get him into trouble.

 I think boots and rolled up jeans are going to be our school uniforms :)

Much better attempt at a group shot at Snoqualmie Falls on our way home to the east side.  Note: 1. Steve and I were both there. 2. We bribed them with juice boxes. 3. No E.

Seattle!

The kids are in LOVE with Seattle largely because of the fantastic trip we took there with Nonni and Poppi this spring while Steve was on a business trip to San Francisco.  Now about 1/2 the time we drive anywhere, Zeke asks if we're going to Seattle.  And when we actually did make an encore trip with Daddy last month, he kept asking whether Nonni and Poppi were going to be there and insisted they should just get on an airplane and meet us.Some of my favorite photos from Nonni and Poppi's visit and our trip to the westside:

Zeke showing off his newly dyed egg to Nonni

We did a LOT of walking up and down the hills in Seattle.  This was bound to happen sooner or later!

We had a blast at the aquarium -- thanks to the Booths for that recommendation!  They have a couple of fabulous touch tanks where we spent over an hour just touching various sea creatures.

The beach at Whidbey Island was SO worth the drive and ferry ride it took to get there, especially since the travel provided the boys an opportunity to nap without interfering with our sightseeing plans.  We didn't see the whales we'd hoped for, but spent so much time discovering all the little creatures hanging out on the beach at low tide.

On the beach we found this really unique tree and took the opportunity to get some great shots of the kids climbing on it.

In my opinion, one of the most beautiful photos of Greta, ever.

Doesn't that face just scream trouble?

Just so Greta

The only picture of me with all the kids -- not great, but we'll take it!  Hanging out above downtown Seattle

Some cool photos of the kids riding the monorail.  We figured out that we used at least 7 different modes of transportation during out trip!

Trying to stay warm on the oh-so-entertaining and informative duck boat ride.  Thanks to Poppi we got to so many memorable things that we otherwise would probably never splurge for.  I suppose Zeke and Elias probably don't remember the duck boat well -- despite the cold, wind, exhuberant tour guide and tourees, they both slept through most of it.  I guess we really wore them out :)

Possibly my favorite from the whole trip. Notice Zeke even has his own cup? My brother thinks it looks like a paparazzi photo.

The Truth About Ourselves; Hebrews 10:15-22

In studying Covenant with the ladies at RBC guided by Kay Arthur's book titled as such, I dove into this passage in Hebrews today and was so blessed by what I learned about myself, about us as the body of Christ, and needed to share.  These are my raw notes taken from observing what the text has to say is true about "us," but to me, they read like an awesome story of grace and mercy and of salvation:

- the Holy Spirit testifies to us
- God makes a covenant with us
- His laws are on our hearts and minds -- he put them there!
- we sin and commit lawless deeds
-we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus
- we have a great priest over the house of God
- we are to draw near to Him
- we have full assurance of our faith
- our hearts have been sprinkled clean
- our bodies have been washed with pure water

How can it be?  We sin and commit lawless deeds, yet we have confidence to enter the holy place. Confidence!

Makes these lyrics come to mind:

There is no guilt here
There is no shame
No pointing fingers
There is no blame
What happened yesterday…has disappeared
The dirt has washed away
And now it's clear

There's only grace
There's only love
There's only mercy and believe me it's enough
Your sins are gone
Without a trace
And there's nothing left now
There's only grace

I don't care what native Tri-Citians say -- this is Spring!

We have had gorgeous weather the last several days and when we couldn't quite get out the door in time for story time at our West Richland Library, we opted to play outside instead.  We planned on riding bikes and getting out the sidewalk chalk for the second day in a row.  Needless to say, I was surprised when my kiddos instead chose to park their bikes . . .

and pull weeds from the RV/boat parking pad next to our driveway.  Seeing as we don't have an RV or boat, for us it functions only as a giant rock pit.  (Funny similarities between this house and Cory Court -- giant children's mural & giant rock pit!)

Zeke preferred using various yard tools to shove rocks and dirt around.  As you can see, despite the relatively warm weather, he has a renewed love for his "Fiderman" boots ever since Mr. George complimented them last Thur :)

The girls worked to the soundtrack of their own "weed smacktalk" that went something like, "Hey weedy -- you've got to get out of here!" "I'm going to pull you out," and "You weeds are going to be doomed!"

Just some unrelated super-cute pictures from the last week or so: