Holland Happening

Holland Happening is Oak Harbor's celebration of it's Dutch heritage. There's a parade, a sketchy carnival and craft booths etc. Our family has been attending the festivities for over 20 years! Anyway, when Mike and I were in the process of buying our business we thought it would be fun to walk in the parade as an alternative marketing strategy. So on Saturday we gathered a small gang to help us in our efforts. We passed out custom tattoos and pens that we had made just for the parade. Both the tattoos and pens were a hit with the crowd (remember it would be just wrong for the dentist to pass out candy)!

Danny and Sarah let us borrow their new truck for the parade.

The adults wore our softball team jerseys, which I thought looked pretty snazzy. We are sponsoring a coed city league softball team appropriately named the "K9s" that Sarah, Amanda and I are playing on.

Here's the buckets of our goods! Note to self, buy twice as many handouts for the 4th of July parade.

This was Asher's parade outfit. I just wanted to squish him because he looked so darn cute. His t-shirt says "My Dad is the Big Kahuna"

Later in the afternoon Asher was in the backyard playing. It always cracks me up when I find him sharing the bench with the statue of the little boy. I love how he has his hand on the boys knee.

Saturday is date night and we rotate babysitting with my siblings. I must have cuddled like this with the babies, who are not such babies anymore, for a good half hour. I can't get enough of how much they love each other. They are constantly exchanging hugs and kisses.
(From left to right, Brinlee, Rylin and Asher.)

Let's Make a Deal

So my sweet, handsome, strong, intelligent and thoughtful husband struggles with getting home on time (I know this is nothing new for most husbands), and his lovely wife doesn't have a lot of tolerance for this problem. Everyday, I ask Mike what time I can expect him home, and I get a little crazy (OK a lot) when he is not home when he says he will be. He claims I don't understand how busy things get and that I'm insensitive to all he has to do. I remind him that all I ask is that he calls (or has one of his assistants call) before he's already late, to let me know he's running behind. My family all thinks I'm way to hard on the poor guy, and his mom thinks it's genetic and that I'm better off just letting it go. BUT I REFUSE! Keep in mind, I don't tell Mike when to be home, that's his job. So we, OK it was my idea, but he agreed, on a little wager to help with this issue. You might want to try it out yourself. Here's the deal: Mike tells me when I can expect him home, leaving himself a little wiggle room. If he is not home on time, and did not call at least 30 minutes before he was supposed to be home to let me know he's running late, he owes me $100. I know this might sound a little harsh, but the goal is to improve communication, and I'd really rather have him home than take his money. We made this deal on Wednesday, and what do you know, Thursday he was home when he said he would be. Friday, I made $100. We'll see what this week brings.

I should add that I promised I would have dinner ready when he said he'd be home, so there is some incentive, other than a happy wife which should be good enough!

I'll Fly Away, Spring Break 2008

We just got back from a fabulous spring break vacation with our friends the Yeates! We rented a beach house/cottage in this new beach town called Seabrook which is about 15 miles north of Ocean Shores on the Washington coast. The house was awesome, the company was unbeatable and the scenery was majestic! We played in the sand, flew kites, spent time at the park, played invigorating games of whiffle ball and soccer (grown-ups vs. kids), watched conference and ate a lot of great food. Needless to say, the time flew by and we all shed a tear as our vacation came to a end today.

Our cottage, appropriately named "I'll Fly Away." Soon after we walked in for the first time, Halle shouted, "I love this place, when can I move in?"

After the kids went to bed...(the Wii was really fun on a big screen)

Haven, casually flying a kite

There was a fun park in the middle of the community with awesome fire pits. The wood was all set up (as shown in the picture) just waiting for a flame and some marshmallows!

Henry enjoying the ride! All of the walking paths were made of crushed oyster shells, such a cool touch for a beach town.

Friday was a little rainy, but this picture was taken in the afternoon when the heavens opened inviting us to the beach.

These kinds of scenes just melt your heart.

Justin happened upon a couple of stray puppies on the way home from the beach.

Family movie night at the beach house. We watched Enchanted, which even got two thumbs up from Freddy.

Catherine and I gave each other pedicures. I forgot my soaking tubs, but the sink worked out even better.

Don't forget the paraffin wax dip.

The finished product

Asher fully sustains our new prophet! (We managed to watch 3 sessions of general conference, and the boys even made it to a church building in Ocean Shores to watch the Priesthood session with 12 other men :)

It took a little convincing, but the boys were game for a little pampering too. Don't worry, they didn't give each other pedicures and there was no polish involved.

Next time you go to the dentist, see if his hands are nice and soft. He probably gets paraffin wax hand treatments (j/k).

So even though we've only been home for a few hours, I'm already searching my calendar for a time to go back!

Surprise Spring Break Activity

We snatched our YW out of bed at 8:30 AM Tuesday morning of their spring break and brought them to my house for doughnuts and a rousing game of general authority trivia. They were so cute as they stumbled in wearing their pjs and worried about their hair. While I know they were looking forward to going back to bed, I think they had a pretty good time.

The fact that our kids were there made it all worth it for Cailey

Brie wasn't afraid to pose for a picture

The whole gang, aren't they stunning?

Asher was especially cuddly with Aunt Ciera

Sweet Bonnie having a good old time with Rylin and Asher