Catch-up blog

Wow, this has been an incredibly busy few weeks! July 14-18 brought KTC (Kid's Town Camp, or in layman's terms, vbs). As you all know, I was in charge of the snacks, so of course, that week kept me on my toes! We ended up having about 360 kids each day, plus leaders. The snacks went over pretty well, as far as I know. My parents flew in on the morning of the 18th, so they got to experience a little bit of KTC themselves. I think they were quite impressed! Our church is fairly large (about 1000 people each Sunday) so they go all out. We had black light puppet shows (like a little-kids' rock concert feel), skits, fun games, crafts, and of course snacks.

That brings us to the next segment of the catching-up: the Baker visit of 2008! :) We started off their trip with a bang. We went right from the airport to church to finish up KTC. Then, as soon as Tyler got home from work, we made the 3 hour trip to Pacific Beach, WA to stay in a little cabin owned by some friends of ours. It was a great weekend! We played games, read books, flew a kite (which was actually really fun!!), browsed through the stores of "downtown," ate at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant which turned out to have some excellent food, built a bonfire on the beach to roast hotdogs (although, it was incredibly windy and the sand at the beach is very fine, so it got into everything and I could not force myself to eat my hotdog!), and just enjoyed spending time in such a beautiful and laid-back place. We came home Sunday night and stopped at an air show that was going on, so we got to see a flying demonstration. Throughout the week, we took it easy, just making small trips to places like the Pike fish market and IKEA. Then, Saturday, we drove up to Salish Lodge for breakfast and to hike down to the falls. We spent the morning there, grabbed some golf-ball-sized rainier cherries for the rest of the ride, and drove down to Mt. Rainier. We spent the afternoon hiking around some trails there and enjoying the crisp mountain air, then headed back home. All total, we drove about 200 miles that day. Sunday brought church, and then......ETHIOPIAN FOOD!! My parents had never been to an ethi restaurant, so we wanted to make sure they experienced it. The food was really good (Tyler still says nothing is quite authentic enough for him, but it tastes great to me), and my parents had a good time. We visited the Ballard Locks after lunch, which was fun and relaxing. That signalled the end of the trip, which was sad, of course, but we are going home for Christmas, so our parting was made much easier knowing we have a plan to see each other again soon. They flew out on Monday morning, and had to be at the airport at 4am, so we were up at 3am. That brings us to my next adventure (after some pictures)....

Monday morning at 6am, I left home and drove to Maple Valley to begin my week of watching 2 darling kiddos for a friend while she was in New Zealand visiting family. I arrived at 6:30 each day (I was up by 5am each day this week, which, if you know me at all, is not my forte), and stayed until 6:30-7pm each night until their dad got home from work. We filled our days with trips to the park, playing outside, playing at the playplace in the supermall, and watching a few episodes of Curious George. :) It really was a great week, and the kids are so well-behaved that it made my job easy. I have also discovered yet again how hilarious kids are, and kept track of a few of the funnier things they said. Here is a sample:

While eating waffles for breakfast, Zach says: "You have to cut my waffle into little pieces, but you don't have to cut your waffle into little pieces because you have a huge mouth!"


While changing Molly's diaper and trying to be careful of her diaper rash, Molly says: "Kiss it make it better" ....mmmm, sorry girlie, not gonna happen! :D

White looking at pictures of me and my siblings all dressed up at my sister's wedding, Zach says: "Why are you all cuted up?"

So, those were definitely some funny moments! Now, I'm looking forward to a week off and catching up from all the excitement!