A Sentence a Day...

So...it's been a while.
I am shocked and embarrassed to realize that my last blog post occurred about 8 months ago. I think this is because I get intimidated, thinking every time I post something, it needs to be thoughtful, informative, and important, and include adorable photos of the kids. Well, it obviously hasn't been working out very well. However, I saw a great idea in a magazine a few months ago that I thought I'd try. The idea is to write just one or two sentences each day that you can look back on and remember later. I guess this is mostly for my own benefit, but hey, if there's anyone else out there who reads this (ie Mom and Angela), a short blog is better than no blog. Well, here goes nothing.

Feb. 21, 2010.
Ethan is really grumpy today, probably because he has eaten approx. 3 pounds of grapes in the past 24 hours.

"When we get home, if we get home, I hope home is still there." -Uncle Rob

For several weeks, I have been wanting to put up a few pictures of Ethan's and my road trip out to Illinois for a friend's wedding. Before we left, I even had grand plans to put a few pictures up every day of our trip... haha. Oh well.

Ethan, Danielle Urfer, and I traveled to the bustling metropolis of Aledo, Illinois (pop. about 3,000), to attend the wedding of one of my friends from college. The 15-ish hour drive was broken up by a stop each way in Kansas City with some other Olivet friends.

This was my first major trip with Ethan, and Levi could not come with us, so I'll confess, I was a little nervous about how it would go. Ethan was a little champ though. Danielle and I took turns riding in the back with him to provide live entertainment, and that--along with some long rest area stops and an ample supply of freeze-dried fruit--pretty much kept him occupied for the whole trip. Really, the freeze-dried fruit saved our hides. We had a great time seeing a bunch of friends and attending a very nice wedding, and Ethan even had a little bit of fun. Success. (He got pink eye somewhere along the way and managed to infect 10 of our summer staff with it the next week, but we'll still chalk it up as a victory.)

So we came back home, feeling exhausted and triumphant, and stopped at my house to unload all the baby travel gear. But opening the front door, we discovered...bare walls and empty rooms. We made it home, but home was not there. Fortunately, home had just relocated down the street a block or so. Levi (and about 20 summer staffers) had spent the previous 4 hours moving us to the camp house we'd had our eye on for the last 2 years! It's much larger, has 3 bedrooms (and a master bath!), and has more kitchen cabinets than I've ever seen in one house before. Amazing. Well done, Levi. Good surprise.


Too bad we couldn't travel like this the whole trip!


We got a little bored at the wedding rehearsal and played outside.


Ethan and travel buddy, Danielle, at the reception.

Summertime

Finally! Summer!

Not much happens at camp in the winter. And as one of the old timers up here says, "The mountains only have 2 seasons: winter and July." This is not quite true, but when mid-May rolls around there are still no leaves on the trees, it seems about right.
Fortunately, the long, boring winter makes summer that much more welcome. On Sunday, about 30 college summer staffers rolled in to camp, so the summer is finally getting underway! We also had our first ridiculously huge hail storm of the season (which Samson was not thrilled about). It must really be summer!

So far, we're all enjoying different summery things. Ethan is LOVING having a whole staff of college girls to dote on him, Samson takes advantage of every opportunity to rub his shedding self all over everyone's legs, Levi gets to be outside all day and goof around with a bunch of college kids, and I am SO thankful to see some old friends and spend the majority of my day with people who can actually talk.

In the spirit of summer, I thought Ethan's first swimsuit picture would be appropriate. We haven't gone swimming yet in the camp pool because it's so cold, but a few weekends ago, we swam in the heated pool at EPIC in Fort Collins with Kara and Aydin and some friends from church. It was a pretty big hit.

All Dressed Up (and no place to go)

Ethan was all dressed up and ready to go.

Our Easter weather

Watching the Easter choir sing

When I called my last post "Holiday at Home," I wasn't really planning on it being literal.

Sunday morning, we got up bright and early, dressed in our Sunday best, and got ready to go to church. But then... Levi drove over to our boss's house to feed his dog, and when he got back, he said, "We'd better rethink going to church today." Apparently, in the 1/4 mile or so to and from our boss's house, he almost slid off the road 3 or 4 times. So we had a very homey Easter! I thought since Ethan couldn't go to church, at least we could watch a service on TV. Not a very typical 1st Easter for him, but maybe he'll enjoy hearing about it when he's older.

We did have a really nice Easter lunch with David (who lives close enough to walk over), which made it still seem like a special day. And my "Holiday at Home" prediction was more accurate than I meant it to be!

Holiday at Home

This is a notable weekend for Levi and I - our first holiday with just our little family. We usually take every possible chance to head up to Fort Collins and spend time with our families, but this weekend, it just seems like a good time to stay here.

So it's not just our first holiday with "just us," it's also my first holiday meal to cook! Good thing ham doesn't show any signs of being hard to cook. And thankfully, my culinary audience is not very demanding: one baby who will probably eat only Cheerios, and a husband who would probably still say nice things if I served him heated bologna (at the very worst, "This is one of those things you probably shouldn't make again").

So for the next holiday, we'll gladly head to town, but tomorrow, we'll just relax, celebrate Jesus' resurrection, and watch Ethan and the dog do cute stuff in our own little house.
















This picture has nothing to do with Easter or the above blog. I just liked it. It is Ethan's reaction to the dog trying to lick his forehead clean.

We're back...

Since "entering the modern era" well over a month ago, we seem to be blogging just as often as before -- that is, very rarely. Unfortunately, the otherwise lovely computer that we've borrowed to use at home has USB ports that don't work. At all. So no uploading pictures at home. And I feel a little cheap blogging all the time without a single picture to go along with the text. These are my lousy excuses for the lack of bloggage the last few weeks.
To make amends for lost time and lost photo ops, here's a little snippet that sums up the last two months or so. He just keeps getting cuter and cuter! There is also a new photo album on my facebook for anyone especially interested (ahem...Angela...).

Entering the Modern Era...sort of

We finally have internet at home! As of last night, we have finally caught up with everyone else in the 21st century. Levi celebrated the momentous occasion by browsing hunting accessories online and searching for the "ugliest NBA player in history."
I celebrated by looking up recipes for Rabbit Stew, having found the selection of rabbit recipes in my cookbooks somewhat lacking. Rabbit is on the menu for tonight, since Levi brought home a freshly shot bunny last week. This rabbit was one of a family that has been living under our house since before we arrived, so I feel a little sad to be eating our neighbor. But my friend Michal, whose dad raises rabbits to show, assures me that they taste just like chicken, and we are fresh out of chicken. So rabbit it is.
Isn't it beautiful how the miracles of modern technology can help me find recipes for dishes that were probably popular in the Middle Ages?