An Alaska Adventure

These past several months have been quite busy for us in many ways, which should be no surprise since I am sure most of us feel like life, jobs, family and ministry have a way of keeping everyone busy. 

I know this post is about a trip from awhile ago but it was really quite a fun and adventurous trip so we just had to share.  

In June, Tyler and Neal were able to go up to AK for a little over two weeks.  This was a TWR trip that Tyler was taking to visit a few more of our supporting churches, ones we were not able to visit on our last furlough, and share with them an update on ministry with TWR. With such a short time frame to get up to AK (during Neal’s school break) and just the long distance that it is to fly there from the other side of the country, not all of us were able to go on this trip. However, Neal was thrilled to get to go on a work trip with his dad, and they have been sharing lots of great stories of their AK adventures from fishing, hiking, flying rafting and even getting to see a pod of orca whales that they could almost touch from the small boat they were on.

It was quite the adventure and Neal was beyond excited to finally "go on one of daddy's work trips."   They also got to spend some time with family in Anchorage and Neal had a great time playing with his cousins and just enjoying a special trip over school break.

Seeing their pictures and hearing their stories make me miss AK summers, you just can't beat the incredible views of the mountains and the ocean together.  They also had some of the most amazing summer weather that AK offers while there so it made for a extra fabulous trip. 

A Double Birthday Celebration

Well we made it!!  We survived the fist year of life with twins!   I really can't even believe it has already been a year since these two boys joined our family.  The last 12+ months has seemed to disappear so quickly.   Life has been much more crazy since the arrival of these two boys (this is noticeable in many ways, one being how long it has taken me to update this blog).



In Juen we got to celebrate Donovan and Paul's first birthday!    I absolutely love 1st Birthdays.  I know that the birthday boys don't even really know what is going on and really all the celebration is for the adults and for pictures but it is something I always look forward to doing.   This 1st birthday party was even more fun 'cause it was x2!   It was a slightly different in the fact that Neal and Tyler were away in AK so only half the family was here but my parents were able to come down and join us so we had a party and of course took lots of pictures.





Neal and his cousin were able to Skype with us during the birthday singing and cake eating and it was fun to hear them both talking to the birthday boys and laughing with them as they made a mess of their cake.



And what babies birthday party is complete without the birthday boy (or boys) crying...



The idea of opening awesome new toys and then having them taken away just to open other toys is not quite understood by the one year old.  I think Gwen ended up opening most of their gifts for them as we finally just let them play with what they wanted since the whole idea of gift opening is very uninteresting at this stage of life.  



Looking back over the last 12 months seems like a blurry memory in many ways...babies just grow up and change so quickly.   These boys may have been born on the same day and love to share almost everything and would sleep side by side as newborns but they are very different in many ways. It is so fun to see them grow and change at different rates and to see how their personalities are so different from one another.   We pray that you both will continue to grow strong and healthy and that you both will continue to grow a deep friendship with each other and come to know, love and serve Christ in the years ahead.






Donovan: 
1) You have the most sweet little smile around.  You are always giving a grin to whoever you see (especially to your mommy)
2)  You would always stick you tongue out when you smile, making for an adorable and slobbery face.
3)  Your favorite song is "Vroom, Vroom, Vroom, we're going to the moon"
4) You have almost 7 teeth and are crawling around everywhere.  Happy to be playing with toys in a room and content to quietly play by yourself and to listen and enjoy those around with.
5)  You are the best and most snuggle one out of all our kids.



Paul: 
1)  You have the cutest laugh around.  You are often found laughing either at your siblings or just at life in general.
2) You are always giving the most crazy and silly facial expressions no matter what you are doing
3) You favorite song for now is "A Sailor Went to Sea"
4) You still have no teeth at the age of one but love to show off your toothless grin.
5)  You crawl around so quickly and are always wanting to be in the room where something is happening.  You do not ever want to be by yourself and always want to be right in the middle of the action.