Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Three Ride

While Cory and I were in Seattle my mom and dad watched the boys. These are her favorite pictures from their time together. And her favorite story, which she requested that I blog, is from a trip they took to the park. Another boy that was about the same age as Zane kept daring him to do different things. Zane finally told him "No thank you" and walked away. He then went to my mom and asked, "What does dare mean?" She got such a big kick out of that.





Seattle 2010

Cory and I went to Seattle last weekend as an early celebration of our 17th wedding anniversary. After we settled in to our hotel we went to Pike Place Market and Cory bought flowers for me. Later we went to the Space Needle for dinner and enjoyed the amazing view as the sun went down.

Prior to our trip, I researched restaurants to eat at that were recommended by Food Network's Guy Fieri. He has the show "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" and being that Cory and I both like hole-in-the-wall kind of places I thought it would be fun. We went to Voula's Offshore Cafe for breakfast and it was delicious. The biscuits, gravy and hash browns were some of the best I've had. [Cory and I always like to try every restaurant's biscuits and gravy.] Later in the evening, we went to Pam's Kitchen to try Trinidadian food. It was also delicious. The Curried Chicken Roti with Paratha bread were great. We also really liked the Peanut Punch. It tasted similar to a peanut butter milkshake.

I'm glad we were not counting calories on this trip! First, we went to FROST Doughnuts so that I could get a t-shirt for my niece, Lolly FROST. While there we felt obligated to try their bacon maple bars and white chocolate raspberry donuts. [Actually, I kinda lured Cory into driving me there by showing him a picture of the bacon maple bar.] Then, being that cupcakes are quite the rage now and I have never been to a cupcake shop, I wanted to experience Cupcake Royale. I walked for nearly two hours in downtown Seattle before I finally found it. [I did have their address, but God did not equip me with an internal compass. I count on Cory for that and he wasn't with me at the time.] After the lengthy walk I felt justified in taking a couple cupcakes back to the hotel with me. On Sunday, we ate lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and I thought it would be rather silly to go to the Cheesecake Factory and not eat cheesecake. Can you blame me? I guess our trip to Seattle will always bring back sweet memories!




Wednesday, April 21, 2010

THE LATEST STORIES

"Luke! You cannot control your anger that way!" Zane Gant, while pulling Luke off of Cade

"I like hot showers and I'm teaching you [Luke] to like hot showers. I'm teaching you to be a man!" Zane Gant

"Nothing is too heavy for me to spill!" Luke Gant

After talking about the Bible story where Elijah was taken to heaven in a chariot I tried to explain to the boys what a chariot is. I said it is similar to a buggy but built for one person and the rider is standing. However, the boys are also unfamiliar with a buggy and therefore my explanation wasn't too helpful as evidenced by Luke's comment, "It must have been a big bug [that took Elijah to heaven]!"

A few days ago Cory took the family for a drive to see a house in the country. It is a nice house in a beautiful location and comes with a hefty price tag. The boys decided that they should help save for it. Today Cade came up with a plan. He is going to hold up a sign that says, "I don't have any money!" when we are out and about and hope that people give him money. I should also mention where Cade got this idea. My sister, Joy, had all the kids in her Sunday school class [and Luke and Cade were there visiting that week] pretend to be beggars. They were holding signs like "I don't have any money!" and "I can't work." This was suppose to help them relate to the Bible story she was telling about a beggar. I'm not sure Cade understood the point of the lesson, but he evidently did remember how easy it was to get money from people when you're cute and little and at church. 5/6/10

Monday, April 19, 2010

BREANNE

When you're lucky enough to have one of your youth group kids become a Physicians Assistant all kinds of fun ensues. Breanne is in Eugene for 10 weeks doing clincals and she has been coming to our house for dinner once a week. The boys have absolutely fallen in love with her. They love it when she tells them long make-believe stories [she has quite an imagination]! She also gave us all well-checks. She put on her lab coat and had her bag of goodies. She checked our hearing, reflexes, ears, blood pressure, etc. Afterward, I told her that she could perhaps payoff some of her school loans by providing birthday party entertainment. Who needs a clown or horse when you can have Breanne come to give well-checks? Well, at least our family thought it was a lot of fun.










Last week Breanne also stayed the night with us. Cory's dad was staying the night too and Cade repeatedly suggested that she sleep with Grandpa on the fold-out bed. For some reason, she opted for the couch. ;-) The boys were up at 7:00 and snuggling with Breanne. I have never seen Cade flirt so much with anyone before. Now that Breanne is his newfound love, I'm less worried that he will "off" Cory so he can marry me like he has been subtly suggesting.



Sunday, April 18, 2010

Papa turns 63

My dad is a hard worker. He likes work and when he isn't working it seems he is thinking about it; therefore, I was not surprised when he organized a work party at my sister's house to celebrate his 63rd birthday. A birthday party that involves more work than play was a new concept for the boys. Dad was cutting down trees and bushes and we were stacking firewood and hauling brush to a bonfire. We all worked hard and accomplished Dad's goal of having a hill ready for Lolly and the boys to play on. After most of the work was done, the kids found it great fun to chase the chickens. Fortunately Camille, Daisy, Cherry, and Lois were pretty good sports about being the birthday party entertainment.

THE DUCKS VS. THE CHICKEN


LOLLY SHOWS THE BOYS HOW IT'S DONE.


ZANE, LOOKING QUITE PROUD


LUKE, A LITTLE SCRATCHED UP AFTER WRESTLING WITH WIRE FENCING