Tomorrow morning Michaela and I will head out with my parents on our long anticipated trip to CA.  We will spend a week in Yosemite backpacking and seeing His incredible handiwork.  We’ll also get to spend some time with my brother, Jeremy, and see some aunt, uncles, and maybe cousins.  We have been planning, preparing, and training for about 3 months now so we’re quite excited that the time has finally come.  I can’t wait to introduce Michaela to backpacking, especially in our much beloved Yosemite.

Please pray for our safety, for physical strength, and especially for spiritual refreshment and growth.  Chris will be staying home with the other four kids, so I would also ask you to pray that their time here goes smoothly and that they’ll make some fun memories as well.  I can’t say how blessed I am to have a husband like Chris who allows me to get away on special trips such as this.  Not only will we be gone for several days, but he’ll be cooking meals, doing laundry, chauffeuring kids around and so much more.  I love you more, Chris!

I’ll have plenty of pictures to post once we get home.  Maybe I’ll even get Chris to post updates a couple of times.  We will have a satellite phone with us while we’re in the back country and we’ll call in at a regularly scheduled time once a day for just a couple of minutes to check in (it’s expensive!).

P.S.  Tomorrow evening’s dinner has long been planned….In-N-Out!! 

Yes, it’s another birthday.  Chris’ birthday is today, just two days after Michaela’s.  In July we eat lots of cake. 

The kids were up early to give Daddy treats and to enjoy donuts (his chosen breakfast) with him before he headed off to work.  We have company coming in tonight and will enjoy dinner together along with our chocolate cake.

I know I just bragged on my last post about Michaela, but today is Chris’ turn.  Our family is blessed beyond measure to have Chris as our spiritual family leader.  He is hardworking, not just at his job away from home, but here at home as well.  He takes the kids individually on regular “Daddy Dates” (weekly dates for Mama, too!), plays games with them, fixes countless broken toys, helps the kids with projects (mainly the boys’ inventions), and loves and pampers his wife.  We take Chris way too much for granted and are glad that we can stop today and celebrate him as our super Dad and Husband.  We love you!

(This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but I can’t get pictures to upload.  Wanted to make sure my birthday post gets out for Chris anyway, though.)

Last Saturday we all got up early to head to KC for the day.  We were excited to see GG Wolfe, as they had just arrived in from Russia.  We also attended a baby shower for our newest nephew/cousin, little Titus.  He is still waiting in Taiwan for his Daddy and Mommy to come get him.  His court date was today (our time last night) and we are anxiously awaiting news of when they can travel to be joined as family.  Here are some shots from the day.

Our Aunt AA, mommy-to-be

Aunt AA's friends had such cute decor for the shower

Ami was SO excited about spending the day with Elle. As soon as we got in the van to head home at the end of the day she said, "I miss Elle." Awwww.

One of Benjamin's amazingly odd talents. Where in the world does he come up with this stuff?! (Elijah's face cracks me up, too!)

The Wolfes always have fun with games, a must for get-togethers. The guys (young and old) are known for making up their own inventive rules

Love you, Kate!

For part of the day I had some terrible head spinning/dizziness going on. I crashed on Elle's bed for a while and after trying to get me off, she gave up and snuggled up to me holding my hand. She is such an affectionate and loving little lady. I love you Elle-belle! Thanks for giving Aunt JJ some TLC.

GG Wolfe with the Wolfe cubs (minus Titus)

Our family with the grandparents

Eric, Kate, Elle, and Zane

With having Grandpa and Grandma here I’ve hardly kept up on my blogging.  I’ll just post a bunch of pictures (both from my Dad and my own) to recap some of what we’ve been up to the last several days.

We've been training for our backpacking trip by walking with our packs 2 miles each morning

Out to eat at one our favorites - MS Fish Shack

We've had lots of rain and severe storms, but they create some gorgeous sunsets to view from our new deck

Chris has been befuddled by our moles for a long time. Dad finally showed him up by catching not just one....

....but two in one day!

The pay off was $10 a mole. Well worth it!

One of my treasures

And another one

Benjamin dressed up as his daddy, complete with shirt, sunglasses and ear piece made from Legos (This shot SO looks like his Uncle Jonathan!)

Well, it was a big one this year for me.  My age now starts with the same number as this post title, but I’m happy to say I don’t feel a day older and it hasn’t psychologically messed me up yet.    We attended church in the morning, then ate out at Mongolian BBQ for lunch.  Yummy, but I ate way too much.  I opened some very nice gifts at home, then the kids were itching to shoot off some of their fireworks.  We had American BBQ (just hotdogs) as a light supper before shooting off some more fireworks and then heading out to watch the city show.  Then after the city show we came home for more of our own fireworks since it was now dark.  The kids didn’t get to bed until 11:30, which is unheard of at our house.

We had a great day and I felt very loved.  It is very special to be surrounded by family.  I always especially miss my “twin” on my birthday when we’re not together.  Jennifer is two years older, but we have the same special birthday.  Japan is so very far away, but  Skype and the phone helped bring us together for a bit.  Hopefully we’ll be together next year to celebrate here.  I love and miss you, Jennifer!

The kids had anticipated shopping at the fireworks tent for days.

Benjamin's special craft for my birthday

Opening gifts

Ami adored Uncle Jeremy

One of my pyromaniacs

Enjoying the "show"

They loved shooting the fireworks

She said this was a "Chinese pose"

More "Chinese posing" with sparklers

Another pyromaniac

And one more pyromaniac

On the way home from the city show

Mom, Dad and I saw Jeremy off at 5am this morning then we all went back to bed.  Thanks again for coming, Jeremy!  Love you!

We had a fun and busy week last week.  Grandpa and Grandma arrived on Tuesday, then on Wednesday my brother, SIL, and little nephew were supposed to arrive from CA.  Unfortunately the little guy got sick and they had to cancel the trip.  We were very disappointed as we had not gotten to meet our cousin/nephew yet and they had yet to meet Elijah.

Chris had already taken off Wednesday through Friday, so Dad helped us get started on some much needed landscaping around the new deck.  It keeps looking better and better every day, but there has been a lot of sweat, muscle, and energy put into it all.  I have a couple of pictures, but will post more when the project is completed.

It was on Saturday afternoon as we were slaving away in the heat and humidity, very soiled and soaked in sweat, that a car pulled down the driveway.  I looked up and saw my brother Jeremy get out!  He had flown in on his way home to CA from work in Europe to surprise me for my birthday!  What a special surprise it was, especially after my disappointment in not getting to see my other brother.  It had been 2.5 years since I last saw Jeremy, and he finally got to meet Elijah, too.  Very special!

Tea party with Grandma

Newly stained and sealed

Men moving boulders

Zane, Elle, and Kate came through and stopped for lunch

Grandma introduced the kids to Sudoku

My "little" brother surprised me!

Wii games from their uncle

Uncle Jeremy even tried out the rope swing

It was a very exciting day eighteen years ago today, as Chris and I looked forward to the next chapter of our lives together.  In one of my Memorial Box stories, I blogged about how we first met.  We spent a year dating, then a year of engagement before our big wedding day.

If you had asked each of us twenty years ago when we first met what each of our lives would be like today, I doubt if we would even come close to guessing with any accuracy what has transpired over the last several years.  I know these things for sure.  Our love for each other is deeper, our faith in Him is stronger, and our hope for the next years to come is filled with excited expectation.

Here is our “something big”. 

Our handsome chauffeur

12-passenger capacity for us to work on

Any of the benches can be removed for cargo space

The kids are in love with the large flip down screen

The Honda looks so tiny now!

So there you have it.  We are so very excited and feel so blessed that God provided this new van for us.  Our Odyssey was just feeling a bit cramped, as it was full to capacity, and we didn’t have any extra room for visitors, friends, or for our family to grow.  Instead of getting a basic 12-passenger van we chose to make it feel a little less bus-like and had a slight conversion done on it.  We visited a great dealership while we were on vacation in Florida (thanks for the recommendation Charlene!) and after we got home we prayed more about a new vehicle and felt the go-ahead to make a deal.

Chris got a flight out of town at 6am yesterday and was pulling out of the dealership by 11:45am, as I wrote about yesterday.  It was an awesome God-wink that at that very moment the deck guys were pulling away from their completed job on our new deck.  Chris drove home in 12.5 hours and only stopped once along the way!  Needless to say, the van has a huge gas tank and Chris has a strong tank himself.  Ha!  It was very good to see him home safe and sound in the wee hours of this morning.

Thank you, Lord, that you bless us beyond what we ask or imagine.  May we use Your gifts to us for Your purposes and to bless others through them.  Can’t wait to pick up our first guest passengers at the airport on Tuesday!  Did I mention His perfect timing?!

We are trying a garage sale for the first time at this house (today and tomorrow).  We don’t have the best location for a sale and didn’t know how it would go.  Well, despite good signs and advertising we didn’t have much traffic at all.  The kids are pleased enough so far because they get to divide the profits, but for Mommy’s time and efforts I would much rather have just donated to the Goodwill.  Hopefully we’ll see some more sales tomorrow and then the garage will be all cleared out.

Sorry, the kid isn't for the taking; he's a priceless treasure!

The BEST news of the day is that at 11:45 am Daddy called to say that he was heading home with our “something big”.  And get this…..at the EXACT same time the deck guys were pulling out of the driveway leaving behind our completed deck!  Yea, God!!  I’ll post more pictures of the deck later, and I can’t wait to post pictures tomorrow when Daddy is home.

We had somewhat of a low key day, but enjoyed celebrating the wonderful father in our household.  We treated Daddy to cinnamon rolls for breakfast, some nice gifts, and then dinner out after church.  We are very blessed to have Chris as a positive role model and Godly example to our kids.

Looks like a crowd around Daddy, but I bet we could fit another kid or two in, don’t you?