Adventures at the lake:

View from the kitchen table :o)

Our typical day at the lake started with Reggie and Ainsley visiting grandpa and grandma in their room at 7 o'clock. They'd hang out there for awhile and then make their way to the kitchen for some breakfast. I usually put their cereal out, like at home, but they never seemed to eat much....Reggie always had poppy seeds stuck in his teeth....hmmm??? They aren't going to know what to do without their Costco muffins. It will give them something to look forward to next time they see grandma and grandpa :o). Many mornings after breakfast, we'd head out to pick raspberries and huckleberries for our morning fruit. They are delicious and the kids enjoy picking!

The weather was beautiful almost everyday, so sometimes we would head down to the lake to make some sand sculptures or waterways or play and swim. Reggie really enjoyed playing with the neighbor's this year, especially their oldest son, Caden. I think he is around 13 and he is just great with both the kids. They laugh and laugh whenever they are with him and it was pretty fun to hear their conversations...they have quite the imaginations! It was also neat to see Reggie getting a little more confident. At the beginning of the summer, he would ask me to see if they wanted to play and then one day, I saw him go over and ask Caden to play. He would watch for him to come down to the beach and then he would go right over :o). They spent hours building waterway and sand structures and playing hide and go seek in the water. Our other beach friends have been the twins, Stella and Ruby (who run around naked!), Maggie, Emma and Sarah and the Boyd boys. Reggie has had so much fun playing and swimming with the older kids. They've challenged him a bit and he'll swim out to the trampoline with his life jacket on and paddle around in his little boat. Emma and Sarah were there shortly before we left and Ainsley even went out with them. They tied all the floaties together to create a "party float" and headed out to the trampoline where they jump and have a great time. A few weeks ago when Megan and the boys came, Reggie was out in the canoe with them and swimming all over the place. They had a great time playing and I had a nice visit with Megan. Poor Ainsley...no girls to play with. Thankfully, Maggie has been up here every weekend, so Ainsley has someone to hang out with. She is pretty good about entertaining herself and sometimes she'll play with the older kids, but she isn't into swimming yet. The water is a little to cold for her princess blood! Ainsley did try tubing this year with the Rachel, Lynette's daughter (they were up here for a week renting the neighbor's house). Lynette assured me they would go slow and straight. Ainsley wanted me to go with her, so all three of us went. Funny how people have different definitions of slow! It was very good I went because we were going at least 15 miles per hour and her eyes got pretty big. I asked her if she liked it and she said no, but after a few minutes, I asked her again and she said she liked it. Since then, she has asked to go again, so now we just have to get a tube that doesn't have a hole in it.

Other mornings, we'd head to the woods for a short hike. There are some trails across Bamboo Lane that we explored a bit. Dad also took them to the property and had some fun on the backhoe. We noticed some interesting prints/droppings and think there might have been a cougar or mountain lion very close by, so I was always on alert. Back in the trails, the neighbors built a tree house and we had to check that out. I'm glad Reggie is afraid of heights!!! We also went on a longer hike in a new place with grandma and grandpa and the kids really enjoyed walking up the dried up creek, balancing on logs and eating salmon berries and blue huckleberries (which I had never seen or tried before). The kids were excited to see a snake, some frogs and fish. Grandpa was busy trying to save the fish that were stuck in small water ponds.

We'd usually head in for lunch around 12:30 and then have some quiet time until 2:30 and then we head back out for some more play time in the water. Ainsley just could't get enough of jumping on the water trampoline and Reggie couldn't get enough of swimming. She liked to canoe or paddleboard out to the trampoline where she'd just sing, jump and then lounge around when she got tired. We had a little excitement with her falling in with Sarah and Emma, but they quickly took care of her. We didn't get quite so lucky with the neighbors. They had a bunch of floaties tied together, along with a Kayak and for some reason, they were moving from one to another. You can guess what happened...Ainsley fell in. She had her life jacket on, but was still panicking and everyone out there just watched. We were watching from shore, hoping they'd figure it out and sure enough, they pulled her up on the Kayak and everyone was fine. Ryan took the canoe out and picked her up, but I was a little nervous that she wouldn't ever go in the water again. It was 2 days before we left, so I guess we'll find out next year. It is a good sign that she came running up to the house, with a big smile on her face, excited to tell me that she swam :o).

We tried to have some school time this summer. Reggie worked on his reading, Ainsley worked on her letters. I've realized I'm not cut out to be a teacher, so I let that go a few weeks ago and we're just going to enjoy the summer. Shouldn't reading be fun??? He'll get there some day. Ainsley did great and Reggie enjoyed working on letters with her, so all was not lost.

Tuckered out from all the activities: Our sand angel :o) We have a new interest in frogs (he asks me almost daily if we can get a pet frog!) Hats Mommy being goofy: How can we save those fish???? Running with Sarah and Emma Quiet time activity: Putting the "party float" together: Learning to paddleboard: Reggie building with Caden (the rest of the gang behind): Ryan and Reggie swimming:Reading to Spencer (doesn't he look excited!):

Ainsley’s 4!!!!

Thanks for the beautiful birthday cake Aunt Sue!!!!

Seems crazy that our youngest is already 4! She makes us laugh a lot and says and does some of the funniest things. We were at the mall the other day for the first time ever and she saw the manikins and stopped to look at all of them in the window, letting me know she wanted those outfits for her birthday. I got a Barbie head for her cake and she saw it and said, “where are her feet? I want one with shoes.” It seems to be all about shoes and clothes! Oh, and nail polish and chapstick. A total girly, girl. How did that happen???? I guess I will be a good balance for her!
She also tends to be a little too honest and says things out loud that should really be kept quiet like, “Daddy that guy pooped” when she was in the bathroom with Ryan and some guy was having a blow-out. She also used the F-A-T word when we passed a large lady (which I try not to say) at the mall and I about died! I will say that big birthday parties are not her cup of tee.. By the end of the party she was spent and fed up with anyone that wanted to tell her what to do. We felt bad but also frustrated as when she flips that switch its very hard to get her to listen. It was a long afternoon.
Things we love about Ainsley:
She freely laughs and has a contagious giggle
She’s a cuddler
She loves to help out, cleaning, cooking, shopping
She loves to brush my hair (or lack there of)
She is such a mommy, loving on her babies and her cousin Spencer
She loves to dance and look at herself in the mirror
She plays on her own and with Reggie
Her cute pronunciation, stow instead of store, hambooga instead of hamburger
Talking with her hands and mimicking our conversations
Her strong willed nature (not sure we love this!)

She is rough and tough and hangs with the boys

She is very protective of mommy when we play take-out

We did realize that she is not much of a party girl. Doesn't really like opening presents and all the attention. She had 3 major melt downs that night...poor thing!

Opening presents the morning of her birthday:Thanking Reggie for her camera:Admiring her "big sister" barbie

First couple weeks in Washington

We arrived at Lake Cavanaugh after a 17 hour drive (not the smoothest drive). I think we stopped 5 times before lunch, but things seemed to settle down after that and we made some good time. During the unhappiness of the morning drive, my mind was trying to figure out how we were going to pass the time and I realized I forgot all the DVD's at home! Luckily, I was talking to my sister and she suggested Redbox, so when we stopped for lunch, we picked up a couple.
The kids were very excited the next morning to see Aunt Liha, Uncle Wade, Grandma, Grandpa, Maggie and Spencer! Reggie was up in the loft right away exploring the new play place. The weather was pretty decent, so the kids actually played in the water and Reggie tested out his swimming abilities. It was pretty short-lived because it was so cold. Ainsley was on the couch holding Spencer and couldn't get enough of him :o).

Having some fun with Spencer:Ryan having some fun with Spencer (no one appreciates that hat!!!):

The 4th was another Northwest 4th....drizzle that turned to rain and back to drizzle. We had a few periods of dryness and Reggie had a great time with Charlie, doing smoke bombs, firecracker cars and sparklers. He stayed up to watch the show this year and was very excited about that. There was a smaller group this year (because of the poor weather), but I think it might have been one of most fun because it was easier to visit with everyone :o). Ainsley had no problem sleeping through the noise. We did the cannons again and the neighbors were having a wedding reception and were very interested and wanted us to do it again and again. I have to admit that the big one is really cool...you can feel the noise in your chest!

Decorating for the 4th the day before...notice the sun!Getting ready for the parade:Wade loading the cannon with gun powder:Sparklers with Charlie:Watching the fireworks:The guys lighting the finale:The next day, the weather turned nice and hot and Ryan and I headed down to Kirkland to get the house ready to rent. It was in great condition, but we had to do some maintenance, stain the fence, replace the toilet, caulk windows, etc., etc. It took us 3 days to get everything done, so a big thank you to mom and dad and cathy and liha for taking the kids, so we could work without interruption. We were able to find a renter that Sat. and I handed off the keys the following Friday :o). We were pretty drained from all the back and forth, and Ryan ended up getting only 2 days to relax on his vacation :o(. My back was in a very unhappy place for the first week and a half, probably from the drive and working on the house, but it has been pretty good since, thank the Lord!
I ran into a few neighbors while at the house, which was fun to chat and catch up. Turns out that Jason Mesnic, the bachelor from a couple years ago, lived on our street. There were limo's and paparazzi....too bad we missed the excitement. They decided to move right after they got married, so I couldn't even stop by and congratulate them.
Ryan left our camera in the sun and it got fried (warning to all you camera owners....it didn't take long and it wasn't even that hot!), so I don't have too many pictures from the early part of our trip. This was supposed to post a few weeks ago at my parents, but apparantly, it never did :o(. Internet is still very slow, but it is pretty exciting that my parents have a small section in the window sill at their house that gets cell service, so I've been able to make calls and do some texting.....Lake Cavanaugh is moving up in the world!!

Happy 34th Birthday Ryan!!!

We are so lucky to have Ryan, he.......
finds any reason to go out to eat (which Reggie has quickly learned and mimicked)
tackles all of us after dinner for family take-out
spoils us and loves buying toys
always wants to go and explore new places
makes time for us even when work is crazy
is lots of fun :o)
loves big!!!

Last post in sunny CA

Cub Scouts
Well, Reggie is a Cub Scout. Ryan took him to the meeting a few weeks ago and Reggie loved it. Ryan thought it was the weirdest thing….strange chants, songs and just goofy overall, but it is right up Reggie’s alley! They left with a boat to build and are having races in August. He couldn’t wait to get his uniform and ride in the rodeo parade (we had our training, so he went with a friend). His group has about 6 kindergartener’s and he knows them all, which is another bonus :o).
Yesterday, we went to the Pro Bass store because they had free classes for kids to take, like archery, target practice, spotting animal tracks, etc. He had a great time and was a little hesitant to shoot a BB gun, but he decided to go for it. I’m glad he is a little reserved in that way…nothing wrong with having a healthy respect for guns!
Ainsley was not interested in the slightest, so we tried on some clothes and hung out in the party boats. Thankfully, Colin and his parents were there to hang out with Reggie.
Here’s a picture of him learning how to shoot a bow and arrow:

Yesterday we went to the Alameda County Fair. Ever have one of those activities that are supposed to be fun and it turns out to be a wreck. That was the fair this year. We met Colin (Reggie’s friend) there and they had a great time on the rides for about 45 minutes. Ryan took Ainsley to do a pony ride and bought her a $25 wrist band because she wanted so badly to go on the rides. I was starving, so we gathered for dinner and then it was all downhill. Well, not quite, we did see a magic show and circus show that they liked. But then, Ainsley wouldn’t go on any rides by herself and Reggie only wanted to go with Colin. Reggie wouldn’t go with her, so we left, kicking and screaming the entire way. Our sweet Reggie is going through a phase right now where he is testing, pushing, lying, and being just plain rude. It is a new thing for us and very unfamiliar territory. I guess it is better to deal with it now, but I was kinda hoping he would just be sweet forever. Such fun…..
The car is packed and we'll be heading out bright and early tomorrow morning!!!! Hope to see you all at some point during our visit!!!

Last week

Ainsley’s preschool was doing VBS again this year and I took advantage. Both the kids went from 9-12 everyday and it was great. I was able to get caught up on some stuff, swim at the pool and go to the doctor without having to figure out what to do with the kids. I’ve been having some abdominal issues and a CT scan showed that I have multiple fibroid tumors in my uterus and a relatively large cyst on my ovary. On Friday I had a colonoscopy which showed that I have a loopy colon. (Ryans comments) – Before Trina moves on from this subject I figured I would give all of you reading this a little taste of what happened that day of the colonoscopy. I had the kids of course and was running back to the house after their last day of bible school and got a call from the clinic telling me that Trina was ready to be picked up. So we rushed to get Mommy and after waiting 20 minutes in the waiting room we were called back to the recovery room. I will tell you right now that she wasn’t ready to be picked up. I have never seen someone in such bad shape after being put to sleep or at least under the influence of drugs. As we were sitting there, her eyes would roll into the back of her head. The nurse, bless her heart was very positive about the whole thing but I felt that there was something that was just off. She would wake up for a few minutes and then out again. Reggie was ready to go because he saw his Mommy the Zombie.. Not to mention that there was an old guy that just got wheeled into the recovery room that was snoring like a beast. After waiting there for another 20 minutes we finally attempted to head out the back door with Trina in the wheel chair. We got her out in the middle of the parking lot and suddenly the wheel chair stopped. The nurse called me over as I was holding the car door and said “hurry stay with her, I’m going to go get a barf bag. Right in the nick of time she gave Trina the bag and she began to throw up in it over and over again. Finally after a couple dry heaves we got her in the car. I had to hold her head up as she looked retarded as she was bobbing back and fourth going in and out of sleep. Half way home she begins to throw up some more and she didn’t have the bag in the right place. So now I’m holding her head, the bag and driving with 2 kids in the back of the car. Don’t tell me how I did it but God is good. Finally got home and drug her into the house barely getting her into the bedroom where she collapsed onto the bed out cold. 3 hrs later she awoke and was hungry. So after eating a piece of toast she started to come back to life and then 2 hours later life was good. Back to Trina…I have to say, I don’t remember much, except trying to communicate and throwing up a bit, but when I came to, I felt great. Nice and skinny (I think it was almost 2 whole days that I went without eating), well rested…the sleep where you are so comfortable, so no complaints on my end :o). I have to say the kids were beaming when I awoke and was back to normal. Reggie kept saying how happy he was that I was awake.
So back to all my results, nothing serious, but just annoying and I’ll have to go to the GYN to figure out what to do about my fibroids. I also met with an Endocrinologist because I had a very strange reaction to Progesterone cream a couple months ago (high blood pressure/pulse, weight loss and nausea). I only used the cream for 3 days and then it took a couple weeks to get back to normal. My reaction remains a mystery, but she recommended going back on the pill to solve some of my pain issues. Praise God, I’ve had the best few weeks in several months. I think my body had some kind of hormone change and it has been good :o). She said to wait until my pain returns (if it does!) and then try the pill.
Boy, this is all over the place…back to VBS; the kids had a great time. They made a costume, so Reggie was loving it, which is good because it didn’t go over very well last year. Ainsley was just happy to be back at school :o).

Six Flags

We are getting our money's worth!!! Usually, we go when we have visitors in town, but we went as a family and decided to explore new things. Ryan has been wanting to take Reggie on the go-karts at Six Flags and no surprise, Reggie loved it! The go-karts were in a part of the park that we hadn’t been to and we passed the dolphin pool. Several people were in wetsuits, getting to touch and learn about the dolphins. I asked Reggie if he wanted to do that and he said yes, so maybe we’ll do that in the future.

For 2 years, I have been wanting to ride the elephants, and I finally got my chance. Ainsley went with me and as we were in line, I was noticing how short the ride was and kinda felt jipped. When I got on the elephant, I was very happy it was a short ride. Its backbone was hitting my tailbone and it was a very bumpy, jerky ride (not to mention the metal bars holding us on were digging into my legs). At least I can say I did it!!! We went on a few new rides and saw the bird show and Reggie was a maniac in the water spray park. It was such a relaxing, fun time :o).

Pride Training

Last year, Ryan and I went through the process of looking into International adoption. After gathering all the info., we decided it didn’t make sense for us. We actually felt like we were in a good place with our own kids and didn’t need/want to rock the boat. Life was good and we were pretty comfortable in our routine. Until….this January when I had a dream about adopting a baby and then the following Sunday, we had a message on the Sanctity of Life (all the ways to help children and preserve life). It felt like it was a very clear message from God that we should move forward with something. I talked to Ryan about it and he wasn’t so sure. I have to admit that I wasn’t really excited about the idea either because life was good, the kids are getting older and easier and I didn’t really want to take on more responsibility, especially with my daily back pain. We prayed about it and sat with it for a few weeks and decided to look into it a little further. We went to an informational meeting about Foster care and again felt led in that direction, but were having a hard time with the concept. Ryan wanted to straight adopt and I wanted to foster only. So, we decided to go through the training and see where we came out on the other side. It was an amazing 4 week class, every Saturday this month for 6 hours (a big THANK YOU to our friends who watched Reggie and Ainsley!). God has really changed our hearts and we’re now excited for this new adventure. We ended up not being in either category, adopt or foster, but something called concurrent planning. That is where we work to reconcile the family and if the parents can’t get it together, we consider adoption. Reggie and Ainsley have been talking about getting a new playmate….I’m not sure they fully understand what that means. I’m having more and more conversations to prepare them to welcome a child from newborn to age 5. We have some paperwork to finish up and CPR classes and then we’ll be certified. I know God already has a plan and it will be exciting to see what it is :o).

New Job (Ryan)

God is good - I have been promoted within my existing company (Molex). My previous position was managing a 7 man sales team that covered the Bay Area. Customers like Juniper, Google, Brocade, etc. all fell within my responsibility. It’s only been 2 years since coming here from Seattle and I’ve learned so much. In my new role I will be responsible for Cisco Globally. This is our largest customer globally within Molex. With that comes very high exposure with Senior Management & insane pressure to perform and meet our goals. I will also have a team of 7, once fully staffed, with reports as far as Hong Kong. I’m currently performing 2 jobs which is wearing on me fast but that should come back down to 1 job here in the next week or two. Trina has been great through this transition and this will challenge us mentally as there is some travel involved both domestic and international. It’s a great opportunity to grow within the company and professionally. A lot of praying and talking to God will come from this, so if anything else I will grow spiritually.

Sports

Baseball ended a couple weeks ago. We had a party and Reggie got a medal and a bat and a ball. He had a great year and was very excited about catching, but never really wanted to practice hitting. He would get very frustrated because he hardly ever hit the ball. It is really hard to hit the ball when you don’t look at it! Anyway, he was very excited about his new bat and wanted to give it a try, so the next day I went out with him and he swung and swung and swung. He wanted to get the T and I said, “let’s give it a couple more tries.” I kept throwing the ball closer and closer to him and he had to look at it because it was about to hit him. It seemed to click after that and he was launching balls across the street and into the creek. Now, he loves hitting and the season is over…go figure :o). Now we’re on to swimming. 2 weeks ago, Reggie wouldn’t put his face in the water and now he is doing 5 strokes with his face in the water. It is a lot to figure out, with kicking, holding your breath and using your arms, but he’s improving every time. He loves it, which is most important. We’ve been going to the swim center the past couple Sundays and all he wants to do is tread water, go under and jump off the side. We are going to have a fun summer and I think he is going to tire us all out!!! Ainsley, on the other hand, isn’t catching on quite so quickly. She kicks and will dip her ear in the water, but nothing more and today said she wasn't going to swim. Reggie was the same way at her age, so we’ll just wait it out and when she’s ready, it will click. She’ll just be in a life jacket all summer! Ainsley has decided to give gymnastics a break and try dancing. Her friend, Naomi goes to dance, so they talk a lot about it a lot. Some other friends gave us dance outfits and the shoes and she wore them for a week straight!!! Her feet were so red from the ballet shoes, so, thankfully, she’s given them a little break. Here’s a clip of the little dancer (notice she can't take her eyes off of herself!):

We tried out Naomi's dance class and it was a hit. Ainsley jumped right in and looked like she had danced before. She said she wants to do faster dancing, so we might try Jazz, but she really had a good time.

Two peas in a pod:She’s also found her biking legs and loves to ride her own bike. We went to a birthday party bike parade and she could not stop grinning. She rode around the park with the big kids and honked her little horn. It was pretty cute.

Fun with animals

Since Riley is no longer with us, we’ve adopted the squirrels in our yard. Peanut is our favorite and comes a few times a week to stock up on nuts. He is very sweet and comes to Riley’s old ledge and looks in the window, asking for nuts. The kids love to throw some out and watch him eat. Word has spread and we’ve had as many as 4 at one time and that’s when we stop feeding the squirrels. We have a crazy one who has lunged at the window when we’ve opened it, so he gets no nuts! They are very entertaining :o).
Our other animal adventure was watching all the animals in Reggie’s classroom. They got to see chickens hatching right out of their eggs, the tadpole grow in to a frog and the caterpillars die in their jars (they didn’t make it). It was so much fun to go in every day and see what was new. Since Mrs. Pierson asked us to get the tadpoles, I felt responsible and became the keeper of the tadpoles and fed/cleaned the tank. It was really fun to watch them change. We had a female who decided to lay eggs which was really exciting. We had already let our other frog go, so we put the rock with all her eggs in the other kindergarten classroom. She had at least 10 tadpoles, so we were hoping that one of the males would step up. We put the rock back in the creek, so who knows. The other classroom lost a frog that jumped out of its bowl and was MIA! They were the tiniest frogs I have ever seen and I was shocked that Reggie and Ainsley wanted to hold the frog before we let it go back in the creek. We might do that at home next year :o).

So much to write about, but no time!

Well, we've been very busy doing Ainsley's year end preschool stuff and last week was Reggie's turn. They both got lovely memory books with all their arts and crafts and special projects. They are amazing kids :o). Ainsley has been asking since school got out, when she can go see her friends. I'm glad I saved her Child of the Day hat because she put it on today and that's what she loves to talk about with her babies. She did a nice little song presentation, although she just stood there. She did do a couple hand movements, so that was good. Interesting how 2 kids can be so similar in that way....is it us as parents???? We'll never know, so we'll just keep encouraging :o). Reggie sang his songs this year and did the hand movements, so maybe it is age? Anyway, he did great and has had a big couple weeks swimming and playing baseball (I'll get to that another day!). Just thought I would share the video from today....he was getting his memory book (still shy in front of the group). I told him after that it is o.k. to smile when someone says something nice about you :o).
Reggie and Mrs. Pierson: My video wouldn't upload, but she said he was a sweet boy and all the kids wanted to sit by him and be his friend, so much so that she had to move him up by her because the kids would fight over sitting next to him. Them she read a little ditty he said about why he loves mom and dad. Mine was pretty basic, I make him food and play games with him. He loved Ryan because he bought him presents when mommy was gone! Too funny :o).
The last day of school was Olympic day and the kids went around to various activities and got participation points for their "country". I had a group of 3 kids, plus Ainsley and it was a riot. It was fun to see Reggie interacting with his friends and trying new things. They had some pretty high hurdles to go over and I never thought he would do it, but he did! He is growing up, literally. School has been out a week and we've had a couple playdates and the moms were noticing after just one week that he had gotten taller!