Trip to Oregon!

Well, I hope you all like pictures, because this post is going to contain about a thousand of them! July has been such a whirlwind month in the Tolbert household that I feel like I am just beginning to catch my breath and get back in our regular routine. Our biggest adventure this month was a trip for the girls and myself out to Portland, Oregon, my hometown. This was a completely spur-of-the-moment decision that I am so glad we made! Luke came home from work on a Tuesday and said, "Do you and the girls want to go to Oregon on Thursday?" Seriously? My parents were scheduled to be in Oregon for one more week for my mom to continue recovery from her hip replacement surgery, so it was perfect timing to be able to see them, as well as my grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousins, and lots of little second cousins!

We booked our tickets, packed up all of our necessities (which I got down to two suitcases, two carseats, and two backpacks, thank you very much!), and headed to the Charlotte airport. We were scheduled to have a 45 minute layover in Dallas, and to arrive in Portland at 9pm (midnight our time). Well, that 45 minute layover turned into a crazy 5 1/2 hour layover due to weather conditions, mechanical failure, crew absences, you name it. Thank goodness for the super fun play area in the DFW airport!

The girls were really fantastic and could not have done better on the flights or in the airports. Well, I guess they could have slept a little more, but I guess they were too excited! We finally arrived in Portland at 2:30am (thanks, Dad, for picking us up!).

While I have homes in many places, I never feel truly home unless I can look up at the horizon and see this sight.

Mt. Hood

Anna Kate spent a lot of her time reading stories with anyone and everyone who would listen or read to her!

Amelia Bedelia with Grandpa

And "Goldie" (my childhood favorite!) with Great Grandpa!

We also enjoyed the absolutely perfect Oregon summer weather (it was in the 70's and sunny the whole time we were there!) by going to various playgrounds in the area.

 

  

The "Imagination Station" is a magnificent playground near my childhood home. My girls loved it as much as I did!

Mom (Grandma) pushing AK on the swings. Pretty good for 5 weeks out from hip replacement, don't you think?!?

 A new park with Great-Grandma

I love these next few pictures because they bring me back to my own childhood spending many days at Grandma and Grandpa's house. This red tractor has been well loved by my grandparents' three children, eight grandchildren, and now fourteen great-grandchildren!

And who doesn't love watching little girls perform on the big stage that is the family room hearth?!?

 

My Aunt Patty (who lives in Seattle) even made the 3+ hour drive to come and see us and meet Caroline for the first time. We are so grateful we were able to spend some time with her (and of course her goldendoodle, Lucy!).

One evening we had a big family get together and my girls were able to play with all of their little second cousins! It was so fun to see everyone who was able to make it!

Benaiah isn't quite big enough to get in on the blueberry picking, but he sure is cute!

 

Picnic time!

 

Sweet cousins

 

Mayson and Caroline became fast friends. Mayson loved making Caroline giggle!

Mommies and Babies!

From L to R, Sophie with Benaiah, Gabriel and Sarah; April with Lane, Blake and Mayson; and me with Caroline and Anna Kate! Evie, we sure missed you and Emery!

The rest of our time in Oregon was spent enjoying simple moments just being together.

Snuggling before naps

Cooking with Grandma

Evenings on the patio

 

Cuddles on the couch

And of course, Grandpa teasing Anna Kate!

"Don't laugh, Anna Kate!"

"I said, DON'T laugh, Anna Kate!" 

After a wonderful, but all-too-short week, it was time to say our goodbyes and head back home. The girls loved seeing all the mountains from the airplane.

Mt. Rainer (background) and Mt. St. Helens (foreground...it's the one without the top!)

Rainier and St. Helens (Left) and Mt. Adams (or is it Jefferson?) on the right

And the most beautiful of them all...Mt. Hood

 

Goodbye, Oregon, see you next time!

The little things...

I know, I'm behind on blogging these days...I'll try to be better!  And I'm sorry, this post isn't going to be chock-full of pictures, but I do want to write down a few little things that our girls have been saying and doing lately that just bring smiles to our faces!

Anna Kate, when I asked her if she wanted me to read her a story: "No, Mom, I just want to read my dictionary." (I found her an illustrated children's dictionary at a yard sale this weekend - best 25 cents I've ever spent!)

Whenever you ask Caroline how old she is, she responds, "THREE!" with a huge grin and giggle. She knows very well that she is NOT three, but she loves the laughs she gets out of all of us.

Anna Kate at dinner last night: "What's that green dip for chips? Block-a-moley? Yeah, I don't like Block-a-moley." I didn't have the heart to correct her!

Caroline is very persuasive these days. When she wants something, she has been known to identify it (cookie, milk, paci, etc.) and then say, "Please, Mommy, ma'am, love you!" Just covering all her bases!

Speaking of Caroline's manners, she very rarely forgets to say "yes, ma'am" or "no, ma'am". The only problem is she says it for both me and Daddy (and any other adult, regardless of gender!).
I dropped Anna Kate off at her Wednesday night class a couple minutes early last week, so she was the first child there. Her teacher offered to read her a story and told me later what had taken place. Apparently she had inadvertently changed a small word while she was reading to Anna Kate (something insignificant like "on" instead of "in"). Anna Kate of course corrected her...to which her teacher responded, "Well, Anna Kate, do you just want to read the book to me?" Anna Kate then said, totally innocently, "No, I'll just help you with the words you miss." Ahem. We have since had a discussion about correcting teachers.

Caroline's vocabulary has just exploded lately. She said what might have been her first 5-word sentence the other day. I was wearing an apron (which I guess I don't do very often) when I went to get her up from her nap. She took one look at me and said, "Yucky apron, take it off!" She is our child who likes things to stay the same - nothing new, nothing out of the ordinary.

This one was a while back, and I already posted it to Facebook, but if it doesn't get posted here, it will be forgotten!

While grocery shopping...
AK: Mommy, I am high and exhausted. (emphasis on "exhausted")
Me: (quizzical look)
AK: You know, like God.
Me: Tell me more...
AK: (singing) Your name above all others, high and EXHAUSTED! 

Trip to the mountains

I mentioned in my last post that I would have to put up some pictures of our recent weekend getaway to Luke's parents' house in the mountains of NC. Well, obviously, it's been a couple weeks, but I am finally posting them!

 The first morning was just the four of us and Mimi (Luke's mom). We decided to go visit the historic home of Carl Sandburg, American author/poet who spent his later years in Flat Rock, North Carolina. Actually, we didn't visit the house itself (that will be for our next trip!), we just visited the goat farm! His wife raised hundreds of prize-winning dairy goats throughout the early 20th century, but they have continued the goat dairy to this day. This was definitely a highlight of the trip for the girls.

Sam and Jonathan arrived that afternoon and we spent the following morning hiking to some beautiful waterfalls. The rest of these pictures are all from Jonathan's camera (I was too busy keeping the girls on the trail).

And of course, no trip to a new town is complete without checking out the playgrounds. We actually headed over to Hendersonville for this one and it did not disappoint. New playgrounds are always fun!

We had so much fun and are looking forward to going back later this summer. Anna Kate can't stop talking about the apple-picking that she's been promised!

Colossal Coaster World - Facing Fear, Trusting God!

It's the Monday after Vacation Bible School and I feel like I am just now catching my breath after a crazy and busy, but wonderful, week! Honestly, we've just been running non-stop the past week and a half with a trip to the mountains (blog post coming soon), VBS, a wedding that I did all the music for on Saturday, and my own violin students' recital yesterday afternoon - which explains the little blogging hiatus! I'll try to be better...

But back to VBS, the girls (and Luke and I!) had a wonderful week learning that God is always with us, that we can face our fears and trust in him at all times. Luke had his usual job of "other duties as assigned" which included registration craziness (230+ kids each night), finding missing children (don't worry, he was with his mom!), cleaning up messes, ministering to parents/families, checking on all the workers, etc. I helped my good friend Christa with the music this year and then took over for her on Thursday and Friday when she had a prior commitment to be at. I felt like I was back in my first year of teaching when I taught elementary music (complete with LOTS of singing and choreography)!

Anna Kate was in Ms. Erin and Ms. DeeDee's older 2's/3's class and had a BLAST. She told me absolutely everything they did on the way home each night and then promptly fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow (since VBS itself ran 30 minutes past their usual bedtime). She loved all the roller coaster and theme park decorations and all of the songs (she's still singing them daily), and the Bible stories, as well as the outside games...oh and the food! So really, she loved everything!

This was Caroline's first year to really participate in VBS. Technically we just start with 2-year-olds (with a nursery for babies of volunteers), but since the 2-year-olds were being taught by Caroline's regular LifeGroup teachers anyway (Ms. Tammy and Ms. Mandy), they thought she could just join them and see how she did. Well, she did fantastic! Caroline's favorite parts were craft time (she came home covered in green marker one night!) and music time (probably because she got to see me). But seriously, she really did like the main preschool song that we did called "God is With Me". Little story here - One morning at home last week, I was singing it with Anna Kate, and Caroline chimed right in with the right lyrics (that I didn't know she knew or could say)! It starts off with "Who is greater than God? Nobody!" Well, I sang the first part and before Anna Kate and I could say the answer, Caroline shouted, "NO BUBBY!" I think that was her first 3-syllable word!

Anyway, all that to say, Caroline really enjoyed VBS this year and I am so thankful for her teachers who let her join in with the big kids!

Caroline and Anna Kate with Ms. Tammy

On Friday night we had our program and Family Night. Here's a picture of all the preschoolers (Caroline is being held by one of her teachers - so she couldn't run down to me - and AK is right next to her on the step).

 

Anna Kate did such a great job standing up in front of the big crowd and singing and doing all her motions! Here is a little video of our "God is With Me" song.

Caroline on the other hand...just wanted to come down to where Mommy was leading everyone. So finally her teachers just let her =)

Well, we were definitely exhausted after such a long week, but we were so grateful for the opportunity to minister to hundreds of kids (and families) in our community and to give them an opportunity to hear the gospel!