Caleb is 10

September 19, 2014- Caleb turned 10 years old!  How did a decade go by so quickly?  We were in Mexico on Caleb's birthday, how cool is that?  And we met Anibal, our sponsored child on Caleb's birthday!  And Anibal turned 10 the next day, even cooler!  We spent Caleb's 10th birthday with Anibal and his Dad.  We played games and the boys played soccer- almost all day.  I got donuts and candles for the boys and we sang happy birthday to them, in English and Spanish.  At lunch that day, the team played a traditional Mexican birthday song and brought a mini cake with trick candles for the boys.  They had fun spitting on, I mean blowing out the candles.  It is tradition for the birthday person to take a bite out of the corner of the cake, so Anibal and Caleb did that.  Caleb did not want to wear the sombrero during the birthday song, Anibal was game though.  The team also had ice cream for the boys, that was a treat Anibal does not get very often.  Anibal was wearing new clothes that day that our birthday gift through Compassion provided for him.

When we returned home we celebrated Caleb's birthday as a family.  The big 10 year old gift was a new, bigger bike!  Caleb was very excited.  Caleb is still growing well.  He is 5 ft tall and 90 lbs.  His feet are almost as big as mine.  Caleb is in 4th grade and we are so proud of him.  He always gets glowing reports from his teachers.  He is respectful, a hard worker and kind to other people.  Caleb's report cards show his hard work as well!  Caleb would say that math is a struggle, but he works hard and is doing well.  He still loves to read, which warms my heart. He likes Big Nate books and any books that are funny.  He is progressing in piano and loves playing sports.  Caleb is a great big brother.  He watches Stephen outside and is responsible.  Caleb and Isaac are still best buds and he can be patient with his younger sister.  He can now stay home by himself for short periods of time. Caleb is handsome, smart, funny and loving.  We love Caleb so much and look forward to many more birthdays!

September

Caleb and Abe's smiles are priceless

Sweet Nolbi

He still likes Enedina

Beautiful hike in the Rockies

Deb and Lucas got hitched!

High school friends- Robin and Deb

Someone learned how to unzip himself

Happy 35th Birthday apple pie

Enjoying a walk at Lake MI

Impromptu camping weekend

Soccer stars

August

Sprinkler fun

The 1 year olds and photobombing Isaac

Mom, do you see the beads I spilled?

Grandpa and his crew

Caleb mowing the cottage grass, a right of passage

Relaxing on the boat

Miss Amy with Keiry and Wendy

Keiry going after her pinata

First day of school

In August we picked blueberries in South Haven with the Morrisons.  The kids always eat more than they should.  We welcomed our new pastor at church.  I think it's going to be a really good fit.  I continued to learn more about being a deacon and how to count money, haha.  My cousin Renee, her husband Seth and son Gavin came for dinner.  They are beginning their time as missionaries in Honduras.  It was interesting to learn more about their ministry and for them to hear about our work with kids fleeing Central America.  It was fun to watch the 3 little boys play/beat each other up.  We all wished we had more time to catch up.

We had a new foster child move in, Keiry.  Her name is pronounced Katie.  She was 12 years old, no 13, no 15- I don't know we were all confused. She told our neighbor one age, us a different age, her birth certificate supposedly said she was 12.  But, she was a very mature looking 12 year old.  Honestly though, her age didn't matter.  She was a kid who needed help.  She was a sweet kid and very good at learning English.  She celebrated her 13th birthday while at our house.  We tried to make it special, because who wants to be away from family on their birthday?  We had friends over and ate pizza at her request.  Our neighbors made tres leches cake and we had a pinata.  We gave her a Bon Jovi CD that she asked for- we were belting out Bon Jovi together.  Keiry stayed with us two weeks before going to family.  Another kid that I pray for.

Nate and I celebrated our 13th anniversary.  We hired a sitter and went out for lunch, because our evening was too busy with soccer practices and council meetings.  We're living the good life and thankful for the privilege of doing this crazy life together.

The kids and I travelled to the cottage and met up with my Dad, sister, and brother's family.  We had a nice time, but it was weird being at the cottage without my grandparents.  Hopefully we can visit them sometime in October.

The end of August brought the beginning of soccer season and SCHOOL!  Hallelujah, Hallelujah.  I was ready for school to start.  We had a great summer, but by the end of break we were driving each other crazy. Caleb is in 4th, Isaac- 1st and Julia- kindergarten.  Julia is doing all day kindergarten, 5 days a week.  A big deal.  She was tired and crabby for a couple weeks, but doing well now.  And Stephen is the lost child at home who doesn't know what to do by himself.  For the first weeks he cried every morning when the kids left.  Caleb now rides his bike to school by himself, very cool.  Rebecca and I take turns riding bikes with the younger kids to school.  Julia prays for rain everyday.  "Riding bikes is too hard!"  She struggled in the beginning, but her legs have gotten stronger.  Now she just complains for the principle of it, haha.

The three older kids are playing soccer this fall.  CHAOS.  We have soccer practices 3 or 4 nights a week and 3 games on Saturday mornings.  Nate is coaching Isaac's team which is great, but that means I haven't seen Isaac play this season because I'm always at the other games.  Oh well, there are worse things in life.  This may be Julia's only time playing soccer.  She is doing well and likes the practices and games, but she has declared she does not like soccer.  "It's too hard!"  Do you sense a theme? :)  The boys are enjoying the season and will be disappointed when it is over.  And Stephen may grow up hating soccer after going to all these games.  

Isaac is 7 years old

Way back on August 15, Isaac turned 7 years old!  We celebrated as a family the night before his birthday since Nate had to work and the rest of us were going to the cottage.  This year we gave him rollerblades and a new Bible. He was excited to have his own rollerblades! The next day, we drove to the cottage on his birthday, what a great place to celebrate!   We got the traditional donut and Starbucks hot chocolate before heading out of town.  Isaac requested pizza for his birthday supper, Grandpa and Aunt Steph were kind enough to buy some frozen pizzas for the birthday boy.  Isaac also asked for a candy cottage birthday cake.  Fitting as he loves candy and we were at the cottage.  We had beautiful weather at the cottage and Isaac enjoyed swimming, riding on Aunt Beth's pontoon boat, getting ice cream at the ferry and playing outside.

Isaac is 4 ft, 2 inches tall and 57 pounds which puts him at the 75th percentile for weight and height.  He is done losing teeth for a couple years. He is silly and loves making people laugh.  Isaac is still a risk taker, and seems surprised when he gets hurt!  He is enjoying soccer again this fall and Nate says he is one of the best players on the team.  Isaac has become more aggressive and confident at soccer.  Isaac plays well with Stephen and can make him laugh.  Sometimes he forgets that he needs to be gentler with Stephen, but Stephen usually doesn't mind.  Isaac and Caleb are still best friends and enjoy each other's company.  Julia and Isaac can play well together sometimes.  Isaac and Julia are only one grade apart which makes for some interesting interactions.  At school Julia sometimes plays with Isaac's friends at recess, but Isaac doesn't seem to mind yet.  And at church they are in the same Children's Worship and Sunday School class. Isaac is in first grade this year and is loving it.  His teachers make learning fun and interesting.  He is working hard at reading and excelling at math.   Isaac's favorite friends at home are Patrick and Lydia.   Isaac has a tender heart and I love his prayers. It surprises me sometimes that he remembers to pray for people we haven't talked about in awhile.   Isaac is a sweet, kind, funny, and loving little boy.  We look forward to watching him grow another year older!

Pennsylvania

Dallas' Adoption Hearing

The new family

Cousins

Visiting the Gross family

Boys

Kid table

Having fun at the science museum

Hey trouble

DeJong/DeMaster cousins

When we returned from Colorado, we were home about 3 days.  Then we jumped back in the car and headed to Pittsburgh to visit Colleen's family.  The summer of road trips!  It was difficult for all of us to get back in the car.  But, we survived the journey.  We met up with the Gross family, friends of ours from South Haven.  Our kids played in the park while the adults caught up, a really nice time.  We then arrived at Mike and Colleen's house.  Grandpa and Grandma D were at the end of their visit and we were all glad for a chance to see them.  On Sunday we went to church and celebrated Mike's birthday. The kids LOVE the trampoline at their house.  The kids constantly bug us to buy a trampoline.  We say no, you can use it at Uncle Mike/Aunt Colleen's house.  The cousins had lots of fun together.  Jack is 5, Abby is 4, Ashley is 2 and Kate is 5 months.  So we had 8 kids under the age of 9 in the house-party!  The adults had some time to play games, after the kids went to bed.

On Monday Mike went to work and Nate, Colleen and I took the kids to the Pittsburgh Science Museum.  The sports area had lots of fun exhibits.  I kept having mini heart attacks because we had so many small children to keep an eye on.  We could have easily spent all day there, but naptime and little kid attention spans wasn't going to let that happen.  That evening we spent more time playing together outside and enjoying each other's company.  On Tuesday morning we packed up and headed home, grateful for the chance to visit.

In between our Colorado and Pennsylvania trips, our nephew Dallas was officially adopted!  Going to the adoption hearing was wonderful.  Tim and Jenny love Dallas so much and have endured much emotional upheaval in the journey to his adoption.  Witnessing the adoption proceedings reminded me of Julia's adoption day.  The judge called our kids up to his chair and was asking them questions about how they were related to Dallas.  Let's just say they did not wow the judge with their knowledge of how our family is related to Tim's family. The judge let each of them bang the gavel to declare the adoption was final.  Also reminded us of when Caleb banged the gavel so hard at Julia's adoption that he broke part of the gavel.  After the hearing Tim/Jenny took the family to Boatwerks restaurant to celebrate.  It will be fun to watch Stephen and Dallas grow up together.  They are starting to fight about sharing and they give adorable hugs when they say goodbye to each other.  Adoption is always a bittersweet process, but we thank God for allowing Tim/Jenny to be Dallas' parents.  

Colorado

Colorado or Bust!

We stopped in Nebraska and camped for a night.  

Finally arrived at Steph's! Silly string fight

Spent one on one time with this cutie in Boulder

We had supper with our His Little Feet friends

These two loved climbing rocks

Our campsite view

Overlook picture

Crossing the river

Blazing a trail thru the meadow

Getting a quick nap

Uncle Pete's turn to carry Stephen

We played in the snow in July!

Love my sister

Mountain top view

Who's afraid of heights?!

Beautiful campsite sunset

Bear Lake

Our family went to Colorado July 13-22.  We drove to Nebraska on the first day and camped at a KOA.  The kids did great the first day, and we learned both Caleb and Julia need dramamine in the car. It was quite hot in NE, but the campground had a pool.  The drive the next day was more difficult for Stephen and there is not much to see thru NE and most of CO.  We were all excited to arrive at Aunt Steph's apartment in Denver!  We ate pizza and the kids had a silly string fight with Aunt Steph.  We left the older 3 kids with Steph for a couple days.  They had a great time at her place.  They had water balloon fights, went out for ice cream every day, went paddle boating, went to the aquatic center and just had fun being crazy.

Nate, Stephen and I continued on to a hotel in Boulder where Nate had a work conference.  It felt odd to only have Stephen during the day, but it was nice.  We explored a local kids museum, ate lunches out, visited the Boulder Reservoir and played in the hotel pool.

We then got the kids from Steph on Wednesday and we drove to Windsor, CO to see our friends from the His Little Feet choir.  We had supper at Mike and Christa Hahn's house (the directors) with Jeff and Becca Dillon and Uncle Ben.  I truly appreciate how easily my kids play with new children.  They got along so well with the Hahn's oldest boy.  The dinner was a good time of catching up and fellowship.  That night our whole family slept in the hotel room, pack em in!

On Thursday we drove to Jellystone Campground in Estes Park.  Our campsite had a beautiful view.  And there were no mosquitoes, bonus!  It was quite a large hill that we had to hike up/down for the bathroom.  The kids were not familiar with Yogi Bear, so one night they watched Yogi Bear cartoons at the pavilion and could then recognize the characters around the campground.  Stephen even said, "boo-boo!" whenever we saw the Boo Boo statue at the pool.  The first night was cold!  Stephen ended up in bed with us. Stephen was also terrified of the fearless chipmunks that ran across our site. On Friday morning we drove part of the Trail Ridge Drive and stopped at a couple overlooks.  Steph arrived at the campsite around lunchtime.  We spent some time at the pool and playing mini-golf.  After supper Nate took the older boys fishing, which was a bust.  Steph took Julia and Stephen to the pavilion to watch Frozen and Uncle Pete arrived.  He pitched his tent next to our pop-up and the older boys slept in there with him.  They were all awake before 6 am the next morning having... farting contests in the tent and wrestling.  Nate had to tell them to quiet down. Haha.

On Saturday morning we piled into the truck and drove into Rocky Mountain National Park.  We wanted to hike some trails, but apparently the national park is like DisneyWorld during the summer.  The trailhead parking lots were full, so there were shuttle buses taking people to the trails.  And you had to wait in long lines to get on the shuttles.  Nate and Pete decided no way were we waiting in line for a bus.  Pete looked on the map and decided if we park along the road and walk across a river, we should connect with the trail.  Well, we couldn't walk across the river- it was rushing.  But, we had a bunch of thin logs across the river that were kind of like a bridge!  Oh my.  So Pete stood on one side of the logs and Nate on the other (with Stephen on his back) to assist the rest of us over the bridge. I am shocked that my kids had no qualms about crawling over those logs.  And of course, I was the only one who stepped in the river and got a wet shoe.  Stephen started screaming when I stepped in the river.  And Steph was laughing and taking pictures.  We then had to walk thru some woods and all I could think was, "poison ivy, poison ivy."  Next we had to blaze a trail thru a meadow with grass up to my waist.  Julia had to be carried because she couldn't see over the grass.  All I kept thinking was, "snakes, bears, snakes."  And then we found the trail, hallelujah!  Steph left an orange colored packet in the trees so we would know where to get off the trail on our way back.  We're so boy scouts.  We had a nice hike on the trail and ate lunch at Bear Lake.  Uncle Pete carried Julia on and off and the boys did well.  I was thankful that no one woke up with poison ivy the next morning.  This whole adventure was the result of Pete and Nate being together.  My weak protestations were no match for two motivated DeMaster men.  I will admit though, the adventure was kind of cool.  Kind of.

On Sunday we all piled into the truck and headed to the Trail Ridge Drive, determined to go all the way to the top.  Pete and Nate are scared of heights, Pete more so than Nate.  They were more than happy to let me drive.  As we're driving switchbacks and looking over the edge of the road, Pete is zoned out in the back- not looking at anything and Nate is slightly hyperventilating.  Pete didn't wear a seatbelt because his reasoning was if we go over the edge he at least has a chance of being thrown from the car and surviving.  Haha.  We had a couple goals when going to the Rockies; touch snow, see animals and get to the top of a mountain.  We attained all those goals!  We saw some elk while driving and we threw snowballs.  At one of the overlooks we saw a marmot.  Pete said, "Isaac, spit on it."  And immediately Isaac did!  Pete yelled, "Isaac I was joking!" Can you tell the boys look up to Uncle Pete?  They would probably do anything he said.  When we got to the summit, we got out and hiked up to the top overlook.  We were all glad we had done the drive (Pete and Nate too), even if it was a little scary.  

Sunday afternoon Pete and Steph left and the rest of us had vacation let down.  We all enjoyed having Pete and Steph along on vacation.  Steph said she actually had fun camping with us.  I did too!  On Monday morning we packed up the campsite and started driving home.  We planned on camping in Nebraska again, but the temperature was over 100 degrees.  That wasn't happening.  So we kept driving til we got to DesMoines and we got a hotel room.  It wasn't the nicest hotel room and they didn't have a pack and play, so Stephen slept in bed with Nate and I.  Not much sleep happened that night.  The last day of driving was tough, we all wanted to just get home.  And just before supper we did.  And after 10 days of sleeping in the same room as my kids, I was more than excited to have my own bedroom again.

We loved our Colorado vacation and the kids already want to go back.