Yo, Ho, Yo, Ho....

I went into the boys' room this afternoon to see what they were up to. They had decided to break out their pirate stash. Everly was still down for her nap but when she woke up, Ransom came in dressed in all his pirate glory and greeted her with an "Arg". It didn't take Everly long to decide that she wanted to be a pirate too.

Seconds later, I had all three kids in pirate garb. All shouting "Arg!".

I do wonder if Everly is destine to have a life that is to be full of keeping up with her brothers. Hopefully, baby #4 will give her someone to play dolls with. Don't get me wrong, Everly is definitely all girl. She's only 21 months or so but you can tell that she's not like the boys...she cooks, she plays with dolls, etc. I don't even think playing pirate is a bad thing for girls to do. I just think she needs another girl to play with.

However, till baby #4 comes around, it will be Yo, ho, yo, ho. A pirates life for everybody.

Oh yeah, ignore the fact that the boys are in their skivvies...it's been hot here and we are fighting heat rashes.

Beyond Blessed

We have been down in the city planting a church for almost 2 years now (more if you count the prayer meetings that started before the actual church services). During those 2 years, Justin and I have been blessed so often.

Now there are plenty of times that we feel the love of our congregation but we were recently given something special by our church that really just went beyond anything we would think of and so naturally I'm going to post about it.

Our church knew that we were going up to Whistler for a vacation/Justin teaching at a retreat. They also knew that it was going to be our 7 year anniversary.The night before we left, which so happened to be a Sunday night, Justin was handed a card at the end of church. Inside that card were instructions. We were told that we were to take the gondolas (think ski lift, if you are a native Californian like me...when Justin first told me about the gondolas I pictured Venice and I was totally confused) up to the top of the mountain where we had reservations at a great restaurant. We then got to take the Peak 2 Peak Gondola which goes from Blackcomb mountain to Whistler mountain. All bought and paid for!

On Tuesday (our anniversary) we started on our adventure. We were curious as to how the kids would do on the gondolas. Logan we figured would be fine, we weren't too sure about Ransom, and Everly honestly I thought she'd be terrified. Thankfully all the kids loved it! I was nervous about Everly as she had to sit next to me instead of in my lap however, she did great. She sat totally still and pretty much alternated between saying "whee" and "trees". On our way up we got to see a black bear which everyone thought was pretty cool. That first gondola ride takes a decent while, maybe 20-30 minutes so by the time we got to the top we were ready to eat.

As I mentioned the church had made reservations for us at a great restaurant called Christine's. Food
was yummy and the view was amazing.

Then it was off to the Peak 2 Peak. This thing is totally insane. As I said, it goes from the Blackcomb to Whistler mountains. It's 2.73 miles across! It also breaks some world records, here's some Peak 2 Peak trivia:

• Longest unsupported span of 3.024 kilometres
• Highest lift of its kind at 436 metres above the valley floor
• Completes the longest continuous lift system on the globe

Not a photo of mine. Just one I got off of flickr (see photo source).
Not the same time of year either...but same concept, we just had no/less snow.

Craziest view ever! The boys loved it and decided to talk the ears off of two Canadian grandparents who happened to be in the gondola with us. Everly oddly was more reserved about this ride than the previous smaller, less secure gondola but then maybe it had to do with it being nap time for her as she basically crashed once we got to the other side.

After we got to the end, it was back down the mountain in another set of gondolas. Quite the long adventure but one that we won't soon be forgetting. We were truly blessed by our church.

Up in Whistler

This was a year that we didn't think we would be taking a vacation. It just didn't look like it was going to work out. However, Justin then was asked to teach at our church's high school retreat. Now our high school group can have some pretty swanky retreats. Sure they've done their usual camping trips like many youth groups but this one, their Whistler one, is pretty amazing.

If you've ever been to Whistler, you know that there isn't a single bad looking hotel. They are all over the top, amazing places! We realized that we could easily turn this teaching event into our family vacation (ah the joys of being a pastor's family).

So we loaded all of us up, put all three kids in the middle row for this trip (yay for Diono car seats!) and headed up north.

6 days of mostly relaxing (as much as you can do when Justin taught at night and I was still mom), no cooking breakfast or lunch, dinner was bought I just had to throw it together. Lots of friends. Tons of pool time, and some special highlights (which I'll cover in my next post because it's just that amazing).

We've been trying to get the boys used to the water and "swimming" for awhile now. It's a lot harder of a task in the pacific northwest than it is in sunny California! There's just not many days that are hot enough for swimming. We knew that Whistler would be a perfect time to get them swimming. Last year, we attempted this at our Bible College retreat. The boys have been told that if they want to go out to the floating trampoline then they must first swim all by themselves to a buoy (maybe 15 feet out). They are wearing life jackets and everything so they really aren't in any danger. Last year, Ransom did great. He made it to the buoy...and then freaked out because he realized he couldn't touch the bottom anymore. I had to go rescue him and bring him back. Logan however, would have none of it.

When we got up to Whistler I figured it'd be the same again; Ransom being more daring and Logan sitting in the shallow end. Wrong! Logan was the one who dived right in (ok, not literally dived in) and water wings and all was floating around the pool. Ransom was the one holding on to the edge and terrified to float. Eventually we got Ransom to float...barely. Enough to say he did it once and that was it. Logan was daring enough to want to attempt swimming without water wings...yeah, he quickly realized that it's quite a bit harder that way! He still loved swimming though. I think they'll be ready to touch that buoy when we go to the next Bible College retreat next month. Oh and Everly? Crazy girl didn't want to even touch the water. She preferred to sunbathe.

Ironically we went up to Whistler during this years Summer Olympics. Logan has been fascinated by this "thing that happens every 4 years" and so it was neat for him to see the Olympics on t.v (we don't' have t.v at home) and see all the leftover paraphernalia from when Whistler hosted the Olympics.

Whistler was a nice vacation and much needed as we are now back into our crazy daily life.