Trick or Treat

I better get the Halloween post up before Thanksgiving hits or I'll really be behind.  This year's Halloween was really fun because Nate got to go trick or treating for the first time.  He dressed up as a lion and he does a pretty scary "roar" impression.  Papa and Pops took him to our neighbors' houses and he got his first loot of candy (yay for mom and papa who got to eat it all!).  I think Nathan was more interested though in the kids that came to our door.  It's not every day that kids in costumes ring our doorbell a bunch of times.  He was fascinated!  Along with a Halloween party the week before (see costumes below) and a party at his school, it was a really fun Halloween this year.

James carved this awesome pumpkin in about 30 minutes!

Cutest lion ever!

Ready to go trick or treating

The Spaulding circus!  (our costumes for our Halloween party)

Team Becca

I need to post photos from Halloween.  But it was more on my heart to do this post today instead.

Since I primarily write this blog as a means of keeping a journal or as a "scrapbook" for our family, I feel like it would not be right to only focus on the happy things going on in our lives.  I want this blog to be a real account of what we're experiencing and feeling.  So today is more of a bittersweet post.

First the bitter part.  Our dear sweet friend Becca has bravely been battling stomach cancer since March.  It has been a brutal few months, but Becca has handled it with so much strength, grace and perseverance.

And the sweet part.  Her amazing husband, son, and family have been so brave and it has been an honor for us to witness their servant hearts as they care for Becca.  It has also been special to watch friends, extended family and even people who don't know the family well rally together to contribute meals, yardwork, and other service. 

Last weekend a couple hundred people gathered to put on the Team Becca event to raise money that would go directly to the family.  The event was planned in correspondence with Stomach Cancer Awareness month.  James, my brother and I had the honor of helping to put on the event through photography, handing out auction tickets and organizing the donations/auction prizes.  The awesome friends in my life never cease to amaze me.  Heidi, Leslie and Vanessa worked so hard in the weeks prior to the event in making plans, ordering food, collecting auction items, ordering t-shirts, and involving volunteers.  As each person arrived and came around the corner to check in, my eyes filled with tears to see old high school friends that I hadn't seen in years and to witness so many people coming together to support Becca and her family.

Halfway through the event we got the wonderful surprise that Becca was getting discharged from the hospital and was actually going to be able to attend the event.  It made me so happy that she and Carter got to personally witness the event and see all their loved ones gathered in their honor.  Becca looked so beautiful and had this glowing smile.  Needless to say I was pretty much in tears the whole day.  To feel the love in the room and witness the generosity and support of others.  All told the event raised over $30,000 for the family.  Simply amazing.

Our hearts are heavy and we pray for miracles every day that Becca would be relieved of this suffering.  We are so inspired by her courage and strength.  Becca, we can't even describe how much you mean to us.  We love you and are always here for you.....as are many others.  In the midst of pain and suffering, it's always amazing to me how God somehow shines a little bit of light.

Annual Mountain Drive...without the mountains

The past few years around this time we've enjoyed a tradition of doing a drive through the mountains to Leavenworth with the Warner parents.  Nate got to participate in this annual tradition last year which was depicted here.

This year however Nate is a toddler and thinking about trying to entertain him and keep him comfortable in his car seat for 4 hours seemed overwhelming.  So we revised the mountain drive this year and instead went to a pumpkin patch at Craven Farm in the cute town of Snohomish. 

What a beautiful sunny day we chose!  We started out by having lunch at the Buzz Inn (I forgot to take photos) which was a cool place because it was right next to the rural Snohomish airport as well as the Snohomish Sky Diving place.  Throughout our lunch we watched sky divers come in on their parachutes every 30 minutes.  And Nate loved seeing all the "airpanes."

Then Uncle Ryan and Carly joined us at Craven Farm to pick out some pumpkins.  At this farm you literally "pick" your pumpkin--most of the pumpkins are on the vine still.  We had never done that before and it was pretty cool!  Luckily Uncle Ryan, photographer extraordinaire was there to capture the moments:

After lots of fun at the patch we walked around the town of Snohomish for awhile.  Then we all headed back to the Warners' to eat a yummy birthday dinner for me and watch the Huskies game.  What a perfect quintessential fall day.  I must admit I did miss the mountain drive though.  Hopefully Nate will be a little more up for it next year.

Surgery Central

It's been a tough couple of weeks for our family.  In early September, Nathan had surgery to get tubes put in his ears because he's been through too many ear infections this year.  The surgery went well, but it was tough watching him come out of the anesthesia which was uncomfortable for him.  Since then though he's been doing well with his ears. 

Then an exact week later James had surgery to get his torn ACL repaired.  He tore it back in high school in a skiing accident and his knee just learned to adapt.  As he's gotten older though it's been more annoying and painful and he wanted to prevent any more damage to his knee.  The surgery went really well, but the recovery is going to take awhile.  The first few days James was mostly laid up and felt really tired and loopy from his pain meds.  Now it's been almost 2 weeks and he has much more mobility.  He's started physical therapy and today he even drove!  So he's making great progress.  We still have a ways to go, but I'm proud of how well he's been doing. 

Amidst all this Nathan got the flu and had his first bee sting.  So it's been a little overwhelming and very busy--especially for me who's been trying to take care of my sweet boys and keep the rest of our lives afloat.  Thank goodness for our incredible parents who've given us so much help and attention (thank you Warners and Spauldings!)  Looking forward to our lives getting back to normal soon!

Poor little guy

Nice hat James!

Thank goodness for meds!

Nathan's Dedication

On August 18, 2013 we had a Dedication ceremony for Nathan.  For those of you who aren't sure what that means, our spiritual beliefs are to have a child dedicated to Christ which means the child's parents, family, and close friends help raise the child learning about, observing, and exemplifying the love of Jesus and His teachings.  Then when the child is at an age where he can understand more and make a decision on his own, the next step would be to get baptized.  Over the years our church has gotten so large that they don't perform baby dedication ceremonies during church services anymore.  The awesome part about that is we got to create our own unique ceremony that could be intimate and personalized.

We held our ceremony in the beautiful backyard garden of James' parents' house.  It was a gorgeous sunny day and Nathan was surrounded by his closest family and people who love him.  Darin Hanson, our wonderful campus pastor performed the ceremony and we couldn't have asked for someone more thoughtful and personable.  It was a really special day and we look forward to the future day when we'll get to celebrate Nathan's baptism.

Darin asked us as parents and Nathan's family to adhere to various promises and commitments

James and I then read some special messages we wrote for Nathan--our own promises to him

Beautiful cake from Grampa and Gramma

Heidi and Jesse Fader--Nate's amazing godparents!

Nate's whole loving family.  Notice he's pointing up to heaven.  He's a quick learner.  :)

 

Lake Chelan

In mid-July we took our major vacation for the summer.  Thanks to the generosity of the Warner parents, we all spent a few days in Lake Chelan!  My parents had never really vacationed there and all of us kids have been numerous times so we emphatically told them they had to experience a summer in Chelan.  And boy are we all glad we chose this place for our vacation. 

We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather all 4 days that we were there.  And the place we stayed was incredible!  Thanks to the recommendations of friends who have stayed there many times, we were able to book a condo at Lake Chelan Shores.  Our condo was up the hill from the lake itself, but we had incredible views and we were just a few steps away from one of the 5 pools at the complex.  Plus our patio door opened right onto a grassy area which was perfect for Nathan.   The second we walked into the place, we couldn't stop raving about how large it was and how beautiful (it had just been remodeled).  We had only seen photos online and you know how that goes sometimes so we were a little nervous.  Definitely weren't disappointed.

It didn't take us long to relax and be in full summer mode.  In fact multiple times a couple people in the family commented how the place reminded us of Hawaii in some weird way.  So I guess you could say Lake Chelan is Washington's own Hawaii.  

Here are some of our favorite highlights from the trip:

*Playing Mexican Train dominos at night as a family with many glasses of wine
*Making dinner together
*Wine tasting
*Our photo shoot with our resident photographer (thank you Ryan!)
*Celebrating mom's birthday at Tsillan Cellars
*Hanging out by the pool
*The Seatons visiting
*Nathan floating around in his baby inner tube
*James and me renting a kayak and going along the shore of the lake
*Sleeping in.....oh no wait..nevermind.  A 14-month old was with us
*Breakfast at the Blueberry Farm
*Attempting to play the game Humble which was an epic fail
*Getting ice cream in town
*James' boat ride with the Seatons
*Watching Nathan walk around and explore

All in all it was a wonderful family trip and we now have some great memories.  It was a perfect location to go for Nate's age.  We're already talking about maybe going back next year!

Me and the guys with our awesome view

More view from our deck

Our pool!

Beautiful morning lake walk

Pops and Nate

Actually smiling after a morning workout!

Wine tasting at Benson Winery

Nathan loved being in the water

Showing us his new yoga moves

What a stud!

Yay for the floaty!

Epitome of vacation joy

Photoshoot by Ryan

Summer Fun

Hey everybody!  This is Nathan.  Mom thinks I'm taking a nap, but actually I commandeered the computer and thought I would finally make a contribution to this blog. 

I wanted to tell about all the fun things I've been doing so far this summer.  I'm still new to this typing thing so I'll let the following pictures do most of the story telling for me...

First we got to go visit our friends the Lapours in Salem, OR.  I met Lucy and her mom last summer when they came to visit us.  But I was so little, I don't remember it very well.  I definitely remember this year's trip.  Lucy and I bonded and had a great time.  I'm excited that we'll get to see the Lapour family at least once a year.  And now they have an addition to their family--Molly!  So hopefully we'll go see them again soon.


Visiting the wineries in Willamette Valley.  Don't worry...they didn't let me taste any wine



Lucy cracks me up



My first official dinner date!




Can't believe I'm putting this one in--I'm sure mom will use it to embarrass me someday


 

One evening mom and dad left me with Nana and Pops so they could go out on a date.  They went on some crazy thing called the Great Wheel in downtown Seattle.  Not sure what it is, but it sounds fun.  Can't wait 'til I'm old enough to try it!

The weather has been really great this summer so far and I finally got to try out the new pool I got for my birthday! 



Chillin' in my gorilla pool

We celebrated 4th of July by going to our neighborhood celebration.  Apparently I went to this last year too, but I was 2 months old and slept through most of it.  This year I had a great time eating hot dogs, exploring the firetruck, meeting Elmo and falling running down the grass hill. 

4th of July holiday continued with a potluck at Gramma and Grampa's house with Aunt Jacky and Uncle Johnathin and Nana and Pops.  I ate tons of strawberries, watermelon, blueberries, etc.  Yum!

Then one weekend mom and dad thought up this crazy idea to pack up tons of stuff, drive out to the woods, set up this weird dome shelter and cook fire on a tiny stove and a fire.  There was lots of dirt and it was cold at night.  I don't understand why they would want to do that when we have a comfy home with carpets, warm beds, and lots of kitchen appliances to cook and store food.  Why did we make it so difficult on ourselves?  Who knows.  It wasn't that bad actually.  We went to the Salmon le Sac campground and there was a river running through it with lots of rocks on the shore that I liked to throw in the water.  Maybe I'll consider doing this camping thing again...maybe.....



Really mom?  I look so dorky!



Why are we doing this again?



Papa did make a pretty cool fire!

And that's about it so far!  We're only to July and already we've done so much stuff.  I love summer!  Ooh I gotta go.  I hear my mom coming.  More later!