Peanuts and Cracker Jacks

Baseball season is in full swing. No, I don't mean the Red Sox (well I do, but those are not the games we attend 2 times a week even though Joel would like!). I mean the Bats T-ball team, Jesse's new adventure. and I must say that he has been taking to it much better than soccer!

 The "pitcher" has to wear a helmet. Jesse did amazing at stopping the ground balls, and he almost caught one fly ball!  He had trouble throwing to first base though, his instinct was to chase down the player running to first. Gave us quite a chuckle. Then he actually got one runner and jumped for joy and yelled "You're out!". We had a tough time explaining that their are no outs in "Funball" as his age level is called.

 A serious runner. 

 Even though you can't see, the smile on his face was amazing. He had so much fun and is super excited about his next game.  He keeps asking me if I have washed his uniform.

Yes, his face is under there somewhere!

First Day of School

 Asher - 4th grade, Anna - 2nd grade.

Yes, these are fake smiles.

 These kind of pictures seem to work better :).

 Jesse's 1st day of kindergarten! Kindergarten is only half day here and Jesse is in the afternoon session, so he was miserable for the 4 hours after Anna and Asher got on the bus. It was a LONG morning!

 But his time finally came, but his excitement did result in us being at the bus stop about 30 minutes early.

I don't know why this just about broke my heart. Watching him get on the school bus alone with a handful of scared kindergarteners peering out the window.  Each one was sitting alone and the bus was eerily quiet. Then off to school to fend for himself! He couldn't remember anything he did except have milk at snack time, but he brought home a stick figure he drew himself which had a smiley face, and the words, Jesse (backwards J) is "HAB" today.

Mexico Vacation

We just returned from a wonderful 9 day family vacation to Bucerias and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We have so many wonderful pictures that I am not sure how to fit them all in this post! It is hard to choose only a few. Joel's sister Mara married a wonderful Godly man Niel Haggmark in a beautiful beach ceremony complete with a Mariachi band. The two families rented a hacienda so we had our own private pool, a chef, and a bartender. It was an amazing time catching up from family all over the world, meeting new family members, and making the most awesome memories. Our first set of memories (after 6 hours of flying and 4 hour lay over in Mexico City) was a day zip lining in the mountains!

Only Asher got to enjoy this adventure with us. I can't even explain the feelings of watching your 9 year old willingly go first, 300 meters off the ground, through ravines, upside down whooping with joy. This is something Joel and I always regretted not doing in Hawaii and are so thankful we got to experience with Asher and other family members in such a beautiful place.

 Our own private pool. Jesse's arm didn't hold him back one bit. He never once complained about it being hot or sweaty or too hard to swim with, or being too wet (and yes it got plenty wet...waterproof covering not 100% dependable). Only at bedtime would be he cry about the pain and after all he did with it, I am sure he was hurting.

Our chef had coffee ready in the morning and we got to eat family style breakfast and dinners.

 Our house bartender was plenty busy making smoothies for the kids!

They all 4 were so exhausted every night that they never complained about sleeping in the same bed!

 Sister-in-laws...Amanda, Mara (the bride), and Mary

Siblings...Joel with Caleb and Mara

The reason for the vacation...the wedding of Mara and Niel! I won't post pictures of this event because I know my photographer sister-in-law Amanda will be blogging her photos soon (and she is super talented!). The wedding was absolutely beautiful and Mara was the the most stunning bride. Her and Niel were super cute, all googly eyed and glowing the whole vacation, completely in their own world. It was a privilege to be there and experience their joy, and an honor to have our kids be part of the special day. But somehow I didn't get a photo of the 4 kids in their wedding clothes?! I was too busy stopping the little girls from ending up in the ocean :).

 See, the arm didn't slow him down one bit.

 And this kid was born to be in the ocean. 

He was so happy to back at a beach and never wanted to leave. 

Anna was pretty happy in the ocean as well until she got stung by a jellyfish on the last day. The ended the beach fun pretty quick.

 Good thing we had this super fun pool when we were done at the beach!

That is Anna with Auntie Amanda on the bridge headed for the super fast alligator slide.

Cheers to an absolutely unforgettable vacation!

The World's Most Beautiful Theme Park

The kids all earned 200 points on their life skills/chore charts which earned them a trip to an amusement park. Busch Gardens-here we come! Well, here we came. We had an amazing day in Williamsburg lasting a full 12 hours at the park (thank you Alyson Fox for helping us make it!) and learned a lot about each of our kids.

The first ride of the day: the Battering Ram. It only made 3 of the 4 kids cry! Not a great way to start the day. For the rest of the day, anytime we saw or passed this ride Jesse would break down. Needless to say we will probably never be on this ride as a family again!

Josie was the most even keeled of all the kids. She would trot onto any ride with a smile on her face (besides the Battering Ram). She loved them all and was unbelievably content.

Asher is in the 3rd cart from the left, our roller coaster junky. He literally rode every single roller coaster there twice!! His smile was from ear to ear, loving every minute, screaming hoots of joy. Here Anna is on her first roller coaster with cousin Alyson, second cart from front. I was certain if I got her on one, she would fall in love. Well I was wrong. I thought we killed her. She was a mess and cried for almost 2 hours afterwards! The only reason she is waving in this picture is because it just started. I am not sure if she will ever try another coaster again.

Anna's favorite rides were the spinning tea cups and the giant swings, where she would close her eyes in complete joy, put her arms out, and pretend she was flying. She rode these 2 rides over and over and after her "near death" experience, I didn't try to persuade her to do anything else!

Jesse was kind of stuck in between...too small for the coasters, and felt he was too big for a lot of the kiddie rides.  It took us a while but we found some happy medium rides that made him smile. He loved flying the planes.

 and this was his favorite ride of the day, the "Roman Rapids".

They were soaked afterwards!

 And this was giant playground that we took turns watching the younger kids while the adults rode roller coasters with Asher. I only post a picture of where I think Jesse broke his left arm (while on my watch) even though we didn't have him in the ER till 2 days later when he fell off the ladder of his bunk bed. He was clutching his arm in the exact same spot as he was this day after a tumble from a net. It was a fun playground though.

If I am talking about his broken arm, I have to add the most adorable picture. We should have it casted in the next 2 days. He has been planning what color he is going to choose. He must have a high pain tolerance to have lived with it for 2 days but you can't convince me it didn't happen at Busch Gardens because I am certain! I almost left the park with him that day but thought I was being the overreactive mother. 

We left the park at 10pm, got our kids in bed at the hotel by 10:45, climbed into bed and were asleep ourselves around 11:30...only to be woken up by the fire alarms in our rooms at midnight! Craziness! No fire, just some freak thing they every kid slept through while us 3 adults stumbled around trying to makes sense of what was happening. The next day we went to Colonial Williamsburg for the afternoon...not as exciting as Busch Gardens but we managed to have a good time together. The kids enjoyed locking Joel and I up.

The Thorson Triathletes

This past weekend Asher and Anna competed in a kids triathlon. Asher has really gotten into these events, and Anna tags along because she doesn't like to be left out. Asher loves it and Anna gets extremely anxious, but is always happy that she did it. This was their first one this summer. They had to do a 50 m swim, 2.5 mile bike ride, and .6 mile run.

 Ready to begin!

 Anna during her swim...she is in the 2nd lane up from the bottom...the red cap in front.

Asher running towards the transition area after his swim.

 Asher finishing strong at 21 minutes! He competed in the 9-10 year old age group and finished 4th, 45 seconds from being 3rd. He was so disappointed but we are so proud of him! We never dreamed he would finish even near the top.

Anna finishing strong. This poor girl endured a fall during the bike portion. They had to clean her up and bandage her but she still got back on her bike and finished. Joel and I were biting our nails in the transition area as time ticked by and we had no clue where she was! Seems like every race she competes in, she falls, but she always gets back up again!

I am so proud to that the kids are sharing in my love of these events! They got big beautiful medals too! Asher has another triathlon in a few weeks. Anna is opting out of this one. Either way, we can't stop bragging about them :)

Happy 4th!

July is always a whirlwind for us celebrating holidays, birthdays, and an anniversary. Plus all kids are attending and Joel and I are volunteering at VBS this week...so forgive that these celebration photos are a little late.  We had a wonderful 4th of July complete with our traditional backyard campout. Josie headed for her bed at 8:30pm so somebody had to suck it up and sleep inside. Poor me :).

A Day in Baltimore

Last week, Asher had an appointment in Baltimore. Joel took the day off so we could play tourists for the day!

We spent the day exploring the inner harbor of Baltimore. 

 We toured 3 historic ships, a submarine, and a lighthouse during our afternoon. Asher's favorite was this one, the U.S. Constellation where we got to see them fire the cannon.

 The kids loved climbing the bunks in the last floating survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack. I don't think I could sleep on those things!

 Show me your shark face! Joel had a hard time navigating inside the submarine. It gave us a new appreciation for our Navy sub friends!

 Climbing to the bridge of a Coast Guard ship that use to serve as a "lighthouse" light ship to guide boats into the harbor.

 Enjoying crab cakes (well I enjoyed them...everyone else turned up their noses).

It was a happy day!