Tennessee or bust!

Since the beginning of this year, we've been excited for our trip to Tennessee. FarFar and FarMor (Kurt's parents) have been busily building their new home in Fairfield Glade and we've been so anxious to see it and get to know their new town. It's great that when we visit TN, we get to see not just Kurt's folks, but his brother Peder and boys Owen and Grant, too!

Cassidy had been on an airplane once before but was too young to remember it. She was super excited to ride on the plane! It was really fun watching her experience it for the first time. On all four flights (two there and two back), she sat right by the window, most of the time with her face plastered to the window, narrating the whole time. 

Travis enjoyed it but I don't think he really "got it" that we were on an actual airplane. This is the picture I snapped of him when I asked him if he was having fun. He's saying, "YEAH!" On two of the flights, when wee were boarding, Travis walked down the aisle saying, "Good morning!" to each person and shaking each of their hands! It was hilarious and the laughter just rippled down the aisle as he made his way. Such a happy, friendly little guy!

Punky, looking out the window.

Explaining something to me. She must have thought I had lots of questions about the plane, pilot, people in front of us, etc. because she sure had a lot of answers!

 The night we arrived in Nashville we got to have dinner with Uncle Peder and cousins Owen and Grant. Cassidy was SO excited to see her "big boy cousins." 

I wish these pictures turned out better and not so blurry. Owen gave Cassidy her first set of "bunny ears!" OWEN!!! 

We spent most of our vacation time there at Kurt's folks' beautiful new home in Fairfield Glade. It's a lovely community that actually reminded me a lot of northern Michigan with the wonderful woods and water. Cassidy's most favorite parts of visiting were swimming in the big swimming pool at the community center and playing piano duets wth FarMor.

Like always when we get to see our families, the time went by much too quickly and before we knew it we were headed home. We were so blessed to have four on-time flights with no issues or delays. The kids are impressive travellers! No complaints, lots of smiles. Here we are in the airport waiting to board our plane to leave Nashville. 

Silly made-up games

It's so funny to see what our kids think is "fun". Almost every day they're playing some crazy made-up game of make-believe or silliness. On this day, Travis decided to pretend to sleep all curled up with his blanket on a dining room chair. He actually laid there for about 20 minutes! Cassidy would go and tuck him in and give him a good night kiss and then he would "sleep". 

 How could this be comfortable enough to keep up for very long??!!

Finally Cassidy decided she needed a nap too. :)

 

Circus!

Last year we thought they were too little and would be overwhelmed but this year we broke down and took 'em to the circus in Des Moines. I hadn't been to a circus since I was very little so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. But boy, was Cassidy excited. She said, "I want to see elephants and clowns and acrobats!" So apparently she had a good idea of what went on at a circus even beforehand. They loved it (though we only stayed for the first half - it was LOUD and LONG and we felt we'd gotten all we needed to out of it by then) and we'll probably take them again next year. But we'll be more prepared for the prices. The tickets aren't bad but the cotton candy was $8! A ride on the elephant? $10! Luckily they didn't even notice those things, there was so much else to look at. And besides, they had reasonably priced popcorn, so Cassidy was verrrrrrry happy. :)

 

 

Happy Kiddos

Just a couple pictures of some very happy kids. :)

First Love

We've been noticing for a loooooooong time (about a year now) that Travis has an innate love for letters and numbers. His adoration and excitement for them has grown and grown and it's been very entertaining to watch him explore his first love. :) There aren't many moments through the day (or night, for that matter!) that he isn't playing with, talking or singing about, looking for or pointing out letters and numbers. People everywhere notice this and comment and laugh at this tiny little boy with such overflowing joy! When we put the kids to bed at night and pray with them, we leave open spaces for them to thank God for whatever is on their heart that day. Among lots of names of family and friends and other things, Travis will often say, "Thank you, God, for abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" or "Thank you, God, for ALL the letters". A few minutes ago he walked over to me clutching a handful of foam letters and said, "Mommy, each letter has a sound. *sigh* I love all the letters." At the grocery store and other places he sees words, spells them aloud and then announces (loudly) what they say. He knows upper and lower case and can read them upside down. His favorite show by far is Word World, which he asks for many times a day. Don't get me wrong, he loves other toys too (especially tractors and various farm and construction equipment, planes/trains, building things and destroying them, etc. - all the usual boy stuff). But for Travis, there is none so sweet as a letter...or the whole alphabet!