Journey to Spray, Oregon (and food allergies).

I’m thankful that God knows what we need without us even asking. If you would have asked me, going to Spray for the weekend—especially that weekend—was the last thing I wanted to do. Truth be told, I had had quite the week, make that month, with my health. For a myriad of reasons, we decided to finally get me tested by a naturopath for food allergies. The past couple of years I’ve realized that wheat really bothers my stomach, which eventually turned into me avoiding it and most gluten. However, even with that, and prescription antacid medicine, I have horrible heartburn and multiple other allergy symptoms. Anyways, we decided to get me officially tested, which meant that I had to eat wheat, something I hadn’t even had a bite of for 6+ months. The first bite was scary and scrumptious: it was a Starbucks cake pop. Exactly 24 hours later, the symptoms started. I was anticipating the extra heart burn. I did not predict my throat swelling, itchy eyes, extreme fatigue, out-of-control emotions, a weird taste in my mouth, and a temperature. Safe to say, even without the test, I’m allergic to wheat.

Then the question with the official test became: what else am I allergic to? Apparently I hit the lottery: not only wheat, but dairy, eggs, sugar, yeast, pineapple and pumpkin. Jackpot! It’s easy to understand why traveling to someone elses house two days after this diagnosis might cause a wee bit of anxiety. (I’m sure I’ll get around to writing a post on my thoughts on food allergies, but seeming that I’ve been trying to write this post since Monday—and it’s Thursday—I’ll just skip most the details for now).

So with all that said, a weekend away was just what I needed! Lacy was awesome about my new food needs; in fact, she’s quite the healthy cook! There was constantly fresh produce to eat, and each meal we had was wheat, dairy, and egg free. She cooks for her family with no refined sugar and no refined meat. She make everything from scratch (including her own vanilla extract, sandwich bread, soap…I know I’m forgetting a lot of things, but you get the idea). Lacy showed me it was doable. And it was doable with her five kids, ages six and under…and my twins…under foot.

Ben and I went to college with Michael and Lacy Fisher, who now manage a 12,000 acre ranch in central Oregon. It was a wonderful little country retreat for our family where we got to experience lots of fun non-city things. And our kids got to play with their wonderful children. Here’s our trip in pictures: Titus teaching the boys how to drive their own kids’ tractor. Even though it was really safe, I found it best that I didn’t watch!

  Jaelle helping the boys hold the cat Somehow I ended up with all the kids (minus baby Esther) in a chain on the walk; it was pretty precious. Joel, Hannah, Titus, Jaelle, Sam, Seth It was pretty awesome: all six kids happily playing as Lacy and I made dinner and Ben and Michael were on a 4-wheel trip

I told Lacy I would try to take pictures of all her kids. Here are my favorites:

Jaelle

Titus  Hannah

Joel

Esther

Before we left on Sunday, we had a picnic lunch down at the John Day River. The boys got to “swim” and look at Crawdad’s. The Fisher kids LOVED Ben! Seth Sammy Ben made himself a human boat and let the kids float down the river on him. Our scenery for the weekend: just beautiful! Always a sign of a good weekend: conked out kids in the car! (Sam)

Thank you Michael and Lacy for your wonderful hospitality and friendship! Our kids are STILL talking about your kids and cannot wait to be “six like Jaelle.” We’re thinking that this will definitely have to be a yearly summer tradition for us!

Uncle Levi’s 14th Birthday

Ben and I are so thankful for his brothers and their roles in Seth and Sam’s lives. Seth and Sam love their uncles and we’re so blessed when they get to come spend a weekend with us! A couple of weekend’s ago, we had Caleb and Levi while Jeff and Diane went to Diane’s class reunion—it also happened to be Levi’s 14th birthday as well. So we got to celebrate all weekend long!

On Friday, Levi, Sam, Seth and I all went to OMSI together. It’s much more fun to visit OMSI with a cool uncle in tow! While we were having fun at OMSI, Caleb was at work with Ben, doing a job shadow. I made them take a picture when they got home, because it was so cute to see them both all dressed up. They humored me…As seen in the picture, we also had Levi’s new dog, Bella, with us for the weekend. She’s a really cool dog, and as one could imagine, Seth and Sam adore her!

Saturday, Ben let me have a little break from the chaos, and while I picked marionberries and went garage saling, he took all the boys and the dog on a hike in the coast range. On the way back, they were able to stop on the side of the road and watch the Hillsboro air show. That evening, Ben took the big boys to the driving range.

Sunday, Levi’s actual birthday, was another fun day as Nathan and Holly came to spend the day with us as well. After church and lunch, we all hopped in the car and headed to Sky High Jump in Tigard. We all had a blast jumping, jumping, and jumping some more. Sam and Seth thought it was the coolest place ever (and I thought, “Hum, next time Ben’s on a business trip, this is where I’m heading with the boys to tire them out!”)

Seth, Sam

We ended the day at Applebee’s—where Jeff and Diane were able to meet us as they had just got back from their trip. Happy 14th Birthday Levi! We love you!

3 year check-up

Sam and Seth had their 3 year old check-up a couple of weeks ago. I thought that it would be a good time to document not only their stats, but what those silly little twins of mine are up to:

• They BOTH weighed 31 lbs. and they BOTH were 3 ft. 2 inches. That puts them in the 50th percentile for both categories. (We were surprised because they are SO skinny their little ribs stick out).
• The doctor was very complementary of their intelligence and mellow personalities; it’s always wonderful to get a clean bill of health for your kids and a confidence boost from your doctor on your parenting skills. When we got home the boys promptly humbled me by throwing huge fits the rest of the afternoon.
• Back in June the boys tossed out their afternoon nap, or actually, I did away with it. Surprised? Me too! A year ago I would never had thought this possible, but here’s why: when they fall asleep in the afternoon they are up that night until 10 or 11. Yuck. Also, they would almost always wake-up screaming for a long time. Double yuck. So I still have been putting them down for a “rest” which means that they play quietly in their room. It has actually worked out wonderfully. And if there is something social we’re doing in the evening, or if they’re really tuckered out, I have them nap. Pretty good system.
• They love to sleep in in the morning. They are rarely up before 8:30. I love it!

This is the boys golfing with their cool golf clubs from papa. (I don’t want to bore you with too many words so I thought I’d throw in some cute pictures.)

• Seth and Sam’s favorite thing to do is to pretend family style. “You the mama?” “No, I’m the daddy.” “You the baby?” “No, I’m the brother.” On and on and on. Daily they are baby mice, mama squirrels, daddy puppy dogs, etc.. It’s cute—at first. By six o’clock at night it’s quite annoying. “Come here Seth,” I’ll say. “I not Seth, I’m mama.” Try that for the 15th time everyday. I’ll be ok when this phase is over.
• They talk CONSTANTLY, constantly, constantly. Their speech is quite advanced and they can verbalize anything they need.
• They know all their letters except for about 5 and are starting to get sounds and what letter words start with.
• They are great helpers, especially with their daddy. They love doing “man work” with him!
• They love to build using any media: Lincoln logs, legos, marbleworks, etc. They also “make” the frame of houses and pipe works, etc. (all from Richard Scarry’s “How to Build a House” story).
• They love to be outside and play in dirt, rocks, and water. They usually spent most their day in their underwear. Oh and they go through about 6 pairs of underwear a day because they go from the wet pool to sitting in dirt playing, etc. I love little boy underwear tan lines! I woke them up one morning and they didn’t want to cuddle with me. So I left for a bit and came back to this, Sam had crawled in bed with Seth. LOVE IT!
• It may be their age, or the traumatic VBS experience, or Ben and I going to Hawaii for a week…but Seth and Sam are really struggling with separation anxiety. They have been my little shadows and will not let me out of their sight when we’re not home or other people are around. They also are refusing to go to the nursery in church for the first time in their lives. Oh, well. I’m sure it’s just a phase.
• They have a great sense of humor, love to tease and laugh.

 

This is Seth’s football outfit (wait until you see Sam’s) and his scooter pose.

 SETH

• Seth is my more reserved son, and has many “first-born” tendencies.
• If we have company or go somewhere, he stays VERY close to me. He’s very shy.
• He holds markers and crayons perfectly and loves to color. He can “write his name” meaning that he can write all the letters, just not in the proper order. It’s pretty cool.
• Seth recently went through a huge struggle with ear infections, even though he had tubes in his ears (they were put in about two years ago). Come to find out, the tubes were actually causing the problem because they had partially fallen out and were trapping infection in his ears. The doctor pulled them out in office, and I couldn’t have been more proud of Seth and how brave he was as the doctor did some pretty uncomfortable things to him. He sat perfectly still in my lap and didn’t cry once. My kids may not be able handle VBS, but I guess they can do the doctor.
• He’s pretty patient, can sit and do an activity for a long time, and is good at puzzles.

This is Sam’s “every day outfit” (always just undies) and his football gear (yes, that’s his cape). I love these pictures of him!

SAM

• Sam is more social and will warm up to people faster. When we have other kids over, he will pair off and play with them, sometimes without Seth. He loves babies.
• We’re struggling a bit with Sam and potty accidents. We’re not sure if it’s a power struggle thing, or if he just waits too long. Regardless, it makes for some frustrating incidents!
• Sam is working really hard at holding his crayons correctly. He’s so persistent and earnest.
• He holds his scissors and cuts a bit better than Seth.
• He seems to really thrive off positive reinforcement through words.
• Sam still really loves his daddy and often cries in the morning when he finds out Ben is at work. He can’t wait for Ben to get home at night so they can wrestle. He cuddles with him for a long time on weekend mornings.
• He loves his sports, but even more so, loves the sports gear and always has to be wearing the proper shoes, shirts, etc. He is very hard headed about this!

Silver Creek Falls

I’ve been determined all summer to do a day trip to Silver Creek Falls with the kids. Ben and I went there a lot when we were dating, but haven’t gone back since marriage. Seven years is a long time to stay away from such a cool place! We packed a picnic lunch and took the beautiful drive through back roads from Woodburn, through Mt. Angel, Silverton and on to the falls.

Sam, Seth

The hike was simple and easy with the boys. It was pretty special to be able to walk behind the falls and explore in caves.

The water was shallow enough for the boys to really have fun it in. They could even walk all the way across with daddy! Seth was so excited to splash around that he got running too fast and took two big spills, scratching up his knees pretty good. And like any good mom I took a picture of him crying to his daddy. In fact, this picture was a bit of a foreshadow for how our trip would end—with both boys screaming because we had to leave the cool play structure. Apparently they were exhausted from all the fun and fell asleep quickly in the car on the drive to Katie and Nick’s for a fun family dinner. (Which was a blast, but I was all picture out from the morning, so didn’t take any pictures of the five cousins playing together, my bad.)

Four Little Blond Boys

Ben’s cousin Alicia had a doctor appointment, so I offered to watch Judah for her. It just happened to be on a day where I watch Wesley. So that meant I had four little boys to keep happy. What better than to fill up a tub with water and bubbles and let them play? It was a wonderful day!

Sam

Wesley

Judah and Seth (squirting me!)

Judah and Alicia stayed all afternoon (which meant I got to cuddle with baby Titus some!) Judah and the boys have a special relationship and it’s so fun to watch them be buddies. Judah is a year younger and just wants to do EVERYTHING “the sammy’s” do.    

Judah in the front, Sam, then Seth as the caboose