Janae

Earlier this month, Jeff and Janae Campbell came for a short visit to my lovely Washington.  Janae was one of my college roommates and remains one of the people that I love and respect most in the world.

While here, the clouds parted long enough for a walking tour of Gig Harbor, my adored hometown.

Here are Nick and Rigby looking at a sea anemone.  I think I'll provide a link for all of my land-locked friends.

Posing for the camera...
Gotta love Kelly's ice cream.  It's worth the visit.  I believe this is Cotton Candy flavor.

Jeff is an audio guru by trade and has the most creative collection I've ever heard of: other people's amateur music.  He records friends and family doing whatever kind of thing they do, so while here he pulled out his mac and his microphone.  I'm going to see if I can figure out how to play our little collaboration on my blog.  Here's a link if you'd like to download it and have a listen.

Family Hone Leaving

Bethelle is a staller.  And she's good at it.  She can walk all over you at bedtime.  The routine can take an hour.  It's been getting bad lately, so Nick and I have been trying to trim it down.  I think at best we can only get it to 20 minutes.

Last Tuesday when we announced that it was bedtime, Bethelle countered that it was actually time for "family hone leaving".  This is generally a Monday activity, but she just kept going:

"Welcome to family hone leaving, everybody.  Daddy will say the prayer and then we'll sing 'I am a Child of God'."  How could we stop her?  She's too good.  Nick prayed, we sang, and then Nick or I usually give some kind of a simple gospel lesson.  Bethelle went right into the lesson.  It was about Jesus.  He's nice, he wants us to be nice, have families, live on earth, be happy.  It was so adorable and just the right thing to buoy a parent right up.  She then called for a closing prayer and another song (actually, the same song again) and we were done.

Coming in the midst of a renewed effort to thwart her stalling efforts, we were put in our place by a 2 year-old, but it was well worth it.

This is Bethelle's Family Home Evening Chart.  We cut it out of the January Friend.  It gets her pretty excited.  We use its suggested topics and when we're done, she gets to flip that piece over.  It's making some kind of a picture about different activities.

Four if by Air

The Rushton family is getting ready for a family vacation.  Nick and I recently realized that this will be the first time that we have ever been on a plane together.  We have only traveled together by land or by sea.  Stay tuned for some great blogs about Las Vegas and Phoenix!

My question for my readers is, what book should I read if I find myself waiting out a baby nap in our hotel?

Easter Eggs with Grandma

Grandma Patsy came over with egg dye.  2 year-old heaven.

The results:
Thanks for the much needed time without my adorable shadow, Patsy!

It's not Chick Pox... It's a Sticker Obsession

To Catch a Thief

Last summer we planted a much-needed hedge on top of a little mound on our property line.  Recently the hedge has been deteriorating one little tree at a time.  Is it the neighbor?  Little Charlie Brown, the 7 year-old boy on the other side of the hedge?  Can dogs do this?

On the far side of the mound, we finally found this.  Notice the fresh pile of thuja sticks just below the hole.

 We have ourselves a mountain beaver.  We don't want a mountain beaver.

Five years ago when we got married, I had just one clause added to the typical marriage contract.  It was that if there was ever a rodent/pest problem, it would be taken care of.  Quickly.  By Nick.
What a good man!
Well, the trap worked!  That is, if we were trying to catch a bird.  Better luck next week.

A Call for Blogs

If you are a friend or family member who reads this and has a blog that is not listed to the right in our links, please leave a comment on this post and tell me your blog address.  I am enjoying them so much and would love to enjoy them more!