Best Week Ever

We've had beautiful weather and so much fun this week! Here are some pictures:

Tuesday at the beach with Melissa and Lily:

Josiah's getting so big!!!

The Railway Village opened this weekend for the summer! The boys have been asking incessantly when this happy day would arrive. :)

The best way to get Josiah to hustle is to race him. :)

Maggie turned two and Desiree and Nick hosted a fabulous party!

They had an enormous bounce house, with 20+ excited kids going crazy inside!

Uncle Jim and Aunt Linda had us all over for a cookout:

Uncle Jim did a fantastic job cooking way more food than was necessary. :)

The boys were surprisingly docile, most likely because they were tired from their busy weekend.

Mom got an amazing ebay deal on a bunch of baby girl dresses, and Josiah was anxious to try them out on Curious George. :)

Other highlights of the week, minus pathological photo journalism, include a cookout with scott and bree and brandon and lisa, lots of mooching at the coffee shop, which is getting busier and busier in this beautiful weather, and lots of afternoon fun with our neighbor's boy, Ashton. I've been pretty tired from the heat, but manage to keep up with two very busy little boys. It's only going to get hotter! I'm excited about only working on Thursdays and having lots of time with the boys this summer. It is so amazing to watch them discover the world and soak up knowledge and new experiences. They are sweet little boys.

Dr. Kelly, M.D. in the house!

Logan and I had the honor of traveling up to Burlington, VT last weekend to attend the graduation of my dear college friend, Kelly, who is now a psychiatrist! Kelly and Ryan hosted 20 family members and friends for a delicious dinner party Saturday night, then a yummy brunch Sunday morning before the ceremony that afternoon. The ceremony itself was beautiful and we were all very proud of Kelly's amazing accomplishment. Kelly and Ryan, who went to seminary with Logan and has his masters in counseling, will certainly make the world a better place. I remember my psych professor in seminary saying that our minds were designed for paradise, so it is understandable to see so many mental health problems in this fallen world. We all develop coping mechanisms to deal with our less than perfect circumstances.

While we were away, taking turns napping on the six hour drive and sleeping in Sunday and Monday morning, the boys were having a "Big Sleepover" at Papa and Grandma's! Two nights away! What a blessing to be able to leave the boys that long!!!

May Celebrations in One

Last Monday, we had the family over for a celebration of epic proportions: belated Mother's Day, April's college graduation, and Danny's birthday! Not to say that the party amounted to much, but it was so nice to be together to recognize these wonderful May events. Josiah and Benjamin were especially excited to have Uncle Danny and April visit. I thought it would be fun to use the little train candles I bought at the Strasbourg Railroad last month on Uncle Danny's birthday cake, but it actually resulted in the boys alternately in tears as they had to take turns playing with it. Otherwise, it was a low-key evening. :)
We also said good-bye to Audra, Uncle Jim's daughter, who had been visiting for a month and returned home last Thursday. She is such a sweetie! It's nice to have her around.

Benjamin attempted to walk a mile in Uncle Danny's shoes.

Introducing Baby #3

I have some news I've been hiding from my blog....I'm pregnant! 21 weeks along today, and last week, we found out at our ultrasound that we are having a little girl! We are so grateful to God for this surprise blessing!!! Here's our little girl, Abigail:
And Benjamin has a baby in his belly too, so he pretends! Her name is Makenzie, after a girl at the Fisherman's Festival that impressed the boys wiht her crate running skills. He takes Makenzie out and passes her around whenever Abigail is getting some attention. :)

This is Josiah's February artistic rendering of "The Baby in Mommy's Belly." He drew this shortly after we found out we were expecting.

I'll post more about how things have been going next week sometime. Tomorrow, Logan and I leave for VT to celebrate Kelly's medical school graduation, so we're looking forward to getting away and leaving the boys with Papa and Grandma!

Moving Josh and Sarah

Last weekend we went down to Ipswich to help Josh and Sarah make their big move down to NJ. Sarah is going into a graduate art program, and Josh will be working in registration at another college. We were happy to be able to lend a hand to some dear friends, who we will miss having so close by! The boys keep asking when we're going to visit them, because they're anxious to ride the trains in NY City, visit the zoo, and see the dinosaur at the Natural History Museum.

My job was to keep the boys out of the way, but they were eager to help, so it wasn't easy!
Poor Sarah was so tired after packing all week, and many late late nights.

Josiah has the cutest face!

Josh and Sarah lived right next to the T line, so the boys were thrilled each time the train went by!

All done!

The crew. :)

And the next morning, the boys got to play with their second cousin, Kristian, at my Aunt Judy's house. They were very impressed with Uncle Doug's coy pond!

Fisherman's Festival

I'm still trying to get caught up here! Fisherman's Festival was over two weeks ago, but I wanted to put a few pictures up because the boys were so impressed by the festivities this year. We stopped by Moosehead Coffee for breakfast, of course, then headed down in time to catch the cod fish relay race, bait shoveling, trap hauling, and crate running contests. That was as long as Logan and I could last, trying to contain two excited little boys in the midst of a crowd. They were especially excited to see our neighbor's boy run the crates! Josiah looks out for six year old Ashton to come home from school every day, and has really enjoyed having a playmate to run around outside with. Here are some Fisherman's Festival shots, with Ashton's picture last:

Spring Trip - part 7

Part 7 - Strasbourg Railroad

We were staying with Larissa's parents in West Chester, PA the last two days of our trip. When we went to Jen and Jake's wedding Friday evening, Clay and Larissa watched the boys. I don't think we were missed at all! Clay built a fort out of sticks, duct tape and a tarp, and they took the boys to a playground, then watched their John Deere Heaven video with them after dinner, to which they fell fast asleep.

Saturday, Clay and Larissa treated us to the Strasbourg Rail Road, in the town over from Lancaster, PA. The boys were beside themselves with excitement as they anticipated their 4 o'clock ride. This was the only cold day in our entire vacation, but it didn't bother the kids as we walked around the rail road.

Benjamin was showing us how a steam engine chugs.

The 45 minute long ride included a mock robbery, so all the passengers were given a baggy of 'jewels' and 'money' to hand over to the robbers. Josiah clutched his baggy inside his shirt the entire ride!

The engine at Strasbourg is a 140 ton engine, so it was impressively large compared to our Railway Museum engines here at home. The first time the whistle blew when we were on board, Benjamin's fists flew up to his face and he screamed in excitement! The boys were so thrilled by this adventure. Thank you again, Clay and Larissa!

Saturday night, when we got back to Larissa's parents' home, we were fed a delicious feast before we packed the car to get back on the road. Before we left, Benjamin fell asleep on the floor, and everyone got around him for the group shot. Josiah pretended to be asleep when he saw how much attention Benjamin was getting. :)

We were on the road at 9:45 p.m. and home at 6:15 a.m. Sunday. Thus ended our vacation! It took us at least a week to recover from travelling, but fortunatley we had most of that first Sunday without the boys, who were anxious to go to Papa's house.

Spring Trip - part 6

Part 6 - Pennsylvania

Friday the 16th, we headed out first thing to meet Logan's cousin Vandy and his wife Lynn for breakfast in Philly. I forgot to get a picture, but we had a wonderful time and it was very encouraging to chat with family in the ministry. After breakfast, we took a riding tour of Philly, stopping by various tourist destinations, plus Mom and Dad' s first home together:

Benjamin enjoyed his tour!

Then we drove to West Chester, where we dropped the boys off with Clay and Larissa and got gussied up for Jen and Jake's wedding. Jen is a dear friend of mine from Gordon College, and I knew the wedding would be beautiful because Jen is so detail-oriented. Jen and Jake were so joyful, it spread to everyone and we had a great time.

The happy couple.

So happy to be celebrating with them!

We also got to sit with another friend from Gordon, Noelle! It was fun to catch up after several years of not seeing each other.

Spring Trip - part 5

Part 5 - Delaware

We headed over to Wilmington on the 14th to visit with Matthew and Heather's family. We spent two nights, plus drove to New Jersey to visit Jon on the 15th. I took these pictures Thursday night when we got back from NJ. We got back just in time for cheeseburgers, before Micah and Caleb needed to head to soccer practice. Consequently, Josiah and Benjamin mostly played with Noah and Zachary, plus several neighbor kids. They had a BLAST! Again, Josiah wanted to stay for five weeks. :)