Warm weather is here!

Mother's Day

After church and lunch on Mother's Day, we drove down to a state park at the beach to enjoy being outdoors. It was pouring when we left home, but thankfully stopped by the time we reached the park.

"These daffodils are nice, but let's go find the beach!"

We'll take a little bit of rain to see this!

Searching for rocks to throw in the water.

"C'mon, Mommy, the water looks great!"

Stripes!

Just for you, Rachel and Jonny!

Benjamin James

Someone who was cleaning out closets gave us this 50 states puzzle. Benjamin loves to do it, and right now will usually put it together about 3 times a day. He more or less knows all of the states by name and shape. Hopefully he'll remember this geography when he needs to know it for school! The other day he was pretending to be Tiger Woods, and he had to go pick up a bike in Texas. He said it wouldn't take too long to get there, because he just had to drive through Alabama and Louisiana (from Florida, of course). I was amazed--he only left out Mississippi!

Benjamin continues to love cars. Car races are also an everyday occurrence. Paul joins him, of course. They sometimes can work out their squabbles without my intervention, which is nice. (Paul usually gives in to Benjamin. I guess he is the boss, as the big brother!)

Benjamin had his 4-year-old check-up this week. He's in the 50% for height and weight. He weighs about 35 lbs, and is 41" tall. He had to get several shots, but was pretty brave about it. It went much better than his 3-year-old check-up, when he cried the entire time!

Drink Break

Paul just got down pushing his tractor around in a circle in the driveway, while Benjamin rode his bike. They would crash into each other, and think it was hilarious. I tried to get a video of that, but, of course, they decided to stop as soon as I got the camera out.

New Hampshire

The boys and I attended the pastor's conference with Jonathan this past week. It was nice to get away. We went to New Hampshire--the same place we've gone two other times. The boys had fun playing with two girls their age. Benjamin was very sad to leave Ashley. We had fun swimming, playing at some parks, and seeing a puppet show while Dad was in meetings. The afternoon Jonathan had off, we drove up into the mountains. We did a little hiking and saw some waterfalls (and snow!).

The lake our hotel was on.

Here's the hotel where we stayed.

Throwing rocks in the lake. It really doesn't get any better! I told Jonathan it's nice that the boys are at an age where this kind of simple (and cheap) activity makes them so happy! Another highlight was finding a kid-sized "real" football under one of our beds in the hotel. Benjamin thought he hit the jackpot with that one!

North Dakota

"See here's North Dakota. That where Uncle Jonathan, Aunt Sarah, and James will be living now." My brother just received his first call from the seminary on Call Day this past Wednesday. They're excited to finally know where they'll be living and working. We're excited to visit them this summer in their new home and see the church and attend the ordination.