Vacation Part One: Lexington

Our family enjoyed a fabulous vacation last week as we went to visit family in Lexington and then Columbus. Since there is so much to share I decided to break the blogs down into more than one part! This will be a rather picture heavy blog since there were just so many cute shots and I wanted you all to be able to enjoy them!

We enjoyed several outings while in Lexington many of which are chronicled on Dan and Rebecca's blog. Below are some pictures of us enjoying the many outdoor activities Lexington has to offer! Here Jake flies his first kite at Jacobson Park. He loved watching the kites fly (especially Uncle Dan's stunt kite).

Here Abby and Aunt Katelyn watch everyone fly the kites. Abby and Annika both took turns flying the kite too. Annika even tried the stunt kite. It was pretty tricky to control!

We went blackberry picking one morning. It was beautiful outside and the berries were great! After picking we enjoyed a lunch at the orchard's cafe and then the kids played on the playground connected to the orchard. That night Rebecca made Southern Blackberry Cobbler - delicious!

Jake also experienced his first every mini-golf lesson (there were lots of firsts on this trip). We went to a biblical golf course where they had three courses to choose from: the Old Testament, the New Testament, and Miracles. We played the Miracles course. We weren't sure if that meant it would take a miracle to do well or if that meant the course was full of miracles and therefore we might all do better than usual. As it turns out, it just means that all the holes are based on biblical miracles! What a hoot!
Abby and Annika took the lead as the rest of us followed them around the course. Other than the heat (we were in KY after all!) it was great fun!

The highlight of the trip for the girls was our day spent at Southland Aquatic Center which is located just a couple blocks from Dan and Rebecca's house. This public pool has two large pools designed for family entertainment. The largest pool features a zero depth entry, water mushrooms, a diving board, and a water slide. There is a smaller area designed for children under 8 which is anywhere from 1 to 1 1/2 feet deep and has a child-size water slide, water fountains, and endless water showers. The kids LOVED it! Jake was fearless as he tromped through the water and waded into the fountains. It was a riot to watch!

One of the best parts of vacation was just hanging out with family. We all enjoyed getting to spend time with Greg, Katelyn, Rebecca, Dan, Deacon, and Sunny. Our children enjoyed playing around with their aunts and uncles and seeing where they lived and spent their days. Mike and I enjoyed seeing their homes too and seeing all the preparations being made for the newest member of the Dekker family.

We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family and so grateful that they would open their homes and welcome us in! They were very gracious hosts and we look forward to being able to return the favor someday!

Stay tuned for more to come when we travel on to Columbus...

Chicago

Last weekend my Mom and I took the kids to visit my grandparents who live near Chicago, IL. It was a wonderful visit! We were blessed to have my cousin, Sarah, visiting at the same time. Although Sarah is technically my cousin, she is only two years older than Annika. As you can see from the pictures, the girls look like they could be sisters!

The highlight of our trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa was our trip to downtown Chicago. The girls had never been downtown before (that they could remember) so I knew this would be quite the experience for them! We started our trip by taking the commuter train downtown. The girls LOVED it! Below is a picture of them waiting for the train.

Although they loved riding on the train they weren't so sure about all of the noises while waiting for the train. An Amtrak train came by while we were waiting and scared both girls pretty good. It's interesting because there is nothing separating people from the tracks so when the train comes flying by the wind is intense and the noise is deafening. As you can see, this wasn't Annika's favorite part of the trip!
Once we were downtown we took the trolley to WaterTower Place where we had lunch and then headed over to the American Girl Place. Neither of our girls owned an American Girl Doll (they have knock offs) but they both have Bitty Baby which is the baby version of the doll. My intent was to let Annika pick out an American Girl Doll as a special gift. We were going to get Abby an outfit for her Bitty Baby. It didn't turn out quite that way. Abby fell in love with Elizabeth and wanted her so badly my mom and I found ourselves unable to say no. Her puppy dog eyes were like none I had ever seen before. Annika took much longer to pick out her doll. She wanted one that looked like her but there were at least two that fit the bill! She finally decided on a Just Like You doll which has blond hair, fair skin, and blue eyes. She named her doll Felicity. The girls were able to pick out a special outfit from Great Grandma and one special item each for their dolls. Annika got a dog named Coconut and Abby got a dress for her doll. They also picked out some special outfits which they will get for Christmas. It was a very fun afternoon that I suspect the girls will remember for a very long time!

The Whirlwind

Last Wednesday (July 2), it rained. And then it poured.

We've just been getting into many of our summer activities - tutoring for Lisa, swimming lessons for the girls, and then this past week or so started. Apparently a lightning strike hit a telephone pole carrying a key transformer for the electric service to our house and burned it to the ground, so we were without power for a day and a half, starting around 4:30am on Thursday morning. Some bedswapping occurred when the kids freaked out a little. Later that day, I did some work at Mom and Dad's, swimming lessons were canceled (the pool is outdoors) and Lisa took the kids to the zoo with Lizzy. We had to move the contents of our fridge and freezers, too, but we were a bit too late on the freezer and lost some food. The girls spent a night at Lisa's parents', which was conveniently planned before the storm, while we spent the night at Mom and Dad's. That night, while Lisa and I were watching Knocked Up, of all movies, Nick called and made us an aunt and uncle for the first time (so Mom and Dad weren't home). On the 4th, power came back and we had dinner with friends but bailed on seeing the fireworks, since the next day Dan and Rebecca were in town for a baby shower (the kids were crabby anyway)! Lisa and the girls attended that while I had an all-around excellent lunch with Dan and some of his buddies at Founders. The next day was Abby's 4th birthday, so we went to church, had a party and threw some Aerobies around the park behind our house. On Monday Lisa started one of her two weeks of teaching summer school at Millbrook, for which she's been preparing mightily, since one of her topics for the week is "Fun with Gases". She's been practicing experiments at home, with has been an interesting and smoky experience. Monday night the power went out again but came back the next morning, but not before I carted the freezer contents to Mom and Dad's again. And we had more swimming lessons. And Lisa and another teacher practiced an experiment today that went a wee bit wrong and resulted in so many flames that Annika, who saw it all, was left weeping.

Somehow, we're nearly as busy as we are during the school year, but it's much more irregular, which can be harder to deal with. Fortunately, I'm not working, so that's a big help. The future holds a trip to Chicago for Lisa and the girls, a week and more for all of us down to Columbus and Lexington, a 4-day excursion to Madison for a math conference for me, and a trip to San Antonio with friends to see friends for Lisa. It's busy, but it's all good stuff. And now I should go to bed.

Tickle Warfare

I recall getting roused from bed on numerous occasions by tickle bombs dropped by Dad. The girls and Jake have all experienced those attacks too, but I've expanded the range of tickle weapons. Jake gets the full assault here:



We were at the lake the other day and I debuted tickle torpedoes, too. Jake was more concerned with the whole lake experience. By the way, in the video you can see my short haircut and the blue living room, too.

The Shack

This past week I enjoyed a very fun trip to Shipshewana, IN where we enjoyed a day of shopping at the flea market. For those of you who have never been, I highly recommend it. It's great fun and there is no end to the interesting and sometimes crazy things people try to sell there. During our two hour ride down we spent considerable time talking about good books we had recently read. Several members of our gr0up mentioned the book, The Shack by William Young. While none of them had actually read it they all said it came highly recommended and one person even had a copy at home that was in her "waiting to read next" pile. I had a gift certificate to Family Christian Bookstores so I stopped by there and picked it up. It was incredible. It is a work of fiction but I found myself wishing several times that it was real. I even had to go back and check several times to make sure it wasn't real. Although it is a work of fiction it is chock full of theology, but it's so well written that you don't feel like you are being hit over the head with it. You just end up being amazed at how profoundly well the author explains some of life's most difficult experiences and God's relationship to us within those experiences. I was moved beyond words by some of the images in this book and am anxious to share the thoughts and ideas presented in this book with others. I highly encourage anyone who sees this to read The Shack. For more information you can check out the book's website. I hope that reading this book will bless you the way it has blessed me.

As Requested...

Per the requests we received after the previous post, here are pictures of Jake with his first haircut, taken while horsing around on our bed.

Here's the sideview, as he high-fives Lisa, with Abby doing something ridiculous in the background.

Here's where I can't think of anything to end the post!

A New 'Do, Part Deux

Saturday was a day of haircuts, as 60% of our family got shorn.

In the morning, Jake got his first haircut, at the Alger Barber Shop, by the one and only Harm Faber, who has now cut the hair of at least one member from 5 generations of our family - Jake; me, Nick, Dan and Greg; Dad and Uncle Dan; Grandpa Dekker, and Grandma Dekker's dad, J.C. Lobbes. I believe I have that correct, but there may very well be more people I could list. Jake did quite well once he settled down on Lisa's lap with a pacifier and the toy mouse that Harm keeps for kids. He looks much more like a little boy now, as opposed to an infant that happens to be a boy.


In the afternoon, inspired by Jake's haircut and Abby's transformation a few weeks ago, Annika wanted to get in on the fun (and she needed a trim anyway). She got much more than a trim, however:


A few of us (including me) had the initial impression that she looks like someone we know. Any guesses?

Finally, in the evening, Lizzy buzzed me shorter than I've ever been, since birth. A couple times my hair clogged the trimmer. It's nice not teaching in the summer and then messing around with my appearance. My current goatee is only 2 and half weeks old, too.


Finally, we finished painting our living room last week. Here's the "before" picture, after the wallpaper border came off. I called the color "peach vomit," although it looks yellowish in the picture.

This is the finished product, Woodlawn Juniper, with new crown molding. The flash makes it look much lighter than it is. That should make a better background for the Dekker family Christmas photo if we gather in our living room again this year.