Special Family times at RLL

Enjoyed your timely post, Rachel!

It was a great week- thank the Lord for family and for the ability to spend time together like this at such a great place! Thanks to your parents also! 

Glad that the whole clan was able to come up this year and Lizzi for the whole week! So nice!

Heidi managed a good number of days and brought her very recent beau! (they jumped in running - and are still running!) Tim stayed for a couple days at the beginning and the end of the week as his clan was up next Heidi stayed a couple days with them- how convenient!  And we enjoyed a short visit with our friends among them on Friday - his parents and Marty & Irene. 

Bitter-sweet: Mark spent the weekend with us and almost got an extra day due to car problems - but got it done in time to leave on Mon so had no excuse to take an extra day off after all. 

Josh is so good with the little tykes and always gets giggles & smiles out of Marike        
(Josh's just started YPs -as well as Rachel)  

With more YPs and teens this year, the volley ball was more often in use- and of courses Opa got right in there!  (great shot Rachel)

 Even the little kids got into it!

Lessons/practice with Heidi, and Lizzi (below)

Day guests were Chris & Krista family. Arianna & Nathaniel loved being in the water with Mommy (Krista)

 

while Chris stayed high & dry except when he got a wet little one on his lap - nice way to cool down without having to swim!  

Mom didn't get in either - but not by choice! I myself took every opportunity I could to get in for a few minutes - no swimming across the lake for me as some of the fitter among us liked to do!

 

And then there was this little creature who learned to swim here - amazing how quickly dogs learn this -  but she didn't relish it and when carried in and plopped in she'd immediately turn aroung and dog paddle (literally!) back to shore! No water dog here! 

 

Yes, Tia, the newest member of our household made her first visit here with us and did pretty well once she got used to sleeping outside in a crate and being tied up most of the day! (She did manage to break loose to chase a squirrel a few times but thankfully didn't stray too far!)

The kids (& adults for the most part) enjoyed playing with, feeding, watching her cute antics and walking her.

"Look at me! I'm walking the dog!"

 Dog sitting??

    Her first time travelling so long didn't go too well but she did much better on the way back, thankfully - didn't throw up once! (Looks like she's smiling here, eh?)

And I must mention how nice it was that the "Westies" managed to come up while trying to sell their house (Herm had to stay behind unfortunately!).  Time and opportunities to spend together are getting fewer so it was an extra precious time. The girls will especially miss each other - and I - Lisa! 

We were blessed again with very nice weather, very few bugs, very fresh air (thanks to the drought & resulting fire ban! :)) and safety! - Though we did get a scare with little David:

Parents, beware:  these floating bathing-suits cannot be used without constant supervision - one moment he's standing in the water, the next he's flipped down face first unable to get up due to the floatation devices on his back. Yikes! 

Here he is on the raft after he was fished out of the water by these guys hanging out on the raft - or rather, floating about on the raft.

Oma still loves it when her kids (or grandkids) take her for a canoe ride! 

 Aahh, this is the life!

 

Craft with Oma - box gardens

In their Sunday best... Willie looks quite pleased to be posing beside his cute little cousins friends! Nice to see the 3 of them playing together alot more this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All these precious people, precious memories - gifts of God's grace!

 

Kid-sitting in March

Ralph and Sharon went on a special trip together to the Middle East tracing Paul’s Missionary Journeys! They got a taste of the “Holy Lands” which they found to be a very enriching, enlightening experience bringing the Bible to life. See their blog for photos….
We were very glad to “aid and abet” their departure so we that could have their kids J and Ralph could get a very much needed break from his busy and stressful work/life.

It was enjoyable having R&S’s well-behaved, well-adjusted, sweet kids living with us over the 2 weeks they were away. All of them except Timmy stayed with us – no, not all 6 at once! – R&S had worked out a complicated, detailed plan of care between both sides of the families!

The first week we got to enjoy Andrew & Daniel

We appreciated Andrew’s unexpected humour and his willing helpfulness. J  Here he’s pumping the pedals to make the sound come out so Daniel can play the old pump organ! There’s team work for you! 

He was also very ready to help Oma in the kitchen – what a fine husband Andrew will make some day!

Andrew's attempts at keeping little brother in line were amusing at times.

LOL! Daniel’s knows how to relax while he works too!  Altho, trying to write in the air while balancing on a 2 separate uneven surfaces – 1 rocking and 1 rolling – uses a lot more energy than writing on a desk!  Maybe it was just that he found his math so easy that he needed make it more challenging!?!

Daniel has great enthusiasm for everything! He especially delighted in playing with & teasing Tia, and feeding her and he was also the self-appointed “official poop-scooper” for one day – which was much appreciated!

“Wave, wave bye-bye!”

 He was also quite eager to help make delicious applesauce - something he obviously had experience in already!

It was a delight to have David and Bethany the 2^ndweek – so cute and relatively easy to care for (if it weren't for sicknesses).  David was really talking now and it was so neat to be able to get to see his sweet character emerging – very intelligent little guy too, he hardly missed a thing!  Sometimes I called him "puppy" by mistake - or sometimes on purpose just to hear his cute "I not puppy! I little guy David!"  Wish I had writen down more of the cute things they said!
David figured 2 years old was not too young to do dishes too! He did a very thorough job - also of soaking his pants and the floor as well!   

(sorry, I can't turn it)

Tia soon learned that her ratings fell drastically when real kids are in the house! And she found out that she had more bosses to obey and perform for – but also more fun and playmates! Thankfully she was very obliging and good with the kids, letting them do what they pleased without protest and not nipping or barking at all! The puppy classes we just finished before this were helpful and just in time!

Bethany was really good at telling Tia what to do - and getting the desired result!

 “Good bow!”“Here’s a treat"

“Shake a paw”

Puppy kisses :)

Cozy, reading time – Tia wasn’t too interested and retired to her proper place warming my feet J

Watching fascinatedly as Tia laps up her food and licks her bowl clean!

Warning: DO NOT let your kids get this close to just any dog while its eating! 
I trained Tia from day 1 to be very polite with her bowl/food and to allow us to take it away mid eating, or to touch her etc so I knew it was safe for these two – but, I still instructed them to keep their hands together and not to touch her or her bowl while she’s eating.

In between, Betty came with her kids, staying at “the M_ _  _ _ Cres hotel” (run beautifully by Tinie in their absence :)) overnight and visiting us and the others during the day and swapping kids everywhere she went! What great cousin time this afforded them!  Worked out really well!

"Betty" & Joanna had fun together - as usual!

Who’s walking who?

Daniel came back again – he couldn’t wait to get back because “Tia will miss me”

So, as you can see Tia puppy is still very cute and delightful but she doesn’t come close to the kiddies!! How much more precious are they, created in God’s image and with a surpassing real capacity to love & obey & communicate and to worship Him with their childlike faith & trusting ways.

Thanks again, Ralph & Sharon, for entrusting your children to all of us while you were away. And we thank the Lord for keeping both you and all of us safe!

Tia (pronounced Tee-ah)

Yes, Tia is my cute, sweet, crazy puppy! I can hardly believe it myself! But the fact is, there’s this cute little thing following me around, sleeping on my feet, trying to “kiss” my neck, cavorting with her green giraffe and/or Opa in the yard… and there’s all these puppy training books & videos waiting to be read/watched…. Thankfully she’s so quiet & good most of the time and sleeps thru the night. Tho she is extra work, she’s also good stress relief (& warmth!)

Here she is at almost 14 weeks - she loves romping in the snow!

and below at 11 weeks when we got her

Curled on my lap after we got her home. She weighed around 7 lbs - just like a newborn baby!

Kenny was her first introduction to our kids - he's just tickled with her!

Josh is good with animals and helped raise their golden retriever puppies a couple years ago.



Maria loves animals too

Joanna is quite brave - can tell she's used to pets too - tho kittens are much less fragile than puppies!

Josiah's lap fits a little better! He sat so nice & still and she kept coming back to him. So cute! She also did that with Sarah - sorry no photo

She remembered Anna & Jo and was quite content with Anna. Willy was a little too hyper and timid to come too close - tho he did actually feed her a treat!

So she's met all the kids except 2 and she loves them all!

She's so social & friendly and gets so excited-spazy-hyper when anyone comes to visit - so you have to be calm, then she'll calm down too. We're still trying to train her proper dog etiquette! :)

Kara's golden-doodle, Zoey, helped Tia get started with walking on the leash outside - before Zoey motivated her & she showed her how, Tia refused to bunge! Now she loves going for her "walk"

Romping & playing makes her tired quickly & she finds a cozy place to sleep - often on my feet - I love that - warms them up!

She's soo good & quiet at nights too and hardly ever barks - not even when strangers come to the door!

Thanks Ralph for the nice family photo! :)

I'm thrilled with my little puppy - we all love her and can't imagine life without her anymore!