Fall 2009

Puyallup Fair

Halloween

Football Championship Game

Alan #14, Nathan #12

League Champions!

With cousin Taylor, who came to support them even though he plays for the T-Birds (rival team)!

practicing instruments

Buddy hiding from the instruments!

My parents came for Thanksgiving. Here they are with Hannah at her preschool.

Thanksgiving dinner

Beatles Rockband with Uncle Aaron

Football with Uncle Aaron

Waiting for Daddy and cousin Lindsay at the Seattle Half-Marathon

First time half marathon finishers!

1st Football Game

Ready for the game We had to be there an hour early, so Hannah enjoyed some playground time!

Final score: Wolves 33, Bears 0.

After the game

1st Days of School

Even though I have lots of great pictures I could post of the rest of our summer, including trips to Mt. Rainier and Camano Island, I'm going to skip ahead and post a few pictures of the first days of school.

Hannah started 3-day preschool 2 days after Alan and Nathan started school.

Birthday Month?

Even though we weren't able to see Alan and Nathan on their 12th birthday (they were having a great time at Cadet Camp), we still had many opportunities to celebrate!
The first celebration was with Beppe and Pake on July 21, after A & N's last soccer game. The second celebration was on July 30 with a few of their friends from the neighborhood.

Finally, this past weekend, on August 22, we celebrated with Roger's family up at his uncle's cabin at Camano Island. One great part about sharing your birthday month with 2 cousins is that you can choose between lots of yummy desserts!

Happy 12th Birthday, Nathan and Alan!

Fishing

While my parents were here after the Family Reunion, my dad took the boys on a charter fishing trip. Their goal was to catch salmon, but it was a little early for that. Instead, Nathan caught a starfish...

...and a shark...

...and a ratfish and lots of flounder. They took home the flounder for dinner! Alan and Nathan both got to drive the boat back to shore.

Thanks, Pake!

DeJong Family Reunion

We went to a huge De Jong family reunion in July. There were about 426 people in attendance. Here's a view of the tent where we met: Saturday afternoon we went into downtown Lynden to enjoy the Raspberry Festival.

Hannah had a great time at the reunion with her second cousin Hannah. My Hannah is wearing a nametag--it's Purple for Pete (my great-grandfather), and has 5 sides because she is the fifth generation. I thought this system was very clever! George's descendants wore green, Baaye's wore blue, Teake's wore teal, etc. and my nametag was square because I am of the 4th generation.

Alan and Nathan instantly made friends playing flyers up with a football.

The cousins from the Netherlands (about 50!) sang a few songs at Saturday night's program and Sunday morning's worship service.

We all had a great time with family!

More summer pictures

Nathan was happy to win our first game of Lord of the Rings Risk.We had a great 4th of July. Here's Roger finishing Dollars for Scholars 5k in Tumwater.

After the race, we watched the annual parade. If you missed it, I think Nathan took a picture of almost everything in it, so you can see it on our computer! Hannah loved it all, but here's her favorite:
Later we went to a party with friends and family and were treated to a feast of crab, clams, salmon, steak, ribs, chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, corn, beans, watermelon, and lots of salads. We had never seen such a spread! Hannah had fun with her cousin Kylan and Kylan's cousin!
This is how Hannah and her friend chose to watch the fireworks, when they weren't hiding in the fort they made:

Other pictures:

Two princesses and their castle
12:34:56 7/8/09
Jamming with Daddy

On July 11, while the boys hiked 10 miles roundtrip...t0 the top of Marmot Pass,

Hannah and I went to the Tumwater Pet Fair.

She called it "the best fair in the whole world!"

This was Hannah's first year as a real Summer Hummer camper. I got to be her counselor!

Hannah on stage for her favorite Summer Hummer song.