Spring Break, Easter and Birthdays

For Spring Break this year, we went to CA. On the way down, we stayed in a yurt at Valley of the Rogue State Park in Oregon.

in front of our yurt
inside the yurt

We celebrated my birthday and Hannah's birthday when we got to my parents' house in CA. Hannah is 4!

feeding the animals at the nearby Cheese Factory

fishing at the neighbors' pond

Hannah loved riding on my old horse

Easter Egg Hunt

riding in my dad's friend's convertible

Easter Sunday

Happy 60th Birthday, Pake!

March

I've been really behind on posting for the last couple of months, partly because it has been hard for me to write about March. March was a month of ups and downs for us. My Pake (grandfather), Broer Lanting, passed away March 4 and Hannah and I were able to go to Chino for his funeral. It was nice to spend time with family, but we missed him. I'm glad we went down to CA last May to celebrate my Beppe and Pake's 60th wedding anniversary and spent time with them then. You'll have to click on the link to see the picture, because I can't get it to load.

We were also able to visit with my other grandparents in Inland Christian Home, and Grandpa wasn't doing well at all while I was there. It was a huge shock to me, since he was doing so well last May when I saw him. It was all very overwhelming to Hannah, too.

I finished school a week after we returned, so that was wonderful (but made it all even more stressful)! I'm still trying to catch up on everything, but relieved to be done with my internship and school!

I thought this picture was funny. Does it look like Nathan and his friend are video game champions?
They actually got the medals for being in their school spelling bee (the morning after I got back from CA)! 2 kids from each class in the 5th and 6th grades got to be in the spelling bee. I was really happy I was able to see it. Nathan was happy he made it through a few rounds and was able to beat a few sixth graders! Good job, Nathan!

February

The night before Valentine's Day, Alan took a video of Nathan and Hannah singing "You're My Little Love Bug" to each other. It's Hannah's favorite book. It ran out of batteries this week, and she cried and cried. They're not always on key and the last verse is very hard to sing, but they're very cute!

Buddy loves the snow

It snowed again this week. Any other year, it would have seemed like a lot of snow, but not after the previous snowfall! This time, the snowplows actually came, so we could get around just fine. Buddy loved it and kept running all over the place. He was so funny to watch!

Rats!

We took home Nathan's class rats for a weekend. The kids loved them, and I realized that having rats would have been much easier than a dog!! I thought this video of Nathan cleaning out the cage was funny. Don't worry, we sanitized our kitchen after this!

January

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

Our big news is that Hannah had her first haircut! Yes, she's 3 1/2. Her hair has grown very slowly, and she has protested going in. It was easy for her to convince me, because I wasn't sure if it would mean the end of all of her curls, since that's what happened to Alan when he had his first haircut at 2 1/2. So, when we saw an ad for Jack and Jill's with a girl sitting in a pink Barbie Jeep, she said she wanted to go there to get her hair cut. We went there immediately, and she loved it! Fortunately, it wasn't busy, and she got to sit in the Barbie Jeep, then was able to pick out ribbons for her hair, and a prize, and a lollipop! You can see how happy she looks!

before

after

before

after

before - Keep in mind that her hair didn't always look this bad. Here it is combed out and looks especially terrible!

after - still curly!!!

On the 17th, we hosted "The Rivalry," the Calvin-Hope game. It was a close game and Calvin won! It was fun to get together with other Calvin grads.

Style

Just had to post a picture of what Hannah wears when she dresses herself. She's pretty proud of her outfit here.