Kalli

I just loved this picture of Kalli on Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Tom's boat. She had so much fun sitting on their boat while Kaylynn and Jeremie explored every inch of it.

Back to Washington

We also got to visit Alan's uncle George, Aunt Maureen, and Cousin Jeff. Alan's uncle raced his car at the Bonneville Salt Flats and broke a world record. The kids were very excited to see the "Saltosauras!"

The kids in the saltosaurus.

Cousin Jeff showing them how things work.

Hallway Pictures

Cara and Kalli decided to start their own hallway pictures...in the closet.
They spent probably over an hour playing in the "toy closet."

Tea Party

And as is tradition, we had our very "formal" tea party with all the ladies (and any of the gentlemen who wanted to join). The one stipulation is that they follow the very basic tea party "rules" that Kaylynn laid out for everyone.

Idaho

As always, we had a great Thanksgiving with family in Idaho! This is where Alan met us...so my two week journey as a single mom came to an end. We were all thankful to be back together! The kids were so good! Kalli was not used to all the new people, but she warmed up very quickly. The kids enjoyed making sugar cookies and bowling with their cousins.

Jeremie with Uncle Will at the bowling Alley.

The infamous hallway picture of the next generation....less David.
We will just imagine that he was there.

Aunt Angie teaching Kaylynn how to crochet.

Kids baking sugar cookies.

Jeremie at Aunt Roxy and Uncle Mike's house. We found lots of treasures around. The kids loved watching the cows and "exploring" the property. Jeremie decided that deer antlers were too heavy to carry permanently.


The kids LOVED playing with Great Grandpa John. Here they are covering him in pillows!


And Kalli's favorite game: Running full speed from the back of the hall to JUMP into grandpa's arms as he lifted her into the air. I don't know how he kept up with her.

Oregon

We also got to visit Aunt Angie in Oregon. We went to this way fun park where the kids played for hours. They loved this Sway Fun toy, especially when Aunt Angie and I rocked it together (it went really fast).


Then of course, they found the puddles and decided that they needed to sit in them! They were soaking wet by the time we left but not bothered by it at all.We warmed them up back at Angie's with jammies and hot chocolate. They also got to paint some Christmas ornaments and eat corndogs!!! What a treat!

Grandma Ruie

We enjoyed a great time visiting Grandma Ruie and Gizmo! Grandma had just had her hair done that day and was very excited about it. The kids loved walking Gizmo down the hall (I think she is the only dog that they are not afraid of).

Children's Museum

Out side the museum in front of the beautiful capital....I was torturing them; they were so cold!At the hands on children's museum in downtown Oly!!! Everyone should have a house like this!!! We had a ton of fun playing with Grandma Lynn, Aunt Lacey, and Nathan. We were there all afternoon and could have spent even more time if our bellies weren't rumbling.

Kaylynn is in her element!!! She LOVES dressing up and being on stage.
She performed for us, and Kalli did all the sound effects.

Here's Kalli playing in the moon sand. She said, "take a picture of mine, Mommy." I said, "Kalli, what did you make?" She answered, "a Ferret!!!!" So here is Kalli with her Ferret!!! LOL.

Jeremie and Nathan construction workers!!!

Kalli taking a break on my favorite chairs. Do you think they sell these on Ebay?

Kalli was so angry with the water table because these long pieces would not fit the way she wanted them to. I offered to help her and so did Grandma, but she refused. So, I thought it was funny and had to snap a photo.

All the kids playing in the water table.

More Washington!

We got to spend a couple of nights with good friends Jon and Jolene and their 4 wonderful children!!!!

Here are all the girls dressed up!!! This was their favorite thing to do while we were there.

And here are the boys all dressed up!!!

Washington!!!

In November, we took a fantastic trip to the West Coast! The kids and Charity went out two weeks before Alan. The kids were awesome on the plane ride over, and we were blessed with lots of help at all the airports. They even wound up checking our bags for free and giving the kids rides through the airport on the rolling chairs (which was a HUGE blessing because we had 30 minutes to walk over a mile to our next gate). We would never had made it without their help!!! Once in Washington, we were busy busy!!!

Bowling with Uncle Chris, Aunt Lacey, David, Nathan, Aunt Angie, and Grandma Lynn.

Lattins Cider mill with Aunt Angie and Grandma Lynn.

Kaylynn got to sew her very own dress with Grandma Lynn.

Kalli and her buddy, Grandpa Tom.

Kaylynn's 7th Birthday

Kaylynn had MANY birthday parties this year. One with the Johnson family in Maine (we have no pictures because I lost the camera....found it behind the microwave of all places), one with her girlfriends, and one in Washington with the Clay side. LOTS of fun!!! For her party with her girlfriends, she wanted sewing so we made the whole theme about sewing....from the invitations to the cupcakes to the project. It was TONS of fun!!!

The girls with their cupcakes

The girls decorating pin cushion cupcakes.

Playing Musical Chairs.

Sewing "rag" dolls. They turned out really well.

Our table decor...Pin cushion cupcakes with marshmallow spools of thread!!! I had a lot of fun making these. She also had a quilt cake for her party with the family, but I have no pictures of it.

Wood Cutting Party

Right before we left for Washington, we had a crew from the teen center come over and help us split and stack all of our wood!!!! What a blessing. We had good fellowship, good food, and got ALL the wood in. Jeremie and Kaylynn helped the whole day; I think the wheel barrow rides helped. Kalli didn't like the noise so we gave her the ear muffs which she wore like a champ!

We Enjoyed a PumpkinLand field trip again this year. There is always something fun for ALL of us! We especially LOVE the "bowling" slide. We played all day long.

Critters

I figure since I am going to try and stay more current with the blog that I should post some every day, average Johnson Happenings. Well, we seem to have some sort of back woods zoo in our house. We have had three skunks living in our garage this summer. Alan chased two of the skunks out one evening then sealed up the supposed entrances. We went away on vacation and came back to an awful smell in our house. Low and behold, there was still a skunk in our garage...and he had been trapped. So, needless to say, he did all his bathroom stuff in our garage and made himself quite comfortable. Alan tried to chase him out one evening (by the way, skunks are very docile creatures), and he kept running back in. I suggested we call the game warden, but Alan was certain that this skunk had seen its last day (he was not too happy to clean up all the pee and poop in the garage). Our friends came over for the day and Mark and Alan went to business. They finally succeeded, but the skunk did spray right before it died, and that is the most PUTRID thing I have ever smelled!!!! It is nothing like the skunk you smell on the side of the road (for those of you who don't know)...it is a very chemical smell that makes you dry heave....yes, all of us, including the children...oh wait....except Alan because he cannot smell. He kept saying, "I don't know what your problem is...I can't smell anything." Mark and Alan gave the skunk a proper burial, and now my house still stinks...nearly 3 weeks later.

So then, we come home from Alan's parents house after an evening of fun and food! I lay Jeremie in his bed, and something flutters above my head, I look up to see this furry little bat land on his curtain rod. Daddy caught it in a box, and we had science 101 at 9:00 at night. It was actually very cute and fascinating. We watched it for a good 45 minutes then let it go to eat all the bugs. We are still trying to figure out how it got in the house.
Then, today I went outside to greet 4 turkeys in my backyard. The kids came running out to see them, and I went in to get the camera but by the time I got back outside they were already leaving the yard for the safety of the woods. You never know what you will see in your house or yard when you live in a rural maine town.

Horse Back Riding

Kaylynn has been begging for horse back riding lessons. She has checked out nearly every horse book from the library, talked to anyone and everyone who knows anything about horse, so finally we gave in and took her for her first lesson. Of course, she LOVED it and did not want to go home. So now we have a horse back riding ballerina (maybe she can join the circus).

She was riding by herself by the end of the first lesson.