Day 219: The new J4

Well, the oldest boys set off early this morning with Grandma and Grandpa to Ohio to visit with Grandma's brother who just moved there with his family to start a new job at a new church.  So, it was just the new J4, or, Mommy, Daddy, Keturah, and Abishai.  It's so much quieter when 1 or 2 or 3 kids are gone!  We actually spent the afternoon after church at Grandma's house to spend more time with our puppy and to watch the Olympics.  They have cable, we do not.  Abishai, Mommy, and Daddy all had naps, too.  The boys got to also see the "A Christmas Story" house today.  Tomorrow, they head to Cedar Point!  Nothing like getting some short vacation trips in before school starts!  And Keturah and Daddy are staying over at Grandma's house to take care of Socks, and Keturah has an early dentist appointment and their house is closer to our dentist than up where we live.  And that's just the start of a busy week of appointments and fun! Again, we are trying to fit in a lot of stuff before Benaiah starts school in 8 days!

Just as an explanation, long ago, I started shorthanding our family groups in my journal.  Gary and Leah are J2, Jared, I and the kids are J6 (we were J5 when I started this!) and Aaron, Shauna, Nora and Everly are the REAL J4.  I also have referred to them as ASEN, their initials.  Just something fun.

I didn't drag my camera with me today, and my phone's memory is pretty full, so I didn't take many pictures today.  And that's ok!  It was a day of resting, pondering, and quiet.

The Red Rider BB Gun movie house!  Did you know, they filmed it in the summer or fall and had to make fake snow for it?

Hm,...I wonder who got the chance to dress up in the pink bunny suit?

No words.

All dressed up.  Benaiah, Grandpa Johnson, Justin, and cousin Zion.

It was a very early morning, like 6 am early, which meant we were up at 5 making sure they were ready.

I didn't capture the right picture, BUT, this was a very long hot dog from a meat market (1 ft long maybe?) and Abishai grabbed it with both hands and took a bite out of the middle.  It was a funny sight.  He was also dancing on the stool.

Abishai was the one who purposefully draped his blanket over his head in a way that he couldn't tell where he was going.

Sweet naptime.

Getting bigger, and these naptimes are getting more rare.  I know it's one of Jared's favorite things to do with the kids, snuggle at naptime.

Hm,...do we root for Canada or USA? Men's volleyball and guess who won?  Canada!  A friend posted a funny quip on twitter that said, "Canadians on Winter Olympics, 'We must win gold in every sport!  Canadians on Summer Olympics, 'Yeah, we participated!"  I.e. Canadians obviously are known for their winter sports like cross country skiing and hockey.  But they do have athletes in the summer sports.  They just don't excel as well in them.

The infamous crystal left in the toddlers' reach.  Grandpa has never worried about it and has said if it breaks, it breaks, no problem.  But this was a sweet moment today.  Abishai was passing the pictures and recognized Jared and I in our wedding photo.  He pointed to them and said, "Dada, Momma."  The other ones you see here are Gary's parents on the left and Leah's parents in the middle.  There are also pictures of Aaron and Shauna, and Gary and Leah in this arrangement.

Let's play, doggy! But doggy was already tired.

Abishai loves Socks a lot, and will give him sticks, throws toys for him, and pat him and hug him a ton.

I think Abishai misses Socks and Socks misses Abishai and the rest of the family.

Jared said, "It doesn't get any better than this: Watching Olympics on a huge screen with two of my babies in my lap."  It won't be long until Keturah outgrows his lap though!  Good thing there's little Abishai for a few more years at least.