A good-bye weekend

Moving day approaches, so we decided to spend the last weekend in Idaho with our families in Coeur d'Alene - and what a fun, albeit very bittersweet, weekend it was! Derk spent Friday and Saturday with his best friend, Mikey. They went to a Type O Negative concert on Saturday. Why did he not invite me? Yes, I'm a tad bitter, but what can you do?

It's all good. My sisters, one of my brothers and my mom and I all got to hang out, talk and let the cousins have a ball playing together while Derk was gone, so I wasn't missing out on anything. In fact, I think Derk was the one missing out. I could just gobble my sisters' kids right up - they are too dang cute for their own good. I will miss them way too much.

My sisters, my niece and Kyrie and Asher looking at
the cows in my mom's backyard.

All the grandbabies - Logan (though his face is blocked by the sippy),
Cambria, Jonni, Kyrie and Asher

My sweet nephew, Logan, turned 2 this weekend (well, Monday, but close enough) as well, and I love a good excuse to party and eat great food. Time flies fast enough when it's your own kids, but I swear it goes by faster as I watch my nieces and nephew grow. I sure love that boy with all my heart. Here's a video of Logan and Cambria, aka Cutie Patooties, playing at my mom's.

We also decided to take the kids to Silverwood one last time while we were there. Derk's youngest sister, Jenna, graciously offered to watch Cambria for the day for us so we could go and have a blast, and of course we took her up on that offer. Yes, she's 7 months pregnant, and yes, she already has a 1 year old, but we used her anyway. :) Of course Bri had a blast. She loves playing with Z. I wish I had pictures of them together. They're only 2 weeks apart and are, once again, too cute for their own good.

Derk's other sister, Jessica, and Derk's high school buddy, Doug, went with us, and we sure had a fun time! Doug knows one of the magicians who does an act there, so he was able to pull some strings and get us in for free - huge bonus! We sure love Jessica and are so glad she was able to come with us. And it was really fun for Derk to hang out with one of his old buddies again - the last time they saw each other was at least 5.5 years ago when Kyrie was just tiny.

Doug, Kyrie and Jess on the ferris wheel


The bumper boats...

The aftermath, though you really can't see how soaked they really got in this picture. Was I brave enough to get drenched, you ask? Not. a. chance. What're dads for anyway?

More ride pictures.


Kyrie, Derk and Asher rock climbing.

And here is proof that there is a fundamental difference between boys and girls. No trip to the amusement park is complete without a tatoo (right?)....Okay, maybe we're odd. Anyway, when asked what they wanted, Kyrie emphatically replied that she wanted a "beautiful butterfly". Asher's response? "I want a TANK", tank said with a growl in his voice to make it even more manly. And the fact that they had him roll up his sleeve like that? Just an added bonus to make the picture even more adorable and "biker-ish". He kept flexing his muscles and saying "Mom! Look at my TANK (said with the growl, of course) for the rest of the day. And, by golly, those tats were sure worth the $8 a piece - they didn't wash off for over a week, even with vigorous scrubbing on my part.

Derk's been anxiously awaiting the day that Kyrie would be tall enough to go on the Panic Plunge with us. She wasn't tall enough last year, and he was beyond stoked to learn that she was *just* tall enough this year. Then the inevitable happened - she refused to go on it and literally hid behind my leg and refused to let go. After much coercion and bribery (is any parent above bribery?!), she agreed to go on it and had a b-l-a-s-t, instantly begging to go on it again. Go figure. I thought she'd lose her lunch dropping the 140 feet at 50mph, but she surpassed my expectations (thankfully). After that, she declared that she was "suddenly feeling adventurous and brave" and wanted to go on every "dangerous" ride in the park. Kids. :)

And here's a video of her death-defying plunge, along with Daddy and Aunt Jessica, of course.

We'll sure miss being so close to our families, but what a great "out with a bang" weekend!

We love you all!