Branson Douglas

Congratulations to Josh and Trese on the birth of their precious little boy! He was born late Tuesday night and came in at 8 lbs 7 oz and 21 inches long. We got to see him at the hospital on Wednesday and we fell in love with him!! He is perfect! Perfect skin, perfect size, and a perfect little dimple in his right cheek! And best of all, he has perfect parents!

Proud mommy!

The new daddy is always a hit with my boys.

We met up with Brielle and Julianne for lunch at McDonald's and then a trip to the splash park. Tristan enjoyed helping Brielle.

Beautiful Brielle

Canoe Trip 2009

You may remember that last summer we went on a 3-day canoeing trip. We canoed Diablo Lake, the Puget Sound off of Anacortes, and Black River down near Olympia. On our day trip on Diablo Lake last year, we noticed that there were several campsites around the lake that you could only get to by boat. So, this year we wanted to pack all of our gear into the canoe and go to one of those campsites. The site we really wanted was already taken, but we found this one that was just perfect for us! We just spent 2 nights there, but we had a lot of fun!

Breakfast while camping always tastes better!

What's a camping trip without a little firewood?

The lake is very cold! This is Jason working up to jumping in. He was the only one who went in the whole time, it was THAT COLD! The boys and I just dipped our toes in.

Frantic swim back to the dock after diving in. I was joking about timing him for breaking the fastest in and out of the lake record.

"Watch this, Mommy!"

This is how Wade looked 90% of the time we were in the canoe. Those soft, rocking waves did it to him everytime.

Out fishing. I'll spare you the grusome pictures and details, but that fishing pole cast a huge treble hook into my head. Jason sterilized a utility knife and needle-nosed pliers to operate and remove the hook that became embedded in my head. Lots of pain, but no lasting damage.

Jason whittled a baseball bat.

The campfire reminded the boys of a birthday. (Everything reminds them of a birthday.) So, they sang happy birthday and "blew" out the candles.

Very dirty boy!

Washing the tub

A bucket of water...so much fun.

I like camping.

Milk moustache

The view from our campsite on a peaceful morning.

An early morning hike.

We took a break from packing up camp to prove that I was there too!

All packed up and ready to paddle back to our van.

The view of Diablo Lake from the look-out on the road. We had a great time and can't wait to do it again next summer!

Welcome Home, Lisa!

On Wednesday, Lisa came home after being away for 4.5 years. She spent the first year away in Chile and the past 3.5 in Israel and Greece. All the Sandersons in the immediate family were there to meet her. The boys and I made these banners to welcome her home.

Meeting Wade for the first time in person.

First time meeting Tristan.

The whole gang!

Tristan helping with her luggage.

We went on to Olympia convention. Tristan loves wearing his tie. He insists on it almost every Sunday. It only matches 2 of his shirts, so sometimes we have quite the outfit. He wouldn't even let me tuck it into his sport coat, he wanted it out so that everyone could see it!

Wade and....what else...a baseball bat.

Assembling for a Sanderson family picture.

This was the one on my camera...I'm sure one of the other cameras has a better one that I can steal. :)

Tristan and Wade playing meeting. They even played in between meetings at convention....as if they weren't getting enough meeting! (Check out Wade's shoes! He is very into shoes lately. He loves everyones shoes, different shoes, wrong foot shoes, etc)

Proud Soon-To-Be-Parents-Of-3

We have another official announcement. We are going to be the parents of one more little rugrat. Baby #3 is due on February 26. That date may sound a bit familiar to some of you, as it is the exact same due date that I had with Wade 2 years ago. Wade ended up being 6 days late, so we will see what happens with this one. I have my first appointment this week, so I will hopefully have more information then. I'm showing much more than I was with either of the first two. I'm about 12 weeks pregnant now (I think) and I look about like I did at 20 weeks with Tristan. Oh well. Tristan thinks it's a baby sister, so we'll see about that too. We aren't going to find out what it is (I hope), so we will have to wait until February (or March?) to confirm that. :) Wade doesn't have a full concept of what's going on, but he does point to his tummy and say "baby". I just don't think he understands that his world is going to be VERY different! :)

Proud Non-Homeowners

I've been waiting to tell you until it was official, but we are the proud homeowners of nothing!! :) Our spec house finally sold! It's been on the market for over 2 years, and now it's gone. In the middle of July, Jason and I were driving by the spec house and noticed that someone was parked up there. This is very normal, especially on a Sunday afternoon. We debated stopping to see if they needed anything, and I made the comment that we'd better stop because they would probably be the ones to buy the house. So, we went back and talked with them. It turns out that they had seen the house with a real estate agent the night before, but were leaving town and wanted to see it one more time before they left. They couldn't get in contact with their agent, though. When we came along, they were more than happy to get a personal tour from one of the builders. The woman said that she has been wanting this house since she saw it being built, and she was completely sold on it. We got the full-price offer 2 days later. It took a few more weeks to work out all the normal kinks, but we closed on Wednesday right before we left for Olympia 1 convention. We are very excited!

I've Created a Monster!

Jason and I are on a softball team, so twice a week the boys come with us and watch us play softball. They play their own game on the sidelines. Wade especially has gotten attached to "bay ball" as he calls it. He wants to play constantly. He always brings me the ball and wants to throw it to him. He puts the bat up on his shoulder and waits for the ball. He doesn't swing, but wants you to hit his bat with the ball. If we miss he says "ah most". If we hit, he says "base rip". It is really cute, but gets really old after awhile. Yesterday we were inside at the daycare where there is no bats. He brought me a foos ball and handed it to me. He had a pen as his bat and was wanting me to toss the foos ball at him. He is a baseball fanatic! Aaahhh!!

First Friday Fun

Enjoying a good book.

This past week I taught a Space and Rocketry camp. We had a lot of fun launching our rockets on Friday.

Wade fell asleep in the swimming pool. He was still in his floties and inner tube all wrapped up in towels. :)


Our dear friend, Martha, has been babysitting the boys while I was teaching the camp and when we have our softball games. The boys have obviously gotten quite attached to her.

On the first Friday of every month, downtown Chelan hosts festivities. We went down and saw the fire trucks and ambulance. There were horse rides, raffles, and a band playing in the park.

We enjoyed our picnic dinner.

Tristan wanted to go down and sit in front of the bandstand all by himself. He sat there listening for about 15 minutes. We joined him and listened for another hour or so. You can't really tell by the picture, but there was actually quite a crowd. Probably about 300 people. (That's a crowd in Chelan) Uncle Eric joined us for a little while too!

The neighbor boy outgrew his sandbox boat and wanted to pass it on to our boys. Tristan and Wade have been loving playing in it, not as a sandbox, but as a rockbox? Tristan makes sure that everyone has their life jackets on before getting in.

Quail, Presents, and Happy Anniversary!

First off I think that it is a little ironic that Jason woke up twice during the night to feed this little baby quail with an eye dropper when he has rarely woken up to take care of our boys. :) He found this quail at their job site on Thursday. We were trying to take good care of it, but by Friday night it wasn't looking so good. As I mentioned, Jason started feeding it with an eye dropper because we weren't sure it was eating any of its food. It seemed much more chipper this morning. However, we were away from home most of the day, and we came home to...well....you know. :(

On a happier note, my parents sent me a generous gift of money for my birthday and I actually spent it on me! I didn't just put into the bank to pay bills with! So, thanks to an estate sale a few blocks away (and a couple of hours of cleaning and polishing), this is my new toy!!

My mom didn't play the piano all that often growing up, but I do remember her playing after we'd gone to lie down in bed. We'd fall asleep to her playing the piano, and I always loved it!!! I couldn't wait to do the same for my kids. Well, tonight was the first night I could!! I played the song that I walked down the aisle to (China Roses by Enya) and the song I sang in our wedding (I Cross My Heart by George Strait). I did this because yesterday was our anniversary!!!

5 years ago we were married! We haven't gotten to celebrate yet....oh wait...we went to Mexico for our anniversary trip! :)

Fun in the Sun

Wednesday, we met Eileen and her kids and DeAnne and her kids at the park for a little beach time. It was lots of fun. The next day, the boys and I went out to the state park and played some more. Today we spent another 1.5 hours at the beach! We love summer in Chelan!!!!

Rhiana and Britton