Catch up from SUMMER 2012

It has been a while since I have updated on here...so sorry for that. I am sure you can all imagine but we have been super busy here around the Parks House! I am sitting down with a few minutes to spare and thought I would use this opportunity to recap some of the really great trips we have been doing over the last two months!

We OBVIOUSLY have done some good sailing through the month of August...granted not as much as Jake would really like to have done, but we take what we can get. This trip out started out not so hot because we just finished a week long kids camp and I felt like POO...but it was nice weather for relaxing. Then on the way in we came across a small dead shark...it was really cool to see but sad at the same time that he was dieing. :(

 Another weekend was spent moving our favorite people (The Pastor Family) out to Allyn, WA. Josh and Sharon have embarked on launching a church out in Belfair and felt like if they were going to be leaders out there they really needed to be a part of their community. So they rented out their house here and moved to a beautiful place out in Allyn. A few weeks later, after they were settled in we went and spent a whole weekend with them out in their new place...the kids loved it!

Josh told me to rake the sand

Boys making a tent kite!

Kids love the sand pits

Sharon and I locked ourselves out!    

Over all it was a very sad move...but we know it is all for the good and it wont keep us apart really and truly!!!!

 Later that month Jake and Tim were able to get a long day ride in at Tahuya , which was a complete success because nobody broke anything on their quads! Which is good because Jake just fixed his.

 The kids and I took advantage of the Port Orchard farmers market several times over the summer! They love being able to go play on the playground, while Mommy shops, after we do our first walk through together. We were very successful every time we hit up the market this year. Some of the great things we bought this year were; blueberries, kale, pears, peaches, apples, eggplants, green beans, purple beans, shelling beans, jalapenos, broccoli, cabbage, and our new absolute favorite CANTALOUPE (never again will be buy cantaloupe that isn't from the market)

First Load of year!

The kids have also taken advantage of the summer by making all kinds of fun things around the house. Ayden new favorite love is to COOK. So they have been using this great book my Mom got me A LOT lately. They have been making gack, glue, and playdough! Hours of FUN!!!

Butterfly...go figure

 Not to mention they also got their first Tattoo that dont just wash off in a couple of days. They thought it was so cool that they lasted for a good month!

Dragon

At the end of August we were able to go to the Kite Festival down in Long Beach, WA for the first time ever and he went with some great friends...The Meehan Family! We got to see some really amazing kites and had GREAT weather for being at the beach. We enjoyed ourselves so much we booked our spot for next year!

***NOW FOR SEPTEMBER***

We started September out good with another nice family day sail! We could not have asked for better weather...we all had a great day out on the water! Especially Jake...as you can see :)

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Jake and I celebrated our 8th wedding Anniversary this year...hard to believe it has already been 8 years in such a wonderful blessed marriage! I love this man so much and even though we have known each other since 2001 we still learn new things about each other every day and still LOVE spending good time together. This year we went to Hood River, OR and did the Fruit Loop with some great friends of ours! We enjoyed a wonderful weekend of wine tasting at all the local vineyards and touring the local brewery Full Sail. Jake says that next time we go we will be doing more of the outdoor activities like wind and kite surfing! :)

 Happy 8th Anniversay Jacob Parks!!!

 I LOVE YOU

So, after a wonderful weekend away in wine country the next weekend we headed back out to the beach. We made it to Ocean Shores, WA with Cindy and Charlie. They have a time share there and so we go to stay in this AMAZING hotel right on the water. It didn't rain all weekend so for being mid September I would say we had good weather! Everyone had a blast spending days on the beach digging in the sand and flying kites, along with some good putt putt! Thank you Cindy and Charlie for allowing us to come with you on such a great weekend getaway. 

I find myself to be super busy right now. I have prepared all of our school for the year and think we are ready for a GREAT 2012-2013 school year! Plus, my garden was very successful this year and has kept me busy with all our freezing and canning to last through the long winter.

Sorry for it being such a long post...I hope you all enjoyed and realize how crazy busy we are here in the Parks Household!

Love to you all!

Nikki

Artic Freeze Kids Camp

We successfully pulled off another year of Newlife’s Kids Camp. This year we traveled all the way to the artic freeze and spent a week ice fishing in caves and gutting giant fish all while helping a brother help his brother get over some major jealousy issues and learn to love and trust God! Oh and hunt for the abominable snowman!!! :)

I was a group leader for our little penguines this year (preschoolers). That was a fun and interesting task. I don’t know how daycares do it…I had 9-10 preschoolers and that was so many I felt like. :) In the end it was great…you learn to love them all for their little minds and hearts. Plus, I could be as goofy as I wanted and they loved it! Ayden was able to participate in camp this year in the Kindergarten group and from what I know from her leaders she was the highlight of the group. Apparently everyone loved her and she was always making everyone laugh. Blake moved on up and was in the 2ng grade group this year, he was a little disappointed at first because Gwen was not going to be his leader again this year. Blake and Gwen (a high school leader) really hit it off last year and have been together since then. Gwen is leaving for college soon and that too make Blake a little sad. She has been a great influence on Blake. She even felt bad saying it but she considers Blake is be her favorite. Needless to say he quickly snapped out of his sadness and started having a blast at camp!

Each day we got to go to Story time and we would learn more about our “tip of the ice berge” word of the day! The kids loved following the story of how God has CHOSEN Josheph for great things, Josheph then went through TROUBLE but had to continue to have HOPE in Gods LOVE for him and know that his plans made way for his FUTURE. Our story tellers did an amazing job reenacting the story with their lives in the ice caves. They had some great and funny things happen all week like:

being CHOSEN to Receiving a great vest or Superman underwear!

Having your hot coco be too hot and cause TROUBLE!

Having HOPE that God will help you catch a fish so you don’t get fired!

know that Gods LOVE will never leave us!

that just because food now taste bad doesn’t mean it will always taste bad in the FURTURE!

 

It was a great week of learning and having fun! Key thing to remember from the week is that:

We are God handwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God has prepared in advance for us to do! Ephesians 2:10

Helmick Reunion 2012

Well, we had another successful and fun Helmick reunion out at the river house! We were able to get out there Friday afternoon and campout for 2 days. It just happened to be the hottest weekend of the summer, what luck we have! It was great for being able to play in the river. The river was cold but not too strong or high, made for perfect boats, tubing, swimming, and wading in the water.

This year was great….we were able to take the Pastor clan out with us. I love being able to adopt them into all our great family events!!!

A big thank you goes out to Bob (Gramps) and Lou (Grammy) for always opening up their wonderful vacation home and yard for all of us to come and camp out on. It is always great to be able to get together and see a lot of the family that we don’t see but once a year. Can’t ask for a better time when there is good food, company, and hot sunny weather!

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I think the big highlight of the weekend was Blake learning to drive the Cushman! Jake got a great video as he was riding with Blake. He’s able to do everything but shift the shifter…that will come. Even most adult has a hard time shifting the Cushman. :)

Girls Night

Ayden and I got to have our first real girls night and I think I might have created a monster! We decided to go get our nails done. The salon I go to has a cute little chair for young girls that come in and offer them a good price for a mani and pedi...so we did! Ayden freaked out about the water being blue at first but got in anyways. Then she couldn't stop talking about how it tickled because of the jet and how funny I looked when my body shaked (during the chair massage). We picked out our colors and sat and talked the whole time. She was so full of questions about everything that was going on and wanting to know what a tool was called and why they had to use it. Everyone there was getting a kick out of her for sure. I was impressed with how well she sat and got her nails trimmed, filed, cleaned, and then painted. The funny part was after the lady did one foot Ayden decided to she wanted a different color on the other foot. So she got what she wanted but something was still missing. Our wonderful lady knew just what she needed and found the fun gems to put on her big toes. When it came time for her fingernails she decided she wanted every other nail painted one color and the rest the other color...plus the gems on her nails. It was hard to convince Ayden that you only need to gems on the thumbs...she wanted them on all her fingers. :) She then got to watch my pedicure as her nails dried and then sat on my lap while I got my new gelacing done and my eyebrows all touched up.

She couldn't stop talking about how much fun she was having and how she needs to come with me every time I come and do this again! :) HAHA...I created a monster!

 


After our fun filled spa night we grabbed some Taco Bell and watched Judy Moody the movie because we were allowed to do whatever we wanted since the BOYS weren't around.

We could not have asked for a better time together. It is so hard to believe my little baby girl is almost 5. Our time together is flying by way to fast. As she was trying on my new shoes and saying, "Oh Mommy I almost fit these! I can't wait till I can wear them!" I had to fight tears to think that in a very short time she will be wearing my shoes and growing up way to fast. At times like this I wish I had a pause button for life.

 

Weekend Getaway

Well, as it turned out I had to make another trip down to Ridgefield for a Mary Kay party. Yet again, Jake was unable to join...that makes the third trip so far this summer! Oh man...he's in trouble! ;)

We were able to head down Friday afternoon after all the crazy rain and thunderstorms finally stopped. The weird thing about all the rain and storms is it bring all the crazy snails out! We found several as we were leaving the house. Ayden and Blake made me get pictures of them to post for everyone. So here you go...ENJOY!

 

Well, now onto our fun filled weekend!

Of course we took the kids to the park! They really needed to burn some energy.

Blake decided to show off his awesome skills on the swings for everyone...I was impressed I was able to capture all 3 shots.

The main highlight of the weekend was spending the day, just me, Mom, and the kids, driving to Hood River! It was cherry season and Mom needed to get her pie cherries. I forgot how pleasant it can be driving to Eastern Washington down on the South side of the state. Following the Columbia River was so beautiful. Kids got to see Multnomah Falls, Bonneville Dam, and Beakon Rock! All these places we will have to spend more weekends exploring up close and personal. After what seemed like a very long car ride out we finally made it to Hood River and got to our farm for the day. We decided to walk around and see what they had on the farm before we went in and bought our fruit. Leave it to Blake to play a joke on the sunflowers and Ayden to find the giant Black Lab to hang out with! :)

Well after the fun was over of spending about an hour at the farm we decided we needed to head back to Vancouver, WA because Grandpa was participating in the Annual Chili Cookoff and they were supposed to have all kinds of fun family friendly activities going on as well. I think Mom can agree that the car ride home was probably the longest car ride ever with our two kiddos in the back! When we finally made it we made sure they burned their energy and ran around. It turned out to be a wonderful hot day. Couldn't ask to be in a better park then Esther Short Park. Kids did face painting, project building, bouncy slides, playground time, giant snow cones, and danced to live music in the park. We all had a great busy day and in the end Dad and his Training Crew won the award for the spiciest chili! So not only are firefighters good at putting out fires but they are also good at creating a fire in your mouth! :D

As always it was a GREAT weekend down with the parental and seeing at least one sister and her crazy addition. I call him crazy now because he has decided to join the Harley Club..hahaha

As for Jamie...she was busy being Doctor Dolittlet...her house is quite the ZOO right now. Shes now got a dog, a bird, a tank of fish, a turtle, 2 foster kittens, and 3 foster baby squirrels.  She she was a bit busy, but as happy as always.