Cookie Baking Day 2014

Today is the day of the annual Parks/Hodge cookie baking day. A tradition that has been going on since Tami and Cindy were first married. This year was a bit of crazy year but it all ran so smoothly. Jake, I, and the kids all participated in Walk 4 Water early that morning and weren't able to show up till around 2. Luckily this was a year that we did some prebaking and everything went off smoothly. Well except for the peanut butter balls, for some reason we were not thinking right and did them a different way, but have decided that it was actually a good accident to make. I love those kinds of accidents. I love having Amity around, that girls sat for hours decorating all the sugar cookies, except for what the kids did, and LOVED it. She has a very creative artistic side that comes out at cookie baking time.

Funny stories from the day:

Auntie and I were making the peanut butter ball dough. Got it all done and it looked yummy. Auntie was getting ready to take the mixer off the machine but accidentally turned the machine on instead and we had a good laugh as the dough on the mixer went fling onto the floor, counter, and cabinets. It made for a good laugh. Although I don't know if Auntie found it very funny.

Greg and Russell came at two different times and from two different houses yet both showed up in the same exact shirt, that was entertaining for all of us.


Overall, it was an easy and great cookie baking year for everyone.
Here are some photos from the day...ENJOY
Cookie Baking Day 2014

Walk 4 Water

This year our family decided to participate in Walk 4 Water. There is an organization that our Church works with call Walk In The Light International (witli.com) that puts on this event each year. Through the last couple of years Jake and I have seen first hand the good work that they are doing, so we decided this was the year we were getting on board to help make a difference. Here is a little bit of information so you know what we were doing.

What is the Walk 4 Water? It is people walking in the shoes of the people in Africa for one day while raising money and awareness to end this epidemic! Walkers will raise or contribute a minimum of $100 to participate. They walk 2.5 miles to get a 5-gallon jug of water and carry it back 2.5 miles

Why walk for water? Because 1.1 billion people in the world don’t have access to clean water. In Burkina Faso alone 3.4 million of the population don’t have access to clean water! Over 20,000 children under 5 die each year in Burkina Faso! The average sub-Sahara African walks up to five miles a day to get to water clean or not. The good news about these statistics is we have the power to change this! 

Last year we raised enough to put in 3 wells this year are goal is to more than double this! Each well’s complete cost is $13,000 and will provide water to more than 2,000 people each!

This event was an amazing experience and we are so glad we were able to participate. We want to give a big shout out to our family and friends who helped sponsor us on this event. Together as a family we raised almost $2,000!! PRAISE JESUS...GOD IS GOOD! We started at 9am at Lions Park, walked down Lebo Ave, over Warren Ave. Bridge, through downtown Bremerton, and stopped at the Ferry Terminal where we grabbed our water jugs and then headed back. It was a 2.5 mile walk down and then 2.5 miles back. The kids did so good. Blake carried his one gallon jug all but a half mile back, I was super proud! Ayden carried hers for a little bit but ended up giving it to Mom to carry. Jake was a great trooper and carried his full 5 gallons all the way back. I couldn't have been more proud of him. We lucked out with the weather, which we were super glad of..made the walking go much smoother. Overall, it was a great experience and nice to put yourself in someones shoes every now and then to help you understand a different way of life. 

Walk 4 Water 2014

Thanksgiving 2014

This Thanksgiving we headed down to the Huffman House! We waiting till Thanksgiving Day to travel because Jake was busy with work and Mom was seriously busy with her bread orders! Bakerchic is taking off like a rocket and we couldn't be more proud of Mom and all her success. We made it down by lunch time, which I thought was great timing considering we were traveling on a big Holiday. Jesus must really love us! It was perfect time to arrive, cooking time. Plus, all the awesome lunch snacks that are a must have on Thanksgiving. Jamie did an awesome job with the snacks this year! We had a great veggie spread, fruit platter with this awesome chocolate dip, and homemade artichoke dip.

     We never go hungry at Moms that is for sure!

We did our usual play games, drink wine, eat lots of food, laugh a lot, watch the parade, go through the adds for Black Friday shopping. Then of course this year we had to have the football game on to make sure we could watch the SEAHAWKS!! Got to support our team when they are doing good right?!?

This turkey, oh man, wish you could have a scratch and sniff...it was so BOMB!! So much good food for dinner of course, wouldn't expect anything less. Although we should erase my green bean casserole that I made. It was a total FLOP, go figure. 

Well 5 o'clock came quick that is for sure, but it was totally worth it. We made our first traditional stop at Fred Meyer, which really is an all in one shop. Always get some many of our good deals there. I think we started the morning our embarrassing Mom and Dad with all of us getting our own short carts (so you can get through everyone) and following behind them like little chicks following the mother hen because they instantly ditched us. :) Oh well, after getting coffee and donuts we were off! Almost two hours later we were all checked out and heading out for the next stop. After following along with us ladies all morning it finally paid off for Dad once we made it to Home Depot. He got to play with MAN TOYS, which was super cute to watch. 

Well, we finally finished up and stopped for our annul Shari's breakfast, which always tastes so good after a long morning of shopping.

 I think Jake and the kids were excited for us to come back home finally. Both kiddos and Jake were not feeling so good. So what better way to make yourself feel better than play BINGO and win TIC-TACS? And then of course just take naps with your Auntie or maybe I should say just sit with Auntie so she doesn't feel weird about napping.

G.G & Papa John Visit

We were pleasantly surprised to hear that my Grandparents were going to be planning a trip up. They had to use up their flight voucher, what a great excuse to come up for a visit! It just so happened to be right around Moms birthday as well. This was turning out to be a great weekend visit. Plans fell through a little bit. Grandma and Grandpa had to make an unplanned trip for a death in the family. So we ended up only being able to come down for a day, which looking back now I am SOOOO glad we had this day. As I am writing this weeks past this trip happened Grandpa has passes away since. So what was already an amazing day as turned into my last visit with my Grandfather that I am so thankful for and will never forget.

We were able to play some great games together, of course some how both Grandma and Grandpa won the games the we played. Still not sure how they do it.  :) We sat together and got to watch Mom open her presents from all us girls. Then of course have some BOMB cake for dessert.  I am so glad this day happened  and can't think of a better memory to keep in my head forever. 

Ayden Turns 7

Well it happened again, my youngest baby got another year older! She isn't listening to me when when I say to stop growing. This year she decided she wanted to have a sleep over with a bunch of her girlfriends. I have come to like these sleepover parties. I find that I don't have to do as much work compared to normal parties.

Ayden decided to have a CAMP THEME, but since it is November and we can't really camp outside it was all indoors. Still super fun I think. We named it CAMP AYDEN and she made her own sign for it, which was super cute!






We had all the major requirements set up; SMORES BAR, EMERGENCY PACKS, PILLOW CASE DECORATING, and PITTA PIZZAS! The only thing that failed was my awesome pinterest idea. I think it was too warm in the house and the frosting kept falling over instead of staying up nicely.
Well, they still tasted good...or at least I think they did. The girls were already seriously sweeted out by the time they got to cake for the night and most of them went uneaten.
*side note girls chow down more than boys!!!

We did all the usual, eat lots of junk food, made individual pizzas, played, toasted marshmellows, presents, decorated pillow cases, etc. Finally it was jammie time and I sent them all downstairs. They got their beds all put together and then proceeded to watch movies, play the dance game on the wii, and decided it would be really cool to play school in my school room. WHO KNEW that a bunch of homeschool girls would enjoy playing pretend school on their free time?
They were up until a ridiculous hour and on top of that up early. OMG!!! It played well for us though to get them a good breakfast before being picked up and us heading out to Cindy's house to do Ayden's family party. I can't be done though without explain just how much girls eat. We had 5 girls here and we almost polished off 2 dozen hard boiled eggs, a whole box of pancake mix, and two pounds of bacon!!! No Jake and I didn't eat much of it at all. I was blown away. :D
Here is a video of the whole night...hope you enjoy!

We then headed out to Cindy and Charlie's house to celebrate with the Parks family. It worked out perfectly for us to be able to bring Bianca back home too. I honestly thought these girls would fall asleep on the way out...but NO!






Then last but not least for at least this part of her party celebration we did our traditional RED ROBIN birthday dinner on her actual day of birth! This has become a nice family tradition that we all look forward too. She always has to sit by her Daddy, whom she is in love with! You have to get the tower of onion rings and of course the best part FREE ICE CREAM!!!

 plus...

Salmon Spawning

We decided to go on a field trip to watch all the local salmon spawning up the Chico Creek. I have to be honest I wasn't really expecting to see much and boy were we wrong. Sharon and I were like two kids at the ZOO, we were so excited. There were seriously hundred of GIANT salmon swimming upstream. You grow up hearing about how they swim up stream and have to go through a big journey but I think until you watch it all happen first hand it is hard to really fathom just how hard of a journey it really is.

We watched all these salmon constantly struggle to get where they needed to be only to make one wrong move and up 5 feet back down. Then start all over again. I feel like I would have given up, it would have been too hard. God made these animals so persistent and I love it. What a great example of how we should live life. All of nature shows us that even when life is hard you don't give up..something better is about to come.

If you and your children ever get the chance to go and watch the Salmon I would highly recommend it. You wont see anything more awesome, ugly, exhilarating, sad, and hopeful all at the same time.

These guys are truly so AMAZING to watch!















Don't watch this one unless you want to sit for a while. :)

Harvest Festival 2014

We kicked off our school year with our annual trip to the Harvest Festival, this is our 3rd year and it really doesn't get old. Always so much fun for the parents and the kids. We were able to meet up with a couple new families with our homeschool group, which is always fun to see. Thanks for everyone who came out and had a fun filled day with us.

View the rest of our photos and videos from the day here:

Harvest Festival 2014

Decaversary in Aruba

It is hard to believe that Jake and I have been married for 10 years already. Time has really flown by and we have already done so much together. I started looking back at all the amazing adventures we have gone on in this last 10 years and I find it impressive.
Here is a stroll down memory lane real quick for you all:
2004-Married
2005-Moved into town house, Blake was born
2006-Jake Graduated, Jake got job with Glosten
2007-Bought a house in Bremerton and Ayden was born
2008-Dear friend Ryan passed away, Shaun and Jen Married (Blake's 1st wedding),
2009-Took down the big trees, Built the pallet wood shed, Celebrated 5th Anniversary in Portland
2010-Blake turns 5, Grandpa Huffman passes away, Stefen and Mel get Married, Blake starts Kindergarten and Ayden Preschool
2011-Jake went to Alaska again, Trip to Colorado, Start homeschooling, Darcey and Ben get married (Blake's 2nd wedding)
2012- Anna and Jazzy move in, Ayden turns 5, Jake turns 30
2013-Nikki turns 30, Stephanie and Rocky get Married, 9th Anniversary in San Francisco, Mom Turns 50 we go to DISNEYLAND
2014-Tim and Megan get married, our 10th Anniversary in ARUBA

View Album of Events

So now lets get to the fun ARUBA part

FRIDAY

Left PDX on a 9pm flight. We got free drinks from the nice flight attendant because my tv was busted.




SATURDAY

Got into JFK New York at 5am and caught a 7am flight to Aruba.While waiting in JFK there were two small birds stuck inside the airport flying around us and landing on everything…mental note at JFK don’t eat any food that is not wrapped up.  Arrived in Aruba about 11:30am. We had a great Taxi driver to the hotel who was filling us in on some great details about Aruba. It was a straight road to our hotel but we saw some really great trees they call them Divi Divi Trees.  Best part was as we pulled into the Hotel I saw a giant bright blue iguana and it creped Jake out. Had pretty much no sleep, I (Nikki) felt like I had just had a triple shot espresso I was so excited. Arrived at the hotel waaay too early for check in. Went and sat at the beach with our first free drinks, hit me (Nikki) hard and I passed out for a while. Even though it was hot there was a great breeze and in the shade laying down it was like heaven. Finally got to our room but our key wouldn’t work so the maids had to let us in. Finally got to shower and made our way to our first dinner reservation at the Caribbean. We watched the first sun set while eating a good dinner. Went for a nice walk up the beach for an hour, laid in an outdoor bed for a while just staring at the darkened sky. After a while we headed back upstairs to our room, but the dang key still didn’t work! We had to wait about 30 minutes for the security guy (who seemed to do everything around here) to show up and reboot our door key latch.

SUNDAY

I Wanted to do stretching, but Nikki was a lazy bum and barely got out of bed by like 930. We got up and grabbed some breakfast. We meandered around for a while trying to figure out what our schedule would be. We swam in the ocean for a bit. It was pretty warm water and Nikki likes to show off that she can float in it. After drying off, we headed to the giant chess board and got in a couple games. A nice southern couple came to watch us and gave me tips on how to let my wife win. Yeah, that didn’t happen :)

We then hopped in the pool and swam up to the poolside bar for some drinks. Just then a movie trivia contest started in the pool. We initially thought nothing of it and swam around. Once we came back the contest was in full swing. This crazy lady, who’s name is Rocky I, guessed a song from a movie and was so excited she asked to sing the song. So the DJ gives her the mic and she sings terribly. After that Nikki realizes she knows a lot of the answers, so she starts guessing them right and getting
points. By the end Nikki wins the game and gets a free bottle of champagne.

At some point today we saw iguanas and it scared the shit out of me. Don’t judge me. We wanted to practice snorkeling for our excursion on Tuesday, so we snagged our gear from the hut and headed down the beach towards the blue tower where there was said to be some easy shallow snorkeling. Right off the bat, it was crazy how curios the blue and yellow fish are. They come right at you with their mouths open! Once we got past their turf we saw some spiky anemone, clams and a handful of other fish and coral. It was a good beginner

course for us. Unfortunately I was using by dry bag for our stuff in the water, and it doesn’t keep your stuff dry for very long. We lost a map and our translator book. Oh well. We took a walk downtown after dinner at the Italian. The Palm Beach downtown is very small, maybe only four or five blocks long. There are some late flea markets with all sorts of touristy stuff for sale. I got out my Ingress scanner and hacked some portals while we walked around. Nothing very interesting to us. We made our way back to the hotel to watch the Mr Occidental contest. It was crazy to watch 4 guys doing crazy stuff to compete for the title and a free shirt. Afterwards we headed down to the beach in the dark just to sit and watch the stars. Tried to figure out if Aruba ever sees the moon. (Jaron confirmed, they see the moon) We talked nonsense for a couple hours before coming back for bed.

MONDAY

Today in Aruba we took our free 1hr sail in a trimaran at 11am. Our captain, Jaron, noticing my sailing tattoo offered me the helm for the trip as long as I didn't get him wet. He got wet, but didn't seem to mind. Him and Nikki talked about the island while I enjoyed learning a new type of sailboat. After we got back from sailing we snagged a sea kayak for an hour. I didn’t want to paddle too far since the wind wanted to take us out to sea. The water is very shallow for a long ways out. Then, after lunch, it is time for a nap. We took a long walk down the beach to watch the sunset. We made it out to a little point before turning back. The sunset was pretty, but mostly obscured by clouds. We took pictures of our feet instead. Came back to hotel. Apparently the pools and hot tubs close at 7pm (it was now around 8) but we didn’t know that. We grabbed a beer and sat in a hot tub until we were nicely reminded that the tubs are closed. Oh well, off to the room.

TUESDAY

This morning after breakfast we saw a couple ladies throwing bread on the ground near the iguana rocks. Upon closer inspection we realized they were feeding the lizards! They would almost come right up to them to get a little piece of bread. Nikki thought it was awesome, me not so much. We picked up our rental Jeep at around 10am and started off on our way.

First stop of the day was the California Lighthouse. It was a cool old lighthouse but nothing awe
inspiring. The greatest part about it was finding out that it was named the California Lighthouse because of a ship that shipwrecked because the crew was all parting.

Second stop was the chapel; I was surprised how well they have kept it.  I am sure it might still be in use but maybe it is just for the tourists who wish to come in for a prayer.

Third stop was the Ruins. Which happened to be very amazing. To see how tall the structure was and the size of some of the rocks that were used for the walls. It was a very cool place to explore.

Fourth stop was the Natural Bridge, which we learned had actually collapsed back in 2005 but you are still free to go and see where it once stood, which is almost as incredible as seeing the actual bride.

Fifth stop was supposed to be the rock formation, but we could not find a way to get to it. The roads are not named around here, so getting somewhere can be a bit difficult if not on the main roads. So after a bit we decided to just give up on that.

Sixth stop was down to Baby Beach, we had heard that there was supposed to be good snorkeling here. It was a great beach and the water was warm, as usual, but we didn’t seem to actually find many fish. I am thinking we might have needed to go farther out, but that is ok. On our way out we stopped to get out picture and we happened to notice a pack of donkeys just out in the fields grazing away, which was funny to see.  From there we discovered there was a good road to take us up to see the wind turbines, which was awesome to see up close. It is always hard to imagine how tall and how fast those really are still you are standing not more than 50 yards from them. We continued on our off road trail and continued on into the Arikok National Park. We came to our first cave and were really excited, till we got it the
entrance and Nikki saw a bat fly apparently right over my head and then she was done. The other cave was locked up so we couldn’t get in, not that we really wanted to anyways. We were able to sneak a peak of some of the bats hanging out.

Now is when the craziness started. Jake should not have been given a 4x4 Jeep.  Lets just start with I was the one who told him not to go but he insisted it was a trail. HA We needed to cut through the Park, but there was no road we could see right by us that was supposed to go. So Jake found it to be a good idea to put the Jeep into 4 wheel drive and follow what he thought was a trail. Up a nice steep rocky hill and then into some random areas where he thought the trail was going. We came to a sign on the ground that looked like a blockade and said ROAD CLOSED, of course Jake didn’t think that meant the road he was taking. So we pressed on. After a bit he did start to doubt that he was actually on a trail and then we came over a bank and there it was the REAL road we were supposed to be on. So as we came to the end of the trail and onto the main road there was a sign that said all motorized
vehicle prohibited. OPPS!!! Finally back on the main road we were finally going to make it out of the Park. We saw a giant ram crossing the road, but we missed getting a good picture. Low and behold we came to the end, which was actually supposed to be the starting of the trail at the Welcome Center. I guess you have to do at least one thing illegal while on vacation.

WEDNESDAY

Nikki didn’t feel well last night so it was good that we planned this to be our relax day. We started with another hour long sail with Jaron at 10am. The wind was much stronger today and I preferred to just lay back and enjoy the conversation. We spent most of the day laying out in chairs or on the water with our floating mats. I grabbed some snorkel gear and practiced diving some more, but there sure isn’t anything to look at in the swimming area. Once we got back we noticed how red we are after today. Hope we don’t peel!

4th of July Weekedn

We decided to spend the weekend down in Ridgefield, WA again this year with the family. Always turns out to be a great weekend. In my opinion at least.

We started the weekend off with the HIGHLIGHT of Ridgefield, the 4th of July Parade. Kids always love the parade because they get SO much candy. :) Though the parade wasn't as interesting and cool and last year there were still some good parts to it and we all still enjoyed ourselves.

Watch Jakes little video he put together of our morning down at the parade.

We then spend the rest of the day back at the house playing games, eating good food, and doing some fireworks with the kiddos. I don't think night came quick enough for the children, it was killing them all day having to wait for night time to do the fireworks. :)

Saturday we spent most of the afternoon down at the park. We did some playing in the creek and searched for crawdads. Then we decided to dry off a bit by play a family game of Ultimate Frisbee. We split up the adults and kids and had a blast, well and Daisy (the dog) decided to fill in where ever she could. I think we were all feeling it the next day. All that hard work was rewarded later with more good food of course.

Sunday all us siblings went on a crabbing adventure. Rocky and Steph brought their boat up to Twanho State Park. They put out six traps, but all we seemed to catch were babies. BOO!!! At least it was still fun to be out on the boat. Both the kids got to learn to drive Uncle Rocky's boat, which they thought was GREAT! Jamie wanted to try her hand at harvest oysters. They were very successful, we ended with 54, which was the max between the three people licensed. I found it funny that she was wanting to try it because she doesn't eat them...non of us do...except Dad and Rocky...EWWW. Kids enjoyed the swimming whole and did lot so water time. I would say in all, even without any crab, it was a GREAT day for all of us.

Check out a video recap of our AWESOME weekend. *sorry it cut off some pictures weird..haha

Completing the Year

Well, its been a long journey this year fully teaching two kids. I was pleasantly surprised that we all survived. HE HE

Both children did amazing with their academics this years. Both are increasing in their core subjects. Abeka has been a great curriculum for the kids. Next year school starts getting more intense but fun for Blake since 4th grade science and history start getting into good details.

Its so hard to believe that Blake is going in to 4th grade and Ayden into 2nd. Time has gone by so quickly. 

We did lots of fun things this year. We went to several play sthat the local theater puts on for school age kids. Visited Theo Chocolate factory and learn all about chocolate. The underwater sea museum and learn all about naval stuff. Got to tour a horse farm and learn how to care for horses, and get rides. And of course lots of play dates. :)

Both kids  participated in the homeschool spots club this year. They got to do 6 weeks of soccer, basketball, and baseball. They didn't always enjoy it, especially when its cold and raining, but it was still a great year. 

We are going to enjoy our summer gardening, harvesting, playing, and just having fun!

 Ayden Parks
Age: 6
Grade: 1st
Awards: Completing the 1st Grade
              Star Student for excelling in her handwriting and reading
           

Blake Parks

Age: 9

Grade: 3rd

Awards: Completing the 3rd Grade

              Reading awards for improving and diving into Reading