February update

We've been a bit absent on the blog as of late. This was supposed to go up yesterday, but yesterday got away from me and I fell asleep last night while preparing my Sunday School lesson. While I've tried to harness my somnambulism tendencies to coincide with my workaholic nature, it didn't kick in last night. Hence, the blog is being updated today.

It's amazing how priorities affect our lives, isn't it? When we started this blog, we said we would update it every week. That lasted about 4 weeks, and then it went to every month. Now it seems like a monthly update gets to be too big of a chore to tackle. And yet, really, how hard is it to type a few words on a keyboard every once in a while. All too often our priorities become out of whack and we lose sight of what's really important. So - a challenge to all my fellow bloggers: update your blog you nits! You owe it to the rest of us to let us know what you're doing!

Enough said on that topic. And now the news...

No news really. Situation is normal. We're all fine here now, everything's fine. How are you? No really, no news. We can tell you about our latest excursion to Oregon though. That sounds like a good idea. Here we go!

At the beginning of February I had an unexpected trip to go to Longview, WA for a business meeting. For those of you who don't have any concept of Washington State (and that still includes me, since I'm still a recent transplant), Longview is an hour north of Portland, Oregon and about 2 hours south of Seattle. It's a 4 hour drive from here. Anyway, since the meeting was on a Friday, Kim and I decided we would make it a weekend trip to the coast. We packed up the kids on Thursday after work and drove to Longview where we stayed the night at a hotel. The next morning I went to my meetings and Kim and the kids swam in the hotel pool. By the time I was done with my meeting Kim and the kids were plenty waterlogged, so we hopped in the van and drove to the Oregon coast.

Our first stop on the Welling Weekend Warrior tour was Astoria, Oregon. This was a very important part of our fun-filled weekend because, as many of you may not know, one of the finest motion pictures of our time was filmed in Astoria. That's right - "The Goonies". It was a star-studded film of up and coming actors who would later star in even better (but more often worse) films. Actors like Josh Brolin, Martha Plimpton, Sean Astin, Joe Pantoliano, and the ever amazing Corey Feldman. We got to drive around Astoria a bit, witness what are affectionately known as the Goondocks, and stop at the maritime museum for a couple of hours. We are very blessed that it's still cheap to go to museums since most of our kids are still 5 and under. We're planning on milking that free ride as long as we possibly can. We were, however, disappointed to find that there was no mention of The Goonies in the museum. Sad and shameful are the words that could sum it up best. I really wanted to find the restaurant and the lighthouse where much of the filming took place. Alas, it was not to be for there were more places to go.


At the museum

At the museum

At the museum

Still at the museum


We continued on our journey, pressing forward with a steadfastness that the next sojourn would be even more exciting than quaint Astoria. We were not disappointed when we came upon the Lewis and Clark Interpretive center on the Lewis and Clark trail. (Well, to be perfectly honest, everyone was disappointed but Kim. She was in history geek heaven. The rest of us merely endured out of love and respect for the bringer of life and the preparer of meals.) Insert by Kim: It was Fort Clatsop which was where Lewis & Clark wintered in 1805-1806. It was very fun and interesting & the kids LOVED it!!!! We got to walk along a few trails and see some native plants and their recreated fort, some hollowed out canoes, etc. We then watched a movie about the Native Americans that befriended Lewis and Clark while they weathered the winter and who had their food and canoes stolen by Lewis and Clark's men as repayment for their kindness. Classy stuff.



Fort Clatsop

Enjoying our fun afternoon at Fort Clatsop


We wanted to get to our hotel that night before it got dark so we left Snoozefest and went to Seaside, which is a fun little tourist trap a little further south of Astoria. We had a nice place to stay just a block off the beach. You could see the ocean from our bathroom window, which is a great place to have a view, I always say. Most people I know would kill for a bathroom view of the ocean. Nothing better for inspiring the most astounding of thoughts as a view of the ocean from the bathroom. Helps quite a bit with generating flow, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. Bit expensive as cures go though, but it doesn't require a prescription like FloMax. To each his own, I always say.

We went to a pizza place that night, because it seemed the cheapest route for us. $20 for a pepperoni pizza, but it's still cheaper than paying $6.50 each for 4 grilled cheese sandwiches. Before we went back to the hotel, we took a walk down the boardwalk to the beach. As we walked out to the beach, Madeline started to freak out more than I have ever seen her freak out before in her entire life. Mind you, that's only 4 years, but it has seemed like an eternity. Whether it was the roar of the waves crashing or the thought of getting wet, she wouldn't say but as the rest of us walked up to the waves, she held back about 200 feet, not daring to get close.



Sunset at the beach in Seaside...nothing like a sunset at the ocean.

We looked for shells, sand dollars, and anything else that looked cool coming out of the ocean, filling our pockets with our findings. We went back to the hotel, popped "The Apple Dumpling Gang" into the DVD player, and I promptly fell asleep after the longest week of my life.

The next morning, we went out for breakfast to the Pig and Pancake. It was fantastic fare, I must say. Most of the kids had sand dollar pancakes. I splurged a bit for the Dungeness crab omelet. It was quite good. After breakfast, we took off for the beach to play in the ocean. Now, to be quite honest, I don't recommend going to the beach in February, unless of course you live in the Southern Hemisphere which we obviously do not. But it was advantageous for us to go simply because we were in the general vicinity. So, we told the kids they could take off their shoes and socks and go play in the waves. For some reason, the kids didn't take to this idea quickly enough for Kim, so she decided that she was going to show them how it was done. So she took off her shoes, rolled up her pants, and took Gabriela, Everett, and Daniel to frolic in the foam. Madeline and I stayed up on the beach, far, far away from the scariness of the sea. Yep, Madeline was just as terrified as the night before, no matter how much fun we said it was.

A strange thing happens when you're playing in the ocean. You can sit and watch the waves as they come crashing in. They crash on the beach and then the water moves up a little bit and you playfully run in front of the wave as it approaches your heels. The kids and Kim were having lots of fun doing this. Everett was getting quite good at outrunning the waves. But somehow, the ocean knows this game. It's bee playing it for years. It lulls you into this false sense of security that you're always going to win. And then it proves you terribly, horribly wrong. Then it laughs in your face. This was the case today. Kim was out playing a little bit with Daniel and Gabriela. They were out ankle deep, because the water was cold, and why get any wetter than that, right? Needless to say, when they least expected it, The Wave came. And Kim, in her ultimate wisdom, decided not to let go of the Gabriela's and Daniel's hands and let them run up the beach on their own power. Instead, she decided that she could outrun the wave and that the kids would run as fast as her. You can guess how that one turned out. She started running, didn't warn them that she was doing so, and they promptly fell as Kim attempted to lift / drag them out of the water. Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough with the camera to document the event. I was able to live through the aftermath as 2 of our kids cried and complained because they were cold, with their pants wet up to their knees and sand in their shoes. Needless to say, our outing at the beach was done.


The water was really,really cold.....

We went back to the hotel, changed clothes, and then went back for a walk on the boardwalk. We went to the local aquarium which was actually much cooler than I thought it would have been. They had about 8 seals in a big tank that you could feed fish and they were splashing around a bunch in their tank. They had tanks full of fish (of course), but they also had some open tanks with things you could touch: anemones, sea urchins, and starfish. I thought that was pretty cool. But the most amazing thing was an octopus in a big open tank. You weren't allowed to touch it, but it would sit on the side of the tank and reach out its tentacles outside the tank. It was a very fun place and the kids loved it.


Look at the cool octopus....


Touch Tank.....

It was early afternoon by that time and we decided that we needed to head out for the long drive home. We packed up the van and headed out. We decided that we wanted to see Cannon Beach though, since we had heard a lot of good things about it. We got there and decided that the town was definitely out of our class - way too posh. It didn't even have a McDonald's. However, the beach was absolutely amazing. It has some really cool rocks jutting right out of the ocean, which I think they actually used in "The Goonies" (remember the holes in the doubloon for the rocks as a marker?). Well, we played on the beach for a while and, you guessed it, the ocean decided to play back. This time it was Everett that had all the "fun". He and I were out playing near the waves and I saw "The Wave" coming at us. I told him to run now instead of letting the waves lick at his heels like he had been doing. But, 5 year olds are smarter than dads, so while I ran quickly far ahead of the wave, Everett waited. When he realized this wave was too quick for him, it was too late. As I turned around to see how he was doing, I noticed the water was up to his ankles already and still coming in fast. The next thing I knew, Kim was yelling at me to help Everett. I turned around and there was Everett, belly down, feet and head up, looking like a beached seal. I started to laugh, which is always my reaction to others' misfortune, and Kim scolded me for not helping him. I wanted to mention something about "helping" our other kids like she had done earlier in the day, but I fortunately held my tongue. I waited for the wave to recede, then went to help. Better one person wet than two, I always say. So, as you can imagine, we were done playing at the beach again. Everett was sopping wet, we had to strip him down and change his clothes at the car, and then we left.

We got home that evening in time to put everyone to bed and Kim and I put the finishing touches on our lessons for Sunday. It was a great weekend, and I'm sure none of us will forget it. I tried to reinforce one lesson that everybody could remember for the trip: you can't run faster than water.





Valentine's day was spent remembering all the fun we had in Seaside. That was our present to each other. The rest of the month went well. I spent a few days in Chicago running some focus groups for my current project which will be wrapping up in a couple of weeks.

Otherwise, everyone is in good health, happy, and enjoying thoughts of spring. Hope you are too.


Daniel with his two front teeth absent. No corn on the cob for you!

That's it. No more. Thanks for the memories, even though they weren't so great.

Picture Tag (From Julia)

Okay, I never do this because I don't think I have the time...but I am trying to be better at blogging...so here goes.

This is my sweet niece Abby as a little baby. She was born at 28 weeks weighing 1 lb. 2 oz. and 11 inches long. Needless to say she is a miracle baby. This is my bro-in-law holding her in the palm of his hand. It is a sweet picture. Abby just turned 6 years old. Yeah for Abby!!


Here are the rules:

Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures.
1. Pick the 6th Folder, then select the the 6th picture in that folder.
2. Post that picture on your blog and the story that goes along with the picture.
3. Tag 6 other people that you know or don't know to do the same thing and leave a comment on their blog or an e-mail letting them know you chose them.

I tag NaDell, Valaney, Amy, Christy, Becky, and Melissa

Happy New Year....finally!!

We are finally back to blogging..or at least Kim is. Aaron may join the discussion later on. There are many excuses that I could give for not updating...my camera no longer worked and you don't want to update the blog without pictures....nothing happened in our family worth mentioning....no time....just lazy and not wanting to:) I think all are applicable with the exception of nothing happening..because something always happens at our house. I will now update the last 2 months with pictures and as little commentary as possible.

NOVEMBER: We enjoyed Madeline's birthday on the 18th, especially me because I woke up with a flaming case of strep throat! Thanks to my mom for being there, insisting that I go to the doctor, taking care of me and my family until Aaron was able to come home from work. Needless to say I wasn't much help. After birthday cake and presents, my parents left and Aaron was left to celebrate with the kids. I will leave the details to Aaron...needless to say it was an evening of laughter, tears, frustration, and eventually surrender.

The weekend before Thanksgiving the kids and I went to Spokane to stay with my parents and Aaron flew to London. We were reunited the night before Thanksgiving.

We spent Thanksgiving at the Borders Family Lodge in Barstow WA on the Kettle River with the entire Borders family (minus Amy's family - we missed you). It was great fun. We played during the day and listened to people throwing up at night..really. But other than that it was a lot of fun. We played a lot of games, watching movies on the wall, ate way too much food, and enjoyed everyone's company.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures to share of the above events because my camera really was broken.

DECEMBER: We kicked off the month attending the temple with Emily in preparation for her mission to the Puerto Rico, San Juan East Mission. She is currently in the Provo MTC. It was a lovely evening and it was wonderful to be with my family. Other tidbits from the beginning of the month include decorating our house for Christmas, singing and playing in Christmas concerts, and enjoying the excitement of the season.

The week before Christmas Aaron went on a business trip to the Midwest. This is the second year in a row that he has been gone the week before Christmas. Last year he was in Europe and it really puts a kink in the swing of all things Christmas...too much to do and not enough time. I am going to insist that this year he travels at the beginning of the month and not the end. :) While he was gone we had snow and it was really cold (below zero). Usually we get snow and it goes away after a few days...not this year. It stayed for 3 weeks. Aaron finally made it home..he can write about his adventure...and we were all excited for Christmas..yeah!

Ok, no more talking. I did get a new camera on Christmas Eve and now I will post pictures with little commentary.

Everett, Madeline, Gabriela, and Daniel on Christmas Eve in their new pajamas!

Daniel and his presents Christmas morning.

Gabriela and her presents Christmas morning.

Everett and his presents Christmas morning.

Madeline and her presents Christmas morning.

We had a very enjoyable Christmas. Besides the toys, we received many family games and spent the day playing games and enjoying time together. We were able to talk to our family, even Grandpa and Grandma Welling on their mission in Kazakhstan. Thanks to all who sent our family presents..we love them!! Aaron had the week after Christmas off. We decided to head up north to Spokane. I told you we received a bit of snow..well nothing prepared us for the amount of snow Spokane received..in the month of December they received 72 inches of snow..that's right! Here are pictures from our week in Snokane..I mean Spokane.

Aaron, the day after we arrived, shoveling the 12 inches of snow that "poured" in less than 8 hours. It was quite amazing the watch. You can barely see the top of the neighbors fence across the street.

Gabriela in a snowball fight with her Dad. I joined the fun and she was brutal to both of us. She liked throwing snow at your face...so we had to make rules that we stay below the neck. The great thing is she is able to take as much as she gives...she was white washed a couple of times.

A nighttime picture...look at the snow next to the van...so much that there is not many more places for the snow to go.

Daniel, Gabriela, and Everett enjoying the snow. They were able to sled in the front yard. This was a couple of days after the additional 12 inches. The snow was able to settle a bit, otherwise the would have sunk in further and been lost in the snow. What fun! This is the kind of snow I always wished for when I was a kid.

My brother Andrew shoveling snow off the roof at our parents house. There is probably 3 feet of snow and roofs were collapsing all over the city. The day after New Year's Andrew, Aaron, Dad, and Christy (Andrew's wife), climbed out on the roof and shoveled the snow..it took them about 4 hours to get it all off.

In spite of the snow we had a lovely week in Spokane celebrating the New Year. We spent New Year's Eve playing games..and Gabriela was so excited that she made it up past midnight. I don't think there was a night that week that we went to be before midnight. Aaron, my brother Matt, and bro-in-law Aaron stayed up all night New Years eve playing The Settlers of Cataan, with the Seafarers, and Knights and Cities...if you have never played you should...hours and hours of fun! We had a great week but were very happy to come home.

Now we are in 2009 and it started off with bang...or at least a lot of wind. We had a wind storm and it blew about 60-70 shingles off our roof. The insurance inspector came this week and told us that we will get a new roof...so that is nice.

See the shingles that came off. I was hoping that the siding would all blow off then I could get new siding and windows:) But we are grateful that it wasn't more and we are grateful that we will get a new roof...now we just have to find a roofer...does anyone know a good one in the Tri Cities?

In December, Gabriela's Christmas concert was cancelled because of the weather...so they had it this past Tuesday. Here she is with the entire 2nd Grade..what a wonderful girl she is.

My beautiful sister Emily went to the MTC this past Wednesday, January 14. She will be spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people in the Puerto Rico, San Juan East Mission for the next 18 months. The mission will be centered in San Juan and will contain the two stakes and one district in eastern Puerto Rico, as well as the English speaking countries of the Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Dominica and Barbados. She will spend three weeks in the Provo Missionary Training Center and the travel to the Dominican Republic Missionary Training Center. Then she will be off to Puerto Rico. We are all very excited for her and know she will be a wonderful missionary. We love you Emily and look forward to the many exciting opportunities you will have.

That sums up our life the past two months. We apologize to those who were looking forward to our Family Christmas letter. Our intention was good..but it just didn't happen this year..so we are sorry. We will have to make it up next year.

We are excited for 2009! Gabriela turns 8 in March and is looking forward to getting baptized. Roy and Anne will be home from their mission this summer, babies have and are coming into our extended families..so many new things. So much to look forward to. We appreciate and love all of you that add to the fabric of our life......good day!!

Great googly moogly!

It's been 3 months since the last post. I feel like such a failure. Here's my best attempt to catch the highlights and get everybody back up to speed.

School started. Gabriela is going to second grade. Everett and Daniel are doing a home schooling program with Kim that is sponsored by our school district. It basically means they go to school once a week while Kim gets a break and that the rest of the week Kim gets to feel guilty for not being as diligent about teaching them every day. The boys will start kindergarten next year. Daniel is also taking speech classes since he's got a few issues to work on with his pronunciation. He had his first session last week and is doing much better with his "K" sounds, as long as he's lying down. It's a great trick - but now we have to master the standing "K".

Madeline is doing some preschool this year once a week with other families in our ward. She gets to go to someone's house and learn all sorts of fun stuff. She's quite social, so she enjoys it quite a bit. She's also doing much better on her sounds and letter recognition. Madeline's birthday is on Tuesday and she will be all of 4. The plan is that we go bowling. Hopefully that all works out for us. Grandma and Grandpa Borders will be visiting so it should be quite fun.

We had an interesting endeavor for a few weeks in September and October. We joined with a few other families in our community and sponsored Family Friendly Soccer, an endeavor to let our kids get engaged in organized athletics without all the cost, time commitment, and psycho parents that yell at their kids from the sidelines and make everyone else feel embarrassed for them looking like complete idiots as they try to relive their own inadequacies in their own youth through their children. We took about 1.5 hours out of each Saturday for practices and games, and the parents even got to get involved with playing soccer with the kids. Gabriela, Everett, and Daniel enjoyed it quite a bit, although they were happy when it was done. Dad got to coach Gabriela's team, which was a great lesson in patience and was some good exercise to boot. I even heard that comment that I can still run pretty fast for a fat man. I'm like a dwarf in that sense though - great sprinter at short distances, with plenty of rest in between.

Halloween came and went without incident or vomiting. Gabriela was a ladybug, Everett was a dinosaur, Daniel was a pumpkin, and Madeline was a princess. We do trunk-or-treat at the church and it's amazing how much candy you can get in just a half hour. We probably covered about 50-75 cars in that time. I think it's really sad how easy we make trick-or-treating for our kids these days. When I was a kid, it took us about 2-3 hours to get a bag half full of candy. We had to work for that candy, braving dogs and snowdrifts, running into things in the dark, and lots and lots of walking. Our kids sure have it easy. Lucky suckers.

I'm headed out to London on Saturday for work which should be fun. Flying back home on Wednesday to join the family up at Kettle Falls for Thanksgiving. This will be the first trip to Thanksgiving with the vast majority of the Borders family (minus Amy and Neil), so we're trying to figure out how to manage all the people in closed quarters for 4 days straight. The biggest concern is the kids. The Borders' Lodge happens to act much like an echo chamber, which small children tend to just feed off of, if you've never had the privilege to find out. I just hope we're all on speaking terms at the end of the week and that our kids aren't scarred (physically or emotionally) when we drive home. I've already started the threats with my kids. Next will come the bribes. Oh, the joys of parenting.

For those of you waiting for the annual Welling Christmas letter, it's currently under development. We're hoping to make it as good as previous years, but I'm afraid we may have run out of funny as of late, so we'll see if the creative juices will flow. Until then!

Pictures, Pictures

Here is synopsis of our summer with pictures to compliment the last post. Enjoy!

Welling Family Grandkids ...aren't they cute?

Enjoying the Kettle River at Grandpa & Grandma Borders cabin

Madeline trying out a new hairdo...isn't she so pretty?

Madeline, Everett, Cousin Kaitlyn, Gabriela, & Daniel

catching grasshoppers at the cabin. Don't worry we let them go.

Birthday fun with Daniel & Everett!

Check out our new bikes...we are so cool!

Gabriela's first day of 2nd Grade!

She loves to pose! Welcome to 2nd Grade!

Back off summer break!

Well, it must have been a busy summer because it was so packed that we didn't even have time to write in the blog all summer. Well, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. We're now on the tail end of summer and entering fantastic fall or awesome autumn. Kim says we have to update the blog today: it is our goal. For some reason my wife sets goals for us, but I can't command the same type of demands. But, then again, a 52" Sony Bravia probably isn't the loftiest of goals for us in the long run.

What a whirlwind of a summer it has been. Since I'm obviously not going to be able to remember all the vivid details that I know our readership craves, I'll give a high level perspective and stick in any specificity as I remember it. Kim has promised to supplement with pictures to boot. Hopefully the two will coincide, although I don't know that we have any pictures documenting bowel movements and vomiting. At least I hope we don't. Maybe we'll just skip the chronicling of those distinct events.

In early July we took a fantastic voyage to Utah for the second bi-annual Welling Family Reunion. This was quite an undertaking for us, and we tried to squeeze in as many visits as we possibly could because, with $4 a gallon gas, we don't expect to be making that many of those trips in the very near future. The list of people we were able to visit with included:

• Woods Family (Dave, LeAnne, and children)
• Kingsford Family (Kenny, Michele and seed)
• Ricord Family (Clint, Megan, and descendants)
• Young Welling Family (Ryan, Tiffanie, and offspring)
• Youngest Welling Family (Gavin and Kara)
• Fund Family (TJ, Christel, and progeny)
• Barson Family (Ryan, Heather, and heirs)
• Beauchene Family (Todd, Kiersten, and young)
• Varga Family (Bridger, Kari, and brood)
• Rupp Family (Jeff, Julie, and scions)
• Toronto Family (Neil, Amy, and family)
• Grandpa and Grandma Nicholas (together)
• Grandma Welling (alone)
• Emily Borders (alone and looking)
• Nancy Baker (alone and indifferent)

We didn't get to take any pictures of anybody that we visited, so you'll have to take our word for it. If you happened to take a picture while we visited you, please feel free to send it to us. We can post it on our blog! If you find yourself looking at the above list and you don't find yourself there and you live in the Utah area and you find yourself asking why we didn't visit you, we didn't know you care so much. Make it known bucko! We'll catch you on the next ride down.

At the Welling Family Bi-Annual Reunion, we got to hang out with everybody and reacquaint ourselves. I got to introduce my family to The Settlers of Catan, which became an instant hit with the whole family. There were a couple of really late nights and I think I can state that we got everybody hooked.

While at the reunion, my brother Ryan came up with a fantastic competition for the entire family. You see, the day before, during the family picture, we had to put the camera in an adjacent county to get all of us in the shot because we didn't have a wide enough lens. So Ryan came up with the idea that we need to have a Welling Family Biggest Loser competition. Now, for those of you that may want to say that that's a redundancy in terms, nobody asked you. We all thought a friendly rivalry among siblings and spouses would be a healthy way to egg each other on to losing a few pounds. We even set up a webpage for documenting the weight loss each of us experienced. My idea was that we take fat picture of ourselves (shirts off for men, Spandex for women, just like in the TV show). I couldn't find anybody else that thought that would be a good idea, though. I just figured seeing everyone's fat rolls spilling out over form-fitting attire or giant man-boobs sagging from gravity's pull would be a good way to kick-start the weight loss, if not from humiliation then simply because of the vomiting that would ensue because of it. Just trying to help.

We also got to spend some time up at the new cabin near Kettle Falls that Kim's parents have been able to pert near finish this summer. It's in decoration phase: there is furniture and beds and all the trim going up all the time. It's an absolutely amazing place and we're excited to have it only a few hours away for getting away from the headache of everyday life. If you feel so inclined to visit us, we'll take you up there.

Anyway, we got to float the Kettle River and we got all of the kids to brave the water this year. They're becoming regular fish. Everett and Daniel got to spend their 5th birthday up there and they even got bikes this year. They were extremely excited and think they're pretty grown up now.

Which brings me to a subject I know you're all wondering about. Everett has been on and off during the summer with the potty-training, which has been not fun when you're traveling or staying at other people's houses. Anyway, Kim has been pumping Everett full of flax on a daily basis as a means to keep the kid regular. And, I am happy to report that we have finally turned a corner. Imagine my surprise when I was sitting at work one day and I get a phone call from home. I answer the phone and find that it's Everett on the other end. And what does he say to me? "Dad, I just had an 18" poop." Yep, 18". Now, let me just jump in here right now and state that it's not a normal occurrence that we measure our feces at the Welling home. But since Everett has had such a hard time defecating anything larger than a raisin, this turd was monumental. Literally. Okay, figuratively, since it's not actually a monument hanging on the wall. But monumental in the sense of size. You know what I mean. So the moral of the story here: God bless flax!

Last week we went to Silverwood Theme Park with the Borders family. For those of you not from Washington, it's pretty much just like Lagoon in Utah. We went because Gabriela won a free ticket for reading at school, and Kim got a free ticket for volunteering at the school, and I've wanted to go ever since we moved to Washington. Gabriela was adamant that she wanted to ride some roller coasters, so after hitting a couple of kid rides when we showed up, Kim and I took Gabriela, Everett, and Daniel to Roller Coaster Alley to rider on Tremors, which is a wooden roller coaster that goes 60 miles per hour and goes above and below-ground. Now, let me preface this by saying that Kim has never been on a roller coaster before. This was her first amusement park ever, which is pretty amazing in and of itself. In addition to that, Kim hates heights and hates extreme speeds, so the fact that she was willing to go on this ride and be brave in front of the kids was pretty awesome. It took us a little over an hour, but we finally got up to the front of the line. When we got up there, they told us we needed 1 adult per child (since our kids were under 4' tall. A nice man in front of us with his 2 kids said he would ride with one of our kids. Gabriela said she would do it and so she hopped on the ride just before us. As they left, Kim and I looked at each other wondering how in the world she was going to react to her first roller coaster with a complete stranger. When she got back, about 90 seconds later we could see we didn't have anything to worry about. She had the biggest smile on her face getting off the ride. Once she got off, it was our turn to get on. I sat next to Daniel and Kim sat next to Everett. And now, who better to tell the rest of the story than Kim herself.

I put on a brave face for Everett, but inside I kept thinking what have I got myself into. The first steep incline was not too bad...until we got to the top and went straight down into a tunnel. I thought I was going to die. It was so fast and we kept going up and down into tunnels. I laughed the entire way because if I didn't I probably would have burst into tears. After what seemed like an eternity we pulled to a stop. I unbuckled my seat and with my wobbly legs and heart racing I stepped out of the seat....I had survived. I am glad that I did it...but I don't think I will do it again...until Aaron drags me to Disneyland or someplace like that.

Okay, let's be honest. She loved it and she knows she loved it, she's just afraid to admit it. In all actuality, of all the roller coasters we rode the rest of the day, that one was probably the scariest, so she's really braver than she thinks. So we got to ride on a bunch more rides. The kids liked the log flume ride the best, although the one that was probably the most fun to ride for me was Thunder Canyon. It's one of those rides where you ride in a big round raft and you get to watch everybody else's faces as they get drenched with water. We jumped in line and Madeline promptly fell asleep in her stroller. After a 45 minute nap, she woke up just in time to jump on the raft. Needless to say, she wasn't completely awake and not exactly ready for a water ride. Once we got everybody strapped in, they sent us off. We hit the first rapid and, of course, it washed over Madeline. She proceeded to cry during the remainder of the ride. And it didn't matter how much the rest of us were laughing and getting drenched, Madeline just kept crying. And at the very last rapid, the biggest wave I had seen the whole ride washed right over the top of Madeline and drenched her from head to toe. And there she sat with these big wide eyes, looking like a drowned rat, dripping wet, shivering and crying. I don't think I've felt that bad in a long time. And what made me feel worse was I kept on laughing because it was so much fun.

All in all, it was a great day, the kids had lots of fun, even Madeline, and it was a great weekend to end the summer with. On Wednesday, Gabriela started second grade and Everett and Daniel are going to be doing a home school program with Kim (best of luck to her). So, we're back to regular schedules and enjoying the cooler days and cooler nights. We'll try and be better the rest of the year at the blogging thing now that we're back on the schedule.

Talk to you again next week!

And we're back!

We apologize for the inconvenience. I guess with Kim posting the last post, I figured she'd have the initiative, the desire, nay the extreme pleasure of wanting to post again when I got busy with work, life, etc. and that I wouldn't need to worry about it for a bit. Needless to say from the lack of posts that that was not the case. So here it is, 6 weeks from the last post that we attempt to catch you up. Unfortunately, my usual verbosity (verboseness?) will probably make that quite the challenge. Hence, I am starting to write this on Friday evening in the hopes that it is written by Sunday to be posted. Fortunately for all of you, you won't have known that there was an additional two day wait besides the 6 weeks so the suspense won't have killed you.

So here it is, Friday night. That means movie night. Being the cultured parents that we are, or maybe because we want them to fall asleep quickly, we've put on Thoroughly Modern Millie. They do like the show though, so it's good for everyone. Of course, Kim has left me tonight to go TP someone's house. I know what you're thinking: isn't that type of riff-raff reserved for, well, riff-raff, as opposed to housewives with four small children that need to be carted off to bed shortly? Well, I would have to agree with you on that. But for some reason, Kim is feeling the need to relive the teenage years she missed out on since she was an angelic homebody that didn't get out too much. I'm calling it "Kim's Kooky Phase". Please everyone, say a silent prayer that she gets it out her system before the kids can really know about it and try to model her behavior. Thanks folks!

So, back to what I said I was going to talk about more than a paragraph ago. It's the end of June and. since we last left you, Kim had her birthday and Mother's Day (thanks everyone for pitching in for the gifts), Aaron had his birthday and Father's Day (again, thanks everyone for the presents, you're all too kind), Gabriela finished off first grade (top of her class, of course), Aaron traveled to Allentown, PA twice for work (all went well, thanks for asking), we got a visit from LeAnne and Dave and took them up to Kettle Falls for the weekend (played a lot of Settlers of Catan and got them hooked), and we're now gearing up for our trip to Utah for the 4th of July for the 2nd Bi-Annual Welling Family Reunion. Those are the major events that have happened. I'll embellish the details on a few just for the sake of embellishment. You're welcome.

Kim is 33 now. That's right, she's a third of a century (though technically she needs to be 33 years, 3 months, 3 days, 3 hours, and 3 minutes old before she's really a third of a century, but fortunately we're not technical around here). And of course, I wasn't around for her birthday. I was in Pennsylvania for a workshop. Thankfully, Kim has fantastic friends that brought her fruit pizza, took her out to PF Chang's for lunch, brought her presents, and toilet-papered the house (apparently that's what friends do?). The two Sundays previous to her birthday was Mother's Day and the kids and I prepared a fantastic dinner of barbecued Hawaiian chicken which was absolutely amazing, minus the burnt parts. She also got her favorite new movie, Enchanted, on DVD. I think she had a great day.

The following month, it was my turn. I turned 34, which I was pretty indifferent about until somebody mentioned that it was just 6 years shy of 40. Talk about a major buzzkill. I don't think I should have to think about being 40 until I am 40, or soon to be 40, not 6 years before. That's all together too depressing, no offense to the sad saps who have the unfortunate responsibility of already being 40 or soon to be 40. My condolences. I've heard that 40 is the new 50 - how's that for even more depressing. Anyway, you'll never guess where I was on my birthday. That's right, back in Pennsylvania for another workshop. The fun never ends. I did get to go to a minor league baseball game that night and sat in the dugout box seats on the field, right behind home plate. That was pretty cool. The following Sunday was Father's Day, and I got cedar planks (it's for cooking, not for fencing, or even for swordplay for that matter) and a 3-disc DVD set - Ben Hur (good), Citizen Kane (bad), and The Maltese Falcon (amazing).

On my birthday, Gabriela finished school. She is officially a second grader now. She also finished Harry Potter Book 3 (finally got back to it after reading every other book in the house) and she's on to The Goblet of Fire. She earned a trip to our local amusement park (if you can call Coeur d'Alene, ID local) so we're planning a trip there later this summer, probably when the price of gasoline gets up to about $6.00 Lucky us.

I am happy to report that we have officially stopped buying diapers. This is a major milestone in the Welling family home. And what are we doing with all this freed up cash? That's right, it's going into good old gasoline. So much for debt reduction. Anyway, we're still having some issues with Everett, as you might have guessed. Clay poop is our evil nemesis. So Everett is now cleaning out his own underwear any time he has an accident, which seems like about 5-6 times each day. He's also not going to get to take swimming lessons unless he's poop-free. We're hoping with enough incentive, it will all get through. Literally.

So the Woods familia came to visit us last week. They are the first of my family (besides Mom and Dad) to come visit us. We showed them all of the Tri-Cities and, after the 15 minute tour was over, we decided to take them to Kim's parents' cabin in Kettle Falls since it at least has two bathrooms, as opposed to our house. We had a great time playing bocce ball, horseshoes, baseball, Settlers of Catan, and going fishing and throwing rocks in the river. We even got Dave and LeAnne to watch Batman Begins, which they both liked (big shocker).

So here we are, preparing to have a fantastic 4th of July and trying to get everything ready so we can make it as enjoyable as possible. If you'd like a visit and you're in the neighborhood, please let us know and we'll try to squeeze you in. No promises though.

Talk to you again soon. And wow, got it all done in one day. Lucky you!