Speedster Race

I got the itch to change my brakes on the car a couple weeks ago and since I have not done anything with them since purchasing the vehicle and they were starting to squeak a little.  In doing so James got the idea that his fire truck needed a little maintanance as well.  I aided him in jacking the truck up, but all of the work was conducted at his direction and prodding.

James insisted his front end was a little loose and he needed one of the steering struts straightened.  I tried to explain that the bend metal part is supposed to be bent, but to no avail.

Matthew thought he should get in there and help as well.

Them of course it was time for riding on the motorcycle.  The kids love to sit on the bike and there are several time when I am in the garage that I look over and one or the other is up on one of the bikes which promptly gets a swift rep remand.  Matthew regularly uses the wires and cables as leverage to get on the bike.

Hmmm....I think the key goes here.

 

The labor day weekend I finally got some time off (the first day in 20 straight days of work) so off to a Speedster endurance run we were off to.  There were so many col cars there and we had a blast at the hotel and hanging out with Jim and Sandi.  Unfortunately we had some mechanical issues and had to drop out rather early in the race but below are a few pics for your enjoyment.

I think the green car on the right was one of my favorite cars.

Here we are on a quick run around as a trial on day 1.

Here is Jim's car.  The car is almost entirely hand fabricated and very unique.

Here are the boys wishing us the best on the morning of the race.

Jim and I hanging out right before the race.

Here are the two intrepid explorers in full gear ready for a long day on the road.

There were about 34 cars in the race and about 75% of the race was on old dirt roads that have little to no road signs and mostly consisted of goat trails through the Blue Mountains.

Here is the inside of one of the cars that has a "fatman" steering wheel that slides out of place to get out and then slides back into place when you get it.  Pretty cool for a car from 1923.

Sioux Falls for a couple weeks

After the Motorcycle rally I got home and left for a 19 days on work hitch while the wife and kids drove out with Jim and Sandi to Sioux Falls.  Brenda tells me that the trip out went well and was immensely helped by the fact my in-laws bought some dvd players to keep the kiddos happy during the drive.  Brenda was happy that on the way back she was going to be flying and would not have to sit in between two car seats for another 23hrs on the way home.

I am not sure where this picture was taken on the trip, but that coonskin cap is so cute if I was there he would have it to add to his hat collection.  A boy can never have too many hats.

Here is everyone(except Brenda) in Sioux Falls.

Matthew had a good time with Colin who is younger than Matthew but weighs more than James...Thick would be a good descriptive word to describe him.

James got to play with a remote control truck for the first time and it will certainly not be the last.  I think they ran through a couple sets of batteries.  This is a classic Midwest hot evening picture with sweat dripping off of this cute boy.

Matthew had fun playing in the house with his cousins.

 

I was glad to see the boys and Brenda when they got back from the Midwest and actually got off one day about 3pm so had a chance to go over to a neighbors house who was having a party and watch they boys have cotton candy for the first time.

They really liked the cotton candy after figuring out you are supposed to eat it.

Sweet innocence.

You generally think of cotton candy as having a lot of sugar, but on one stick there is only about one tablespoon whereas in a can of soda there is significantly more.

Here is Brenda mid laugh....she is also very cute.

They had a couple of bounce houses at this part and I got a chance to go in them with James and mess around a bit.

BMW Rally in Stanley

I have been so swamped at work recently i have not had time to go and update my blog.  I think that today is the 19^th day in a row of work and we are regularly working 10-14hr days so to say I am a bit worn out would be an understatement.  Luckily this weekend is free so tomorrow I will have three days off till it all starts up again on Tuesday.

Here we are on a hot afternoon enjoying lake Coeur d"Alene

There was an art festival that day and James got to see this huge sand castle.

 

A couple days later, parents came up here to take care of the boys for a few days.  Jim and Sandi graciously agreed to take care of the boys while Brenda and I headed out to the Sawtooth Mountains for a BMW rally out in the sticks of southern Idaho.  It was a hot ride down but the weather during the week there was pretty good and we only got an occasional shower.

Right outside of Stanley we had this in front of us, but it only dropped  little water.

Day one we headed to a local lake for some fishing.  Brenda caught some right off the bat and had a huge grin reeling them in.  She was actually complaining she was catching too many and could not read her book at one point in time...women.

It took her a while to get a hold of the slippery guy.

And then there is the gentle release she so elegantly conducted.

Here is the Grandjean canyon.

This is a short walk from the campground we were at and so amazing.

We headed out on day 2 over to Red Fish Lake since everyone said it was good.  The beach here almost was tropical and was so clear.  The morning on this day was awesome and almost no one here, but when we got back from the boat ride to the other side of the lake it was a different story.

The boat ride over to the other side of the lake was great.

We did a very short hike at the end of the lake.

Then we did some fishing...not catching...more of the fishing.

We headed back to the camp site and right before the site there was a couple of hot springs we stopped to enjoy.  The temperature was not very consistent and required constant movement.

Here is an overview of the hot springs.

 

We had a blast and it was a good time being able to relax before the long couple of weeks I had in for me when I got back.

Wedding and a Square Dance

Last week we got a chance to get away from the kiddos and head to Lynden WA for a wedding.  It was a great opportunity to get out on the motorcycle and travel like we used to.  This means we only packed one extra pair of clothes and did not have to bring the required 300lbs of children necessities.

The wedding we attended was outdoors.  The weather in Lynden was crazy warm for the previous two weeks, but as luck would have it on the day of the wedding it was 65 windy and rained (although it did not rain during the ceremony).

We were sitting at the reception talking to people and Brenda commented that she liked the music.  I asked her if she recognized anyone in the band...I'll be a son of a gun... the band was her old roommate from Dordt and her husband.  I guess if you know one person in Lynden you likely will run into them at some point in time.  Rochelle actually lives in Bellingham, but when you are Dutch, the world really is a small place.  Last time we saw them was when they sang at our wedding 11 years ago.

The reception was lots of fun and it ended up being great weather after the ceremony.

The wedding was fun, but the ride out and the ride back were the cherry on the top.  Since the fires in central Washington shut down most of the passes through Washington, Brenda and I opted to head to the great white north and go through the cascades in Canada to get to Lynden.  This added about 3hrs to the trip, but was an awesome road we had never been on so it was well worth it.  On the way home the fires had sort of died down although they were only 18% contained so we rode right through them.  Lots of smoke and devastation, but we were surprised at how many homes they could save.

 

When we got back home the next day were had a joint Birthday party for Izumi and Brenda with 50 or so of our closest friends.  The party was a real blast and then we had a square dance caller come.  It may sound kind of lame to some of you, but it is the only kind of dancing a dutchman should or could do.

The food table was a hot spot.

James doing so crazy dance move and showing off per usual.

Here is everyone enjoying the fun.  Please notice the guy on the far left in the cutoff denim shirt.  He is apparently someone from down the block who heard all of the fun and decided to crash the party.  Yup, nothing says fun like an uninvited guest.  He was nice enough but when he started talking about his 73 year old super hot girlfriend I had to take a couple steps back and exit the conversation.

 

Last night was looking to be a pretty nice night so we decided to go for a hike up at the top of the hill by our friends Jim and Jan.  They took care of our kids when we were at the wedding earlier in the week and probably missed them so we called to see if they wanted to go with.

The lighting was perfect and although the temperature was a bit cold we had some good pictures taken.

Just another day in Spokane

Look at those cuties.

Fouth of July Campout

As the end of the month draws near I noticed I have not been very diligent at keeping up with the all important downloading of the pictures of the kids but finally got around to it.  I will attempt to summarize what we have been up to in this post but will be posting another more up to date entry soon as well.

 

It has been very warm up here in Spokane and with two or more weeks of over 90 degree temps it was time to get out to the local lakes and have a swim or two.  We also had a chance to go on the annual church campout which was held at a state park on south lake Coeur d'Alene.

 

This is one of the calmer moments of the campout and this is after a day at the beach and fishing.  When I say a day of fishing I really mean about 30 minutes of fishing where I was very excited for James to catch his first fish.  Once it was on the line he reeled it up like a champ, I helped him lift it out of the water.  As soon as he saw the fish and it wiggled he dropped the pole and ran down the dock screaming like a little girl.  I did the appropriate thing a called to him and tried to make him hold the line with the fish on the end, but he continued to be a scaredy cat and would run away screaming.  Needless to say it is not exactly what I envisioned for this first time catching a fish and there was no time for taking a picture.

We had a chance to bike to Harrison ID for some Ice Cream.  Cotton Candy was the flavor James decided on after much deliberation and maybe he got that just so me and mother would not want any.

Then we went down to the Harrison beach.  James loves playing with his loader and dump truck.  He is constantly loading and dumping the sandy dirt from the beach.  It was a lot of fun to watch.

The beach at Harrison has a floating dock with a diving board.  This is a ton of fun and is even more fun since they do not have one of those pesky life guards who tend to put a stop to any activity in the water that may be considered fun.  Here, it is swimmer beware and you had better get out of the way before the next kid goes off the board or you are going to be in a world of hurt.

Here is James and Noah sharing trucks and hanging out at the campsite.  When kids aren't crying, fighting or whining they can be very cute.

Dinner time. Notice the cornbread on the table I cooked in the dutch oven.  It came out a lot better than I thought it would, but then again how can you go wrong when you add twice the butter the recipe calls for.

Here is Matthew enjoying a little desert and whipped topping.  That kids loves to eat, but only what he wants to.  He can be quite stubborn at times.

All kids love to "dip" and ours are no exception.  Matthew usually eats more Ketchup than food, but here he got more on his face than he got in his mouth.

Lastly, nothing like washing the car on a hot day.  This boy must get this from his grandpa DeJong, because I only wash a car when absolutely necessary and I am not sure if he has seen me do so (although I do wash the motorcycle).  My father on the other hand washes his car about once a week and I feel bad every time the kids get in to it because I know it is not going to look nice for long.