Tina is leaving

Our beloved Tina, nanny and friend, is leaving us. While we were on our trip and in Myrtle Beach, she eloped with Robin. I will say that like everyone, I was shocked and concerned. They met on Friday night and married on the following Tuesday. In full disclosure they had been talking on the phone for months before that, but still, it was spontaneous to say the least. I am happy if she is happy and we were able to meet Robin before he flew home to Germany. I was prepared to not like him, my defensive mode was one, but I actually liked him. He was well spoken and seems to make Tina happy. So Tina is moving to Germany to be with him until he can legally live in the U.S. We will miss her and certainly can not replace her, but we pray this will be an exciting and happy adventure for her.

Anders kissing her goodbye

Family Photos at Folly Beach

http://www.redshutterstudio.com/laynorfam/

This is the link to our family photos at Folly Beach near Charleston, SC during our Myrtle Beach vacation.

When other people think your kids are great

So obviously, we think Shane is amazing and smart and cute and on and on, but it is an awesome thing when someone else tells you that and they aren't even related to you. My amazing, awesome neighbors are always inviting Shane over to play with their boys who are a few years older. Her two sons are pretty remarkable, respectful, kind and patient. They actually play really well with Myann and Anders too, but I try to let Shane play with them alone as much as possible so he gets that "big boy" time. Anyway, they had Shane over to their house Sunday at lunch time, so of course she feeds him, they feed him all the time, it is so nice to have one less lunch to prep some times. Shane never said a word about lunch, I guess to him it seemed like no big deal. Well, said awesome neighbor and I are on the phone chatting and she tells me that she and her husband absolutely love Shane and he just cracks them up all the time. Well yesterday she was prepping microwave pizzas for lunch, point is she was doing a quickie lunch like most of us do. Here is the conversation,
Neighbor, "Shane do you want a pizza?"
Shane, "No thank you."
Neighbor, "Do you want a salami sandwich, a peanut butter sandwich, any sandwich?"
Shane, "No thank you."
Neighbor, "What would you like, sure you don't want a pizza?"
Shane, "I'll take chicken cordon bleu."
Neighbor, "What did you just say? Did you say cordon bleu?"
Shane, "Yes, its my favorite."
Neighbor's husband (who is an excellent cook), "Shane buddy, if I had the ingredients to make it for you, I would."
Neighbor, "Sorry Shane I don't have that."
Shane, "Ok, I guess I'll have a pizza then."

She said they were totally cracking up and it made her day. She said Shane always says the funniest things to them. Sadly for Shane, he wasn't trying to be funny, he just wanted some cordon bleu and she asked.

Back story, flashback to Vancouver Island vacation last year and we ate at a super fancy restaurant and chicken cordon bleu was the "kids menu" item. Shane loved it and told the waitress to please tell the chef it was the greatest meal of his life. The chef was quite flattered. Since then, Shane loves it. Grandpa Jo even found a good recipe and made it for us on our Texas trip, but Shane was upset because Grandpa Jo did not cut it into rings like the restaurant. I buy it premade from Costco and I make sure to cut it into rings.

And to think it did not look that bad...

Even though the car drove, the damage was pretty bad. We got the first estimate today and the total was $7400. Ouch! All in all, everyone we have talked to has been shocked that we did not flip. The body shop owner says that Tundra's are awesome and durable and possibly saved us, that and my driving skills of course.

Hangar Warming Party

Have you ever been to a hangar warming party? Well I have and they are lots of fun!!! Our friends Chris and Jen have a 4 seater plane and just got their very own hangar to store the plane. They decided to break it in with a hangar warming party with food, cake (for our friend Michelle's birthday), beer and plane rides Chris was an amazing sport and must have done 10 separate plane rides so everyone who wanted to go could go up at least once and some got to go twice, as in my child Shane. We were escorted to the hangar in Jen's new Ford Falcon, very cool I might add. The kids loved riding in the back seat with no seat belts as she drove us from the terminal to the hangar.

We all enjoyed the plane rides. I was nervous about getting nauseous and held my barf bag securely in my lap, but I did not even get a hint of nausea. I felt great and enjoyed the ride and the view. All 3 kids enjoyed flying too, but Anders probably the most. Brian said he did not shut up the whole ride, commenting on everything he could see.

I know they don't look happy in the picture, but they were really excited once the car started moving.

Irony

Some may detect a touch of irony between this post and the previous post about my driving. I was in a car accident today. After an amazing day of white water rafting, I hydroplaned Brian's truck on the drive back. We rafted in Montana and it was a 2.5 hour drive home. Driving in horrible rain at that. For those who knew me when I started driving, within one month of turning 16, I hydroplaned less than 2 miles from my high school and went of the road into a ditch. I have not had an accident since that day, well one in a work car 10 years ago, but a lady slammed into me out of nowhere, so it does not count. So this was my first accident, caused by me, since that day. Same conditions, pouring rain, but this time I was going 55-60mph on an interstate.

I must preface this, as the accident was inevitable. The morning began with Brian driving us to Montana and he is a fast but good driver. We were caravaning with the Prizemans, Kipps with us. Brian had gotten a good way ahead of Todd - we love Todd, but he is not known for fast driving. Brian was not even really speeding and Todd had fallen way back. Well 90 minutes into the drive, Todd caught us and we were shocked. Shocked to the point that we assumed Todd's brother had to be driving, no way Todd would speed like that. Upon arriving at the rafting place, we were giving him a hard time and Todd said he decided to throw caution to the wind. More jokes followed. Hours later, time to leave, the rain starts and I am driving since Brian had a post raft beer. I was driving quite slow, like 55 or 60 in Montana known for fast driving, speed limit is 75. Sometimes I was driving below 50 mph because I do not like driving Brian's truck period, but particularly not in the rain and so I go slow. Well I was getting ridiculed for my slow driving and flashing back to our picking on Todd, so I sped up, not a lot but a little. An hour into the drive, there was an 18 wheeler that would not leave me alone. I despise driving next to one and this guy kept ending up next to me. SO I decided to finally pass him for good, we were still only going 55-60, but as I got next to him, I felt the draft of riding next to him and I was not driving in the lane like I should since I wanted to be away from him. Well before I knew it, we started to hydroplane, being not comfortable in Brian's truck I was afraid to overcorrect and flip us, so I just went with the slide and we ended up going into the grassy median/ditch and came out at the emergency vehicle crossing. Brian said I was saying sorry the whole time. All I could think was I hope we don't hit another car or go off the side. I felt horrible that I had two set of parents in the car and I did not want 4 kids to be orphans. I am pretty sure I also said a quick prayer and it worked. We did not flip and drove away from the accident after Chris worked wonders with the demolished tire and wheel well. The car is going to need some serious work, but not a scratch on any of us. Thank you God!!!!

I will NEVER drive Brian's truck in the rain again. I may not drive his truck for a few months period. I keep second guessing myself and thinking I could have avoided the accident or pulled us out of the skid, but at the end of the day, no one was hurt and that is a success in my book. Now to call insurance - uhhhh.

You can see where we went off the road and all the grass we took out.




Thanks to Chris's handy work, we drove out of there.

Whitewater Rafting

I really love Whitewater Rafting, and after today, I love it even more. Talk about adrenaline rush and pure fun. I just love it, and thankfully, so does Brian. We went today with several of our friends and I will let the pictures speak for themselves.
The company is Pangaea River Rafting and they are excellent.
We rafted boys vs. girls






Brian would want me to point out that their paddles were always in sink. As Sandra said, "In sink when they were paddling." Every time we looked up the boys had their paddles in their lap, while we were paddling constantly.

The following pictures are meant for your enjoyment at my expense. I was laughing the whole time, so please do not feel sorry for me. Our guide too was laughing the whole time, not sure what that was about. I appreciate the look of concern on my friends' faces, they did the best they could to help me but still keep our boat afloat.

Girls high-fiving before the last major rapids. Cockiness will get you nowhere, or rather the bottom of the river.


We are all smiles. Little did we know that Killer Fang Death Falls would be our undoing.


Jen is spearing the white whale.


I am pretty sure Jen is saying, "Oh Sh$t!"


The beginning of the end


The weight is shifting


Done


Submerged


Not letting go


Holding on





Note Sandra's death grip on her sister-in-law Krista


I came up smiling because 1) it was pretty funny and 2) the wetsuit made the water pretty comfortable