16 posts tagged “wrays”
Last weekend my dad took Strider camping, along with 80% of the Dreschers. Then, on Saturday, my mom brought Rayna up for the day, too. Needless to say, both kids LOVED it. I've been hearing stories about it all week. And just like I used to, Strider gets most excited about the food when camping. (When dads are in charge, we all know what kind of "meals" are made) My favorite quote from Strider, though, was "Then for breakfast, Uncle J. made pancakes, and then he drownded mine with 2% maple syrup"
"2% maple syrup? What's that?" I asked.
He said, "That's what it said on the bottle! The other 98% is all chemicals."
So there you go.
Here are a few pictures of them loving the outdoors this past weekend...
As it turned out, last week was a lot of fun, full of gatherings and celebrations. Since I know that our social engagements are going to come to a grinding halt for awhile, probably in the next few weeks, I am soaking up as much time with other people as possible right now!
On Tuesday, some women from church very graciously had a little shower for me, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Some of the girls had planned a few fun games which kept it lively, and I was very thankful for the time of prayer/blessings -- as well as all the diapers, wipes, and other gifts! One very cool gift was a whole theme about "almonds" because they knew that's how I felt about this baby (see here).
Then on Saturday we celebrated our nephew/cousin Kai's first birthday! Looks like he thoroughly enjoyed his cake!
And in between, we've had a few fun evenings with friends... one couple came over and taught us how to play "Dutch Blitz", and another night we had a rousing game of 3-13 with a few Wingate students (current and former). And, to cap it all off, I was able to spend several hours on Saturday with a couple very good girlfriends who I don't see often enough (partly because one lives a few hours away). We ate lunch for 3 hours, walked for about a half-hour, and then went and had dinner!
Pretty soon my parties are going to be more of the "one-on-one at 3 am" variety, so for now I'm loving all these opportunities with other adults, families, etc. If anyone else wants to get together in the next week or 2, give me a call! :)
We really missed seeing all our family in Ohio this year, but were thankful for a merry Christmas here in NC, too!
This morning as we set out in the car to go visit the greater Wray family, we were all bubbling with excitement. We started to talk about all the things we were most looking forward to...
Strider said he was most excited about the pizza for lunch and the cookie contest. Had he known just how varied the different homemade pizzas would be (Santa Fe BBQ chicken; Spinach, sausage and herb; cheeseburger; katahuna (or something like that?); etc., he might have been even more giddy. And had he known that the cookie contest, known as the "Great Uffle-Off" was going to be as tasty as it was (with entries of mint oreos, mint frosting, peanut butter rice-krispies, and orange/coconut varieties, as well as the original Druffle) he would have talked about that for hours.
I said I'm most looking forward to seeing everyone, and doing the Grab Bag game. Had I known that there was also going to be a big group gift with building blocks that are addictive for young and old, that would also have made my list. And had I known the grandchildren were all going to receive special blessings from the grandparents, that would have been at the top of my list.
But when we asked Rayna what she was most looking forward to for the day, her answer was, "Worshiping God." I'm not sure she really understood what she was saying, but I loved Strider's response: He got quiet and then said, "Good point, Rayna."
And it was a good point. He's the reason for all this celebration after all. :) As we drove home tonight, there was a rare moment of silence in the van and I had time to reflect briefly. I thought about how every year Christmas Eve brings at least a few minutes of calm and quiet that is so mysterious and wonder-full. It may not be much of a Silent Night all the time, but it is always a Holy Night, I think.
So Happy Christmas Eve to everyone!
This year was a special celebration for us because we had all 4 grandparents here for dinner! Bud and Jane flew in on Wednesday for a visit until Sunday, and Mom and Dad came over for the afternoon and evening on Thursday. The kids loved having all the attention to themselves, and I loved the fact that the adult-child ratio was 2:1.
After a little football action and a lot of cooking action, we all took a mid-afternoon walk, on which we collected a bunch of fun fall nature items. Then we came home and
concocted a special Thanksgiving hat with all the collected things.
After a very yummy dinner, we passed the hat around so everyone could have a chance to wear it and share what they've been thankful for this year.
Everyone looked stunning, as you can see.
Our "me, too!" boy is now "me two!" as well (although he is in denial and has been arguing with us all day that he is really 1 still). So our crazy and wild 1-year old is now a 2-year old.... should we be scared?
He apparently wanted to commemorate the big birthday by pulling one of his favorite babyhood tricks...
.... although maybe kids don't really grow out of the joy of this kind of mess (oats all over the floor) for a long time...
Anyway, the big celebration was last night, and since it was Katie's birthday as well, we had a big Wray family party. The highlight for Colsen, of course, (besides the fact that a lot of his all-time favorite people were here -- something he had asked about over and over for DAYS), was.... CAKE!
It was a fun, LOUD evening to say the least! We were glad so many of the special family members were able to come.
And we're thankful for our little 2-year old. He's been quite a delight to us with all of his imagination and desire to learn, regularly cracking us up with his funny sentences and ideas. These past 2 years have really flown by for me... it's hard to believe he's not a baby anymore!
Happy birthday, little guy...
Our neighborhood had their annual Fall Festival this weekend, so while Pete was off for the weekend with his "ATF" friends and feeling very manly doing an hour-long-hike-in-carrying-all-the-supplies-for-the-weekend-including-lots-of-water-and-beer-on-their-backs-to-a-very-rustic-cabin, the Drescher's and Aunt Katie came over for the day. We all had fun perusing the various offerings of the Festival...
And of course, the Festival would not be complete without several trips down the big slide.... Here's a video:
Then, that evening we had a table set up to sell some cocoa and cookies as a fundraiser for some friends who are adopting 2 boys from Peru. A lot of friends turned out to help, listen to a loud band, and even do some dancing.
Overall, a very nice Fall day!
The greater Wray family of the greater Charlotte area decided to spend what is probably (hopefully) one of the last very hot days of the season at the U.S. Whitewater Center yesterday. (The gift certificates we had were a Christmas present given by my parents from.... well, 2 Christmases ago. Hard to get this whole family together on the same day for something like this!)
While it was a little hot and steamy for spectators, the rafters (Pete, James, Dad, Dan, Amy-K, Katie, and Graham) all had a lot of fun. There were a few occasions where someone fell out of the boat, but I guess that's just what makes it interesting (or terrifying, depending on your perspective). (And I just want to say that I am very glad they make everyone wear helmets. Back when I was a camp counselor and we had to take KIDS down a very dangerous, swirling river for hours, during which time most or all of us would get pitched out of the boats and end up pinned under it on rocks, etc., no one wore helmets! And, yes, I'm still upset about it!)
The kids, meanwhile, had fun playing on some rock-climbing rocks, and afterwards we all enjoyed a picnic dinner-- and Karin's awesome carrot cake (celebrating Dan and Amy's birthdays). A very fun Sunday afternoon!
p.s. I didn't have my camera with me for any of this, so thanks to Amy-K for the pictures!
I decided to interview Strider about his Cousin Camps experience at Nonna and Poppa's house this past week, so here is our Q&A:
So, Strider, you just got home from Cousins Camp. Give me 3 words that best describe your experience.
3 words, that’s it??? Ok. I LOVED IT. 3 words, there you go. That doesn’t give you much information, huh?
Well, ok, go ahead and use more words this time. Tell me what activities you enjoyed most.
Ok. Kabuto....
What’s Kabuto?
Kabuto is a Japanese restaurant where they cook the food in front of you and it’s really cool. They throw food up and catch it, they juggle knives, they have fun cooking your food, and it’s fun to watch. The only bad part about it was when we first got there, we had to wait 45 minutes until they started to make our food. They have to go to a special school to learn how to do it, because they threw peas up and caught them in their pocket and their hat! I’m done talking about Kabuto.
Alrighty. What other activities did you enjoy?
How about going on the boat. Don’t tell me you’re going to say, “What’s a boat?”
No, I think I’m familiar with that. Let’s move on. Any other activities ?
The Discovery Place. Don’t tell me you’re going to say, “What’s Discovery Place?”
No, I won’t, but can you tell me more about what you did there?
I don’t know. We were going to see a puppet show, but we were too late.
Sounds exciting.
I could tell you every little thing we did there, but that would take too long.
Ok, next question. Did you get to do anything with Nonna and Poppa for Cousins Camp that you wouldn’t get to do at home?
Probably, yeah. We ate Vanilla Wafer Ice Cream Sandwiches, and we got to stay up late and didn't eat dinner until like 8:00.
Would you like to sing the Cousins Camp song for me?
No
Did you sing the song while you were at Cousins Camp?
Just for fun. I can’t tell you. Poppa doesn’t even know the whole thing!
In the song (which Rayna has taught us) there are a lot of things mentioned. Did you do ALL of them?
Sorry, I can’t answer you. My words are out of order and I cannot tell you anything else about Cousins Camp. Can I go outside now?
