Our Adventure with Hannah, Jake, Addy & Ella

Our adventure with the Sharp children (Hannah 9, Jake 6, Addy 3, Ella ~2) began Wednesday night (OCT 17th) at their house. Their parents (John and Amanda) were off to Hawaii for a week and would leave early Thursday morning for the airport. I woke up Thursday morning and headed off to work while Karen began to prepare herself for the motherly duties that lay ahead. Karen's routine during school days was to wake up the older two around 7:30am and help them get up and off to school. Hannah and Jake were both very cooperative and made the morning routine for Karen less stressful. Addison and Ella usually woke up around 8:00am and needed help getting dressed, eating breakfast, and then they were off and running. Those two little ones are very happy kids but when they are awake the decibel level in the house is always very high. Addison is a true girly girl and loved to dress up as a princess. Often when we were at the dinner table together she would ask me if Karen was my princess. It was really cute. Ella loved to run around following Addison and scream and giggle. Ella is also a great eater. She would gobble up anything we put in front of her and she LOVES string cheese!!!
Thursday afternoon I called Karen and asked her if the power was on because a wind storm had blown through the area. The power had been knocked out around 2 pm and wasn't on still when I arrived home that evening. I noticed upon arriving home that a tree had snapped two power lines that were now laying on the ground and I realized it might be a while before they got to our little street. Karen and Hannah managed to round up some candles and flashlights so we wouldn't totally be in the dark. We ate a beautifully prepared spaghetti dinner by candlelight. Now usually that sounds really romantic but with one kid who loves to talk and the other kids all asking for more bread, the romantic aspect was gone along with the lights. The kids were troopers in the dark, not really minding the fact that we didn't have power. We read stories by flashlight and put the little ones down around 7pm. Karen and I were worried about the food in the fridge so I called up my dad to see if he could help me load up a generator at my father-in-laws house (my father-in-law was also in Hawaii) so we could at least hook up the refrigerator and a few lights. He and my mom so willingly came to help and we brought the generator back to the house to hook it up. We pulled out the generator cord and to our dismay it was missing one of the plugs. We figured we would deal with the plug problem in the morning and just directly connect the fridge to the generator. The generator ran all night and preserved the food in the fridge. In the morning I went into work a bit late, taking a shower from a bucket (I hadn't done that since my mission), and trying to help Karen fix the generator cord problem. My mom volunteered to come over and help with the generator and cord so that I could get off to work. She went to Home Depot, bought the correct part and then came back to the house and wired it properly so we could get the generator working. What a trooper my momma is!!! Thank goodness the generator was fixed because our power was not restored until 10:30pm on Friday night. We ate dinner over at Karen's parents house so we could use their oven and have some light and heat. Needless to say we were all very elated to have the power back on after 32 hours without it.

Saturday was our pumpkin patch trip. Karen had scoped out a fun children-friendly pumpkin patch were the kids could pick out pumpkins, climb up and roll down a saw dust hill, look at baby farm animals, get lost in a corn maze, and feed grain frenzied chickens. We outfitted the kids in rain boots, coats, and attempted happy faces. The older kids loved the corn maze and tried every outlet at least ten times before they exited the maze. Ella found a toy tractor and loved dragging it through the puddles. Addison so graciously tried to "wake up" Snow White the pumpkin princess from her spell and in so doing pulled her legs and arms off. I had to quickly restore Snow White to her original status and we then headed off to see the farm donkeys before other characters were "rescued". The rain tried to "squash" our outing at the beginning but it let up and we had a most awesome outing. Saturday night we took the kids over to Wade and Linda's house for a birthday celebration. Wade turned 30 for the 7th or so time and we celebrated with some yummy salmon and a rich chocolate cake from Costco. The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins and Karen and I liked the adult company as well.

Church was at 9am on Sunday and we were a bit worried about getting the kids to church on time, but we tricked ourselves. The clocks were set 10 minutes ahead of the real time and we ended up early to church by 10 minutes. The younger 3 kids colored, ate string cheese, and switched off sitting on Karen's lap. Hannah woke up not feeling well but she gutted church out like a soldier. When Karen and I went to take Addy and Ella to Nursery they screamed bloody murder and held onto us for dear life. It was a sad experience handing them over to relative strangers when they wanted to be with you more than anything at that point. The Nursery leaders were used to this routine and they said they would be fine after a few minutes. Sunday afternoon Jake, Hannah and I put Martha Stewart to shame as we baked a batch of scrumptious chocolate-chip cookies and a pan of luscious lemon bars. Sunday evening my parents and Kirsten came over for dinner and we had spaghetti, Vach Caesar salad (Awesome job Dad!), and Italian bread. Following dinner while a few of us played Rummikub my mom read Addison a couple of books. Addison quickly fell in love with "Erik's Mom" and "Erik's Mom" helped put the kids to bed. When the younger kids were in bed the rest of us played Yahtzee. I would have to say that Jake was the master roller but my dad pulled out a gutsy 267-264 victory over Jake and Erik. We had a most enjoyable evening.

Monday morning both Karen and I woke up with sore throats and some congestion. This wasn't the most ideal way to start off the week. We are still battling these colds as we write this (Friday night) and hope to be over them soon. Monday night for an activity we carved the pumpkins we picked up on Saturday. Hannah carved a spooky cat and Jake carved out a Ghost saying "Boo"! The kids had fun gutting the pumpkins and carving away!

Tuesday night we took the kids to "Literacy Night" at their elementary school. At "Literacy Night" the kids listened as three stories were narrated by various community leaders and then the kids were able to pick out a book to take home with them. All the kids and some of the parents showed up in pajamas for the event and the PTA provided milk and cookies.

Wednesday morning Karen's sickness was running on all cylinders so I called my mom before her seminary class to see if she could help Karen out later that morning. She graciously accepted to help Karen and picked up the girls around 10am so Karen could get some rest. She kept them most of the day and brought them back around 4 pm. Thanks Mom! Karen was able to get some much needed and appreciated rest. Wednesday night Hannah attended Achievement Days and they made cupcakes for their Halloween Carnival tonight.

Thursday night we took the kids to Dairy Queen for a little treat. It is so fun watching little kids trying to eat cones as tall as their heads. The little girls were really cute because each time they dripped ice cream onto the table they would ask for napkins and they would quickly wipe it up. It seemed as if Addy was afraid the people who worked there would get mad at her if she didn't quickly clean up her mess. We tucked in all the kids Thursday night and then Karen went to pick up John and Amanda. Our adventure was over!

Karen and I learned a lot about the duties of parents and we respect anyone who patiently and lovingly raises children. Kids are a lot of work but are most worth it! We enjoyed reading books with the kids each night, listening to Addy ask me if Karen was my princess, watching the glee on Ella's face as she ran circles around the living room, playing games with Jake and Hannah, and just sharing time with these happy kids. Thank you Hannah, Jake, Addy and Ella!

We have to take pictures of ourselves just to find a reason to post a blog. We haven't had any outstanding experiences to report about lately, however next week we will be up for a new adventure. We are watching John and Amanda's kids while they go on a trip to Hawaii. We will be responsible for four kids. Yikes!!! We are excited for the adventure and have fun activities planned for the kids. (That should give us something to post about.)
We have determined we need to better condition our bodies so we have begun attending a local gym called "The Body Studio". At the gym we take classes such as, kickboxing, core conditioning, & spin. The people there are really fun and energetic. Karen works there part time managing the front desk and watching kids in their day care center. She receives free membership and my membership is half off. We are enjoying our time in Orting and are becoming more and more comfortable with the ward we are attending. I recently had a run-in/run-out with Starbucks in Seattle and hope to never repeat that experience! We love you all and wish you the best.

Love,

Erik & his incredible wife Karen