gotcha day - year 4

wow - we've been parents now for 4 years!!! technically, "gotcha day" was january 6th, but we're just now getting around to fitting it in our busy schedules. since it was martin luther king day, that made it easier, though we had to figure out a few scheduling quirks.
the day started with the alarm going off at 5:30am. 10 minutes later, i woke up at 6:20am (for all you checking my math, it obviously wasn't a literal 10 minutes). i was hoping for some quiet time before meeting adam for breakfast at 7:00am, but it wasn't meant to be.

breakfast was a good time catching up, talking about life, and working on some short-term missions stuff. afterward, adam invited me back to his office to hand me some literature and john piper sermons on dvd... exciting stuff! now just to find the time to fit it all in!!!

when i got home around 8:30am, breakfast was almost in the oven, and we didn't finally get out the door for the day's festivities until a little after 11:00am.

we scooted over to silvercreek for a 2-mile trek in the cold, blustery day. while he's seen snow, this was the first time isaac was really out in it. since it was muddy, we didn't really play in it, but he enjoyed the walk as well. i carried him for a good portion of the way, so my shoulders are still a bit sore now - he's getting heavy!

we tried to identify as many birds as we could, coming up with 5 while at the park: chickadee, downy woodpecker, and cardinal were all identified visually, while the titmouse and blue jay were identified by sound. we saw dog tracks, human tracks, deer tracks, and what may or may not have been coyote or fox. i think one of the highlights for me was as we were around the 1.5-mile marker, there's an area on the path that overlooks the road within the park. sonja saw a man walking on the side of the road and asked:

"why is he walking?"

"aren't WE walking too?" sarah and i inquired.

"no - we're hiking." she replied.

then it was off to mom and dad's to drop the little guy and head out to lunch. since he tends to be a little iffy on whether he wants to behave in restraunts, we decided to disallow his presence this time since it was about the girls today. we figured if he got antsy, it would only distract us from spending time together.

after a quick stop at uncle rob's to borrow a crossbow (yes - i'm ben bates, and i'm addicted to deer hunting), we were off to rockne's.

when we picked isaac up, we lingered for a bit watching tv, which is a novelty in our house, so the girls were glued. other than that, the remainder of the day has been relatively uneventful.

favorite bible verse read today (if you haven't gathered, i looked this one up for the special purpose of commemorating my larger font as requested by matthew): "see what large letters i use as i write to you with my own hand!" (galatians 6:11)

favorite picture taken today (can't say i had a favorite, but here's one of everyone):

1) sarah - looking as beautiful as the day i met her...

2) alex - looking grumpy, but she gave me a genuine smile after this shot, which made me believe she was just posing with her "i'm a model" attitude for this picture...

3) sonja - just being her cooperative self when it comes to the camera, crowns glistening and all...

4) daddy and his isaac - you can't see his green mittens, but those and the yellow snowsuit he's wearing were mine when i was his size!