The Drinking Fountain

Sunday night we were in a church where Aden quickly made a new friend named Lydia. Lydia showed Aden the drinking fountain, and never having seen this before, Aden pushed the button and proudly exclaimed, "We're making water come out!" This amazing phenomenon kept his attention for quite a while, until eventually he walked away with a wet shirt.

The Pumpkin Patch

What is autumn in America without a trip to a pumpkin patch? Of course we had to take Aden and Wiley to pick out their own pumpkins. Yesterday evening the weather was beautiful, and according to the forecast, it could be our last opportunity to actually enjoy our trip to the pumpkin patch. So we coordinated our fall clothes for a family photo and headed out the door for Young's Dairy.

Wiley loved everything about the pumpkins. He liked to lay across them and see if he could get them to roll; he liked to crawl around them; he liked to hug them and see if he could pick them up. Aden had his eyes set on the tractors nearby, so once we had an acceptable family photo, he headed for the big machines. He tested them out and we took more photos, then the boys each picked out a pumpkin. Mommy and Daddy picked out a bigger pumpkin, and we spent some time looking at all the animals - goats, a sheep, a turkey, cows, chickens, and ducks.

We hope Aden and Wiley enjoy carving (or watching the carving) and decorating the pumpkins as much as they enjoyed the pumpkin patch.

Wiley is One

On October 9 Wiley turned one. He started the celebration when he woke up in the morning, generously giving out kisses to Mommy and Daddy and Aden. We then took him and Aden to Trevecca Nazarene University where Mommy and Daddy spoke in chapel, and later that evening to another church where Mommy and Daddy spoke. We had actually celebrated the night before with one of our LINKS churches on the Tennessee District. It was already Wiley's birthday in PNG, and they threw a party for him where he got his first taste of birthday cake.

After arriving in Ohio, we invited Mommy's family to join us for a family birthday celebration. Wiley had just begun to sit still for short books, and seemed to show particular interest in the zebra page of a zoo book. So we had a zebra-stripe theme at the party. Both Aden and Wiley got excited as we set the stage and blew up some balloons. Mommy helped Aden wrap a special gift for Wiley, and then Aden immediately brought it to his brother and unwrapped it for him while Wiley watched him and played with another toy. When it was time for cake, Mommy had decorated the cake with zebra stripes, and had a small bundt cake for Wiley to enjoy all on his own. Wiley knew just what to do with the cake and didn't hesitate long before diving right in. (Quite unlike his older brother on his first birthday! For those of you who don't remember, Aden didn't like the messy icing and flicked it off of his fingers rather than licking it off.) Aden was quite a help at the party, blowing out the candle and unwrapping the gifts. We finished the party with a game of Tape the Stripes on the Zebra. Now we have to try to convince Aden that even though he unwrapped the gifts, they were really intended for Wiley.


At his one-year check-up Wiley weighed 17 pounds, 10 ounces and was 28 inches long. He is walking more and more steadily every day, and walking is becoming more and more preferred over crawling. He seems to be saying quite a few words already, and really tries to repeat almost anything we ask him to. I think Aden probably did this as well, but we didn't always recognize it. Now our ears are more trained to understand what babies and toddlers are saying (or trying to say). He especially likes to identify tractors (cack-ah) and trains (coo-coo). We were thankful for a healthy report at the doctor's office and for our happy, growing boy.

From Oklahoma, we made our way east to Tennessee. We are finding that it takes a little longer to make the long trips as Aden and Wiley like to "stretch their legs" a little more. It is always helpful when we can break a trip up and so that is what we did. Our first service in Tennessee was not until Wednesday night, so we left on Monday afternoon to make the ten hour trip. The first day, we drove to Little Rock, Arkansas where we stayed with family friends, the Harrises. It was dark and rainy for most of the trip, so daddy was happy to take a break as well. Roger and Carol took good care of us and we had a great time getting to know them (for Aden and Wiley) and catching up with them for mommy and daddy. The second day we drove to Memphis, Tennessee where we stopped long enough to get a picture with Elvis (actually we stopped for the bathrooms but his statue was at the rest stop) and then on to Jackson, Tennessee to see some friends with connections from both daddy's college days as well as from Kudjip. The Harpers had invited us to stop through on our way. We were planning to have dinner and drive the rest of the way to Nashville, but mommy didn't feel well and they had said we could stay the night. So we did. They had a big great dane dog named Jinx and he was about twice as big as Aden. He was really nice though. We enjoyed our time with them as well. On Wednesday, we finished our drive over to Nashville with plenty of time before our evening service.
We had a great time meeting new people in all of the churches and visiting friends around the Nashville area. We played at Uncle Bob and Aunt Beth's (Merki)house. We played at Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky's (Hancock) house. We had dinner and a surprise shopping spree with Tera and Shibu. We also got to play on the boats at the Bass Pro Shop (after dinner with James and Jonquil) and pretend we were going to Hawaii, Vanuatu, Samoa and most of the South Pacific. The Opry Mills mall had a carousel that was fun to ride on as well as a train that Aden and Daddy rode on that took us all through the mall. Grandma and Grandpa also came down for part of the time and traveled with us to the churches (and watched Aden and Wiley while mommy and daddy had a date night).

It was a fun week in the Music City and the weather was perfect. We enjoyed all of our time with the churches, Trevecca and our friends and even had a chance to celebrate Wiley's 1st birthday with one church. We would later have a family birthday party for him (that should be the next blog), but first it was on to Ohio...

Trip to the Zoo

What is a trip back to the US without a trip to the zoo when you have little boys? We had to go fast because the weather is quickly turning cold. So before we left Oklahoma, we were able to go to the zoo with Aden and Wiley's cousins, Seth and Corey to the Tulsa Zoo. We had a great time seeing animals that we had only seen in books before, riding on the train, and playing with cousins. We saw monkeys, giraffes, rhinos, lions, reptiles and birds. It was a fun way to be with family before heading out for our next destination - Tennessee.

Weekend Away

We had a long weekend last week and spent it up in the state of Washington with family. We flew to Seattle, which anytime we are in an airplane it is a vacation in itself for Aden. We actually stayed in Anacortes at a very nice beach house. The weather was perfect Fall weather and we had a great time hiking around Deception Pass, taking the ferry out to San Juan Island and just hanging around this big, beautiful house with family. Aden's highlights were riding a Big Wheel that was at the house and getting to wear the helmet, playing with aunts and uncles and grandparents, skipping stones at the water, and being in the car while we drove it onto the ferry boat (and the ferry boat ride itself). Wiley's highlights were crawling all over this large house and exploring the new spaces, eating, getting spoiled by Grandma, eating, 'going along for the ride', showing off his new found ability to walk, and eating. The trip back on the airplane was not as exciting since Aden missed naps most days and the adrenaline rush was wearing off, and Wiley had an ear infection (we discovered after the trip which explained a lot). We were not the most popular people on the plane, but we didn't let that ruin the fun weekend we had.