Caleb Isaiah Secrest

Here are just a few of the fun and memorable things that happened in Calebs life in 2011:

Gave his heart to Jesus, played in the snow at 7:30 in the morning before the sun was up, was in a school performance where he played a musical instrument, learned to ride his bike without training wheels, moving to a new house, making new friends in the neighborhood, camping with the family, trip to CA to play with his grandparents and cousins, finished first grade, started 2nd grade, turning 7 and having Grandma and Poppy here to celebrate with us, helping Dad take out the massive deck that was our back yard, helped plant grass seed and watch it grow, used his first power tool,  learning cursive handwriting, found a love for math, became a book worm, a family trip to Mount Baker for one night, playing in the snow at Mt Baker, christmas, of course,  and getting to stay up late on New Years eve to play games with the adults.  That just about covers the highlights of the year. I would go into detail on all of them but right now that seems a bit overwhelming so in order to try to get back on track with keeping these updated I will leave it at this. Pictures will be coming soon.

Shortly after school started in Septembet I decided that I needed more one on one time with Caleb. I know that it is a normal part of life to have a child go to school full days but what I had discovered is that when that child is a boy you really don't get to be apart of that day.  On the way home from school I would ask him about his day and what he was learning, what he and his friends would do at recess, etc. The answers were always the same, don't remember or didn't want to talk right now. So I had to figure out a way to get back into my sons life. I just wanted to know the basics of his day and was not even getting that information. So I started doing Mommy dates with him. Every weekend just he and I go out for hot chocolate or donuts, or something as equally fun and talk. His favorite place to go is the bakery in downtown Bothell. I don't blame him, I love it too. So we go get a donut and talk about our weeks. Mostly it is me asking him questions about what he likes and dislikes about school, how his friends are treating him, and what he is learning. I have been amazed to find out that he actually talks to me when we are on those dates. I love the one on one time with him and I think he loves it as much as I do. I get to find out so much about what he does during the week at school that he just won't tell me during the week. Not sure where I got the idea, I am sure it was not my own, but I am so glad that we started it.

We were only in CA for a week but we fit a lot into that week.  We had planned to go to the six flags park but that fell through. So we went to the beach for the morning instead.  The boys had a great time. We all helped to dig a big hole in the sand, though you could not really tell since we did it in the dry sand. The boys still had a good time and Caleb loved jumping off the mound of sand that was made.  It was a beautiful day at the beach even though it was not really supposed to be. I was so glad we went to get the boys out and it was very relaxing.
Caleb found a new love for wood working. Papa had, as he always has, a stash of scrap wood pieces that he brought out for Caleb to work with. Papa showed Caleb how to work with a  hammer, how to make the right marks, and how to attach things together.  Caleb made a number of great creations while he was there working in Papa's shop. He has since then asked many times if we could have a place for him to do that  at our house.  I guess we will have to figure something out  for him.
The highlight of the trip for Caleb was getting to spend time with Papa as well as his cousins. Caleb and Bryant were almost inseparable. It makes my heart so glad to see how much Caleb loves and get along with his cousin. Even though Bryant is a year and half younger than Caleb you would never know it when they are playing. I am convinced that is why the camping trip went so well.

On Sept 3rd we left for our second 'summer' vacation to CA. We went camping in the Redwoods with my parents and my brother and his family. We had only taken Caleb camping two other times when he was much younger and both times turned out to not be that great. So we were excited to try it again but also a bit unsure of what was going to happen.  This time having both boys and Ezra being so young we were not sure. Caleb was so excited to sleep in a tent and be with his cousins for 3 days that he didn't care about anything else. Turns out we had no reason to be concerned. The trip was great and both boys had such a good time that they want to do it again. I was concerned about them staying warm and sleeping all night. I think they got so worn out during the day that sleeping was not an issue at all. Caleb loved standing by the fire drinking hot chocolate each morning with Papa. Being in the redwoods bring some built in fun since the trees are so huge. In our camp site was a group of trees that had half of them cut and the others still growing. That created a bit of a fort for the kids.  They spent many hours each day in the 'fort' playing. It also worked out that we had a large space for them to run because no one else was in the sites next to us. So they had the run of the place.  I was amazed at how well the boys did, how fun it was for all of us, and am so glad that we as a family can have camping in our list of things to do. We all look forward to doing it again.

September brought a rush of activity to our house. Caleb started First Grade on September 1st.  This is the first year that he is in school full days. It was a bit sad for me, I have to say. No tears but it was so strange having him gone all day. He was so excited to see his friends again and to be back in school.  After all being in full day meant that he got to have 2 snacks, 3 recesses, and lunch at school! What more could you want?  He was only in for about 2 days and then we left on vacation to CA but I will get into that later. After we got back the first few weeks were a bit hard on the little guy. He was not used to having that much stimulation all day. He was so spent when he got home each day that we had to adjust our afternoons to make sure he got some down time to himself. He has since adjusted and it is not an issue, most days. Over all he loves the schedule and being with his friends all day.

Over the summer I wanted Caleb to have something that was just for him to do that would help get out his energy. So I found a gymnastics class that he could do around our crazy summer schedule.  It was a trampoline and tumbling class. Most of the time was spent on trampolines but he didn't care. He went one day a week for what ever weeks were home over the summer. I think he did 6 in all. He had such a good time! It was really fun for me to watch him and took me back to when I used to do gymnastics.  He learnded how to walk on the balance beam, a little about cartwheels, handstands,  and somersaults. On the Trampoline he learned how to do different jumps and how to control where he was jumping. He was already pretty good at this since we have had a trampoline at home for a couple years and he has been jumping on one since he was about 18 months old. He really had good time and it did help get out his energy. The pictures are a bit blurry. Sorry about that. I was taking them from a balcony type viewing area and as you can imagine he was constantly moving. So the images are not that clear but they give you an idea of what he was doing.

Caleb had his first Lemonade stand this summer. It was so cute!! We set up a table in our yard, make a big sign, made the lemonade etc, and out we went. He had tons of fun doing it. Though I think he has an unrealistic view of what it would be if he ever did it again. You see he had it the week that  Nonnie and Papa were visiting as well as our dear friends the Morrisons all came to support him in his efforts. He was selling it for $.25 a cup and of course all of them game him $.50 to $1 per cup.  He made quite a profit that day. I think he made about $10 that day and only sold around 10 cups of lemonade (I think).  Thanks to all the family that helped him have such a successful day!

On July 8 we set out for our family vacation. This year we decided to meet up with some dear friends that live in Alabama and go with them to Florida.  We were all so excited.  The traveling there was a bit long but the kids do so good! They are such good little troopers. Our time in Florida was so relaxing and refreshing. We rented a house with our friend just 2 blocks from the beach. It was in a little neighborhood of vacation rental houses that had a pool and quite streets. Our friends brought their kids bikes and all the trappings for being in the pool. Our kids loved being there and having other kids to always play with. We would go to the beach every morning by 9ish (before it got too hot to be out there). We would play till around noon then head back to the house for lunch and rest time. Caleb is the oldest and only one that didn't take a nap. He did so well each day playing by himself or one of us would take him to the pool for some one on one time. The day that I took him I was amazed at how well he was doing with swimming. It was early in the week and up till that day he was not sure about using a life jacket. He always had a water noodle to swim with. As long as he had the noodle he was good to go and would swim all over the pool (not too far from me of course as I am overly cautious when my kids are around the water). I finally talked him into using the life jacket to help him swim. He found a new love for the water! He realized that he could use his arms and not have to hold anything to keep him above water. We also worked on jumping in. He has always been afraid to jump in since he gets water in his eyes, something he hates. So we worked on it and by the end of the week he was jumping in with very little help. He was also swimming from one end of the pool to the other. He so loved being in he water that it was a bit sad when we had to leave.
Caleb also enjoyed being at the beach. The waves were not huge and so he had a blast jumping over them as they rolled in. We could walk out pretty far before it got too deep as well so he would go out with Dustin holding him to get in the bigger waves. One day we all pitched in to make a sand turtle, which I am sad to say I do not have a picture. He thought that was great and had fun helping. He also loved digging in the sand. One day our friends found what we called the  “hidden ocean”. It was basically overflow from a lake. The water was the color of coffee. It was a bit strange to be in it since we could not see the bottom but the water was warm and the shallow in most areas. It was great for he kids to play in. That soon became Calebs favorite place to play. It reminded me of where I used to play as a child in CA.