Yay For Visitors!!

We had friends in town this past weekend...Chris and Megan came to hang with us for a few days. We did the tourist-y thing, which was a ton of fun! Being that we live here, we don't really do that very often...so, it was fun for a change. Hollywood, Grauman's Chinese Theater, Santa Monica beach, In N Out (oh wait - that is one thing we do very often) ...Chris and Megan are just a ton of fun to be around, so, that made it great as well. :) Thanks for coming!

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hanging out in Hollywood with a random person dressed in costume (not too sure what she is supposed to be)

Avery checking out Marilyn Monroe's feet and hand prints! Classic. :)

paying our respects...

chris and josh doing the rings in santa monica

Avery's turn!

and on the big girl swing

...and the graceful dismount - check out the concerned look on dad!

And the results are in...

Our next little baby is...A BOY!!!

Yes, we are super excited to add a little man to our household. Cannot wait!

I am almost 19 weeks along, feeling great...and so far, everything with the little guy is going so well! We feel so blessed and so thankful.

We visited a pumpkin patch last week (aka - a parking lot in the middle of Santa Monica, where they made room to bring in a lot of pumpkins and some other fun stuff). Hey, what else are you supposed to do in the city?? WE HAD A BLAST!

Jump House!

Petting Zoo

And now...the pumpkins

fun times...and my belly

Some recent pictures of the olson crew...

the belly...17 weeks!

goofing off at home...

and you can never have too much fun with a laundry basket...

our little sunshine

It's Official

Baby #2 is on the way! Making its big debut March 21...or around there. (hopefully)

As you can imagine, we are pumped and excited and a little nervous. But, hey, who isn't?

We are so happy to share our news with all of you!

(Now I just need to lay off the nachos, ice cream and french fries. I seem to think that when you're pregnant - its okay. Uh-oh)

A picture from waaay early on. We have better, but, not uploaded.

the kid whisperer

I think it was Josh's sister Heather who gave Josh this all too perfect nickname. Josh is the kid whisperer. All of our siblings can attest to this because each and every one of our nieces and nephews is just drawn to Josh. He is their #1 choice to play with. They want to sit by Josh at every meal. And it doesn't stop with our family... all children, it seems.

So, on Labor Day, we rode our bikes to the beach. Avery and Josh started digging a hole, of course....because what else are you going to do at the beach. Before we knew it every kid at the beach wanted to lend their shovels.

in memory and celebration...

7 going on 67. That’s the goal anyway. What a crazy couple of months and what a wild year it has been. I spent the weekend celebrating the life of my grandmother Joy Olson. Below is a tribute that I wrote for my grams:

Joy, personified

The emotion of great delight or happiness,
caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying.
My grandmother was Joy, personified.

As a kid I experienced Joy through purchased Twinkies
and taboo candy jar exceptions.
As I grew older, it was escapes to Goshen
and unbridled cheers at plays, sport, and song.
She found it in 67 years of marriage
where its wonderful residue now clings to mine

Mother, wife, sister, friend and GG,
Grams gave joy with unquestionable grace;
perhaps a more suitable middle name than Constance.

Graceful from her golf swing to dress,
to handling gramps off-color quips,
finding it through heartbreaking times with her kids
and even holding grace as she grew closer to her passing.

My grandmother was Joy.
She was graceful.
Fitting then, that she now faces perfect joy and grace
eternally in the One who created joy incarnate.


Joy Olson with Avery Olson - July 2008

Funerals are always bittersweet as it was so great to be with my family and remember my grams, but it was also heart wrenching knowing the incredible grief my gramps was experiencing and still going through. My grams died at age 91. My grandparents had been happily married for 67 years. They have known each other since they were 10. How do you experience life with someone for 81 years and then just stop and be left on your own without them? I don’t know. I will be praying for my gramps.

I’m humbled by the legacy my grandparents left. Erin and I are so blessed to have them and our respective parents’ to model our own marriage after. Today we celebrate seven years. We survived the itch. I wrote this for Erin on our wedding day:

I would not tell you loved you,
thought true love could only reflect in Christ.
But you showed me my error and my truth.
It was not about me loving,
rather Christ loving through us.

So I pledge here before you, before Him,
to blindly fumble through my imperfections
and seek to love you through that perfect grace,
just as He loves us,

And I promise I will hurt, I promise I will fail
I promise I will fall, and I promise I will want to give up.
But I promise He will heal us, I promise He will lead us
He will pick us up and always prevail.

For I am but a single strand fraying in the friction,
strengthened by you, but still desperately fragile as two.
But how blessed are we to have that glorious third strand?
Running through our middles and pulling us taut as one.

How wonderful is it that because of Christ I can say
I love you Erin.
And a chord of three strands is not easily broken.

Those words became truer than I ever could have imagined. And while 7 years is like a tenth of 67, it has still been a long time and filled with joy, pain, and adventure. I wish I could take more credit for our celebration today, but the truth is all the credit goes to my incredibly amazing wife and unconditionally loving God. Funny, and appropriately selfish that I talked about Christ loving through ME seven years ago. I was blind to the fact that Erin would be the one to show God’s grace. Much like my grandmother, Erin’s character gushes with grace. Grace is defined as “unmerited favor.” I don’t deserve it from Erin and certainly not from Christ. Yet she forgives me. She forgives me when I’m not the man I promised to be. She forgives me when I do things that I really shouldn’t. See, she knows God has already gone there and atoned for my selfish screw-ups and she forgives me as He has, allowing Christ to love through HER. That’s grace. That’s love. It gives me hope. It requires my faith.

It took me seven years just to get that Erin. Thanks for your patience. But then again you already know I am developmentally delayed. I love you Erin. Let’s spend the next 60 years enjoying each other one day at a time.

Michigan or bust...and...is anyone there?

It's been a while...again...but, does anyone still read this blog? I'm just curious... If so, I don't want to disappoint and never post! I guess I'm just not that good at it...

We went to Michigan in July for the annual Olson family vaca at Josh's parents cottage. It was a great week, filled with boating, swimming, eating, skiing, eating, campfires, and more eating. Avery had a blast! Playing with her cousins...each day was a new adventure for her and she loved it! Had her first smore...painted rocks...she even went tubing! :)

Forgive me...LOTS O PICS!

Happy 4th of July!

Fireworks on the boat

Hmmm...do they look alike? I can't tell... ;)

the now famous ski pyramid

Date night!

Playing with her cousins...