{"id":659,"date":"2014-08-10T22:22:40","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T05:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asmaraanyan.wordpress.com\/?p=659"},"modified":"2014-08-10T22:22:40","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T05:22:40","slug":"summer-abcs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/john-anyan\/2014\/08\/10\/summer-abcs\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer ABC’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

“How was your summer?”<\/em><\/p>\n

That’s a question we get (and will get) \u00a0a lot and I usually don’t even know how to start squeezing the whole summer \u00a0into a couple of sentences. So to share some things we’ve done and experienced over the last 6 weeks, here’s a little ABC of our summer in Spokane:<\/p>\n

A — Anyan Reunion: <\/strong>We had the chance to meet some new Anyans at the family reunion (and Grandma D loved showing off some of her great-grandkids).<\/p>\n

\"DSCN5452\"<\/a>
Great-Grandma D with the boys<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

B — Bubbles<\/strong> — The boys discovered their love for bubbles. Hours of entertainment: Judah blowing bubbles, and Elias popping them when they land in the grass.<\/p>\n

\"DSCN5458\"<\/a>
Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

C — Cousins<\/strong> — We sure miss having all the cousins around when we’re in Missouri and enjoy seeing the kids play, learn, and grow together!<\/p>\n

\"DSCN5422\"<\/a>
Josie, Jonas & Judah on the playground<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"They<\/a>
They all played underneath that tree for hours<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Watching<\/a>
Watching a kite at the beach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

D — Dogs:<\/strong> We shared our home for the summer with 10 puppies. As much as they annoyed John and me (sorry, Dad!), the boys loved playing with them. And I have to admit that they were pretty cute…<\/p>\n

\"Elias<\/a>
Elias loved watching the puppies and pulling their tails<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

E — Eucharisteo<\/strong>: It’s a Greek word that stands for thanksgiving and joy… which was a theme that came up a lot over the summer in my personal devotions, in conversations with friends, and at our ladies’ coffee group. Having a heart of thankfulness and contentment was definitely a lesson God has been teaching me.<\/p>\n

F — FIFA World Cup Final:<\/strong>\u00a0Go Germany!!! Enough said. (Oh, and thank you Dad for subscribing to ESPN just so I could watch the world cup!!!)<\/p>\n

G — Gifts<\/strong>: We are amazed at how God provides and how he compels people to give so generously, and we were blessed this summer to experience that again and again.<\/p>\n

H — Home Sweet Home<\/strong>:\u00a0We realized that we have many homes and have to specify what we mean when we say “We’re going home”… Spokane? Missouri? Germany? Oh, the missionary life!<\/p>\n

I — Impossible<\/strong>… for a 9 month old to climb up slides, boxes, and\u00a0whole sets of stairs? Nope! The higher and more dangerous, the better for Elias!<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>
One of his new favorite things to do<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

J — Judah & Jonas:<\/strong> Those two are 4 months apart in age, as different as can be, and such good buddies. LOVE watching them together!<\/p>\n

\"Do<\/a>
Do you like my hat?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\""Helping"<\/a>
“Helping” the guys work<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

K — Kid-free dates<\/strong>: We had several of them and thoroughly enjoyed our time together. \u00a0Thanks to all the babysitters!<\/p>\n

L — Laughter<\/strong>: We had PLENTY of that, too, with our silly boys and our crazy AnFam!<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a>
Our Mexican Cowboy Judah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Funny<\/a>
Funny picture time with the Anyan men \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dressing<\/a>
Dressing up as Noah (I guess Noah always had a big stick and a concerned look on his face)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

M — Movies<\/strong>: “Watch a movie, please?” That’s what we heard several times a day from our entertainment-loving Judah. We did have to cut his “netflix time” back to 2 times a week because he would watch movies aaaall day!<\/p>\n

N — New friends<\/strong>:\u00a0We are blessed with lots of friends with little kids, and the boys really enjoyed playing with some new buddies.<\/p>\n

\"Meeting<\/a>
Meeting fellow German\/American kiddos! So fun hearing them speak in German and English.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Water<\/a>
Water buddies Lydia & Judah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Our<\/a>
The boys with Kinder (only 2 weeks older than Elias)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

O —\u00a0Outdoors<\/strong>: Judah and Daddy went on many adventures outside, including cutting down trees, finding snakes, working on the cabin in the woods, and visiting the neighbor’s horses.<\/p>\n

\"Watching<\/a>
Watching Daddy cut down a tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

P — Picnics:<\/strong> A new family favorite. Added bonus: much easier clean up after Elias creates a mess.<\/p>\n

\"Picnic<\/a>
Picnic at Deep Creek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Q — Quiet Times<\/strong> — Mhhhh… John and I both love our morning quiet times with a hot cup of coffee and our Bibles. Priceless!<\/p>\n

R — Relationships<\/strong> — We’ve truly enjoyed spending quality time with family, old friends, and some new friends and have been blessed by deeper relationships that we’re excited to continue to foster.<\/p>\n

S — Silverwood<\/strong> — Theme park fun with the whole Anyan family!<\/p>\n

\"Elephant<\/a>
Elephant ride with Daddy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T — Treats<\/strong>: Needless to say that Judah and Elias LOVE sweet things. Judah’s favorite treat is ice cream, and when I asked him what his favorite food was, he said “chocolate.” The boys were definitely spoiled when it came to treats this summer, both in Germany and in Spokane!<\/p>\n

\"Milkshake<\/a>
Milkshake time \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

U — Uncles & Aunts & Grandparents\u00a0<\/strong>:\u00a0The boys have the best aunts and uncles and grandparents (on two different continents)!!!<\/p>\n

\"Fun<\/a>
Fun at the Mall with Nana &Papa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Aunt<\/a>
Aunt J.J. taking Judah and Jonas on a nature walk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

V — Vacation<\/strong>: “Camping: You pay a small fortune to live like a homeless person.” I read that sign somewhere and just started laughing. It’s so true :)! Regardless, we enjoyed our Anyan camping trip despite the rain and the cold. We had a hot fire, tasty coffee, and lots of kids entertaining each other.<\/p>\n

\"Cori<\/a>
Cori and RaeRae in the rain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jackie,<\/a>
Jackie, baby Finley & Josie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dad<\/a>
Dad with precious cargo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"John<\/a>
John and Mom on a rainy camping day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

W — Water fun<\/strong>: … at the splash pad, the water park, and in kiddie pools.<\/p>\n

\"At<\/a>
At the water park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Elias<\/a>
Elias laughing in the water<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"He<\/a>
He looks so grown up all ready to go to the splash pad!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

X — RelaXing Outside<\/strong> — I know I’m cheating, but that’s all I could come up with for the letter x. We did do a lot of relaxing in the sunshine \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"Relaxing<\/a>
Chillin’ while the boys are playing soccer (like true Germans, of course)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Starting<\/a>
Starting young!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Y — Yearly visits<\/strong>: We are truly thankful that we get to visit Germany and Spokane each year (or twice a year, as we are going back to Spokane over Christmas). It’s hard to be away from family throughout the year, but it makes time together so much sweeter and more meaningful!<\/p>\n

Z — Zones<\/strong>: Time zones, that is. We were in 3 different ones over the summer and crossed 10 time zones with our travel. Totally messed with us, but we’re thankful our bodies are so quick to adapt to time changes.<\/p>\n

We had a summer full of joys and some sadness, full of growth and some challenges, and always full of God’s grace. <\/strong><\/p>\n

On to the next chapter in the Anyan journey!!!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“How was your summer?” That’s a question we get (and will get) \u00a0a lot and I usually don’t even know how to start squeezing the whole summer \u00a0into a couple of sentences. So to share some things we’ve done and experienced over the last 6 weeks, here’s a little ABC of our summer in Spokane: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1077,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/john-anyan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/john-anyan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/john-anyan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/john-anyan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1077"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/john-anyan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/john-anyan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/john-anyan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/john-anyan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/john-anyan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}