Summer

Wow! Were did the time go. We have done lots of fun things this summer but I can't believe it is time for school to start next week. Here are a few of our adventures the last few months. We went on our annual trip to the Owyhee Reservoir in Oregon.

Sydney & Brooke finish Preschool. They had an amazing year. Thanks Miss Mindy!

Jeff & I got to go to Vegas with some amazing friends from college. We had a great weekend.

We spent a week on the Oregon/Washington Coast with our friends who flew all the way from Tennessee to spend time with us. We also drove over and saw Mt. St. Helens and went through the Ape Caves.

Then we had a great visit from Jeff's cousin. They brought there kids down and we went to the Lava River Caves and floated the river. We really enjoyed their company.

My wonderful sister-in-law from Utah came up and took family photos for us. We had a great time. So glad for her talent!

Tennessee - Jeff's Birthday

Jeff had his 37th birthday and we went to Memphis, Tennessee to spend the special occasion with our good friends. They took us to the Memphis Zoo which was amazing and I had to put in some of the animal photos I took. That I just found cute.

Jeff got his favorite things for his birthday BOOKS, BOOKS and more BOOKS. This one was a signed copy.

We had a great trip with all the kids and we really want to thank our friends for all the good food and all the fun places we went.

Australia!

Well it has taken 13 years but we finally made it back to Australia to visit some of our close friends. We were able to take Dayne and Ali with us which was such a wonderful experience for them. We stayed for 2 weeks and were able to enjoy the day to day life of the laid back lifestyle of the SouthEast coast of Australia.

Kukabera birds that moments later ate Jeff's sandwich out of his hand just as he was taking a bite.

First stop after we got off the airplane. It was 98 degrees and beautiful. We stopped to eat fish and chips which became Dayne's favorite meal.

One of my host families from my year as an exchange student suprised me at dinner. So good to see them.

Ali's favorite thing was the beach. She spent hours mastering the waves.

Three of my good friends. It was so fun to catch up and spend time together. Time may have passed but not our connection. Felt just like we had seen each other.

Dave & Maree let us stay with them and were our tour guides/party planners. So good to spend so much time with them.

This was another one of my host families that I had lived with for 6 months. Aunt Sharon and Uncle Peter. They live on a beautiful farm that Dayne & Ali got to collect eggs from the chooks every morning.

We spent 2 days in Sydney. ( Well 3 since our flight got cancelled and we had to stay an extra day). So fun to show the kids all of the sites.

The view from Maree's porch every evening. WOW couldn't ask for anything better.

Dayne was not so much into the water but loved the soft sand.

Took us about 4 days of looking for wild kangaroos. We finally came across these wallabies. But then when we got the the next town they were everywere.

Where did the time go....

Where did the time go....obviously time got away from me. So this is what has happened in our family during the last few months.

Jeff's mom passed away from cancer on November 12, 2009. It was a very difficult time. Today would have been her birthday. We will always remember her fun and excitement for life.

Ali turned 8 and was baptised.

We got to take the kids to Disneyland. We drove with my parents and had a great week.


Sydney & Brooke turned 5!




We had a Christmas!


We had the opportunity to spend New Years up in Washington with Jeff's Aunt & Uncle. We got to go skiing and have lots of game nights with his cousins, their kids and Jeff's brother Blake.




Our sweet Cori that was 15 was laid to rest. She was our first baby and we will miss her.


Dayne turned 10 and he is now doing Tae Kwon Do. He earned his yellow belt.

For my birthday ( I am not telling what I turned) Jeff and I got to go to Austin Texas and visit our good friends Brian and Dalana. We had a great time with them and are so grateful for the hospitality and the time they took showing us all the secrets of Austin.

October

We loved that Halloween was on a Saturday. We were able to spend the day enjoying the season. First we went to Ali's last soccer game, then went out to lunch. Had fun putting together costumes, carving pumpkins and making our pumkin brownie. The weather was perfect so the kids had a great night at the church trunk r treat and tricker treating around the neighborhood with our good friends.

Went over to the school on Friday and helped with all the parties. Ali and her cousin Marissa had a great day!
Sydney and Brooke were princess's for Halloween at school. They have the greatest teacher and parents that put on a carnival.

She would be a princess's everyday if I would let her :)

The first year that my arm did not hurt from taking out the insides of the pumpkins. They all are finally strong enough to dig it out. YEAH!

Thought the leaves in the backyard were pretty so just had to take a picture.

So the weather has been quite mild this month but just a reminder that we did have a lot of snow the very first weekend of October and I am sure it will come back again soon.