Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Family Photos




We found a turtle stuck in the mud...Ryan was very excited.
While Emma was picking flowers, an airplane flew over.







Gotta love the personality!









I love how our photos turned out. We've always had them done inside at a studio. It was great to have them outside on a beautiful summer evening. Kyla was able to get some great candids of the kids. Here are a few...after Kyla took out the "bad" ones, we still had 155 on our CD! I'll be mailing them out to the family as soon as I can get to Costco to place the order.

Boise Botanical Gardens

After our family pictures on Friday night (they're coming up!), Dad and Bob took the kids back to Mom and Dad's house. Mom and I stayed at Max and Amanda's (they were out of town). We were at the bookstore that evening until almost 11 p.m. I had plans to sleep in the next morning...no kids, no immediate responsibilities. However, the 6:40 Southwest flight traveling over the house woke me up. I went out to their back patio (their backyard is a beautiful golf course) and enjoyed a very peaceful cup of tea. Mom and I headed downtown for the Farmer's Market. On the way, we stopped at a coffee place for breakfast...discovered that Jon had the same plan for his morning. We ended up having breakfast with him (what a nice surprise!) and then enjoyed the market. It's not as big as ours, but still impressive. Then, Mom and I went to the Botanical Gardens. I had never been there. Mom spent quite a bit of time at the gardens while she was getting her horticulture degree. It was like having my own personal tour guide. We had a great time...what a beautiful place. If you're in Boise, I'd definately recommend spending some time there. After the Gardens, we rana few errands and then went back to the house. It was so nice to spend that time with just Mom and I. I knew that the kids were well taken care of and could just relax and enjoy some quite time with Mom. Thanks, Mom!






Adam, Jamee and Clara

Clara - almost one-year-old
Beautiful family


Ryan and his buddy, Adam

At Hop and Nana's

Cooling off on a HOT day

Striking a pose


Dirty, but oh so happy!


Giving Dad his first ride on the three-wheeler

Just one of Mom's beautiful flowers - what an Idaho sunset does to a red poppy!

Convention

Emma with her "Convention best friend" Ember

Washing dishes...gotta get him doing this at home!


Goofy kids!


Some of Ryan's Idaho friends - Boston and Seth

Hop and Nana with the kids on Sunday morning

Fishing in Eastern Oregon

The guys (minus Rick) getting ready to head to the ponds,

The girls (minus Ann) anxious for the boys to head to the ponds.


"Come on, fishy-fishy. Come on, fishy-fishy." Five seconds later, "You fish, Daddy. I'm

going to go throw rocks!"

Cousins....Friends

Happy ninth birthday, Jordan!

The girls are allowed up at the ponds on Saturday just to bring cupcakes.

Back home and back in touch

We're back from Idaho and back in touch...our Internet connection has been off and on for the past couple of weeks. Tonight we're finally up and running again. We had a great trip to Eastern Oregon and to Idaho. We spend a few days first with Bob's family for the annual fishing weekend in Eastern Oregon. The boys from Boise weren't able to come and were missed. Ryan and Jordan still managed to have fun. The weather was very cool. After we left and headed to Idaho, they had snow in town! Strange for the middle of June.

The girls stayed back at the house and relaxed. We still had Emma, so we didn't truely get to relax, but it was a lot quieter without the boys.

Bob went back to Portland with Greg and Holli on Sunday and the kids and I headed to Idaho. We had a wonderful convention...what we heard was definately bread for the soul. The kids enjoyed so much seeing their Idaho friends. We usually head back home after convention, but stayed another week this time. Ryan went on the truck with Dad and had a playdate with Boston. Emma hung out with me during the day, and we were able to have a playdate with Ember and Dawson. Near the end of the week, Bob flew over and we had a family reunion with Dad's side of the family. It had been five years since the last time we were all together; it was great to see everyone. The kids got to spend some time time with Grandma, Uncle Jon, Uncle Max and Aunt Amanda and Adam, Jamee and Clara.

While we were there, we had our family photos done by Kyla. Some of them are on her blog.

http://photography-by-kyla.blogspot.com/

We had fun during the photo shoot and love the results.

We headed back to Portland on Monday, minus one kid. Ryan and Dad had not had enough time to do all of the fun stuff they had planned, so Ryan stayed a few more days. Dad brought him up in the truck. Ryan had been gone from home a total of 21 days. Before they came back, he called to see if he could spend time in Idaho again just after the fourth of July. I think that any separation anxiety that Ryan may have had is gone...I kinda miss it, just a little.

So, we're back home and getting into a little of a routine. Going to bed later, sleeping in a little, trips to the zoo, the park and whereever else we can go to get out of the heat.

We hope that all of you are having a great summer...it's hard to believe that it's almost the Fourth of July. Have a safe one! We're thinking of all of you, wherever you may be.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Happy Mother's Day!




Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers today.
Bob made lunch and dinner tonight...Ryan made me a "pinch-pot" and school
and wrote me two poems. Emma game me lots of sweet smiles, even though
she doesn't feel well. We ended the day with a walk
through the neighborhood and a lost tooth. :)

Spring time

At the zoo

Emma discovered how to make the

wirly-bird move

Trying to stay warm at our first spring soccer game


Wrestle time with Daddy


Ryan lost his first top tooth today!

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Spring Break in I-D-A-H-O

Dad bought this 3-wheeler. Ryan had so much fun it!

That's one big tractor!
Giving Nana a ride.
Uncle Jon and Rowdy


Uncle Max and Aunt Amanda on Max's 30th birthday

The kids and I headed to Idaho for Spring Break. We had a great time! Dad had a new three-wheeler for Ryan to use. He put 11 miles on it just around the road and up the ditch bank! Ryan also got to go trucking with Dad, drive the John Deere tractor, spend the night with Uncle Max a couple of times, played with Uncle Jon and Rowdy, and spent lots of time with Hop and Nana. Emma had a great time playing outside. She's old enough to go out and run around with Ryan, which she thoroughly enjoyed. She also had a great time playing with Uncle Max, Aunt Amanda and Uncle Jon. Of course, lots of books ready Nana and stories told by Hop.

Blog Archive