Family Portrait

I had a good high school friend of mine take our family portraits.

I think she did a wonderful job.

http://www.yourmomentsphoto.net/

First Day of School 2009

Jeff's last day was the first day of school. It was nice that he got to be there to take the pressure off of me a little. Due to school budget cuts the meet your teacher night was cancelled and they took the first hour of school on the first day to do it. It was fun meeting the teachers and seeing their classrooms. Then we went back home and took Adria to her first day of Preschool. She loves going to the big-kid class. I love that she has some time just for her doing what she wants to do. I think that as a third child she gets pushed around a lot having to do what her older siblings are doing. So it is nice that she gets to be the star and have something of her very own.
The next morning I took Jeff to the airport at around 4:00 am. That stunk. I was NOT a willing participant. But it was a WONDERFUL two weeks with him. We all needed the time together and a nice break from our daily schedules.

12th Anniversary Celebrations

I felt really lucky that Jeff got to be home for his birthday and our 12th Anniversary. To celebrate twelve years we stayed overnight in San Francisco. It was SO much fun to be in the city again, to be alone with Jeff, to be indulgent, to celebrate. When we first got into the city we went shopping. It had been a while since Jeff had spent any money on himself and I'd never pass up a shopping trip in San Fransisco. So we shopped for a few hours. Our plans for the evening evidently called for new outfits. Then we checked into our hotel. Which is technically a bed and breakfast hotel. Each room is individually decorated, but there were probably 40 rooms, maybe 30. It was beautiful and lots of fun to stay in such a unique place. We checked in and then took a cab to dinner. We had dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel. Jeff and I like good food and we're willing to occasionally pay for fine dining. It was a wonderful meal. The picture of food was my meal. It has been so long I can't even remember what it was. Fish, gnocchi, croutons, I'm not sure what else. But it was YUMMY. After dinner we took a bus-ish ride to the Orpheum Theater to see Wicked. I hadn't seen it before, but Jeff has. It was wonderful. The thought "FINALLY" went through my head when I heard the opening chord. Apparently, I had been wanting to go. :O) After Wicked we took a cab back to our hotel and then walked down the street to find some late night sushi. We found a sushi bar bar. The food was really good, but it was really loud for us old people. Then the next day we met an old college friend for lunch and headed out of the city. It was SO good to have some time alone while Jeff was in town.
This was our hotel, the Queen Anne.

Santa Monica Beach and Pier

On the way home from Arizona we stopped in Santa Monica. We got a little hotel room and took off to the beach. Jeff, Andrew and Danae all played in the water for a long while. Adria got wet, went running away then spent the rest of the time rolling around in the warm sand. We played at the beach for a few hours then walked over to the pier to ride rides, buy sweatshirts and eat dinner. We were all exhausted by the end of the evening. It was a beautiful day and was tons of fun.

Fun with Arizona Family

After San Diego we went to Arizona to visit Jeff's side of the family. Jeff even got to celebrate his birthday there with everyone. We had so much fun doing all the things we love to do when we come visit.
The cousins always get along so well.

We swim.

There was occasion to have a baby shower this trip. :O)

Lots of play time at the park. Gotta love the manufactured shade. No, really. I love the manufactured shade.

Went out to eat to celebrate stuff. It's a little nicer now than it used to be, we don't bring the kids anymore, there are just too many of them. :O)

And we stay up entirely too late, playing card games, insisting we're not cheating. That back corner is dangerous.

San Diego Zoo

The first stop on our vacation was San Diego. We stayed at the Bahia hotel, which is the same hotel that Jeff and I stayed in on a Wind Symphony trip about 14 years ago. It was a nice place, right on the water and right next to Sea World. We were able to see the fireworks each night from our patio. The zoo was fun. It was nice to just relax and wander. They had a sale going on for face painting. Instead of $17 each, anything considered a "bug" was only $5. And we all know how hard it is for me to resist a sale. So all three kids wanted their face painted. They all had them smudged within minutes, but it was cute.

Rest and Relaxation ?

Yay. Daddy came home. After 10 full months of being apart, Jeff was able to come home for two weeks of R&R in August. We were all SO excited to see him and spend some much needed vacation time with him. One of the few reasons airport security allows people at the terminal without a ticket is when a family member comes home from war. So we all went to the airport on Sunday before church and went and waited for Jeff's plane to arrive. We didn't have to wait long (because we were much later than I had planned) for his plane to come in. We were all standing there bouncing trying to see him through the crowd of people. FINALLY, he came off the airplane to a nice round of applause and much rejoicing. It was so wonderful to see him and great to feel supported by the people at the terminal. We exited pretty quickly and headed home. I made him drive because I know he likes to and hadn't been able to for almost a year. We got home, dressed for church and headed out pretty quickly. We arrived about 10 minutes after church started. I think that day was the most irreverent I have ever been at church as an adult. I couldn't stop talking to Jeff. I couldn't draw my attention away from him and focus on the speakers or the teachers. I'm sure we were distracting to everyone around us. Oh well. We were happy. We all had that perma-grin, as Jeff put it.
After church we went home and relaxed. That evening my mom made homemade enchiladies. I say "enchiladIES" because it is my Grandma's Americanized recipe. They are WONDERFUL, and very tasty, but not exactly authentic. Anyway it is always a treat when Grandma takes the time and effort to make enchiladies for us. It was the beginning to a wonderful few weeks together.

On Monday we all went swimming. It was actually really nice for me because the kids swarmed Jeff the entire time. They wouldn't leave him alone for a second. These pictures show it pretty well.

Gymnastics Camp

During the last week of summer before Jeff came home for R&R Andrew took his first airplane flight alone to Grandma and Grandpa Case's house. They have a tradition for the grandchildren that the summer after they turn 10 they come spend a week in Arizona. So Andrew very happily spent a week hanging out with his Grandparents and the local Aunts, Uncles and cousins. While he was away I signed Danae and Adria up for a Gymnastics Clinic at Byers Gymnastics. Adria and her cousin Carissa went to the 4 year old class (even though they were still 3) and LOVED it. They ran, bounced, jumped, flipped, made crafts, watched movies and simply played from 9:00 - 12:00 Monday through Thursday. Danae and Maleah's camp was a bit more intense. They went from 8:30 - 5:30 everyday, all week. They had a lot of down time, but by the end of the day each day they were ready to crash. They went to the Roller Rink, a Swim Center, practiced for a routine at the end of the week, had hip hop class, made crafts, watched movies, ate lunch, and learned some gymnastics for 9 hours every day. Danae loved every second of it. She thrives on activities like that. At the end of the week you could tell she was worn out, but there was still a smile on her face.
This was a part of her routine.

The little girls were enthralled with the amount of stuff going on out on the floor.

My Danae posing as always.

This is Adria's teacher. One day they had a substitute and when I was picking her up after class we were talking about the fact that she gets to come back tomorrow and she asked me if she could have her other teacher back. They sure do know what they want.

Swim, Swim, Swim, Swim, Swim

It was wonderful having a pool in my backyard again. I forget what a privilege that is. We spent a LOT of hours in that pool. I think I went through 9 bottles of spray sun block this summer. We also got to take swim lessons and we even went to the high school for open swim. SO much fun.
Grandma and Grandpa decided that this was the summer to refinish the pool. We estimate that it is 30-35 years old and the bottom was very rough. This is the before picture to remind you what it looked like at the beginning of the summer:

The girls were the only ones around to jump in when we were finally allowed to swim again. So we lined them up and counted to 3 so they could all jump in together.

Ya. Adria didn't jump. No one was surprised. It took her the entire summer, but finally at the end she was venturing out all over the pool in her floatie. It took a while, but she found her Independence. Look at the pretty new blue color. Ooooh, aaaaaah.

Here are a few shots at the High School.

Here are a few shots from swim lessons at the high school.

Summer Self Made Classes

We had a lot of fun this summer. My sister, Genella and I planned things out pretty tightly to keep us busy and sane. My favorite plan of the summer was the self taught cooking and craft classes. I blogged a little about the first few classes way back in June when they actually happened, but I thought I'd add a few more photos from the other classes that we did.
July 17th we made quesadillas and cut up veggies. Learning how to use a knife is a fun topic to teach. Hehe.

On July 10th we made Cinnamon Rolls. That class was highly favored.

On July 14 we made frames so the kids can have pictures of the cousins displayed in their rooms. You can tell that I led the class because there is only one picture.