Natty's Pony Party

My baby is 4...what happened?!  We celebrated this milestone last April (yes, I'm still behind in posts) by having 2 ponies come to our house.  Natty had a few friends which made it even more special in her eyes.  When the ponies first came, she didn't want to ride.  In fact out of all her friends, she was the only one who was scared.  But, after a while (and coaxing from Dad) she jumped on the saddle and realized there was nothing to be scared of after all.  We continued the pony theme with a beautiful Cowgirl Dora cake that my very talented friend, Natalie made.  Thank you to Madelaine, Dylan, Aiva, Sacia, Anna, and Aunt Trish for joining us that day.  The only glitch in the day was that Tim was the camera guy and I forgot to change the camera settings back for him to use.  So...many of the pictures didn't come out.  But, we did get some great ones!  Happy Birthday to our little Natty.

Going back to Easter

Ok, so things are getting a little out of order...oops!  But, important to document nonetheless!  Easter 2010.  Tim took this beautiful shot of the Christus and Easter lillies that sat in our front entryway.  We are so grateful for the ressurection of our Savior.  What a blessing to know he died for all of us, he was resurrected to show us the way and gave us all the opportunity to live with our Heavenly Father again.

We have church at 1pm this year, which gives us a little time to relax before the morning rush to church.  We did a little easter egg hunting this morning and had time to enjoy what the Easter Armadillo, bunny, pig, lamb or whatever it was this year brought to fill our baskets!Ready for action!  Get ready, get set...go find those eggs!

Did I ever say how grateful I am to my kids who are usually willing to pitch in and help out!  After a fabulous Easter dinner, everyone helped out with clean up.  I think I even heard them whistling :)  Happy Easter!

Our resident Oompa Loompa

Audrey has been busy in April and May!  She started practice on her Middle School Play, Willy Wonka and performed it last weekend! What a joy to watch her as an Oompa Loompa.  Grandad and Grammy came up to see her also.  It's always fun when they come to visit! 

 In April she also had a choir concert where she performed her first solo during the same week she was student of the week.  It was fun to see her name on the board at school!

Woo hoo!  Go Audrey!

Becky's Mormon Prom

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What a fun evening having Becky's friends over for some pre-prom activities! They made a day of it, first the group went into Seattle on a scavenger hunt. After going back to their homes and getting dressed up, they came to our house for pizza and pictures. Ah, to be 17 again! Becky (the shortest girl), just happened to have the tallest date! I liked the pic of them where she is standing next to Sky on the fireplace...and they are the same height! I am so happy that our area offers a clean, safe, and fun alternative to high school prom.

Quick trip back East

Back in February, I took a quick trip back east for my nephew's memorial service at Arlington Cemetary in Washington DC.  Even though the circumstances were very sad, I'm really glad I went.  The ceremony was beautiful.  Lance Corporal Eric Ward was a wonderful young man who served his country as a young Marine and died at the age of 19.  He was killed in Afganistan.  My sister, Dana and brother-in-law, Steven are making it through one day at a time.  My heart aches for them.  Being at the memorial service was an experience I will never forget.  I truly see our soliders in a different light.  And I am even more proud to be an American after this experience.

Before the service Kevin and Kelly so graciously let me stay with them a couple nights on short notice.  It was so wonderful to visit with them and meet my little nephew, Ethan.  I enjoyed hanging out with Kelly during the day and had fun practicing my photography skills on this sweet baby boy with his daddy's blue eyes!  One evening Grant, Richard and Nancy and kids came over for pizza.  It was so nice to see them!  I missed Margaret as she was in Utah with her other new granchild. 

I have to say traveling solo was a little strange.  I am rarely without children in tow, but it was a nice time to get away.  Did I say I have an wonderful hubby who held down the fort in my absence?  Thank you Tim for letting me take this trip.  I know the kids had a blast just having daddy time.  And as usual I returned to find the house so nice and clean.  Daddy always knows how to whip those kids into shape!

After my time in Washington DC I drove up to Albany, NY to see Oliver.  What a wonderful weekend we had!  He showed me all his favorite places to hang out.  I got to see his school and we enjoyed just spending time together.  I think my favorite day was Sunday when we went to church together and just spent the rest of the day talking, taking walks and hanging out in my hotel room eating microwave meals.  It was hard to say goodbye amongst many tears and yet my heart was full knowing he is doing so well.  It's even hard for me to write this right now, so much emotion about me being here and he being there.  But, I have always felt that the Lord watches over my children in my absence, and I have never felt stronger about that then I do today.

On Monday my plane touched down back home, back to Seattle, back to the rain, back to my sweet daughters and wonderful hubby who greeted me at the airport with flowers and a sign.  My flight was a little late and I found out they had been waiting over an hour for me.  What troopers!   I love my family and am blessed to have each and every one of them in my life.

Shootin' hoops for the first time

Celeste tried basketball this year and enjoyed it.  Here are some pics from her last game.  The Meteors had a great season and it was fun to watch Celeste learn the game.

College Road Trip

No, not the movie.  Never saw it, but if it is anything like our college tour with Becky...it's a whirlwind trip, with a lot of driving, a lot of sleeping, and a lot of fun.  We got to see some family and vowed with trip to bypass McDonalds and any other fast food chain.  We kept our goal of only eating at local joints which made it even more fun!  Our first stop:  Rooster's in LaGrande, OR.  We decided we'll make this a regular stop when we drive through again.  Great burgers and Yankee pot roast.

It was fun to to take a trip just the 3 of us.  Audrey, Celeste, Sophia and Natty spent the week with Grandad and Grammy.Big thanks to Dad and his trusty FJ for getting us to Utah and back.  We stopped at a few lookouts on the highway.  Here is Dad taking a break from the wheel.Our next stop was Boise where on the recommendation of the hotel's front desk, we ate at Brick 29.  The food was great and we never would have found this restaurant on our own.  It was perfect for "local faire" food.We stayed in 3 hotels and they were all great.  It was nice to stop and put our head down a few times to relax.We finally made it to our first college tour, University of Utah in SLC.  We were hoping to see Vanessa while we were there, but she was in Thailand at the time.  We were sad to miss her!  Becky had pretty much already figured out she wasn't too interested in Uof U but we thought we were in Utah anyway and it would be good for her to compare it to the other colleges we'd be seeing.  

We spent 2 days in Provo.  At the end of our BYU tours, Becky felt pretty good about BYU.  Tim and I were really impressed with the new Hinkley Visitors Center.  After going through, why wouldn't anyone want to go to BYU?   Things have changed a little since I went to school here.  Of course the infamous Los Hermanos mexican restaurant was just as good as I remembered.  And the ice cream at the Creamery was a nice treat!  BYU has defintitely moved to #1 on her college list.  Now, I think she realized she may have to work a little harder to get in here!

In search of new and interesting places to eat, Tim found a little Peruvian restaurant in downtown Provo.  We really enjoyed our lunch there!Ok, it seems like perhaps this post should be called, "food on the college road trip".  We did have fun searching for the best local faire we could find. 

While in Provo, I was able to get together with Karen and Jared and take their pictures.  They were so fun to hang out with and it was great to finally meet Jared.  They were so excited for the birth of their first baby.  In fact, Karen gave birth about a week after we were there.  I'm glad I got there when I did!  We also met up with Nancy and her boys for a quick pizza dinner.  I'm so glad Nancy came to Provo from SLC to see us!Our last day in Provo we did a quick morning tour of Utah Valley University which was nice way to start our morning.  It felt quite a bit smaller than BYU, but was a very nice campus.After Provo, we set off for our next and final college tour at BYU Idaho, Rexburg.  The first thing Becky said as we drove in was "brrrr..it's too cold here!".  Of course we did this trip in the middle of February.  But she learned while there that the snow is a permanent fixture in the Winter.  She thought she was escaping the Pennsylvania type winters she grew up in.  Everyone was so nice and we really enjoyed the tour.While in Rexburg we met up with Alisha, Zeb, Sydnee and Kip for breakfast.  The kids are getting so BIG!  I wished we could have had more time to spend with them.  Little Kip and Sydnee were so fun. 

We stopped in Missoula, MT on our trip back home for a little shut eye (no pictures of that), and then on our final leg home.  We did stop for a very YUMMY breakfast in Spokane at The European Breakfast House.  I can't remember the last time I had ebelskivers!  We came home to find a happy house that didn't miss a beat with Grandad and Grammy in charge.  Thanks to them for letting us take a great trip with Becky!  We decided after this that we need to make this a trip for each of the kids as they prepare for college.