Memorial Day Weekend

So, the plan on Friday night was to have a camp fire and roast marshmellows with their cousins. Well Uncle Jared built a NICE fire. Kyle says it all:

Roasting marshmellows was no easy task...



For Memorial Day, the weather warmed up enough to go to the lake. It brought back a lot of memories for me of all the time I spent as a child at the lake...so many great times! The kids had a blast thanks to their great Uncles and Aunt who played with them.

Tulip Festival

My sister-in-law, Misty, was in town in May and we got to meet my neice ZuriAnn for the first time. We planned to go to the Woodburn Tulip Festival together. So we went on May 7th. Unfortunately the Tulip Festival was OVER. We went to the half-empty, muddy tulip fields and took some pictures in the few remaining, almost dead, tulips. Workers were busily working in the fields ripping up the tulips, but we managed to snap some pics before they were all gone. It really was a blast and we laughed A LOT at the whole scenerio.

Spring Birthdays

Kyle turned 2 in April and loved all the attention on him!

Notice the Skittles that Kyle is clenching in his fist. Once he opened that he didn't want to let it go. Yes, he is our candy monster!

Kyle loved hanging out in our newly filled sandbox playing with his new sand toys.

James turned 4 in May!! He chose to have a "Nemo" party. The kids had fun decorating paper fish and then taking turns to go fish with our fishing pole.

Spring Break

Let's see it's been 8 months since my last post....So sad! I thought I would recap the last year with highlights from the last 5 months. Spring Break seemed like a good place to start. We took a day trip to the Cedar Creek Grist Mill, unfortunantly it was a VERY COLD day! The sights were beautiful and the Mill fascinating...just too cold and wet, oh yeah, did I mention it was SNOWING there (on our spring break)! :o)

We enjoyed having Amye and the kids stay with us for the last half of Spring Break while Jared was at the Dental Convention in Portland. The first night was movie night.

The next day we took a trip to a local swimming pool. This was definitely everyone's favorite. The kids loved going down the slide over and over again. This picture is before the fun even began...but they were SOOOO excited!



On Day 3 we ventured out into the damp outdoors to visit Fort Vancouver:

Our journey began at the sun dial....

And moved to the canons......

And finished off at the sun dial once again..... yes that is some sun!

The night concluded with my favorite part. We hired two babysitters and my parents treated Jared & Amye and Joe & I to dinner and an evening performance of "Wicked." It was fabulous!!! What a treat!!!

Nutcracker 2008

Breana took part in her very first production of the Nutcracker through the studio where she takes ballet, Columbia Dance. Because of the snow storm, the performances that were scheduled the weekend before Christmas were cancelled and rescheduled for the weekend after Christmas. So instead of staying in Yelm as planned after Christmas, we returned to Vancouver for a 12:00 rehearsal on Dec. 26th. The performance went on without a hitch and Breana loved every minute of it. I was able to watch the matinee performance with Joe & Breana's grandma & great-grandma. For the evening performance I helped back stage. It was fun to see everything come together. And even though Breana's part was no more than 5 minutes, she felt like a princess! I'm even more impressed with Columbia Dance and all they have to offer. Her teacher Jan is a really amazing teacher! Here's a few pictures from the performances.

Breana & I in a self portrait before the show.

One final pose at the end of the show. Breana was so thrilled to get a rose...her smile tells it all. She was a beautiful little angel!