Vacation 2009

Our BIG summer vacation was 2.5 weeks long.

It started with a flight to Oakland for 2 nights. Then a drive to Fairfield for 2 nights. We then drove to Reno for 2 nights, to Sacramento for the day, and back to Oakland for 4 more nights.


Cal showed off his wicked new swimming skills in Grandma & Grandpa's pool and we swam daily.


We visited the Jelly Belly factory with the Sahs.


Cal and Auntie Lest actually got in the hot tub. Despite the desert sun.


Cal, Lissi, and Theo had a blast in the hot Sacramento sun.


Grandpa and Cal had a shared birthday cake in early anticipation of their special days.

If that weren't enough, we hopped on a plane (or two) East Coast bound and spent 6 nights in New Hampshire, visiting Wink's sister and brother-in-law's new home.






Look at this view!


They do some big time agriculture to help feed themselves at His Mansion.


Fun with cousins.


Visiting with Grandpa & Grandma and cousins.

June 2009

Cal ended Kindergarten with a bang. He loved his friends and his teachers. (And he learned a lot too!)


Cal and Thomas love to practice their version of Tae Kwon Do


Cal will miss his best girl friend Autumn as she moves to a new school for first grade.

Other events.... I turned 34 and can no longer claim to be in my "early 30's". The entire family began summer vacation. We began thinking about sewer repairs to deal with our rat-exits through our sewer line.

May 2009 updates

What an incredibly busy month!



In addition to Tae Kwon Do, chess club, and art class...Cal played on a Kindergarten soccer team for the month.


Wink graduated with his Master's of Divinity




And we attended a fantabulously fantastic campout with families from Cal's school. The weather was perfect. The scenery was divine. The company was great. The food was delicious. The only things lacking: bathrooms in the bunk cabins, and a power wheelchair for Wink.







Too bad we don't have silly kids to match our own silly personalities... lol!

April updates

Spring at last! The tulips are gorgeous (and I planted many more this year so our front yard is 3/4 outlined in colorful flowers).


The sky is occasionally blue.


The kids are looking beautiful.




And the Easter Eggs are multiplying!

March updates

The kids' creative juices continue to stir. Here they transformed a balloon pinata into hats for themselves and their favorite animals.



They took swim lessons during spring break, and both finally overcame some major hydro-phobias. Cal is showing some true potential as a fish!

February Highlights

Other fun things we did in February:


Cal continued to take Tae Kwon Do. He has excellent form!



Cal's Kindergarten class completed their "Yellow Submarine" unit about water, underwater life, and marine transportation. The class celebrated withe their families.



Lissi began to blossom in her new preschool classroom. She is a "peer" in a class for children with hearing loss. The class is taught in both English paired with American Sign Language. Every day Lissi comes home from school and tells us who was there, who she played with, what she sang, what she had for snack. Added bonus, the class is down the hall from Cal's Kindergarten rooms. Double added bonus, the class is close to free!

Forever changed

Books Read in 2008

I really wanted to make it through 50 books in the year. Unfortunately, I didn't even get close. :(

1. Twilight
   
2. The Friday Night Knitting Club
3. In Defence of Food
4. The Last Chinese Chef
5. The Age of Turbulence
6. Drowning Ruth
7. Nineteen Minutes
8. The Brief, Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao
9. Four to Score
10. The Miracle at Speedy Motors
11. The Omnivore's Dilemma
12. Gorgeously Green
13. Peony In Love
14. Three To Get Deadly
15. What Every 21st Century Parent Needs to Know
16. Three Cups of Tea
17. Where the Pavement Ends
18. Two for the Dough
19. One For The Money
20. The Shack
21. Running With Scissors
22. Look Me in the Eye
23. Blue Like Jazz
24. The Tin Roof Blowdown
25. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
26. The Google Story
27. A Thousand Splendid Suns
28. Rich Dad, Poor Dad
29. Soon I Will Be Invincible
30. A Long Way Gone
31. The Treasure Principle
32. Eat Pray Love
33. Freakonomics

Snow?! At OUR home?

We celebrated THREE Snow Days before Winter Break. Then we were snowed-in the entire first week of vacation. For 5+ days we did not leave our house by car.

Our flights to visit CA were canceled. We spent our first Christmas in the NorthWest. And we experienced snow, Snow, SNOW! And shoveling. That part sucked.

At the beginning there was just a tiny bit of snow. Enough for Frosty.

and the obligatory snow pictures.


But then the snow just kept coming and we could sled,



Sledding down the street (just 1 block away):



and make our whole snow family!



It's a White Christmas everyone!!

Our little Tae Kwon Do boy

It took him a while (and a few viewings of Kung Fu Panda) to warm up to the sport.

But after successfully breaking his first board, Cal was quite excited about his martial arts skills.



We signed him up for "Tough Tots" next month and hope he'll continue to enjoy this sport and part of his cultural heritage.

November 2008

What happened this November....


Wink turned 34. He's officially in his "mid-30's". Aack!


The kids danced, played and enjoyed each other.



Lissi helped knead the pumpkin roll dough on Thanksgiving morning.


Posing on Thanksgiving Day. His flexibility surpasses daddy by far.

Looking gorgeous for us all. Look out boys.



And loving life together as family.

October Updates

Like always, our lives continued to be busy. Wink continued to be in pain. And Cal continued loving school. Lissi? Well, she's just a happy girl that goes with the flow. Oh, and she learned to spell. Details shmetails.

Some of our fabulous October events included picking apples from a fruit stand (because we were deceived by the website into believing it was a pumpkin patch).
We tasted dozens of apples at our annual apple tasting festival. This year Lissi was old enough to "stab" her own apple pieces with a toothpick.
Cal's school had a Halloween carnival. A week before Halloween. Not sure about the timing.
Anyways, I was so proud that he actually walked across the school stage alone, waving to the crowd. My shy guy! Loved it!

The Halloween carnival was not junk-food filled as I had anticipated. I was quite disappointed. But the kids did partake in the no-handed doughnut hanging.... (or at least they tried).As at our homegroup pumpkin carving evening? Cal helped make Apple Cake.
The kids had a blast. A chilly blast. But a blast all the same.

At the end of the month Grandma and Auntie came to visit! That was so much fun! They even got to help the kids "trick or treat" at a college dorm and around a variety of neighborhoods.

September news

I've been so busy running around between work and school and kids that I've neglected my cookie blog!

Here are some of this month's events:

Cal started Kindergarten. His teacher's name is Lauren (they all go by their first names in the school). He has made a ton of friends (many are girls, the little ladies man!). He seems to be doing well. Cal loves school!
We celebrated Lissi's 3rd birthday with a jungle party:

We enjoyed ourselves at a picnic for church volunteers. After many, many hours of service, we get a bbq in return. The kids had a blast.

Wink started back to classes. He is doing one indepdendent study this semester. Sorry, I've got no pictures for you.

Finally, I started school off again with a bang. Not really. I'm trying this student-teacher thing again. It seems to be going well.

Maybe next month I'll be better about updates. Maybe not. We'll see.... ;)