New School Year For Everyone!

I can't believe that we are already in full swing of school, work, sports, scouts, church activities, and much more and it's not even the end of August. Where does the Summer go?

We had a wonderfully busy Summer, full of new experiences and very tight schedules. Not exactly my dream Summer at first, but it ended with a month long trip to CA, so it was lots of fun in the end. But not much sleeping in and lounging around!

I will post some of our CA trip pictures, and our back to school pics, to share with all those who live so far away. I'd love to see some of yours as well!!

Busy, busy Boy!

Aaron and Mom with his cake for the auction... It was a labor of love for both of us. Saddest part ever, it collapsed in the car on the way to the church dinner/scout camp fundraiser! I spent the entire "dinner" reassembling it with extra frosting, fontant, and sweat. It was sold for $40 inspite of it's rather "squatty" condition. Shouldn't have used chocolate ganache as a filling I guess!! Live and learn.

An Irish Vegetarian...

Another family story from Lily, as relayed by Bethany:

Bethany was drinking her Ensure, and Lily was watching her.
Lily: "I know I can't have your drink because you're a vegetarian... and we're Irish!"
Bethany: "Yeah... Wait, what?"
Lily: "We come from Ireland! We moved here. And you are vegetarian!"
Bethany: "Yeah?"
Lily: "We adopted you from where they eat vegetarian! Duh!"

I guess I have done a good job describing our family ancestral background to Lily, but she has put her own twist on our family history! Tough way for Bethany to discover she's adopted!!

More Holiday pictures

November was PACKED! I was fortunate to be the captain of 12 amazing women who embarked on an adventure that required that as a team, we run over 200 miles across Florida! The name of the race was the Ragnar Relay, and it was the first time I had not only run any sort of race, but also the first time I have ever trained for anything like this in my life. Luckily, the other women were much more experienced! Our team name was Sole Sisters, and we had so much fun. We were so grateful to our husbands and children who supported us and put up with Mom saying "I have to go for a run... not for me, but for the team!"

Two days after finishing the Ragnar, our family packed into our minivan and drove 16 hours north to D.C./VA for a Thanksgiving vacation. We have never really done such a large scale family only trip like this, so it was a real endeavor. But wow, would do it again in a heart beat. The kids all traveled so well, and I think it was a real turning point for our children and family bonding time. Can't help but to communicate when stuck together 24/7 in a 250sqft. cabin, or minivan.
5 of the 6 runners from my van 1. Such great ladies who I respect and admire so much. My other favorite lady, Melissa W. is missing, since she is running!
Family group shot in front of White House. Dang, it was cold! Aaron wanted to make sure we got a photo of the Secret Service sniper on the roof. He loved this little bit of trivia!
Beautiful Fall foliage in VA! Loved the cooler weather and all the leaves... a little bit of "home."

This is the Virginia cabin we stayed in for 4 days while we commuted into D.C.! Loved it!! Pohick Bay, VA is a beautiful campsite, with a few cabins to rent. Very nice, reasonable, with heated bathrooms, and hot showers! Not bad for "camping!"
Our Thanksgiving feast in our little log cabin in a forest! Really! It was so cold outside, but inside we were toasty and cozy (notice the size of our dinner table!).
Thanksgiving day was spent at the Arlington Cemetery. What a sobering, awe-inspiring place. Truly amazing and beautiful in it's size and location. We just don't have trees like this at home in FL, so had to take a family shot here.
Kevin meeting a very distant relative (from HIS side of the family!) at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.. We loved this museum, and could have stayed all day. But just too much to see and do!!
Our family excursion to S.C. to "Cut and Carry" our very own Christmas tree, with a complimentary hay ride around the tree farm. Petting zoo was included as well. My favorite part was free clippings of holly and spruce pine branches. Fun part was cramming these branches at my feet for another 7 hours as we drove from D.C. to Florida! At least the car smelled nice!
Can't believe Sarah turned 7 at the end of November! She is growing up so quickly, literally. She is not much shorter than Aaron, who is almost 5 years older, and her shoe size is just 2 sizes smaller! She is our vibrant, passionate, creative and dramatic daughter... wait, I think that describes all of them. Oh, well. That she is! She made and decorated her birthday cake by herself!
Sarah and Lily reenacting the Nativity. Of course, Sarah is Mary and Lily has been designated as the angel. She doesn't look too disappointed though.
Bethany offered to read the traditional Christmas eve story of Twas the Night Before Christmas. We were happy to oblige her. So nice to have our family together, healthy and wanting to participate. Well, at least Aaron is trying to look like he's participating...

This is our post Christmas dinner activity... sugar cookie decorationg at the Epperly's home! So fun and yummy. Glad that we finally made time to do this! I think I had promised the kids for 2 weeks that we'd decorate cookies. At least it was still Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!

This was taken Christmas Eve with a camera timer. Love this shot, with all of us, even the cat!

Welcome 2011!

I can't believe it's January 2011. That is apparent in the fact that I'm just now sending my Christmas letters/cards out, and that I can't bear to put all the Christmas decorations away. So, you all may be receiving Happy New Year letters from us, and if we are privileged to have you visit, my red candles and little white lights on the piano will be up until the end of the month.

I have some pictures to show as a review of the past few months, but the internet isn't letting me, so I guess my words will have to do!

After Halloween, time went into fast forward mode. Between the kids special events at school, appointments, sports, church responsibilities, trip to DC for Thanksgiving, and my Ragnar Relay across Florida, I don't remember much. So glad we did it all, but so glad November is past.

Then December came like a tornado in a china shop! Wow, what a busy month, even if we didn't travel anywhere or have company for the holidays. For some reason, I decide that all those grand Christmas gift ideas that i carry around with me all year in my head NOW need to be done. And Kevin is the same. So between the two of us, I think we never went to bed before 1am for the entire month. I was exhausted physically as well from the training for the race, but also recovering from an injury, so I quit running for the month. Mistake. I also ate like I was running 5 miles a day, and loved every minute of the Christmas cookies, fudge, pumpkin bread, caramels, more cookies ... I sure love all the baking, and making, but it wears me out and literaly I can't "wear" like I used to :). But this Christmas was wonderful, and we had so much to be grateful for. We were so blessed to have our health, surrounded by our children and their health, and all the lovely, thoughtful gifts from family in CA and UT. We missed being with them terribly, but felt close when we visited them via Skype on Christmas! Very fun!!

Always surprised at how much time passes between my posts. Life just sucks time away!

Lily said something very cute today. We were driving to school this morning, and she likes when we are the "leader" of the other cars; in other words, we have no cars in front of us. I pretended to do abracadabra, and waved my hand in front of my face as I drove to make the other cars disappear... obviously, nothing happened. Lily started into a discourse over how I didnt' know how do to REAL magic. "Mommy! That is not real magic! Fairies are real magic. And Santa is magic too!" I wish she would stay 4 yr. old forever.

Back to School!

So sad I posted nothing over the summer, but life has been much too busy to sit down at the computer! School started Aug. 9 here, and with oldest child now in High School, one in 6th grade, one in 1st, and my "baby" started PreK, this is the year of Firsts!

Sarah just lost her First tooth, and it has to be the cutest tooth I have ever seen! Compared to Aaron's molars that he keeps losing, her tooth didn't look real. She pulled it out all by herself, and we were all shocked; it happened during church! Had no idea it was that loose!

We spent an entire month in California over the summer, and had a wonderful time visiting family and friends. It's amazing how quickly a month passes, and I think it is the best way to spend the hot Florida summers... in California! I will try to post pictures soon!

I was feeling terrible about not updating this blog, but will have to post more later! Signing out...

Odyssey of the Mind, 09-10, short.mov

This is a short youtube slide show of Aaron's Odyssey of the Mind team that just came back from competing at World Competition in Lansing, Michigan. It was an amazing experience for everyone, and we all had a blast. The pictures here start with the first competition in our local Regional area, then after winning that, the team went to State comps. They placed2nd, which made them able to go to World! The team spent 5 "glorious" days in Michigan, getting to know teams from Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Germany, Poland and China. And of course lots of other students from the states! It really was a once in a lifetime experience!

Atlantis Shuttle launch, May 14, 2010, 2:20pm