Mud Monkey

My girls never did anything like this...truly boys are different than girls!

A new chapter

We found out Wednesday night that Kevin has been accepted as a student at the MB Biblical Seminary to begin his master's program in marriage and family therapy! Wow, very cool. They let very few 'non-degreed' students in, particularly in this program.

This really ramps up his studies. Classes will be much more intense with schedules very sporadic (lots of weekend and evening classes). It will take a lot of communication between us to keep things running smoothly.

Classes start Monday, which brings me to a new prayer request; financial aid. Seminary is much more expensive than community college. Please pray that scholarships and grants will come through, we are really trying to avoid loans.

Congratulations Kevin!

Happy Anniversary...to us!

Today Kevin and I celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary. Wow, what a ride! God has been good and has blessed us and kept us even through our blindness.

Kevin and I met in September of 1987 and have been together ever since. We are grateful for each other, our children and a God that lavishes and teaches forgiveness. We look forward to a lifetime of learning more about each other and what God will teach us through our marriage.

A Day at Bass Lake

One of my biggest concerns moving to the Ranchos was knowing that we wouldn't be seeing some friends nearly as often as when we lived 'in town'. Well, God has taken that concern and has blessed us with new friends.

We spent last Saturday at Bass Lake with some of these new friends. Michelle and Daryn Sassano and their boys, Michael and Brandon, Karl and Shellie Roth and their boys, Kaleb and Wyatt and John and Michele Stephens and their boys, Trevor, Logan and Carson. See a trend her with the boys? Yup, my girls were the only girl (kids) there. We had 10 kids (under the age of 11) and 8 adults on one boat.

We had an amazing day! Karl and Shellie own a large (obviously) boat in which we cruised the lake and pulled the kids around on an inflatable raft. It was fun, relaxing and a great day. Thanks guys!

The tube crew...

Lizzie and Carson
Tori and Miss Shellie

Lizzie, Carson and Brandon

Sand Monkey

Mommie, Tori and Lizzie

Captain Karl and his co-captain

Cheers to the Olympics

Kev and I both have always thought we could be olympians...

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First Day of School

Today Lizzie started the third grade! Yup, summer is over in the Ranchos...the new academic year has begun.

Lizzie was very excited to start school and was thrilled to find that she has just the teacher she was hoping for... Mrs. Hernandez! Her best friend Destyne is in her class also.

Tori and Josh signed up today for preschool and will be starting next week when Kevin starts school.

Lizzie and Mrs Hernandez

Already to go!

San Juan Capistrano

We recently visited my sister Leslie and her family (Uncle Marc and Nicky) at their home in San Juan Capistrano. We had so much fun!

On Friday, we went to Laguna Nigel and spent the day on the beach. The kids had a great time! It was Joshua's first trip to the ocean and he wasn't intimated one bit! He loved playing in the waves, but his favorite thing to do was eating sand. (yes, he pooped a sand castle the next day!)

The next day we spent swimming at Leslie and Marc's club. My nephew Matthew and his girlfriend Rachel joined us for awhile as they were 'in the area' also. The kids had a great time playing with 'big' cousin Mattie and Rachel. Tori really took off in the pool. She ditched her swimmie (floatie) suit and became a fish. It was cool to watch her.

We've really enjoyed my summer three-day weekends. We've tried to fit a lot into a short amount of time.

Unfortunately, all the pix I have are from the beach, oh well!

Lizzie, Tori and cousin Nicky.

Kid Pics

On Kevin's side of the family we have a split in the ages of our nieces and nephews. There is a group of older cousins and a group of younger cousins. Of course, my kids fall inthe 'younger cousin' category of which there are six.

Kevin's mom had a great idea while we were there to get all the younger cousins together for a studio shot. Here are the results. So cute! (ages 1 year to 10 years old)

More on Zion

As I mentioned before, on our second day of vacation, we were in Zion National Park. It is sooo beautiful. So very different than California's landscape. Red dirt, cliffs, canyons, and mountains that look like checkerboards. In my opinion, some of God's best work.

Here's a few more photos from Zion.

A view from a window cutout in the Zion Mount Carmel Tunnel. Construction of the 1.1 mile tunnel began in the late 1920's and was completed in 1930. At the time that the tunnel was dedicated, on July 4, 1930, it was the longest tunnel in the United States. The purpose of the Zion Tunnel (and the east entrance road) was to create direct access to Bryce Canyon and Grand Canyon from Zion National Park. Large vehicles like the motorhome we were driving have to pay and extra $15 as an 'escort' fee. The ranger stop oncoming traffic until the large vehicle is through.

One of the many arches.

Our home away from home.

Incredible scenery!

UTAH!

On the evening of Wednesday, July 16th we started our vacation. We rented a motorhome from a friend and took off for southern Utah. It was awesome! (no potty breaks necessary!)

The first night we drove to Barstow and spent the night at Shady Lane RV park. An interesting place, but nothing to see in Barstow. We packed up early the next morning and continued our journey.

We hit Vegas by lunchtime and took a break to let the kids run around. (HOT!) We packed up again with southern Utah as our evening goal. We made it to Zion National Park by about 5ish. I'd forgotten how beautiful it is! Southern Utah is one of mine and Kevin's favorite U.S. sites to visit. There are numerous national parks and beautiful sites within a day's drive (Zion, Lake Powell, Grand Canyon, Moab, Bryce, Escalante, Canyonlands, Arches .... and the list goes on!). We never have enough time when we're there!

After a little time in Zion, we set our eyes on making it to Boulder, Utah! Kevin's grandma has a ranch in Boulder, and Boulder was hosting a big family reunion for Kevin's side of the family on July 19th.

We had a great time in Boulder, hiking, swiming in Calf Creek, playing with cousins and catching-up with Kev's family. All of his siblings made it to Boulder for the reunion - even his bro and wife (Brad and Susan from Arkansas!). It was a wonderful weekend.

On Sunday afternoon we packed up again for the drive up to Layton, Utah to Kev's parent's house. It was about a six hour drive. We spent the remaining week in Layton playing with cousins, swimming and exploring Salt Lake more. The kids had a great time playing in the Olympic Memorial Square that hosts in incredible water feature. We saw this when we were in Utah for the 2002 Olympics.

Haircut (revisted)

I forgot that I took these photos with my phone right after the haircuts!