To Grandma's house we go!

On the evening of May 2 we arrived at Grandma Mix's house in Camarillo. It had been more than 5 years since we had seen her last! Far too long! Miriam was very small when she had seen her last so she did not remember her, still, she knew this was her Great-Grandma and she warmed up to her right away. Joshua remembered her, and her house, very well and he was happy to be able to visit her again. We had a great time visiting with her Saturday evening, attended church with her on Sunday morning, enjoyed a yummy lunch together and topped it off with a walk to the park! An altogether wonderful visit!

Isaiah kicking back with Grandma's new dog Ginger.

Joshua enjoying some cartoons.

'Miriam the puppy' playing fetch.

Checking Great Grandma's vitals.

Enjoying lunch together, Miriam is also enjoying Grandma snuggles!

My well-behaved boys...

Miriam and her Great Grandma.

Miriam climbing the tree in Grandma Mix's yard.

Walking to the park.



I see you.

3 great-grandkids.

Grandma, Ginger and I hanging out in the shade.

We sincerely hope it is not another five years until our next visit with (Great) Grandma Mix!

Driving through San Francisco

After leaving Aimee's house we took the 80 over the Bay Bridge and through part of San Francisco. Here are a few photos I snapped while driving:

The kids...

Barely got him in this one!

The scenery...

Driving across the Bay Bridge on a lovely day!

I love these cute houses!

And that was the extent of our adventure in San Francisco! Lol!

At Aunt Aimee's

The kids and I began our vacation at my sister-in-law's house in Berkeley. We had such a lovely visit with her and her daughter! I am so thankful we were able to see them.

Thanks, Aimee, for having us!

Miriam holding Aunt Aimee's hand as we walk to a local coffee shop where we had some very yummy lunch!

After lunch we walked to a very cool park nearby. Here the boys climb up a 'tire tube'.

Miriam needed a little boost from mom!


Miriam climbs on the cool 'spider webs' - that's what they made me think of, anyway.

Aunt Aimee the Aerialist! (-:

Rapunzel, Rapunzel...let down your hair!

Miriam gives Aunt Aimee and the boys a ride on the tire swing!

Watching the train go by as we're walking home. Notice all the kids covering their ears, lol!

Cousins, just hanging out together. We were stuck inside since we, apparently, brought the rain with us from Oregon. Nobody seemed to mind all that much, though.

Miriam playing a game involving pets on Maia's DS.

My kids introduced Maia to the wonderful world of Spore!

Friday evening we all went out for dinner at Chevy's where a great time was had by all!

We are looking forward to the time when Aimee and Maia will be able to visit us in Kodiak! Until then, we will treasure this time we had with them!

Goodbye Tonsils!

On April 17th Miriam had her tonsils and adenoids removed.

Prior the the surgery the nurse anesthetist came out to talk to us, to give Miriam the mask they would use during surgery and to let her pick out the 'flavor' she wanted them to put in the mask - which was really the 'scent' so that the mask smells like something nice. Miriam chose raspberry.

He also checked Miriam's veins and put a numbing cream on each of her hands so that it wouldn't hurt when they put her IV in later.

Miriam checks out my veins, she is flicking my hand in this picture.

Time for the IV! It's not the best picture but Miriam is actually smiling! The numbing cream really did the job and they were able to get the IV in on the first try...for which Josh and I were so thankful after the difficulties we've had getting IV's done on Joshua over the years!

Checking out the 'finished product'.

This was just too adorable! Little kids get a ride to the operating room in this little red wagon, what a great idea!

Miriam was not too happy when she woke up from the surgery, but she had two new friends waiting to meet her!

Here she is writing down which movies she wants to watch when she gets home. This was one of the few times we were able to get her to write instead of talking!

Time to go home! A very unhappy girl gets wheeled out to the car by her wonderful nurse!

The first hour and a half after surgery were the worst. Miriam was so miserable and the pharmacy didn't have her meds ready even though they called them in from the hospital, which was very frustrating! But once she got home and settled down Miriam felt much better and she just did amazing from that point on! We couldn't have ordered a better recovery for our girl, she was up and playing outside 3 days after surgery!

God is so very good!

Animal Camp

During the last week of March Miriam attended 'Animal Camp' at Hauser Church which is put on by our local CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) missionaries. It is a super fun week for the kids with visits from all kinds of critters and visits to all kinds of critters. Some of the highlights from this year included: visiting Miss Valerie's chickens and having an egg hunt; reptile day, with a visit from several different kinds of reptiles; horseback riding at a nearby arena; and a pet show on the last day.

Other daily activities included games, singing, Bible and missionary stories and prizes.
Another highlight for many kids, including Miriam, was riding the Hauser Church bus from North Bend each day!

Here I am setting up to get a shot of Miriam getting off the bus. Unfortunately, even though I had my camera trained on the door I somehow missed Miriam's exit! Doh!

Miriam posing with her inflatable seahorse. Each kid that attends Animal Camp gets and inflatable animal at sometime during the week, a few each day. They call the kids names and they get to come up and stand by a screen and someone tosses the critter over from the other side...it is definitely a highlight of the week for the kids!

And another picture of Miriam and her seahorse, not sure why I included both of these but since their both here...

This is Henessy and I's view as we wait for Miriam's turn in the Pet Show. You can't really see her but Miriam is way at the other end of that row of kids. It was pretty funny seeing all us parents cued up on the landing and the stairs with our various pets. There were many dogs but also rats (you can see one to the left, across from the German Shepherd), turtles, chickens, a baby quail, hamsters, a hermit crab, kitties and even a goldfish!

Here is my good dog patiently awaiting her turn!

Here is Miriam telling about her pet. I wasn't able to get it on camera but she was even able to get Henessy to play dead! She did such a good job!

After the presentation the animals get to walk along the row of kids to be petted - if the pet allows such things - or to let the kids get a closer look. The pet show is the perfect ending to a wonderful week. We are going to miss being able to attend Animal Camp next year

but I am very thankful Miriam was able to take part these last two years!

Hangin' at home

Here are just some random pictures of everyday silliness at our house:

Grandma Judi got these little clips with colored, plastic 'hair' attached for Miriam at Christmas and the other day Miriam put every single one in her hair, this is the result!

Miriam playing Spore, a game that Joshua bought several months ago that has become all the kids favorite. I thought Miriam just looked too cute with the headphones on and all so I had to take a picture...she gets that alot, for some reason...lol!

Isaiah somehow managed to perch himself atop this pole in our yard and wanted his picture taken while he was up there. Maybe it's just me but that doesn't look all that comfortable!

Josh had to take this picture of me working on my laptop and his computer at the same time...he kept saying something about crossing over to the dark side...whatever!

Recently, Miriam went through a very sudden growth spurt!

Sometimes Henessy just gets the urge to dress up...ok, well, someone gets the urge to have Henessy dress up. We are blessed with a very tolerant dog!

I realize there are no pictures of either Josh here, it is not nearly as easy to get pictures of them and, well, they just aren't quite as goofy as the rest of us - lol!

Joshua's 13th Birthday (March 14)

Joshua officially became a teenager on March 14!

A sleepover with a couple of good friends started off the birthday celebration, then he got to open his presents from us first thing in the morning.

Here is our teenager (yikes!) opening one of his presents. After present opening we had his favorite breakfast of crescent cinnamon rolls.


The next 'order of business' was a pool party with many of the boys from Joshua's Boy Scout troop and a few other friends.

All the boys had a blast trying to dump each other off of this float. They all had scratches on their backs when they were through, and they were as happy as could be! Boys!

A couple of the boys had little sister who Miriam is friends with so she had a lot of fun as well. In this picture she spends a few minutes floating by herself.

Joshua opening his gifts in the party room at the pool.

Since Joshua doesn't like cake, I made a cookie pyramid out of his favorite cookies to put the 13 candles on. We also had his favorite ice cream: coffee! We had neopolitan and cookies and cream for the more 'normal' kids...lol!

After returning home many of the boys started a dart gun (and air soft gun) war. Here Josh tries to ward off an incoming round...you can see he missed, however!

Watch out for the little sister!

Our hallway littered with the remains of the battle, I had to take a picture of this because it was just cracking me up that everywhere I walked that day the ground was covered in little orange darts!

One of the best things about birthdays in our house (according to the boys) is that the kids get unlimited computer/video game time. In this picture Joshua is taking advantage of that, one of his friends sits next to him while shielding himself from the ongoing battle.

Joshua had a wonderful time on his birthday, I think it was a good beginning for his adventure of being a teenager!