We are still alive...Happy Fall!

To those of you who keep asking, "Where are the new photos?" I apologize. It seems it took a bit longer to get settled in our new home than I expected. In addition, this fall we have gotten more serious about homeschooling and that has taken way more effort than I anticipated. It is wonderful but my days are definitely busier. We love our new home. Zack loves his new job. The kids are enjoying riding bikes and have become real North westerners. The rain doesn't bother them a bit. They are playing outside nearly every day.

Instead of trying to start where I left off I decided to skip a head and give you a glimpse of our life here in the rainy northwest. Yes, it really is rainy. I really don't remember it raining this much when I lived in Seattle. But we are in the right place any enjoying making new friends. During one of the dry days (less wet days, rather) we managed to take a hike at Mt. Rainier.

After hiking for about 45 minutes everyone voted for snack time. We pulled out our lunch and had a picnic near the look out for the Nisqually Glacier (which we couldn't actually see because it was cloudy). But it was still beautiful!

This is another look out of the terminus of the Nisqually glacier.

Ash and the beautiful NW mountains!

Alex and his raincoat which never got use in Colorado.

When Gran and Papa came to visit it was Harbor Days in Olympia, We took them on a short cruise of the sound. Everyone really enjoyed it. This was taken on deck.

At Harbor Days they had the ship that was used in Pirates of the Caribbean. The kids loved being on a "Pirate Ship" which was really a replica of a ship used during Revolutionary times.

Family shot on board.

Getting a pumpkin here was a bit of a muddier experience than we are used to. I had to wash everyone's shoes when we got home. Everyone insisted on getting their own. Amber's was the biggest. We never did get around to carving them.

Here is our scary alligator. He packs a pretty mean "ROAR!"

For Halloween this year, in addition to the alligator, we had Spiderman, a Bride, and a Pink, flying unicorn.

That's it for now. I need to get dinner cooking. We love and miss you all!
Alida

Trip to Rocky Mountain National Park

On Memorial Day we had the chance to go and visit Rocky Mountain National Park. It was spectacular! The kids were great. What a wonderful experience it has been to live in Denver for a year. Speaking of that, we move in just a few days. Here we come Olympia!

By far, Alex's favorite part of our hike was the snow on the ground. He enjoyed skating down the snow for quite awhile.
Zack and his kids with a beautiful view. They love their dad!

The Queens of the Mountain!

Our only family shot this year. Not bad, only two people not smiling...This is why we gave up on professional photographs years ago.

Ash and Mom got to hike by ourselves for awhile. Ashley really enjoyed watching the ducks on the lake.

Amber enjoyed skating down the hillside on the snow with Alex.

What a view! We got up pretty high... I think it was 12000 feet.

Amber girl and the mountains. Two of my favorite men.

What a happy kid. All you need is a little snow, a lot of time, and some warmer weather.

I got to carry Caleb. He was a great sport.

Trip to Bald Mountain

Over Memorial Day weekend we had the chance to go hiking up in the Rockys outside of Boulder. We went on a great hike called Bald Mountain (thank you Murricanes for the suggestion!). It was a really fun day.

We, of course, had to start the hike with a snack.

Then, after hiking for 20 minutes we had to stop for snack time.
Our snack spot included a great place for rock scrambling and Caleb wasn't about to be left out.

Help! They are falling off a cliff!

The Caleb Climber. "Yeah, Mom, I can do it by myself."

Ashley was more into snacking than she was climbing...

What a beauiful rock queen.

We almost lost Alex...or is he just messing around?

Going up?

Finally at the top!

Zack's Trip to Vegas

Zack recently took a trip to Nevada and was able to spend some time visiting with his sister, Jenny, and her son Josh. Here are some pics of their visit.

Josh and Zack got to enjoy some tree climbing...

Jenny, Josh, and Zack

Off to Olympia!

Wahoo! Seven more weeks in Colorado! We are so excited to announce that it is official: we are going to be settled in Olympia, WA. Zack is excited about the job, the kids are excited about the new house, and I am excited to not move again until the kids are in college. 10 years of marriage and 10 moves is enough for me. We are enjoying our last few months in Colorado and trying to get everywhere we haven't been yet. It is so fun to be somewhere for only year because then you are forced to explore. We have actually had quite a bit of precipitation in the past few weeks and it has been so nice to see things green again. Here are some spring pictures.

We visited two historic farms with the Hawkins and the Collis families. It was great fun for all. We even got to try real hot cross buns and learned where they came from.
I let the children decorate Easter eggs on their own. I didn't realize until too late that they were decorating their hands instead of the eggs. It took 20-30 washings to get the color to fade from their hands. They didn't seem to mind. Great fun was had by all. :)

Queen Ashley.

We recently took a trip to the zoo with the Hawkins Family. Alex asked if he could take a picture of me. In fact a few pictures in this set were taken by Alex.We loved the gorilla so much we did a who series of pictures with him. (Alex, Amber and Elliot)

Amber has found her first true love. It all started when they realized they were both four years old. Elliot is a wonderful friend they have decided that they will probably get married. I did almost flip when I saw them holding hands at the zoo.

Ashley kept us on track by finding every animal we saw on her zoo map.

Amber and Elliot were inseparable.

Alex taking a short rest at the zoo.

The girls taking a break from wrestling with Dad.

Alex took a picture of Dad filming the girls dancing.

Caleb got himself into Amber's suitcase quite gracefully but had a bit of trouble getting out.In fact, we often find him climbing into things. Caleb is now an avid stair climber.

Caleb's big accomplishment this past week was learning how to climb up the stairs at the park and go down the slide all by himself. You can tell that he feels quite old and quite proud of himself.

Ashley at the park in her new dress that she got for her birthday. She LOVES dresses. I can't believe she is three!

Amber climbing around.

Alex our monkey.

Caleb now gets to play in the backyard with the big kids. Often Ashley or Amber will push him around in the car. He loves it.

We recently went to the White Fence Farm where Amber was the first kid brave enough to let the HUGE cow eat from her hand. Look at the size of that tongue!

Amber and Caleb have formed quite a bond sharing a room. He just loves her.
So one day I came out of the kitchen and found Caleb cleaning up Alex and Amber's mess in the playroom. He managed to put all of the blocks away except four. We now use him quite often to clean things up. Will he always be this helpful?

Our church recently hosted a pinewood derby. Alex had great fun making his car with Papa and then we raced it. Here is Ashley's car...it didn't get raced it got eaten.

Alex was up against some pretty big competition. We missed the announcement that there were no rules. Some of these cars were pretty weighted.

None the less, we had a marvelous time. Alex wants to add some weights to his car now.

Spring's Here...what happened to winter?

Greetings all! So much for being regular. Two months go by and I don't even feel like it's been more than two weeks! It seems we are in to Spring already and I feel cheated out of a winter. Most of the winter we've been able to play at the park, which is great but... I never thought I'd say this...I actually kind of miss the Michigan winter when you have to stay inside because your eyebrows will freeze and you have an excuse to curl up with hot chocolate and a movie. I feel so guilty drinking hot chocolate when it's 60 degrees out.

We are doing well. Still no signed contract for July but hopefully that will be resolved soon. Ok. Here's what we've been doing...

Here's a bit of homeschooling...(thanks Papa Roye for the supplies!)
Our big January event was Caleb's First Birthday! He didn't quite get the cake part.In fact, I don't think he liked it very much until we added whipped cream. I should have taken a picture of that.

The older kids we very helpful when it came time to opening Caleb's presents.

Of course, Caleb didn't need that much help ripping paper...

Our budding pianist.

So, I look down into the play room one day and I see Ashley lying on the sofa with her eyes closed. Every few seconds she would hit the button on the white box in her left hand. It plays about 20 seconds of Swan Lake music. This went on for several minutes. I just had to take a picture. I wish I could have video taped it but our camcorder was broken. I guess she just enjoys getting into the groove without distractions.

In January we went on a family hike (I know! It was so warm!) at Dinosaur Ridge. They had a great sand box where the children could unearth fossils. They had a blast.

This ridge had the best examples of shale and ripple marks I've ever seen. They were text book perfect. It was all part of the Morrison formation which is in most geology text books. What fun it was to finally be there! Here is Amber with some shale.

I just had to have Alex take a picture of me with the ripple marks. Aren't they great!?

And of course, every geologist should have a picture of their children with ripple marks too.

We took a little hike up a trail off the main road. The kids really enjoy hiking...well, all except Caleb. He did complain most of the time.

In February we got a surprise visit from Nana and Meme. The kids loved having them come visit. Amber got to stay up late and played dress-up with them. Here's Princess Nana.

Amber couldn't quite figure out what to dress up Meme as. So, here's Little Red Meme-hood.

So, one day I was looking for Caleb and I couldn't find him anywhere. It turned out he was in Mom and Dad's bathroom looking for some water to play in.

Granny sent the girls new Easter dresses. The girls just love them.

How sweet!

Ashley is really good about playing with Caleb...except when she wants his toy.

What a cute boy.

Today was Caleb's first day wearing a tie to church. What a handsome man.

Our bathtub is starting to get a little crowded. So, when do they get old enough to bathe themselves?

Here's the Army Bride and her Prince.

Happy New Year

With the start of a new year I am hoping to be more regular about updating my blog. Oh the high hopes of new resolutions! So this entry covers from Alex's birthday back in November up until yesterday at the park with Daddy.

As far as a quick update on us: every one is healthy and happy. Zack is still interviewing for jobs but pretty sure we are heading to Olympia, WA. We'll let you know when we've actually signed!

We are in the middle of winter in the high desert and yet, some days you wouldn't know it. One day we have snow and the next it is 59 degrees and we are out at the park launching rocket balloons. I think that one thing I will really miss about Denver is the weather. I don't even feel like I've hit winter yet. But, I am willing to trade the weather and head to the NW to be able to grow a garden and not have to put lotion and socks on everyone's hands at night.

So, without further delay...here are pictures from the last few months.

The kids were so excited to go out and play in our first big snow. Ashley's favorite part is eating the snow, Amber loves to make snow angels and Alex likes to throw snowballs!
Watch out, he is armed and dangerous!

In November I was able to head out to Washington and take Caleb to meet his Grandma during a trip I had to UW for the Sports Hall of Fame induction.

This is a picture of our boat reunion on the field at Husky Stadium. All but two girls made it to the induction.

Granny came and stayed with us the week after Alex's birthday. The kids loved having her.

Rewind. We attended a Halloween party at church. Ashley was our dragon, Alex the knight defending the fair princess (Amber), I was Belle, Daddy was the Big Bad Wolf, and Caleb was a leopard.

Caleb at 9 months.

So innocent...just wait...

Ashley in the snow.

Alex just loves the snow.

Alex got this mask as a reward for working on his writing. It immediately became part of his armor.

This year Alex decorated his own birthday cake. He had a great time and it saved me quite a bit of work. I think we shall make this an annual event. Didn't he do a great job?

Alex on his 6th birthday. What a haul!

We hosted a birthday party at the house. We had paper airplane contests and cupcakes.

I swear, I only left her alone for 30minutes doing a craft project at the table. She decided to turn the scissors on herself. I guess I should have realized that she really meant it when she said she wanted hair like Alex's.

I spent the next 45 minutes trying to remedy the situation. I think the outcome was good.

My parents and brother came for Christmas. Here is Papa covered in grandchildren.

In December we went to a fun day at the Hammond Candy Factory. The kids had a blast.

So, we walk up to Santa and Alex whispers to me, "He's not the real one..."

Ashley's favorite part was the train ride. She just loves trains.

Alex emptying the dishwasher...or is he defending truth and righteousness?

This is Caleb's camera face. He does it every time the flash goes off.

One of Alex's favorite gifts was this pirate ship.

Amber loved her new princess CD player she got for Christmas.

During Christmas break we decided to try ice skating. Amber didn't do too well, in fact, she couldn't really stand...at all. But she was a good sport and hung out with Uncle Spencer and Papa quite a bit.

Alex, on the other hand, LOVED skating.

Amber was also a good sport when we decided to try skiing. How could we live in CO and never go to the slopes? Papa fixed that for us and took Alex, Amber, and Alida skiing. It was a blast. The only problem was that it was 21 degrees below zero. We didn't check the weather before we left. Even though we had to quit about 2pm because of the cold, Alex still asked when we were coming back.

Alex was in heaven on the slopes. He loved the challenge.

This is one of Alex's other favorite Christmas gifts: a rocket balloon launcher. We've had so much fun with this at the park. The kids all race around to try and catch the balloon.

This is the "I'm blissfully happy after skiing, when can I come back?" face.

Alex took this picture of Caleb. I'm not sure Caleb appreciated it.

This picture was taken at the 2009 Stock Show. Mickey this one's for you!

Zack let each kid pick a special activity they wanted to do at the stock show. Ashley, of course, chose the train.

There was a petting farm and Ashley was so scared of the goats. It was pretty funny (Zack couldn't resist taking a picture of it.)

Amber's special activity was riding a pony. She's recently developed a thing for horses.

What a bunch!

These were taken this weekend at the park. It was a balmy 59 degrees. Sorry to all you Ann Arborites who had a 30 degree below wind chill. We hope you are able to stay warm! (We almost felt guilty enjoying our weather.)

This was a great day for a snowball fight - watch out Dad! Actually, I think Ashley started the snowball fight.

Ashley and Amber are becoming the best of friends. It is really neat to watch them "bond."

Sad Amber (she insisted on posing sad).

Happy Amber. Hmm...can you say, "Drama Queen?"

Dr. Caleb. Any one sick? Like Father, like son.

Here's the camera face again.

So handsome.

At the park Zack and I asked our friend to snap a shot of us. I don't even remember the last time Zack and I got a picture together. Not bad, eh?