Saturday, April 30, 2011

Yosemite

After three years of living within driving distance of Yosemite, we FINALLY made it. And it certainly won't be our last trip! It was simply amazing! Even though I'm prone to car sickness, I would brave this adventure again. We just took our time, stopped when we wanted to, enjoyed a picnic lunch, took a few easy, short hikes to see the phenomenal, spring waterfalls, and gloried in God's creation. I tried to par down my 100+ photos.

Yosemite Valley:


With the spring snow melt, there were waterfalls everywhere!

At Tunnel View you can see three famous Yosemite Landmarks - El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil Falls.

Kat with the binoculars. (I'm pretty sure she never saw a thing but she desperately wanted her turn.)



The family at tunnel view:

Bridalveil Falls:



Picnic Lunch:

Our fearless leader:



A big "Yosemite" yell:


Skipping stones with Daddy. (This ranked pretty high on Anika's fav. things list. I think she is going to spend the summer in MO learning to skip stones.)

Yosemite Falls:







Half-Dome:

Hiking to Lower Yosemite Falls:

The family getting wet at Lower Yosemite Falls - beautiful, powerful. . .

Upper & Lower Falls:



Our last look at Half-Dome:

A quick trip back to let the kids hike to Bridalveil Falls. (Mom held a sleeping Kat 1/2 way down the trail -- I could quite carry her all the way up.):


Thursday, April 28, 2011

The Big Project



A huge goal this spring break was to do some moving around/rearranging of the kids' rooms. Initally, we had them each in their own rooms which you can check out here. Now the girls are sharing a room, Andrew has a Cubs room, and his old room is a playroom. We are so excited about the new arrangment. After painting, sorting, cleaning, arranging, wondering, second-guessing, organizing, tossing, repairing, (whew), I'm ready to enjoy the break and the new look!



Anika & Kathryn are so excited to share a room (for now). Kathryn is now out of her crib and sleeping in a "big girl" bed.


Andrew's Cubs Room (on a budget). We painted this old nursery with Cubbies "away gray" (since we're "away fans"), recycled a shelf and set out his momentos, purchased a (vintage) Wrigley Field print, and we're good to go:-) We still have paint to do a Cubs "C" on the wall somewhere, and I would like to buy/make a baseball pillow for his bed. So it is still a work in progress.And lastly, the new PLAYROOM. This mommy is so happy to have a place to put the toys and shut the door!!! (I think this might be more for me than the kids.)


Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Happy Easter 2011

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! What a wonderful day of celebration. We had so much fun dressing up, eating breakfast at church, worshipping our risen savior, sharing a meal with friends, resting in the afternoon, and worshipping with combined CRC churches in the evening. What a blessed day!

The girls in their Easter "bonnets" and Andrew with his shirttails tucked in (for the moment): I always take a few before church pictures in case we don't make it to the after church ones:

After church (whew, we make it!):



Family pictures:



Anika's Open House & Spring Program 2011

I've been a poor blogger/facebooker, etc. recently because of a big project. I'll get pictures of it up soon, but here is some of what's been going on around here.

Last week, we enjoyed a special night to celebrate Anika! We were able to walk around her classroom and see the many projects her class has been working on this year. Then we were blown away by another amazing program. Mrs. Huisken (Anika's k-teacher last year and music teacher) put together another wonderful program. She does such a great job of picking a theme, making it fun, and getting the students to shine! (No pictures of the program because we switched to the Flip video and neglected the still camera. I'll see if I can get video up or capture some stills from the Flip.)

Anika before the program! She talked me into letting her wear my gold hoops (elation!):


Anika wants to be a teacher:-)


Anika and Daddy worked on creating a cross together (it is the wooden one just to the right of Anika's head). Daddy sure had fun;-)


Saturday, April 09, 2011

First Time Visitors & Family Fun

My sister, Hilary, and her husband, Jason, made it out to California this week for a first-time visit. We were SO excited to welcome them. Our three days together were wonderful (before they headed down south to visit more family). However, I was not up to my usual standards and my photographic evidence of the visit is a bit sparse. (I actually forgot my camera on our day away to Monterey.) Hil and J left their boys behind in IL but they didn't lack for attention. My kids were happy to take up all their time:-) Andrew quickly snagged Uncle Jason for a game of Nerf Dart tag:
Trying to look as tough as Uncle Jason:
Failing:
More games:
The girls playing games, too:

Auntie Hilary ROCKS!

My beautiful, little sister!!!
Sporting their Pizza My Heart shirts from Monterey!