Family Fun and Cousin Craziness

We had a great time visiting with family while we were away. Christine (Lloyd's sister) had us over for a day to visit and let the kids play together. (When we are together we have 6 kids - ages 9 mo, 11 mo, 2, 3, 4, 5 - yep, its an adventure!) Then we went out to P.F. Chang's to celebrate Papa's birthday. Great food, great fun!

Kathryn and Josephine hanging out:

Kathryn loved this ball popper:

Anika using chopsticks:
Andrew using chopsticks:-):The birthday boy!The grandkids help Papa blow out his candle:
Papa & Nene with their grandkids:Nene with her girls:
Nene with her boys:

A Perfect Day at the Beach

Early in our week away, we went to Laguna Beach to enjoy the sun, surf, & sand. Christine and her kids joined us -- they have everything to enjoy a day on the coast including a beach umbrella which is worth its weight in gold. The cousins had a wonderful time together jumping in the surf with Nene, playing in the sand, eating a picnic lunch (and LOTS of sand:-)). Kathryn was pretty much covered in sand. No sunburn = great beach outing.
SUN!
SAND!SURF!
FUN!

California Adventure

Well, we are back from an absolutely wonderful week away. We spent the week in So Cal with Lloyd's family. We had such a great week. We went to the beach when the weather was hot and to the theme parks when it was cool, so we are coming back without any sunburn:-) Our CF card from the beginning of the week is currently AWOL so I'm sharing some from our day at California Adventure at the end of the week. (It is 2fer time at Disney so we got into both parks for the price of one. There are lots of advantages to going in the "off" season.) You will notice that Kathryn doesn't appear in any of these pictures -- seeing as we had spent the WHOLE previous day at Disneyland, she was more than happy to spend the day at home with Nene.

Waiting (patiently?) for the Playhouse Disney show:

Mickey Mouse:
Picnic lunch in the theme park:

Aladdin's Muscial Spectacular (truly was spectacular!!!):
In "Beast's Library", we discovered that Anika is most like Cinderella and Drew is most like Hopper (from "Bug's Life"). We also got to go to Turtle Talk with Crush from "Finding Nemo". The kids enjoyed it, but Lloyd and I loved it. We were really amazed at the technology.
Very happy kiddos! Anika kept saying, "I'm having the time of my life!":

Just because. . .

A Special Friend

Our friend, Janay, moved away from Ripon last fall. Our kids were so sad so when she came back for a visit this week they were elated. They were even more excited when she came over for a special visit.

Hallelujah, What a Savior!

I love the Lenten, Good Friday, Easter season - and this year was no exception! After a wonderful, glorious celebration yesterday, I'm humbled and grateful for the sacrifice of Christ.

The kids:The family (on a gorgeous 80 degree day!):
Dad & kiddos:
Mom & kiddos:Best buds:

Bowled Over

As usual, I was "bowled over" by Anika's creativity:-) Sometimes she gets an idea in her head and spends hours planning and perfecting it. Other times she mopes dramatically around the house, sighing and moaning that "there is nothing to do". (I perfer the former!) This day she decided that she would make a bowling alley. (It worked pretty well too - except that there was a lot of time spent resetting the pins.)

Getting Around

We're finally getting out of the house again! Today we went to the park and had a nice time in the sun -- even though we've been getting some windy weather. Andrew has a new favorite ride. He is LOVING his tag-along bike. It is so slick to just have him hop on behind me and go. I see some family bike rides in our future. . .

The family at the park (Mom, Scout, Anika, Kathryn, & Drew):
Andrew's new ride:The bike riders:The walkers (Dad isn't pictured since he was taking the pictures!):

Fun on the Farm

We've been so blessed by the support of our church family during our odyssey of illness. Our friends, The Vissers, invited Anika & Andrew to spend the morning with them today -- to give Mom & Dad a break and let the kiddos breath some fresh air and see the sunlight:-) The Vissers have an almond orchard so the kids were so excited to spend the day on the "farm". Matt sent this picture of their morning.

Taking a walk through the trees: (Julia, 5; Anika, 5; Ruthie, 4; Andrew, 3; Garrett, 1.5)