"Gonna ride that sheep."

The Puyallup Fair is a big deal in our new town. In fact, the school let all the kids out early on "Fair Day" Wednesday and gave them a "free" ticket. I decided to take them all and let Dan meet us after work. We had a fabulous time! The weather was perfect and all the people were so nice.

Some of the high points were;

• Getting our faces painted for free, woo hoo!




• Riding the Ferris Wheel, a first for the kids.




• Seeing the carnival lights come on at dusk.




• Looking through the art and photography exhibits and picking our favorites.




• Listening to Chas trash talk about mutton bustin'. "I'm gonna ride that sheep" Well, Dolly the sheep took care of tough 'ol Chas pretty quick but he had a lot of fun!




• Taking Barjona, Kristi's fish, along for the crazy ride.



• Riding the shuttle from the mall to the fairgrounds. Every time we see a city bus, they say "Look, the fair shuttle!"

A two day fishing trip with Dad

I just got home from a two day fishing trip in Swan Valley, I hooked a few fish and no worms were lost in the process. I went with someone from Amcor and a 4 people from a trucking company in ID. We had great first day and floated from the dam to the bridge, we got off the water just at dusk, finishing a good day. We stayed in Swan Valley the night and got up went to breakfast at the Angus Drive In across the street from the square ice cream store. As we walked in door I looked around to see if I knew anyone there (I always look around for people I know when I am in IF) and there were a couple of guys that looked familiar and they were looking at me like they might know me, then Dad turned around in the corner seat and said hi to me. Apparently he had told them that I looked like me as I got out of the car... it was rather odd to meet him there.

The really funny part of this was that we floated the same stretch of the river on Friday (being semi retired he got a early start) we stayed in the same hotel (a 7 room hotel) we ate breakfast at the same place and floated the same part of the river on Saturday. Dad out fished me about 20 to 1, but that's about normal, he is a great fisherman.

Now that the four brothers all live on the same side of the Rockies, maybe we should talk dad into going fishing with us to teach us a few of his secretes.

Dan's 35th

This post is kind of late but I couldn't get the picture off Dan's camera! We decided to make Dan a blackberry cake in honor of all his blackberry adventures. He has canned blackberry syrup, blackberry jam, and blackberry pie filling. It is all soooo good! We are so lucky to have him. He is an awesome Dad and husband! Unfortunately, even though this cake looks pretty it wasn't the best tasting cake I have ever made. Kind of a dense spice cake with fresh black berries. Definitely not as good as a dropped angel food cake so I will go back to that next year!

Shelby's 14

Happy birthday Shelby. For her birthday she got to take 6 tests at school. She did not think that was very nice of her teachers. We all went out to dinner at olive garden it was the first place we went to eat after she was born 14 years ago. She is planing her big present to get to spend some time with just her and Grandma and Grandpa. She is picking out the days now. She is also quick to point out that she now gets to go to dances, and is only 2 years away from dating.

Columbia River

Since Dan had already gone on to Puyallup, this is the only picture we have of us on the last leg of our continental journey. The kids are wearing some very special WA shirts made for them by their cousin Shelby. Thanks Shelby! That was really nice! Whenever one of us is feeling sad about leaving sweet Georgia, we just try to remember how nice it is to be within driving distance of family. We can not wait for October to get here and get some hugs from Grandma and Grandpa!!!!

Dad at Work

Grandma shared this photo with me... I thought you'd all get a kick out of it as well.

A couple of days of my Project 365

9-24-08 Today was a very stressful and taxing day. One of the highlights of the day was working with the kids at one of my schools. A difficulty with handwriting that is common with kids is reversing letters that look similar. For example, "g" and "q" or "b" and "d." I was working with two kids to create a story or a funny image that would help them to remember which way the letters were supposed to face. This is a picture of one of the student's work. The art on the left is a depiction of the word "bad." The two letters are facing each other about to fight and the "a" in the middle is the referee stopping them from fighting. We used the saying "it's bad to fight" as the inspiration for the image. The "q" is on the right side of the art. We had a hard time coming up with something for "q" and finally settled on making it into a queen and pretending that the line curving back would be the queen's dress flowing behind her. Even though it wasn't as creative, the kids thought it was pretty funny to put a crown and feet onto the letter "q." Next week I will test to see if the fun, silly, memory techniques worked.
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9-25-08 "In motion" That phrase describes well my day. I started the day by driving almost an hour to Herriman to help out with my first UAAACT evaluation. I then drove to Riverton and bounced around the school there talking to teachers and aides to coordinate services for the kids. From there I rushed to another school several miles away to observe a student in his class and then rushed back the school in Riverton to see one of my students before he went home. I then rushed to Sandy to see several of my students whom I had not yet seen this year and it was imperative that I get their program going. By around 3:00 PM, I was finished seeing all of the kids that I could see because the last bell was ringing at all of the schools I serve. By this time I finally had a moment to grab some lunch and then back to the office. I set my lunch on my desk and then went to check my mailbox. While checking my mailbox I noticed that one of my colleges (whom I had needed to talk to for several weeks) was in the office so I sat and talked with her for some time. By the time I got back to my desk, my lunch was cold and soggy. I left work soon after and ran several errands en route to home. But before I could make it home I ended up at Julie's house with Melissa and her kids doing piano lessons. It was a nice chance to relax a little bit and enjoy some of the great friends in my life. I took this picture while at Julie's house. David was doing some laps as a mid lesson focus exercise.

One House Family

I don't think I mentioned this to anyone yet but our home in GA sold as of last friday. We are relieved and amazed it sold so quickly. We know we were blessed and that many prayers were answered.

I am actually back in GA this week for a work project and I drove by the house. It was funny to see other peoples cars parked in the driveway.

The family that bought it was a young family with one kid. I laughed to see a stroller on the front porch because our moody neighbor across the street told us she didn't want any more kids in the neighborhood! It was such a good home for us and our kids that we were happy for other kids to enjoy it.

I have been joking that we are now poor because we are down to just one house! Instead of the two homes we owned in August and September!

Mosaics

I've recently downloaded a program that can make mosaics out of your photos. Here are some that I have made that I thought that you all would enjoy!

Liberty's Surgery

Liberty had eye surgery on Tuesday. She had a problem with Strabismus(eye deviation). The doctor thought it would be better now than later. She was pretty good in the hospital. She had a lot more swelling than we were prepared for, but she is doing so much better today.

Liberty and her dogs. The one next to her is her best dog Chocolate Sunday a gift from her Grandma.







Liberty before surgery and her new dog they gave her in the hostital his name is Deke.

Liberty after surgery she has have ointment in her eyes twice a day she hates it but she lets us put it in.

She had to wait a long time go back to surgery so the nurses let her drive a toy car around. The Glasses were a gift from the nurses.

Old yearbook pictures

I thought that you all would enjoy seeing some old yearbook pictures of members of the family =)

Happy Birthday Dan

I could not find an old picture of you with a cake, but this looks like a birthday present anyways.

I don't know if you remember this or not, but a few minutes after this your older brothers and sister saved your life (more then likely we were to keep you out of the water). You wondered into the cold water of Red Fish lake and you tripped and fell face forward into the cold water, we ran in there to save you. You owe us big time!!!! Maybe we each should be getting one of your birthday presents each year, do you still have that ball thing pictured above...that looks fun.
David is keeping you safe in this one, he learned his life savings techniques from mom with the arm around the neck there keeping your from falling. I guess we are really glad we saved your life all those times, we have all really enjoyed having a little Dan in our lives even if he does not know it not nice to beat his older brother in his first SPUD!!!
After a couple of years of being the little guy, your got what you always wanted, someone to tease and be the older brother to. When you cant have your own teething ring, take your sisters and then smile for the camera.

Happy birthday Dan, We are looking forward to seeing our littlest brother next month.

Great time in France

Breck and I had a great time in France, but BOY are we glad to be home! I'm having horrible jet lag and will tell you more about our trip later, but wanted to comment on all that has been posted since I've been gone!

Happy 92nd Grandma! Looks like a perfectly wonderful time was had by all. I'm sorry to have missed it.

There were so many posts from the WA1 and WA2 Wards that I don't know where to begin.

The gum wall is gross, ewww! I'm even more sure of it's grossiosity by the smile on Matt's face as he's adding to the "art". Looks interresting.

Seeing the kids circle the tree reminded me of our many great trips into amazing woods like these in Oregon and California.

Dave and Lana look cute in their picture on the coast. They're such a great couple, I love seeing picutures of them together and smiling big list that one.

I love the going back to school "uniforms" they look super comfy.

I like the post of Joe's departure... Joe, I understand staying too long. It's no fun, but you did a great job not getting frustrated. I'm glad you got to spend some much quality time with your grand parents and them with you. Not many people get that expeirience in life. Uncle Mike spent a great deal of time with his grandpa and always had a special bond with him because of it. I hope you have the same experience.

Finally. I love liberty's plastic teeth picutre. She always makes me smile... but watch out Liberty, there's a younger Ward on the way to steal your thunder, and she looks like she's going to have a lot of energy to burn they way she's dancing in her mommies tummy!

Thanks for all the fun blog entries, it made coming home feel like I really did.
Love to all.
C

Beijing 2008 - SIXTY Seconds - Day 10

Here is a video from YouTube about the paralympics.

Paralympics

I've been watching the Paralympics as they have been on http://www.universalsports.com Here is one of the races.

WA coast

I am slower than Dan but here more photos of our trip to the WA coast. We will all be seeing these sights soon

Matthew adding his gum to the gum wall. He was the only one we let touch the gum wall.

The grand pigs on the Pikes market pig
Lana and I on the beach by the Jetty

All the grand pigs climbed through this log. How many of the pigs will make it through?

If is not often this windy but it was that day. This is the beach we are staying on for the Sib.

While I was cleaning up the memory disc this morning on Mon's camera I found these pictures so I'm sharing them with you. This one is Joe at the Bountiful pool, which he went to often and enjoyed very much. There is a video on the memory stick that I can't download to the blog so here is what you missed: Joe is standing on the high dive and I'm telling him go, go, go Joe before the timer runs out ... he didn't and it did. So all you would have seen is Joe running to the end of the board, jumping up to bounce off the board and it ends. :-(.
This is just before Joe and I left for the airport ... we really enjoyed having him stay with us. It was probably a little long for him.

Here he is at the airport getting all his stuff ready for the long flight home.

Great Grandma is 92

We (Mom, Kristi, her friend Cris, Uncle Kelly, Aunt Kathy, Great Grandma and I) had a wonderful stay at the cabin over the Labor Day weekend celebrating Great Grandma's 92ND birthday. We had a tasty lunch on Jackson Lake (at our favorite place on the Lake; Moran Bay), ate dinner at the Lodge when the power went out at the cabin (and over a four state area but because the Lodge has a generator they had power), watched the bears along Pacific Creek three different times, viewed a fun movie and just sat around and talked while we watched it rain. I think all of us had as much fun on this trip as any of us ever had. It was SOOOOOO relaxing! Here are a few pictures so you can enjoy it vicariously.

Showing off the cake/cobbler with it's fancy candles ... we learned a long time ago not to put that many individual candles on the cake ... they turn into a bonfire!
To say Great Grandma had a good time and was very happy would be an understatement!
She blew out both candles so her wish will come true ... what was the wish? You can't tell or it won't come true!

Here's the gang ... Kriti's friend took the picture. As you can see a coat was much appreciated as the heat of summer came to an end over the weekend. Notice Mom's fancy new "HAT".

First day of school Puyallup Style!

Wednesday was the first day of shool here in Puyallup. I love the kids dress code. As you can tell it is a little bit cooler here in Washington on the first day of school than it was in Georgia. Shorts and a sweatshirt is the official garb of western washington in the summer. It feels GREAT!

Here is a link of last years pictures:

http://6screaminpigs.blogspot.com/2007/08/off-they-go.html


Also there is no bus in the equation here. The school is in our backyard so we walk the kids to school. The kids had a good/bad first week and are still learning to adjust to their new place. They like their teachers and are working on making new friends. I think the school they are in is going to be great and they will be happy in the end.

Dancing Queen

Yesterday Dan and I went to the hospital here in Puyallup and had another ultrasound. This time we were able to get a lot of 3D pictures and it was so cool! I have used all my techy talents(very few) to make a video for you all. I just can't get over the awesome technology that allows us to see the baby in such detail. We saw all four chambers of her heart, the blood going in and out of her cord and her perfect little lips! We all can't wait to meet this little girl!

Pacific Beach Labor Day weekend

Greetings from Washington!! This last weekend David was kind enough to invite us over to Pacific Beach where we will hold the Sib. We had a great time visiting and enjoying Washington. We had fantastic weather which we may not have when we go back. We were able to enjoy walks on the beach, driving on the beach, the kelpers parade and many other such things. The most amazing things to me were the rain forest and the tide pools. We will see the rain forest for sure while we are there and I hope we can see the tide pools. The diameter and height of some of the trees in the rain forest was amazing. When we got home I commented that none of the trees near our house seem tall anymore. We still feel like tourists and we were blown away by the scenery and beauty of the Washington coast. Just one bit of advice though. If you plan on getting in the water on the beach bring your wetsuit! It didn't rain while the new WA Wards were there (we have to get a new nickname) but we saw a yearly precipitation chart. All I can say is bring your rain coat in October.

Forks WA

We were in Forks WA last week. For those of you who don't know the book Twilight is set in Forks. It is Shelby's favorite book. The book is about a vampire family.

All of us in the rain forest
A great shot of what too much rain can do to your trees.

The main character Bella's truck.

Bella's dad is the chief of police

I had a Bella Burger in Forks it came with Teeth
Dr Cullen is a Vampire

This is first beach where the Vampires can't go but be careful of the waves