She's made it to 12

Happy Birthday Sweetie. You make our lives fun and interesting. It's never a dull moment when you are around. I hope you enjoyed your weekend.

The Last Days

These last few days of summer are really hard. Anthony is doing daily double's for football and Megan has started practice for fall soccer. I am excited this year for soccer because we are not spending every weekend in Walla Walla. 3 of the 6 games will still be out of town but they will by within an hour's drive so that's not too bad. Anthony on the other hand, his first game is about 2 hours away. Megan will practice on Monday and Wednesday so that means I will be able to make Anthony's out of town games. Well, maybe not the one in Idaho but the rest of them.

Megan and Anthony are ready to start school. Jason on the other hand wants nothing to do with it. He doesn't even want to hear the word "school" in our house. He doesn't care if you are talking school, home school or whatever, he just does not want summer to end. I am with him on that one. I don't want it to end either. My reason's have nothing to do with warm weather, swimming pools or sleeping in. I just don't want to go back to work. So Jason sweetie, I am totally with you. However, his home school stuff will be here tomorrow and we are both just a little bit excited about digging into that science stuff. It comes with tons of science experiments. He is hoping that he will be able to blow something up. Steve is with him on that one.

We are celebrating Megan's birthday tomorrow. She has gone from wanting a party with everyone she knows, to just having 3 of her closest friends. So, we will start our day at 11:00am with a trip to the water park. Home for pizza and the "Blue and White" football game. Ice cream and cake, maybe a trip to the drive in's followed by a sleepover. On Saturday (her actual birthday) we will be taking a short trip to a neighboring town to pick the last little part to her present. I can't post what it is because she has been known to read this blog. She will be very happy and I know that there will be lots of pictures.

Until then, I hope you are enjoying your last days of summer.

One Week Left

One week left of summer vacation. I think we are all ready to start. With the start of school will be big changes in this house. Anthony, who will be a sophomore, is looking at a much harder schedule. Megan, the seventh grader, will now have different teachers for each subject. My little school has added a kindergarten and I will be moving to that class as an aid.

The biggest change will be for Me and Jason this year. We have decided to home school this year. We have agonized over this for the last 8 months. We geared up and let the school district know we where pulling him out this past week. The truly amazing thing, both people we have to work with at the school district are giving us their full support. A couple of teachers, one who has worked with Jason, also believe we are doing the right thing. Our goal is to get him caught up and able to return back to the school system.

We also have spent A LOT of time researching what we are going to use to teach this kid. There are tons of different ways to go but I think we found a perfect fit. We are using the Sonlight program. It's very well rounded Christan program that really centers on reading. It is not cheap but I feel more comfortable using it. The huge plus is that it comes with a schedule to help plan your days. I am not a teacher so this is going to be a major help. Plus, Steve is going to help on his days off and having a preplanned schedule will really help.

Jason will still qualify for help at the elementary school. That means 3 to 4 days a week he will still be going to the school for speech therapy and some reading help. As we started down this home school path we have discovered friends and families that are doing this too. With our school's here struggling like the are, home school and the charter schools are all getting to be more popular decisions. We are really looking forward to doing this and I will keep you posted on him progress.

Planning is for Weenies

About 2 weeks ago we realized that summer is almost over. This year we had planned to go to Silverwood amusement park and we hadn't done it yet. I said what about next week, ok that can be done. We set plans in motion and we had a week to get ready.

Wait a minute, you have another football camp, and of course it starts Monday which is the day we are leaving. Sometimes I really hate high school sports. I look at Steve and say "what about this weekend." I said this last Tuesday. We made hotel reservations, found a place for the dog and packed all before leaving on Friday. Friday we left at 5:30am, stopped in Spokane to check into the hotel and ended up at the park by 11:30 am. We had a great time. Sure, we forgot stuff and we had some minor bumps but all in all it was worth it. Even when it rained while we were at the water park.

Here are some pictures from the trip. Unfortunately, not a lot of Anthony on the rides. His rides went to fast and I just couldn't get a good shot. Ummmm, the Nikon would get it...... I'm just saying.


The Panic Plunge. It takes you up really really high and just drops you. I think their faces say it all. Yes, I did go on it.



The water rapids. This is the second ride of the day and the second time down for the kids. Steve and I went the first time and got wet all the way through. Megan go so wet on this one that we ended up buying her a pair of sweats at the park. The weather this day was in the 60's and we had a lot of rain.



The boys are on a rollercoaster simulator. I thought at one point Jason was going to fall off of it.

The train robbery ride. The robbers didn't want to come out in the rain so we missed that part. Jason was not a happy camper. Megan was so cold that Steve gave her his sweat shirt so she could warm up. I just noticed in this picture that she is eating ice cream. No wonder she was cold.

The next day at the water park. I didn't get to many pictures because I was playing in the water with them. Steve and Jason in this tube. Megan and Anthony went off on their own to play in the wave pool.

Jason, who was so happy that he was finally able to ride the big rides by himself.

This sports bottle cost 8.95 but you got free refills all day. I decided that I was going to get my money out of this thing. I went to the refill station so many times that I knew the guy by his first name. After I rode the Panic Plunge I told Steve that I feel funny and I am sure it was from that ride. He pointed at the bottle and asked "how many have you had?" Ummmm, I lost count. In my defense, I wasn't the only one drinking them.

Megan is watching the Timber of Terror. We rode this once and the kids lost track of how many times they rode it. The good thing about the cooler weather and rain, is that it kept the crowds away.

This is a game where you shoot tennis balls and a floating tank.

The floating tank shoots water back at you. Megan is in the bottom and Anthony on top.

Jason has wanted to go to Build A Bear for a long time. We lucked out and they have one at the park. This bears name is Star.

Steve and Anthony are not on this ride, because they where shooting water at the bumper boats.

Last picture before we hit all the big rides for the last time. You will notice the sports bottle has just been refilled. I wonder why Anthony isn't in more pictures.

Because You Asked For It

You didn't? Oh well, here it is anyway. My parents and Andrews visit.

Jason could hardly wait for them to get here. Megan was at camp so she wasn't here. Not to many pictures of this because I was having trouble with my camera. I think it might be time for a new one. Ok, I had to try at least once, but I am seriously have a problem with my camera.

Anthony and Andrew. Anthony showing Andrew that he is taller. I can't remember the name Andrew called him. Anyone remember???

My birthday went on and on. We went to dinner on my actual birthday but Megan wasn't home yet. Then Anthony was at football camp and wasn't getting home until after 10pm. It took a week to finally do the cake and presents.

Like my hat. We picked that up in Disneyland. The candles on top light up and blink. I make everyone where it on their birthdays.

Dinner at my favorite hamburger place.

We did lots and lots of swimming. For some reason whenever they visit it gets super hot.

Andrew helping Jason do back flips. I also have this on video and will upload to You Tube later.

What am I going to do about this? No matter what size I buy him this always happens.

One one of the hottest days they where here, we hit the county fair.

I took this picture of Jason and the Donkey booth thought I was crazy.

Here we are eating at the church both. I know you really can't see it, but in the background by my Dad is a poster of our preschool. This is also where we spent most of Friday working. It's a great fundraiser for our church, but this year sales where really down. There is not alot of people working and there are rumors of another big plant shutting down.

This may be the closest Anthony get's to driving.

Andrew was really good about going on the rides with the kids.

Until this one. Anthony, Jason and Andrew are the only riders on this one.

Love the way they look when they got off.

Not Jason, he loved it and rode it over and over again.

Andrew trying to convince his stomach to stay down.

Dad and Andrew. The ride in the background is another of Jasons favorites. He rode it so many times that the guy running it made him get off for 5 minutes just to make sure he wasn't going to be sick. Nope, he waited his 5 minutes and then back on.

I really hate this ride. My brother made me ride it once and I swear I would never ride it again.
Here is Anthony.

And here is Megan. Funny, this is the one ride Jason would not ride.



Grandma and Jason. I think at this point we where saying, Please let's go home it is too hot to stay.

Here we are at one of Megan's soccer games. They got to enjoy seeing how well she plays. Summer soccer is coed and it really challenges her to be more aggressive.

Here she is getting ready to score.

These are only 24 out of about 500. So if you really need to see more, let me know. lol

The Hand in the Pond

This small town and surrounding area can boast only 4 murders in the last 20 years. Well, that all changed over the last couple of days.

It is true they found a hand in a pond and that is all anyone said. The rumors started: multiple body parts, 3 people missing, body parts that don't match and serial killer. The editoral in our newspaper blasted the police dept asking to release more information.

Our county fair was this past weekend and we where all talking about it. Friday the sherrifs dept., issued a statement. One body, parts all match and 2 people of interest.

This is a town where our kids play outside, we sleep with our windows open, we sit out on our porches and talk to our neighbors. Friday I slept a little better. No serial killer and the police knew who they where looking for.

Todays paper: They found 2 more bodies and they had an arrest. I took comfort in knowing that the man is in jail. I just decided to read the rest of the paper later and finish up cooking my dinner (our paper comes in the evening). My Dad had been following the story because they where here when the hand was found. I told him about the latest news and while I was talking to my Mom he got online to read the rest of the story. The murder lived in our neighborhood.

I will post anymore updates as they appear in our paper. We are fine but it just reminds us that it doesn't just happen in the big city.

I will post happier stories tomorrow. Like the classic story of the county fair, 15 year old boy and 4 different girls. It's a nail bitter.